Singular and Sovereign

 

Monday, March 22, 2021

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

A discussion with an acquaintance went something like this:

Me:  So what do you think about God…you know, in the Bible?

Him:  Oh, I believe the Bible speaks for itself.

Me:  Ok…but what does it say?

Him:  Well, you know, He’s God.

Me:  Is He the God Christians worship, or Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, or Muslims…which one?

Him:  He’s all the same; we just call him by different names.  It’s hard to get too specific about all that; no one group’s idea of God is final.

Me:  Final, or Singular…no other god.  You think that’s possible?

Him:  I don’t know…kinda like above my pay grade, you know? 

This “conversation” was not singular, rather a conglomeration of bits of discussion with many people over the years.  But it demonstrates the vague, shadowy idea of a god people don’t want to see too closely.  Truth be told, I believe that describes where many people live.  They have a belief system that allows for God, but doesn’t want to dig too deeply, because, if He’s real, He might be big and scary, and we just might be accountable to Him.  If He’s really there, and we encounter Him, like a burning bush kind of face-to-face thing, there would be some drastic changes in everything.  It’s better to let Him stay in the shadows.

The problem with that belief system is it elevates personal naïveté over reality.  It’s worse than believing a lie; it’s refusing to engage the truth.  And that is selfishness of monumental consequence.  It’s no different than a child playing in his sandbox, imagining there is nothing greater than the limits of his play space.  It is something like marching in one direction, wearing a blindfold, and knowing there is a cliff out there somewhere.  Sooner or later you’re going to encounter that cliff of reality and fall.  Better to engage truth, take the blinders off and be ready to walk with confidence.

For those who blithely live with a shadowy allowance that God exists, and imagine they believe the Bible is true, and that makes everything OK…they’ve covered the religious bases…that is a sandbox.  After all, what would you do when you come to Isaiah’s prophecy and you read:

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.

What then?  If the Bible is true, giving your complete allegiance to Him is not optional…it is crucial to who you are, and the purpose for which you’ve been given life and breath. 

God is truly singular, no other like Him; truly sovereign…is, was, ever shall be. 

For You Today

Moving through this sixth week of Lent, the dark of Good Friday’s cross, and the overwhelming light of resurrection is getting either uncomfortably close, or welcomingly close.  The difference is in the shadows…or coming out of the shadows.  Suggestion:  Don’t let another moment of shadowy confusion hide the light; Jesus is singular and sovereign…He’s like no other!

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

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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