Isaiah 44-48
Original Post:  August 3, 2014

There is one thought that practically jumps off the page in today's reading:  "I am God and there is no other".  In these verses God tells us that He alone has created all that we see,  He alone sustains it, He alone orders and shapes the future and He alone is the one who can redeem and restore us.   Apart from God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob...the God is Israel...there is no other god.

God says that he as chosen to use Cyrus even though Cyrus doesn't believe in Him, or serve Him.   That also helps shape our theology.    God isn't limited to using god-fearing people in order to support and sustain His work.   Sometimes the resources and leadership come from unlikely places.   I wonder how many godly endeavors were not pursued because the christian leaders didn't want to accept help from ungodly sources?   Perhaps they haven't read this part of Isaiah.

I also see two dangerous trains of human thought here.   One is to give credit for creation or events to an idol.   Wow...that really makes God angry.    Mental note to myself:  under no circumstances should I ever fashion something out of wood or precious metal and then ask it to help me.      This idea is where we differ from our friends in the Roman Catholic church.    We shouldn't fashion idols, which are by definition images of things that exist, or did exist either in heaven above, on the earth beneath, on in the waters below.   We should not fashion them, or bow down to worship them.   (2nd commandment).   I am sure that our intent in fashioning these figurines was at first innocent, but it has become a distraction for us.    Just as Gideon's ephod was eventually worshipped, (Judges 8) even though it's original intent was to seek the Lord.

Second dangerous train of thought:  to say that these things happened without any diety oversight.   Babylon is guilty of this.  In chapter 47 they are recorded as saying "I am, and there is none beside me".  This also angers the Lord, because it denies Him credit for what He has done.    This is the error of many otherwise godly people.   They believe that creation has simply evolved over many years, and they fail to give God credit for what He specifically says that He has done.   I cannot emphasize this strongly enough....failure to give God credit for what HE has done is to drink condemnation onto yourself.   If God says He created the earth and all that is in within 6 days, then it is foolhardy to question that.    Accept that you don't understand, but do not question the validity of what God says.   Seriously....don't do it.    You don't want to anger the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth.   Even though He loves us, He will discipline us if we begin or persist in saying things that deny Him the glory He deserves.


PR