He Is Not Like Us

“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?” (Nu 23:19 AV)

It occurred to me this morning, by the voice of the Holy Spirit, just how common it is for man to treat God as one of mankind.  Balak, the king of Moab, hired a Gentile Prophet called Balaam.  Balaam was asked to curse Israel as Israel lay in the valley preparing to enter Canaan.  Balak felt intimidated by Israel even though Israel never threatened them.  Perhaps Balak, in the back of his mind, knew God would eventually deal with Moab and not in their favor.  Balak thought he could hire Balaam to curse Israel with the promise of wealth and comfort.  The problems with this are many.  What Balak could not understand is God is not for hire.  This, in essence, is what Balak was trying to do.  Through God’s man, Balak is trying to manipulate, coerce, or control the LORD.  He has this wrong idea that God can be persuaded by the same means we use to persuade men.  The more I thought about this and the more the Holy Spirit worked with my heart, the more I realized times don’t change.

It is difficult to interact with God as He is.  We cannot see Him.  We cannot hear His voice directly.  We cannot interact with Him in the same way we do people.  There are personal skills we learn while living among mankind.  We learn how to work with others to accomplish that which is important to us.  We also relate to others strictly for their benefit.  We sacrifice.  We love.  We minister.  In our relationships, there is a noticeable give and take.  Every action has an equal reaction.  We learn how to work with others and the skills we need to make relationships work.  But God is not a man.  He cannot be related to like any other.  This is a struggle.  This requires reasoned and studied faith.  We read of who and what God is.  The word of God reveals the truth of God.  What we struggle with is comparing God with other experiences to understand Him.  But this is not adequate.  Nor can it be.  That is Balaam’s point.

What concerns me is the same error Balak made.  Balak knew better.  He even said so.  He acknowledges God as the LORD God of Israel.  He knew who it was he was trying to manipulate.  What concerns me is the deliberate devaluing of God.  Forcing Him to be more human than divine is common.  Most religions do so.  But there are some who do this to a fault.  The greatest of errors come from Christendom itself.  God is not someone you can conjure up to come down and serve you.  He is not a divine entity like a Genie in a bottle whom we require favor.  He is almighty God!  He does as He wishes.  He can be approached.  We can plead our cause with Him.  But, as Job learned, He is not obligated to act as we think He should.  He is God and we are His creation.  We are subject to Him and the very fact we can approach the throne of God by the blood of Christ is more grace than we can ever understand.  God is not common.  He is not like us.  In any way!  He is holy.  He is transcendent.  He is above all.  If God does anything for us, it is by mere grace alone.  He can be petitioned, but He cannot be manipulated.  He can be pleaded with.  But He cannot be coerced.  If we treat the LORD like a man, we are being disrespectful at least.  Blasphemous at most.  Yes, sometimes this is by ignorance.  Ignorance can be solved.  It is a matter of wanting to truly worship the LORD as opposed to doing so superficially.