From Eternity to Eternity

 

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Bring out the people who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf.  Gather the nations together!  Assemble the peoples of the world!  Which of their idols has ever foretold such things?  Which can predict what will happen tomorrow?  Where are the witnesses of such predictions?  Who can verify that they spoke the truth?  “But you are my witnesses, O Israel!” says the Lord.  “You are my servant.  You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I alone am God.  There is no other God—there never has been, and there never will be.  I, yes I, am the Lord, and there is no other Savior.  First I predicted your rescue, then I saved you and proclaimed it to the world.  No foreign god has ever done this.  You are witnesses that I am the only God,” says the Lord.  “From eternity to eternity I am God.  No one can snatch anyone out of my hand.  No one can undo what I have done.”  Isaiah 43:8-13

The prophet is taking his beloved kinsman to task (as most prophets did!).  Their history was unmistakably orchestrated by the sovereign will of Jehovah, Creator of the universe and all it holds.  Yet, they had somehow forgotten that, and taken the seemingly more convenient approach of accepting their neighbors’ gods.  It was “convenient” in the sense of going along, to get along.  It is easier, in the short run, to  surrender truth to those who only believe what denies the facts.  But, in the long run, you eventually run into….God, specifically, the one, true, living God.  Everything else is an idol. 

Isaiah reminded Israel they were supposed to be faith-believing witnesses of the God Who stretches from eternity past through eternity present and future.  There is no time when God did not exist or rule the universe, and that includes forever, as well as today.

So, the question for Israel, for us, for anyone, is:

When does it ever make sense to trust in anyone but God?

Consider this picture; a 7-year-old boy was delivered from his mother’s womb.  She and the dad fed, diapered, and loved him.  They trained him to walk and talk.  They taught him to act like a human…sort of.

One day the dad took his son to work with him at the nuclear reactor energy plant.  He showed him all the dials, levers, gauges, and control panels that ran the place.  He showed the boy how, when he flipped a switch, things buzzed, moved, and either turned on or off.  He even let his son get in on the fun, allowing him to flip one switch that returned electricity to a neighborhood that had been powerless due to a storm.  The emergency crew had finished their repairs, and the boy was permitted to flip the switch, and voilà, there was light!  

Well, as 7-year-olds are wont, the young man decided he wanted more of a good thing.  If it was fun to press one switch that turned on thousands of lights, there must be plenty more where that came from!  So, in his newfound joy of turning dials, switches, handles and control panel buttons, he began running around touching everything. 

I do not need to carry this imagined scenario any further.  A seven-year-old, turned loose near the controls of a nuclear reactor is a tragedy just waiting to be written (assuming, of course, anyone lives through the day).

Imagine Israel as the little boy; favored by their Father, Jehovah, and heir to the power of the universe, far superseding anything manmade, such as a little nuclear energy plant.  This is what Isaiah saw, an heir of universal greatness, running around in juvenile playtime, instead of growing up to boldly proclaim the name of Yahweh to the nations.  Like the little boy in the imaginary tale of going to work with daddy, Israel had grown bored with just pushing buttons as instructed.  I can just hear the words:  OK, dad.  I got it from here.

That is the condition of our world today.  God is largely ignored, and we, human children are pressing as many buttons as our pudgy little fingers can reach.  Some day we will press the wrong button – not the nuclear annihilation one connected to all those bombs – but the one that crosses the line of God’s patience.

For You Today

If Yahweh was God before the beginning, and He will be God after whatever ending we humans engineer, it is safe to assume He is God right now.  What further call do we need to worship Him at this (and every) moment?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

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Title image Pixabay.com ∞  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on Isaiah 43 see Eyes that Do Not See; Ears that Do Not Hear and No Other God

 

Squirrel Theology

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Monday, June 25, 2018

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.  Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.  This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.  Then we will no longer be immature like children.  We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching.  We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.  Ephesians 4:11-14^(NLT)

There was a pastor who had earned his doctorate in seminary, and was well-known for his doctrinal sermons, taking the exposition of Scripture through the great life-giving themes of salvation, baptism, the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ incarnation, and so-on.  He had just been extended the invitation to serve as pastor by the elders of a very evangelistic congregation. 

Not everyone on the elder board was in total agreement, however.  One cantankerous old-timer was overheard in the parking lot expressing his dismay over the decision to call this seminary-trained preacher:  I just ain’t sure this-un’s the preacher fer us; I don’t want none o’ that doctor-in-all preachin’.  Jus’ gimmie some Bible is all!  If’n I get sick I’ll a-go see me a doctor. 

It’s not easy to get past hard-headedness.  Perhaps the seminary word would be obtuse! 

Another stumbling block to understanding and communication is squirrel-headedness.  A few weeks ago, I was travelling to church on a Sunday morning and, in the space of a mile or so, I had to swerve twice to miss squirrels. 

One thing is certain – you can never be certain about which way a squirrel will turn…left, right, forward, back, or zig-zag like a gnat in a fire storm; the only thing you can count on is that it won’t be boring!

I once counselled someone who had the squirrel thing down pat.  She would ask me a question; I would answer with a suggestion as to how the Scriptural approach would take some time, but be better in the long run, and she would leave all smiles, determined that her life was going to change.  The next week she would be in shambles because she had tried to do the Biblical thing (for six minutes) and become disillusioned at how it didn’t work.  Zig, zag, left, right, forward one step, backwards two!

Grrrr.

Pastors do not know everything, whether they’ve been to seminary, or if they fell off the turnip truck one morning, bumped their head, and took it as a sign to go into the ministry that day. 

But one thing is true – when God gives a gift is isn’t lacking; pastors, may I say, are no exception.  And when it comes to the Scriptural principles we find in the church’s doctrines, a pastor worth any Biblical salt at all will show you the parallel between what Scripture says, and what’s going on in your life.  And it would pay to give it more than six minutes of try-out time.  Barring that, you could be in danger of squirrel theology, bouncing in the wind from this acorn of teaching to that twig of promise, without a shred of doctrinal reality.

For You Today

If God gave you a pastor who teaches sound doctrine, thank God, and keep measuring his or her teaching by Scripture. 

If you have a pastor that makes you wonder if the Bible has anything certain, true, and life-building to say about the way to live your life, maybe the nut has fallen a little too far from the tree!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com