Without meaning the statement literally, we say at times, “The Lord and I have it in control” – meaning: God has everything in His strong hands. We know our only part is in giving assent to what He does. Without my consent God will do nothing for me; He will not overpower me to help me emerge from a distressful situation. He will not honor His promise that I shall rout a thousand foes determined to destroy me. When I cease to yield to His will, I am then on my own.
It is analogous to the Israelites’ relationship with God in their battles against their enemies. God required the Israelites to arm themselves and to train for warfare, but in the end it was God who made them victorious over their foes. And when they forsook their God, He forsook them, and all their training and armament could not achieve a triumph over even the smallest and weakest enemy.
Jehovah declared, “I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” God will withdraw His hand in a tentative manner from our affairs when we turn from Him, but He is still the gracious, loving Savior He has always been and He will not soon utterly abandon us to a well-deserved fate. God bears long with His people – and with mankind in general – but He is also a God of justice and righteousness and He will not tolerate our willful sinning forever. There comes a cutoff point, otherwise He is not the God He has always been.
In this great Jehovah God who came to men as Jesus there is a mind-blowing mix of many varied traits, some of which seem to contradict one another. But appearances are not always as they seem. The same God who declared that “the soul that sinneth, it shall die” is the One who died in the sinner’s place. But on the reverse side of the coin, the God who died for the sinner is the one who will eventually consume the sinner if he rejects the salvation purchased for him at such a great price.
God does not change; our relationship to God changes. There are certain angles from which we see the tender, loving side of God; but when we move to a perspective that is oppositional to God, we see the stern, judgmental and wrathful aspect of God. It is not God’s responsibility to be sure that we maintain the right relationship or perspective of God; that burden falls on our shoulders.
God in Christ gave His all on Calvary: what more could He do? And we are reluctant to make the smallest of sacrifices for Him because it would inconvenience or distress the flesh or hurt our pride or “damage” our frail psyches! We, mankind, are no doubt a most pathetic people.
What a question to ask of a people who supposedly are faithful, loyal subjects of “God.” It is possible that the majority of church-goers have never looked at God face-to-divine-Face. Many have never seriously pondered this majestic Being they serve. Who is He and how did He get tangled up with abject sinners like us?
Who is God but God? He is God – up, down and across the invisible worlds of human imagination and the visible worlds of the universe. There is no place or concept that can successfully shut Him out. He is simply, inexplicably and incontrovertibly – God. The smallest and meanest minds cannot wish Him away just because He does not square with their lifestyle; the greatest intellects cannot reason him into their trick bag of myth or wishful thinking. He is God and He has no intention of disappearing.
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