“For you saw no manner of similitude (likeness) on the day that the Lord spoke unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire.” Deuteronomy 4:15
Dear Ones:
From the first verse of the Bible to its last chapter, there is one dominant, resounding truth that is declared: there is but one God, Maker and Redeemer…and He is sovereign. He is the thrice Holy God revealed to Isaiah, confirmed to us by the revelation of the Christ, even explained to us by His coming in the flesh. Indeed, God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He is the Beginning and the End, as declared in the Old Testament, and reaffirmed as such in the New, by the very lips of Christ. There is but ONE mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And there is NO other God. This is the message proclaimed over and over throughout the entirety of Scripture. If a man is to believe in God, then he must come God’s way. That way is singular, and entirely fixed on the one and true LIVING God.
In God’s dealings with Israel, after receiving a most extraordinary revelation of Him “…out of the midst of the fire,” He made abundantly clear that the risk of them being deceived by their own hearts with regard to their “thoughts” of God was very real. In that revelation of God, they did not “see” Him, that is, a form. God’s way of faith, from the days of Abraham, was that of believing Him according to His declared word, not “imagining” or “speculating” about Him. Also, they were faced with another facet of knowing Him in truth, and that had to do with the intent of their hearts. Would they seek God to be what they “wanted” Him to be to them, or rather what He had promised, and proclaimed He would be? Over and over again in the Old Testament, the Lord warned Israel concerning making a “graven image,” their idea of a physical representation of Him. There would be only one physical representation of God, and that would be the coming of Christ, both in the flesh and in His glory. It is to Him that every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, that He is Lord. In our consideration of God, who and what He is, we cannot accurately, and completely worship Him in truth unless we do so looking to Christ, the perfect representation of Him, as He is God. If there is any doubt with regard to these assertions, we need to look at the revelation of the glorified Christ in the book of the Revelation. In the first chapter, He declares of Himself three times basically to be the same thing: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending…the first and the last…” (v.8,11,17). In the last chapter, He declares the same thing: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning, and the end, the first and the last.” (22:13) In the Old Testament, in Isaiah 44:6, the Lord declares: “Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and His Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, ‘I am the first, and am the last; and beside Me THERE IS NO GOD.'” There is no doubt that the God of the Old Testament, the God of Abraham, is the God of the New Testament. This is the basis of true faith, for true faith can only be based on the truth of God, as it is in Christ. The ONLY true and living God is worthy of all of our trust, according to His word and the revelation of Christ, in the flesh and in His glory.
Dear Father, give us grace to see and to live in the light of the reality and truth that You Only are God, and there there is none other. You are as such, sovereign, ALMIGHTY, the Savior and Redeemer of men, absolutely worthy of all our trust and love. We thank Thee that by Your word, we are delivered from false gods, concepts, and deception, which only leads to misery and destruction. Lead us ever to Thyself, walking with Thee, that the light of Thy truth, Life, and Love, be revealed in and through us. We praise and thank Thee in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad