10262019 Not Like Us

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of our incomparable and unrivaled God. God is not like us. Aren't you glad!?

I recently was prompted to ponder this truth when I read Psalm 50:21. "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself." My immediate response was, "God is not like us!" I thought it would be encouraging to compile some of the ways that God is different from man. There are way too many to include them all, but here are some I found, the first few coming from this same passage.

God has no needs. "If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof" (Psalm 50:12). Humans have many needs, and God has all the resources to meet them all; we never have to be concerned that He is hoarding resources because He needs them for Himself.

God takes evil seriously. That is the point of the passage in Psalm 50:17-22. Verses 17-20 list sins that man does without any remorse or fear of judgment. God says that He doesn't take their sins so lightly, and He will make all things right.

Another passage that focuses on the same concept of God's uniqueness is Isaiah 40. "To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One" (Isaiah 40:25).

God controls all human institutions. "It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth ... that bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity ... he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither" (Isaiah 40:22-24). We can't even get businesses to give us satisfactory and timely service, but God can change the mind of the king.   

God is strong enough to create and to control creation. "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these [stars], that bringeth out their host by number ... for that he is strong in power; not one faileth" (Isaiah 40:26). Man struggles to get a garden to grow, but God controls the entire universe.

God doesn't get tired. "Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" (Isaiah 40:28). But "even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall" (v. 30). Not God!

God follows through on His promises. "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" (Numbers 23:19). Man breaks promises all the time, either from inability or unfaithfulness, but God never does.

God is all-powerful. "O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?" (Deuteronomy 3:24). Just try making manna or parting a sea. Not even other gods can do what God can do.

God shows no favoritism or unfairness. "For the LORD your God ... regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward" (Deuteronomy 10:17). For a little bit of money, man will change his responses, but God will never change His dealings toward us because someone else influences Him against us.

God is not on a level to be argued with. "For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment" (Job 9:32). Man can't debate God, rebuke Him, or prove Him wrong. Why? Because God is always right.

God controls all human details. Man can't "make one hair white or black" (Matthew 5:36) and can't "add one cubit unto his stature" (Matthew 6:27). But God "made man's mouth" (Exodus 4:11); He "curiously wrought" us and fashioned all our members (Psalm 139:15-16) exactly as He wanted them to be.

God has unsurpassed knowledge. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" (Romans 11:33). Man can figure out some pretty amazing things, like how to go to the moon, but God knew and established all the laws of science and physics that make it possible.

God has no disorder. "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace" (I Corinthians 14:33). It doesn't take man long to make a jumbled mess of things, but everything in God's world makes sense and works properly.

God (Jesus) didn't yield to temptation. "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). Man, who falls easily, has a God who can help him in every temptation, because He successfully met each one.

God can't lie. "That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation" (Hebrews 6:18). Man's mouth is full of deceit, but God can always be trusted.

God will never leave us. "For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). Even people we thought we could depend upon will disappear, but God is always with us.

God can't be tempted with evil. "God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man" (James 1:13). Other people may try to lead us astray or get us to compromise, but God can't be touched with such weakness.

God doesn't change. "With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17). People change. Boy, do they! God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

God is pure. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (I John 1:5). Then there is man, whose heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Thank God He is not like that!

No, God is most definitely not like us! And He isn't just different, but always and in every way infinitely higher and better. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9).

Now that's a God worth following and serving, even when it isn't easy. So keep on keeping on. You will never regret following such a God!

Love in Christ,
Peggy Holt
member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA
www.pressingontohigherground.blogspot.com