You know what one of the biggest challenges the church and even Judaism have struggled with throughout history?
It’s the temptation to create God in our own image.
We seem hellbent on assigning the Lord human attributes and characteristics.
Christianity has gone wild with this notion and even turned their Jesus into God the Father Himself with their 100% human and 100% God doctrine.
They believe this despite Jesus explicitly distinguishing himself from God numerous times in the New Testament.
“Why do you call me good?
No one is good except God alone.”
Luke 18:19
“But concerning that day or that hour,
no one knows,
not even the angels in heaven,
nor the Son,
but only the Father.”
Mark 13:32
“The Father is greater than I.”
John 14:28
And despite the Torah clearly stating:
“God is not a man,
that he should lie,
or a son of man,
that he should change his mind.
Has he said,
and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken,
and will he not fulfill it?”
-Numbers 23:19
There are two problems with creating God in our image.
First, we project our own human limitations onto a supernatural being whose nature and capabilities are far beyond anything we can even begin to comprehend.
Second, we approach the danger zone of idolatry because we are remaking God into something He is not.
Solomon grasped this idea well when building the Temple for the Lord.
Although it was called the Lord’s house or Yehovah’s BEIT or BAYITH in Hebrew…
Solomon understood that Adonai didn’t actually live there.
He understood the Lord dwelled in heaven.
But even that idea wasn’t accurate.
Solomon recognized that if heaven is a place with definable boundaries, then right there you fall into the trap of limiting a limitless being.
So Solomon knew that even when God’s presence appeared as a cloud inside the HEKAL (the sanctuary), he understood that the Lord didn’t physically leave His heavenly chambers to travel down to the Temple in Jerusalem.
He was somehow aware that the Lord could be in multiple places at once.
This leads to our takeaway.
As I’ve said many times before…
God is NOT a man.
He never was a man.
And He never will be one.
His strength is far beyond anything you can imagine.
And His intellect surpasses the brain power of five thousand Einsteins combined.
In fact, the more you try to describe God…
The more you limit Him (ironically).
So in practical terms, what does that mean for you?
It means it is ridiculous to think that God thinks as you do.
It is even more ridiculous to question His decisions.
Ya feel me here.
I’ll close by leaving you with this quote from the prophet Isaiah:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,
declares the Lord.
As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
-Isaiah 55:8-9
Leave a Reply