What god can be as great as our God? – Terry Nightingale
“Your ways, God, are holy.
What god is as great as our God?
You are the God who performs miracles;
you display your power among the peoples.
With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph” (Ps 77: 13 – 15).
This is a really good question to ask: What god is as great as our God?
Gods (with a small ‘g’) in the Bible were, of course, not gods at all. They were man-conceived and man-made. The writings of the Old Testament often refer to them as idols, statues of earthly creatures or representations of how ancient peoples imagined their deities would appear if they could see them. Made of wood, stone, or metal, some were small and portable, kept in tents or family dwellings; others were large, towering over worshippers in their temples.
Isaiah 40 describes the stupidity of creating idols, when they are compared to the living God.
“With whom, then, will you compare God?
To what image will you liken him?
As for an idol, a metalworker casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and fashions silver chains for it.
A person too poor to present such an offering
selects wood that will not rot;
they look for a skilled worker
to set up an idol that will not topple.
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth (Is 40: 18 – 22)
Idols can topple over. Our God sits enthroned above the circle of the earth.
Why pray to something that humans have created, something that needs help standing up, when the One ruling the heavens and seated on the throne invites us to pray to Him? The One who performs miracles; the One who displays infinite power; the One who redeems us with His mighty arm. He invites us to worship and pray to Him.
Our modern-day idols are just as worthless. We might not bow the knee to a wooden statuette, but how important to us is our social media status? Or the praise of those around me. Do you care about those things more than you care about who you are in God? If you are not sure, compare your average daily screen time with the time you spent reading the Bible this morning, Who do you draw your value from? You contemporaries or your heavenly Father? Do you worship the desire to be liked by others, or do you worship the One who created you, formed you and loves you?
Just like the ancient statues of stone or gold, our present-day idols only hold power if we give it to them. If we lean on them for favour, love, or fortune, we will surely only discover empty and lifeless promises.
But worship the Living God and bow the knee to Him and a whole universe of possibilities open up. Because… what god can possibly be as great as our God?
