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Who
Is Jehovah That I Should Serve Him?
Except
for a brief time before and after the fall, there has never been a
time when human kind has understood the true nature of God. Very
early in our history we exchanged the truth that we had for
speculations. In his letter to the Romans (1:21-25) Paul traces
mankind's departure from this true knowledge.
For even though they
knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they
became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was
darkened. {22} Professing to be wise, they became fools, {23}
and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in
the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and
crawling creatures. {24} Therefore God gave them over in the
lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be
dishonored among them. {25} For they exchanged the truth of
God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the
Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen!
Mankind
did not give up their knowledge of God for no purpose. Instead, they
gave it up in order to act upon the impurity that filled their
hearts. In turning to worship and serve the creature rather than the
Creator, nothing held them back as they sought to fulfilling the lust
that fill their hearts. And so "God gave them over to
degrading passions" – to homosexuality (vss. 26-27)
and in this they dishonored their bodies. Furthermore, He "gave
them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not
proper." (vs. 28) In the verse that immediately follows Paul
describes this mind as one "filled with all unrighteousness."
He then gives a summary of how such a mind manifests itself...
(Romans 1:29-31) ...
wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit,
malice; they are gossips, {30} slanderers, haters of
God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to
parents, {31} without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving,
unmerciful;
Brethren, as we look
around and see the nations (including our own) justifying
homosexuality and every other sort of sexual perversion including
fornication and adultery between heterosexuals; as we look and see
the nations justifying infanticide – abortion; as we look and
see the greed and the envy that exists in our land and the
disintegration of the home, and the ingenious ways that men and women
devise and perpetrate evil – as we see all this we need to
understand that this situation exists because humanity has "exchanged
the truth of God for a lie." And so as we reach out to the
masses with the gospel one thing that we must do at the very outset
is to proclaim to them who God is; for they do not know. And no, I am
not accusing the world of atheism. On the contrary, like the
Athenians in apostolic times, our generation is also "very
religious in all respects." (Acts 17:22) But they do not
know the one true God and if they worship Him at all, it is "in
ignorance," not in accordance with truth. And so we must
make Him known among the nations.
In
keeping with the sentiments of this hymn consider the words of David
in a psalm recorded in 1 Chronicles 16:8-12.
Oh give thanks to
the LORD, call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples.
{9} Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; speak of all His
wonders. {10} Glory in His holy name; let the heart of those
who seek the LORD be glad. {11} Seek the LORD and His
strength; seek His face continually. {12} Remember His
wonderful deeds which He has done, His marvels and the judgments from
His mouth
And
why shouldn't we make the truth known about our God, for He is
absolutely unique.
(Isaiah 40:25-26)
"To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?"
says the Holy One. {26} Lift up your eyes on high And see who
has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by
number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His
might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is
missing.
There
is nothing else and there is no one else like Jehovah – He is
one of a kind; and by this I mean much more that there is but only
one God. This is of course true. But when I speak of the
uniqueness of God I am (with the author James White) saying that "He
is totally 'other' than His creation. His nature is completely
different than ours, or any other created being's. Therefore, any
analogy or example that we might use (in describing Him, KM) will
break down at some point We simply can't compare God to anything
because to do so assumes that there can by anything in creation that
can be likened to God. 'To whom will you compare me?' God asks. No
answer is given, for there simply is no answer. God cannot be
compared to anyone or anything, for He is unique ...." (The
Sovereign Grace of God, 22) Isaiah then challenges his people "to
look up at the dark, night sky, and observe with wonder the stars of
the heavens. Then, he tells us that our God is the one who brings out
the starry host one by one and who guides their paths through the
heavens. How can one begin to make comparisons with such a one as
this?" (White, 22)
The psalmist (Psa
113:5-6) wrote: "Who is like the LORD our God, who is
enthroned on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are
in heaven and in the earth?. In this verse the Lord is pictured
as humbling Himself – stooping down (cf. NIV) – to behold
not only the things on earth but "the things that are in heaven.
"Like a man might stoop down to look at a small creature
crawling upon the ground, so God looks down upon all creation
itself." (White, 23) How can such knowledge not fill us with
awe? And we are not done! For Isaiah (40:12-18) also says...
Who has measured the
waters in the hollow of His hand, And marked off the heavens by the
span, And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, And
weighed the mountains in a balance And the hills in a pair of scales?
{13} Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His
counselor has informed Him? {14} With whom did He consult and
who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the
path of justice and taught Him knowledge And informed Him of the way
of understanding? {15} Behold, the nations are like a drop
from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales;
Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust. {16} Even
Lebanon is not enough to burn, Nor its beasts enough for a burnt
offering. {17} All the nations are as nothing before Him, They
are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless. {18} To
whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with
Him?
Yes
indeed, "To whom then will you liken God?" Jeremiah
(10:6-7) says: "There is none like You, O LORD; You are
great, and great is Your name in might. Who would not fear You, O
King of the nations? Indeed it is Your due! For among all the wise
men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, There is none like
You." There is not like the Lord! He has no equal. And if
men were in their right minds then all would fear Him, for this is
His right. But men are not in their right minds – "they
are altogether stupid and foolish." (Jer 10:8) "Professing
to be wise, they have become fools, and exchanged the glory of the
incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of
birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures." (Rom
1:23) But we mustn't join them in their folly! Instead, we must
proclaim with the prophets of old "There is none like Him; none
can compare; no god His equal no prince His heir!" And this we
shall begin to do as we sing ...
There
is not who is like our God.
There is none who is
like our God. There are many reasons why this is true. One reason is
that He is eternal
(Isaiah 57:15 NKJV)
For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose
name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive
the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite
ones.
Humans
are limited to time. We think in a time-based way: past, present and
future. Our language is filled with past tenses, and present tenses
and future tenses. It is difficult, if not impossible, to think out
of the box when we think about time. But God does not exist as we do.
He does not exist in time, but in eternity. In other words, God
transcends the boundaries of time.
(Isaiah 40:28) Do
you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the
Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His
understanding is inscrutable.
The
Lord God is eternal – everlasting. Time is part of what He has
created. He is the "I am" (Ex. 3:14), not the "I was"
or the I hope to be. He is the eternal One.
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