Redefining God

One of my favorite movie lines is, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it does.” Often people will say the same words but mean something completely different. And nowhere is that more true than when people are speaking of God.

 

This is not a new problem. In around the early seventh century B. C., the king of Assyria sent a representative to spout propaganda to dishearten the people of Jerusalem. The king threatened the city that was being ruled over by King Hezekiah, and his envoy spoke some very false things about God to try to convince the people to surrender.

 

Isaiah 36:7, 10, and 18

 

7 But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”?

10 Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.’ ”

18 Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

 

Note the three falsehoods that the man spoke. First, he accused Hezekiah of removing the high places of the Lord, though the high places were never commanded by God. In a simple yet dangerous move, the Assyrian representative attempted to redefine who God is so as to make the people give in to the desires of the invaders. The representative declared God to be someone God is not and to desire things that God does not desire.

 

Second, the Assyrian said that God had told the king of Assyria to invade. Once he had redefined God, he claimed to have knowledge of the will of God that the people of God lacked. He claimed extra, supernatural revelation to make his own evil cause right.

 

Third, the Assyrian then redefined God by declaring God to be too weak to stand against the Assyrians. This claim, as much as any other, would lead the Assyrian army to their downfall. These men will not win the victory, as God will not have them boasting of besting him in a contest of strength.

 

Why point this out? The tactic of redefining God is not a new move, nor has it gone away. In our world today, people use the word “God” to justify whatever opinions or desires they have. People often declare God to be for something that God has forbidden in Scripture. They declare to have heard from God permission to do things that actually violate Scripture. Or they simply declare God not to be there or not to be strong enough to make a difference.

 

But, if you read on in Isaiah, you will see that God proves that the attempt to redefine him does not work. The Lord is. The Lord is holy and mighty. God will not be mocked. God’s will is revealed in his word, and we dare not attempt to warp that word or manipulate it to say what it does not. Instead, we must allow God to reveal himself in his word. WE must allow God to be who he is (as if we could stop him from being who he is). And we must bow to him, get under his rule, and seek his mercy. God is the King of kings, and he has the right to tell us who he is, what he demands, and how he is to be approached.