What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him, And that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? Job 7:17
I paused at the anthill to watch the tiny creatures as they scurried and climbed about. They had made their home on my property, an eyesore that should be removed. I watched the little things move on the sandy surface of the hill, and had no idea what each ant was doing. One scrambled down the side of the hill and disappeared among the blades of grass. Another darted in a different direction, paused briefly, and went off rapidly at right angles. Yet another circled one of the entry holes in the anthill and then disappeared inside. A fourth dragged a bit of grass around a stone as it made its way from one side of the hill to the other. Rather than kick the unsightly hill flat, I left the wee creatures to their frantic activities and departed. And yet, I was not anywhere near as kind and tolerant to those ants as God is to mankind.
The sinful scamperings of men, women, boys and girls upon this planet must surely be hard for God to understand, even more confusing than the activity of the ants on their hill was to my eyes. We had spoiled the beauty of God’s nature, disobeyed His laws, defied His power and will, and rejected His goodness and His grace, and yet, God has set His heart upon us. He did much more than allow us to continue to exist, as I did the anthill. He actually sent His Son to come and live among us, something I could never do for the ants. And He provided His son as a sacrifice to lift us up out of our deplorable condition to live with Him forever. All because – as our text says – God has set His heart upon us.
Think of how the Lord Jesus set His heart upon us as He lived in this world. All around Him were sinners and scoffers, those who were rebellious and rotten, scorners and rejecters. And yet He lived among us and displayed the love of the Father. Even when those who were His followers forsook Him and fled, He did not abandon us, but bore the load of our guilt and iniquity to Calvary. On the cross, we see the magnitude of God’s setting His heart upon us. With the evidence of man’s rejection and hatred on His body, Jesus bared His bosom to the wrath that we deserve. And He completed the work of providing a way for God and man to be reconciled.
To contemplate the death of the Lord Jesus today is to contemplate how much His heart was set upon us. And our hearts are set upon Him in thankfulness and worship. -Jim MacIntosh