DO WE TRULY KNOW THE ONE AND ONLY GOD?

Shalom,

It is quite logical that a young lady will not directly and easily give her heart to an unknown young man. The case will be different if she is an ‘easy’ type. She will quickly give her heart to any seducing and smooth-talking guy. Do we give our heart the chance to stay open to the Lord? How far do we know Him?

Our knowledge of the Lord must go through a process with progress. How did we first know Him? Ephesians 2:12-13 write, “Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

We were once gentiles, without Christ, without hope, without God and far from Him. But now, we are close to Him by the blood of Christ. What is the purpose of being close to God? To know Him better and to be made a dwelling place of God in Spirit (v. 22). An illustration: We will never take in a complete stranger.

It is obvious now that we will have hope for our future if we know the living God through Jesus Christ. Before knowing the living God, we, as gentiles, worshipped many gods that we made by ourselves. Strangely,the Israelites who already had the living God still worshipped others gods; therefore, when Joshua was aged and about to die, he called the Israelites and warned them, “Now fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14-15)

Joshua truly knew the God whom he worshipped; so he did not hesitate to challenge the Israelites (because of the Spirit of God in him) as he found that they did not know God the right way. In fact, they still worshipped the gods of their ancestors (Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor), the gods of the Amorites when they were living in Canaan; even when living in Egypt for 400 years, they were used to seeing the idol worship there. Possibly, they also worshipped the idols of the Egyptians.

Abraham was taken away to Canaan (vv. 1-3) across the Euphrat River (where a great many people practiced idolatry) for the purpose of leaving the gods/idols worshipped by the elderly people and the locals. But in reality, the the Book of Judges writes that the Israelites practiced idolatry in Canaan now and again while their ancestor (Abraham) was called to leave Mesopotamia in order not to worship the idols there. The Israelites left Egypt for the same purpose (to worship the living God) but in times of famine in the wilderness, they remembered Egypt and wanted to return there.

The Israelites were really stiff-necked. Because of their wickedness and idolatrous practices, they were ‘punished’ by God over and over, but repeatedly did the same thing that arouse God’s fury. What did God say to Ezekiel? “Some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat down in front of me. Then the word of the Lord came to me:“Son of man, these men have set up idolsin their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all? Therefore speak to them and tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When any of the Israelites set up idols in their hearts and put a wicked stumbling block before their faces and then go to a prophet, I the Lord will answer them myself in keeping with their great idolatry. I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols.’ I will set my face against them and make them an example and a byword. I will remove them from my people. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”(Ezekiel 14:1-5, 8)

Self-introspection: Do we, including our spiritual leaders, really know and worship God only with all our hearts? Let’s not pretend when coming before God. We may sit, listening to His voice with respect but our hearts are worshipping idols! Who is able to know the heart of a person other than God (I Samuel 16:7^b)?

Polytheism has been going on from generation to generation. Every country with various cultures has their own cultures, including Indonesia. Honestly, it is very difficult to set ourselves free from the bondage of idolatry that has been rooted in the customs and cultures of respective countries and regions; even customs also affect church activities unnoticed.

Application: We have to guard our hearts. Do not listen to the Word of God with your mind preoccupied with your own perpestives, and then refuse the exhortations of His Word. Be watchful. A heart filled with idols paves the way for us to fall into wicked and filthy sins. And as long as our hearts are filled with idols, we keep ourselves away from the Lord and lose our excitement to pray as well as read the Bible.

Note that we have a living God while idols are man-made objects that cannot do any activities. They have a mouth but cannot speak. They have eyes but cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear. They have a nose but cannot smell. They have hands but cannot touch. They have feet but cannot walk, and so on (Psalms 115:4-7).

On the contrary, our God speaks through His Word that gives us life as Jesus said, “It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' ” (Matthew 4:4). Hasn’t God spoken with His mouth since the beginning of creation? So, if we want to live and know the Lord, we must know His Word.

Obviously, God is not merely a Spirit without body parts. The fact is that while on earth, Jesus said, “The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me” (John 12:45). He also had a face, eyes and ears as written in I Peter 3:10-12, “For, Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

For we have a living God and revenge is His right (Hebrews 10:30), we must speak and act tactfully. We admit that the law of God is good and we want to do good, but in fact, what we do is bad as the Apostle Paul confessed it himself (Romans 7:14-15) and cried out, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” (v. 24).

Actually, there is nothing good in men from top to toe. As we know God, He is able to restore us. That way, we will experience one change after another to regain His image and likeness.

We have known God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Philip, one of Jesus’ disciples was rebuked by Jesus, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen mehas seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ” (John 14:9).

God (living) also has a heart, feelings and thoughts, yet His plans and ways are different from men’s (Isaiah 55:8). By contrast, idols /gods (dead) are products of imagination/ thoughts of the makers/ initiators.

Further, the Apostle Paul said that the Ephesians (and we) were built and fittly framed together into a holy temple of God (Ephesians 2:19-21) but Ephesus had no temples of God but countless shrines with the statues of Artemis, the goddes (Acts 19:24-28).

We are the temple of God where the Spirit of God dwells in us. Be watchful, if the Spirit of God does not dwell in us, the evil spirit will overpower us (Ephesians 2:1-2). Being cast out, the evil spirit (that has no rest) always find the chance to return and if finding a vacant home of our heart, clean and neat, he will take 7 more evil spirits to enter and dwell in it (Matthew 12:43-45). We have to be cautious, because the devil does not like our hearts being cleansed by the Word of God. He will wait and look for a space to dwell in the house of our heart if there is no Spirit of God in us.

There is only one Spirit of God. Therefore, be careful not to receive other spirits. There is only one Jesus. Do not receive another Jesus (as the creation of God preached by the Jehovah’s witnesses). There is only one Gospel, too (II Corinthians 11:4), that is, the Gospel of salvation in the sacrifice of Christ.

In the past, God spoke through His prophets, but now, He speaks through His Only Son Himself as His Image (Hebrews 1:1-3). Illustration: Who knows President Jokowi closely? Surely, his wife and children. Who knows God the Father? His Son without doubt. Aren’t we God’s children if believe in His Name (John 1:12)?

When won’t God know us although we have used God-given authority and facilities, resulting in performing many miracles, casting out demons, etc. (Matthew 7:21-22)? That’s when we do not (want to) know His Son, Jesus, and do not do God’s will. The evil spirit knows Jesus. He said it when challenging the sons of Sceva who tried to cast out the evil spirit from a demon possessed (Acts 19:14-15). But ironically, men do not know Him.

How can we know God to understand His thoughts, feelings and will? Through His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He sent to die and redeem our sins so that we can think and feel the way He does. The glory of God the Father was also manifested through His Son’s victory over death

If we know the crucified Jesus, we know God the Father who sent Him and He will dwell in us so that our speech and actions will reflect His glory visible and pleasing to those around us. Amen.

Rev. Paulus Budiono Johor, Sunday, April 22, 2018