“Then all the peoples of the earth will know that Adonai is God; there is no other.”– 1 Kings 8:60
In verse 60, King Solomon makes a revolutionary statement about the God of Israel.
He declares that Israel’s God is not only the God of the Hebrews…
But the God over all of planet earth.
This means if you live on planet Earth…
The God of Israel is also the God over your country and your people…
Whether you realize that or not.
Or whether you wanna accept it or not.
Ya feeling me here, homie?
Solomon then goes on to say that Israel needs to obey the Lord’s Torah.
Why?
Because if they do that properly…
They will become what the Lord originally intended for them…
Which is to be a light to all nations.
The formula is simple.
Israel obeys the Lord’s Torah.
The Lord blesses them as a result.
Then the nations see how much Israel is blessed…
And then turn to their God as a result.
That’s the formula.
That’s always been the formula.
Onward.
Now, I can’t overlook the fact that Solomon is invoking the Lord’s personal name YEHOVAH here.
Why is this so important?
Knowing a god’s name enabled you to know three things.
It enabled you to know that deity’s attributes, what forces of nature it controlled, and which territories it ruled over.
In Yehovah’s case, His territorial jurisdiction extended over the whole planet.
Why?
Because He is the only God in existence.
This leads to a second point that challenges the beliefs of many Christian denominations out there.
I’m talking about the idiotic religious pluralism that many gentile churches promote.
You know the idea that since there’s only one God, it doesn’t matter what you call Him.
You can call Him Allah, Buddha, God, or whatever.
At the end of the day, we’re all talking about the same spiritual homie.
So it doesn’t matter what you call Him.
That’s their reasoning anyway.
Unfortunately, for them, that notion is completely at odds with what Solomon was saying.
Solomon didn’t tell the Canaanites…
“Hey homies, don’t worry about Ba’al.
Didn’t you know Ba’al is really Yehovah?
You’re just calling Him by a different name.”
Nor did he ever say to the Moabites…
“Sacrificing your babies to Molech is fine.
Just apply all of that to Yehovah.
After all, there is only one God.
So you are really worshiping Him anyway.”
No way, Jose.
The Bible makes a clear distinction between Yehovah, the God of Israel, and the gods worshiped by the nations around Israel.
The God of Israel ain’t some kind of giant religious melting pot where people can pull whatever qualities they want from their favorite gods, throw them all together, and then simply call the result “Yehovah.”
Them puppies ain’t gonna hunt.
The Hebrew Scriptures assert the opposite.
The Bible makes it clear who God is…
What He has done in history…
And what He expects from His human creation.
We’re also given His personal name: YHWH.
So the point is crystal clear.
There is only one true God.
And because there is only one true God…
There ain’t some freakin’ second, third, or fourth name for Him coming from some other religion.
Ya feel me here?
Done.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols:
We know that ‘An idol is nothing at all in the world’
and that “There is no God but one.”
For even if there are so-called gods,
whether in heaven or on earth
(as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”),
yet for us there is but one God, the Father,
from whom all things came
and for whom we live;
and there is but one Lord, Messiah,
through whom all things came
and through whom we live.”
– 1 Corinthians 8:4-6
“…for they themselves report
what kind of reception you gave us.
They tell how you turned to God from
idols to serve the living and true God…”
– 1 Thessalonians 1:9
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring,
we should not think that the divine being
is like gold or silver or stone
—an image made by human design and skill.
In the past God overlooked such ignorance,
but now he commands all
people everywhere to repent.”
-Acts 17:29-30
How to worship of the one, true God is specified in the Torah. That is the only place in the entire Bible where God, himself, dictates to Moses how we are to worship God, and how we are to treat each other.
The only other times God speaks is to the Prophets, but that wasn’t anything different or new, just what to tell the people in order to get them back on track with the instructions already given through Moses.
In the New Covenant, God speaks in the Gospels, but not with any new instructions, only that Yeshua is his son and to listen to him.
Salvation is not a “Come-As-You-Are” party, and for those who have chosen to reject what God says for what some Gentile men said they could do instead, well…. one day we will all meet God at Judgement Day, and when he asks why we did what we did while we were alive, those who follow a religion won’t be able to say anything but, “I chose to do what they told me to do.”
I can’t speak for God, but I think he might reply with something to the effect of, “I know you did what they told you to do, but it is what I say that counts.”