A God Made in Our Image

“With whom, then, will you compare God?
   To what image will you liken him?  As for an idol, a metalworker casts it,
 and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it.  A person too poor to present such an offering
 selects wood that will not rot;
 they look for a skilled worker
 to set up an idol that will not topple.

Do you not know?
 Have you not heard?
 Has it not been told you from the beginning?  Have you not understood since the earth was founded?  He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
 and its people are like grasshoppers.
 He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught
 and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.  No sooner are they planted,
 no sooner are they sown,
 no sooner do they take root in the ground,
 than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

‘To whom will you compare me?
 Or who is my equal?’ says the Holy One.  Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these?
 He who brings out the starry host one by one
 and calls forth each of them by name.
 Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” (Isaiah 40:18-26 NIV)

As I shared yesterday, human beings are the only created creatures that are created in the image of God.  We hold a special place in God’s universe.  Yet, we are still creatures, not the Creator.  And that has been a very difficult fact for humans down to through history to accept.  Our bent is to be the ones in charge.  For most of history, we have acknowledged that we are at the mercy of Powers far beyond us.  Yet, as creations of God, we have had much difficulty in submitting to Him.

In Eden, Adam and Eve decided there was a better way to live than the one God had given them.  The Israelites for many centuries cast aside God for images made by their own hands.  The Prophets repeatedly warned them and pointed out the foolishness of worshipping a god made by our own hands in our own image.  

Today, particularly in the West, most people don’t worship physical images of gods.  However, there are plenty who worship God as they have created Him in their own minds, or refuse to worship Him because He doesn’t fit their criteria of an acceptable God.  They either choose the “acceptable” descriptions of God in the Scriptures while ignoring those that are disdainful to them, or they reject God altogether because they can’t accept such a God as the Old and New Testaments describe. Either way, they are making their own images of who God is and should be.  Isaiah asks the question, “With whom, then, will you compare God?” For many, the answer is ourselves.

We often want God to do things the way we would do them.  So to comfort ourselves with our own righteousness, we demand He be that way or we won’t acknowledge Him, or we create an image of Him and insist that is truly who He is. 

There are many today who believe in a God that considers sin unimportant; He’s only focused on love.  There are those who proclaim from the TV studio and the pulpit that God’s main goal is for you to be rich in material wealth.  Still others believe God favors Democrats over Republicans or vice-versa.  All are man-made images and grotesque portrayals of the God of the Universe.  

Today, heed the words of the prophet: There is no way we can compare God to ourselves.  As the Lord says, “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) God has revealed Himself in the Scriptures—all of them—and that is where you must look in order to know who He is.  The goal is not for Him to look more like you, but for you to look more like Him in how you think and how you live.

© Jim Musser 2014