The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Psalm 115:2-8,
'Where is their God?'
Our God is in heaven;
he does whatever pleases him.
But their idols are silver and gold,
made by human hands.
They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see.
They have ears, but cannot hear,
noses, but cannot smell.
They have hands, but cannot feel,
feet, but cannot walk,
nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
Those who make them will be like them,
and so will all who trust in them."
I once heard the atheist entertainer Penn Jillette say that if God wanted us to believe in him, to have the faith he exists, then he should have left us more evidence. Of course, that is the point. God has chosen for himself all who will embrace him in faith without the kind of evidence required in a court of law.
Faith cannot exist when the evidence is on full display. We know something when we see it - without faith. However, we can also know something by apprehending it through faith. Both evidence and well-placed faith lead to the same endpoint: knowing something for certain. The writer of Hebrews defines faith for us this way, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for." Hebrews 11:1-2.
It is my perspective that God has left enough of himself for us to place our faith in him - but only just enough. Enough, such that he does not require us to make a completely indefensible "leap of faith." He does so through the creation, as we look about ourselves we are compelled to recognize the creation has to have a magnificent and transcendent designer. He does so through the Scriptures that provide fulfilled prophecy, the accounts of the miraculous that provide authentication, the overwhelmingly masterful reasoning and logic Jesus displayed while here, and so on. God also does so through the compelling account of his love in sending his Son to die a miserable death to pay for our sins as told us in the gospel - it simply has the ring of truth to it! Jesus said, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." John 12:32. Likewise he told us of the activity of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and lives of unbelievers that can possibly communicate his presence and his intentions, "When he [the Advocate, that is, the Holy Spirit] comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned."
In Psalm 115 we see the nations asking about the Israelites, "Where is their God?" The question arises because the God of Israel is "masking" himself, providing a context in which well-found faith is possible. These Gentile nations were used to "gods" they could see and touch. Who is this God they cannot see? Unlike their gods who were made by them, who can't speak, can't see, can't hear, can't smell, can't feel, can't walk, can't even utter a sound, Israel's God who made man, not the other way around, can do all those things... but he must be apprehended through faith.
God has chosen for himself all who will embrace him in faith. As such he has carefully and masterfully masked himself just enough where faith is required to apprehend him. On the other hand, it might be observed he has done as much as he possibly can to help us arrive at that faith without compromising it.
Why does God require us to embrace him in faith? I can think of no better way for God to secure those who have a heart, a desire for him in a meaningful way we can understand.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
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Trevor Fisk
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