God
is God
“We
simply cannot revere that which is enslaved to our interests, a
puppet-god that we manipulate through our prayers and our behavior.
By definition, we can only revere that which is beyond our control
and understanding. We can only revere those things truly greater than
ourselves, which dwarf us and defy our ability to grasp them.”
Stephen
L. Cook (Conversations with Scripture-2 Isaiah)
My
Sunday school class is studying second Isaiah—which is from chapter
40 on. It was written at a different time and by different people
than wrote the first 39 chapters, and is filled with soaring,
descriptive poetry about the inscrutability of God. It's main message
is that we humans don't know squat about the mind and nature of God.
We assume that we do, and further that God is like us only more
powerful. Second Isaiah goes to great lengths to say that we have no
clue and that the only valid response to God is awe and humility and
reverence.
It
further teaches that God is not only good, as we Christians are fond
of saying, but that God is also in the midst of chaos. The poem,
according to Cook, presents a God that is out to “disorient people,
defy their logic, and make their knees shake.”
“I
form light and create darkness,
I make weal and create woe;
I the Lord do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7)
According
to second Isaiah, if we can name God, we don't know God. The God of
rewards and punishments is one of our false idols and we should
worship, not because God will reward us if we do, but because God is
God and we are merely human. God is the potter, and we are the clay.
The
closest I've ever come to having this sort of other-worldly awe, this
understanding of my own frail vulnerability, was when I stood on my
front steps and watched a mile-wide tornado swallow up one whole side
of Birmingham. In that moment, I knew that my life could be snuffed
out in a nano-second and there was absolutely nothing I could do in
the face of such power. It did, in fact, make my knees shake.
I
think it's a good time for us to consider the nature of God. We, who
often speak of the Creator of the universe with the same familiarity
as our best buddy, or act as though we have God in our pocket to
bandy about as we please. In Isaiah, God names, not one of the chosen
children, but a pagan king, Cyrus, to lead God's people out of
bondage in Babylon and to rebuild Jerusalem. Let's face it, we don't
know the mind of God any better than the ancient Hebrews did. We
could use a good dose of reverence.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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