“The Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver,
The Lord is our king; he will save us.”
Isaiah 33:22

Last night I opened up my bible to see where it would land, and this is the verse that was there. I did the same thing this morning, and wouldn’t you know it! The same verse. It seems that this one is the one we cover today.

My initial thought was to define these terms, but that is way beyond the scope here. What did come to mind is that God made us all, right? He made us in his image, just as he made Adam and Eve. Yet, through Adam came sin, which is a result of his bad choice. The bible tells us he had one restriction, and only one, and he failed. We cannot criticize him because we, too, have choices, and we fail God. Intentionally.

Can you imagine this? God sets up the entire universe, so delicately balanced that we can scarcely comprehend it. The whole thing seems to be for our benefit, with us smack dab in the middle. Why? To show to us his magnificence and power (Romans 1:19-20). We have the very best seats in the house, folks. He’s all around us. Everywhere we turn, everywhere the earth turns, we see his glory. We can’t miss it.

Yet, every single person that has ever been born (and ever will be) has willfully and intentionally thumbed his/her nose at him.

Romans 1:21-23 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

I recall sin often times explained as the result of God desiring us to have free will. The idea is that God wants us to love him freely, of our own will, rather than have a bunch of robots that love him because he made them that way. That all sounds fine and good until you open your bible and learn that not one single human has chosen to love God. In fact, we don’t even honor him or give him thanks. Not one.

If God desired to make creatures that loved him of their own accord, he must have been quite disappointed. Furthermore, one must wonder why God doesn’t simply quit making humans seeing he can’t seem to make one that chooses wisely. Think about that. Not one chooses wisely. Not one.

So, we find our bibles explaining that God gave us the law to put our sin in the spotlight. Moreover, he is the one who judges us according to the standard he has set which, incidentally, is perfection and nothing short of it. Those who fail are banished from his presence come that day of judgment. Folks, that’s all of us.

This is good, because his kingdom has righteousness and justice as its cornerstone. See Psalm 88:14, 97:2, 103:6; Isaiah 9:7, 28:17; and Jeremiah 9:24 for just a couple examples of this. This being the case, who can possibly escape judgement? No one. Why? Because we all willfully, intentionally, and purposefully act in ways that violate the perfect world God created for us. We intentionally rationalize our behavior and trivialize God’s law so that we might do as we please. Still, we know the truth and that we one day will pay the price. Even so, we continue in utter defiance.

Doesn’t that make you wonder? If God knows all things before they even happen, why would he make the universe, with man as the crown jewel, in this way?

Let’s ponder all this for the day and come back to it tomorrow.

Father, let us be like the Bereans and go to our bibles daily to see if these things are so. Let us not be satisfied with explanations and rationalizations that aren’t supported by scripture. Jesus is Truth; therefore, we desire truth. Show us. Amen.

Copyright © 2020 Scott Powers