A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” … Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” Isaiah 40:6, 9
If we cannot derive a true knowledge of what God is like from our own experience or from the world of religion, where are we going to get a true picture of him?
God paints a picture of what he is like, in his own words, and they are recorded for us in the Bible. God speaks and he says, “Behold your God!” In other words, “Let me introduce myself to you.”
If you think about it, there is no way that men and women, ancient or modern, could find out what God is like. Job describes God as the one “who does great things beyond searching out” (Job 9:10). Those who spend a lifetime searching their own experience or the world of religion will find it to be ultimately futile. You cannot come to know God that way.
There is only one way in which we could ever know the invisible and eternal God, and that is if he has made himself known. And that is precisely what God has chosen to do. He made himself known to certain people, and in the Scriptures that revelation of the living God is given to us. He made himself known to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to his people Israel, and to the prophets.
The prophets did not write what they thought about God (that was the mark of a false prophet). The prophets wrote what God gave them to say.
Are you searching for God in your experience, or in religion, or are you listening to God’s revelation of himself in the Bible? Why?
