We try to mold God into what we want or think he should be. We think about how things are going in our lives or on the earth and say, "well, if I was him I wouldn't do it that way." When we project our view onto God, we then worship a god of our making; it is idolatry.
This is what God has to say in Isaiah 55:8-9
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your
ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so
are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
We know God is a God of love and of judgment.
We want someone to come and "clean the clock" of
the people who hate and do such evil things on the earth. We want God to come
and "take them out" "zap them with a lightening bolt" if it
takes it.
God loves us so much that he cannot stand for us and the
world to be this way, but this is his response. Isaiah 42: 1-4
"Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom
my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to
the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the
street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not
quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be
crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait
for his teaching."
God comes without fanfare, without calling attention to heal
in gentleness as a gardener who will not "break" the "bruised
reed," or a lamp lighter who will not "quench" a "dimly
burning wick."
I heard Dr. Thomas Long share thoughts on these passages from Isaiah some years ago. He was preaching before leaving my town to teach his class at Emory in Atlanta the next day. I want to give credit to him for these ideas as they relate to the Bible passages.
