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| Ahhh... looks so sweet and loving! |
Just take a look at historical gods and see how man makes them up in our own image. When we can’t understand something, we attribute it to a new god. Eg. god over the water- when seas rage he is angry and when they are quiet, he is happy with us; god of war- when we win, he is happy with us, when we lose it is because he is unhappy with us. Or there are gods like the Greek ones who are always fighting amidst themselves or acting in selfish, temperamental, arrogant ways. We tend to believe that if there is a god than he has to behave in our preconceived ways. In doing that, we make him so much smaller than what He truly is.
Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. Rom.
..they worshiped and served the created thing more than the Creator… v.25
I had a conversation once after watching Clash of the Titans with a teen who said the Greek gods seemed like ones he would want to believe in more than Jehovah God. His reason was they are more like us. I shook my head in wonderment thinking- why would I want to love, live for, serve a fallible, selfish, unpredictable, untrustworthy, god who had little integrity, shallow love, and completely self-serving actions. I enjoyed watching the sequel, Wrath of the Titans as many of the gods turned to ash and went into oblivion. Wow, that’s a powerful god I want to follow... Not!!! If a god is mortal, than he is only dust in the earth and certainly not worthy of adoration, praise and honor.
(about idols) …They can't speak! They must always be carried because they can't walk! Don't be afraid of them because they can do no harm, nor can they do any good." Jer. 10:5
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear; they have noses, but they do not smell; they have hands, but they do not handle; they have feet, but they do not walk; they do not mutter through their throat. The ones who make them are like them, and everyone who trusts in them. Ps. 115:4-8
It seems to me there must be an ulterior motive to wanting our god to be in our image. Perhaps we want to feel better about living a sinful life. Maybe we just want to maintain control and have everything our way. Perhaps we just want to be able to hold him in our hands to manipulate him, do what we want with him, and relegate him to whatever part of our lives we are willing to share with him.
But if we can do that,
would he really be a god?
Our God, Jehovah of the Bible, is the one (Dt. 6:4) and only (Is. 44:6) true (Jh. 17:3) God: He who was in the beginning and will be in the end (Rev. 1:8). The only living (Ps. 42:2) breathing (Gen. 2:7) God of highest integrity (Nm. 23:19 ), holiness (Lv. 20:26 ) and full of selfless love (Rom.
He alone is God! (Ps. 86:10)
*All things came into being through Him, and without Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. Jh. 1:3
For all things were created in Him, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. Col. 1:16,17