God is Great

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I, the LORD have spoken it; It shall come to pass, and I will do it.
Ezekiel 24:14 (NKJV)

When was the last time you took a few moments to reflect upon the name of God? You’ve probably prayed hundreds of times that God’s name would be “hallowed,” but how often do you
personally do just that?

Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
Matthew 6:9 (NLT)

It is no coincidence that Jesus tells us to revere God’s name, because not surprisingly, we find that God is glorified by His name! For when God tells Moses that He is the “I AM” He is communicating
that His being, His very essence, is contingent upon nothing; He is eternal and transcends both time and space. Thus, even God’s name sets Him apart from everything else in creation, and it is clear that He will tolerate no competitors for the glory that rightfully belongs to Him:

I am the Lord, that is My name! I will not give My glory to another or My praise to idols.
Isaiah 42:8

This proclamation from God is on a collision course with the message espoused by our culture, namely that all religions worship the same god. Not only that, but when it comes to the God of the Bible, it should be obvious that He is downright tenacious when it comes to the matter of His rightful place in our lives. You need look no further than the first of the Ten Commandments:

I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. You must not have any other god but me.
Exodus 20:2-3 (NLT)

In other words, God isn’t concerned with being “number one” in our lives, He expects to be the only one! God wants us to worship Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, because anything less robs Him of the glory that He is due. So just to make sure that we get the point, He also gives us commandments two through four:

You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…

You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
Exodus 20:4-10

Without question, God is jealous for His name, for His reputation, and for His glory. Thus, if you try to claim that the God of the Bible is really the same as the Muslims’ Allah, the Hindus’ Brahma, or anything else, you’ve got some explaining to do. Because not only does every religion teach something fundamentally different about the nature of God, but as far as the God of the Bible is concerned, there is no other:

I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me.
Isaiah 45:5 (NKJV)

The Promise Keeper

Once you realize how fiercely protective God is of His reputation—and by association His glory—you start to understand what motivates God to take action. For instance, hear what God says to the nation of Israel as they prepare to take possession of the Promised Land:

Don’t say in your hearts, ‘The Lord has given us this land because we are such good people!’ No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that he is pushing them out of your way. It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land. The Lord your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

You must recognize that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not—you are a stubborn people.
Deuteronomy 9:4-6 (NLT)

God makes it perfectly clear that Israel doesn’t deserve to inherit the land, but that they are merely beneficiaries of the promises He has made to the patriarchs. Here again it all ties back to His glory, since failing to keep His word would either make God to be a liar or expose Him as a “god” who was powerless to keep His promises—neither of which He could tolerate. His name is great, and He intends to keep it that way.

It isn’t long, though, before Israel’s wickedness eclipses that of the very people whom God had given into their hands, and from the prophet Isaiah we learn the reason why they have not been summarily judged like so many of their Canaanite neighbors. And no surprise, it’s all on account of God’s name and His glory:

For My own name’s sake I delay My wrath; for the sake of My praise I hold it back from you, so as not to cut you off. See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I do this, How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield My glory to another.
Isaiah 48:9-11

Don’t forget that God not only swore to make Abraham the father of many nations, but also that all nations would be blessed through Abraham. So even though Israel has fallen into terrible sin,
God could not wipe out Jacob’s descendants without breaking His word. It really is quite a dilemma when you stop and think about it, for whereas God had promised to make Abraham into a great nation, He also needed to save His reputation from the very people of the promise!

Now turn to Ezekiel, where this man of God has been called to prophesy to a nation in exile. The Babylonians have conquered the nation of Judah, removed them from the Promised Land, and razed the Temple to the ground. There seems to be little reason to hope, yet in the midst of their despair Ezekiel assures the people that God will eventually bring them back to the land of their forefathers.

Then I was concerned for my holy name, on which my people brought shame among the nations.
Therefore, give the people of Israel this message from the Sovereign Lord: I am bringing you back, but not because you deserve it. I am doing it to protect my holy name, on which you brought shame while you were scattered among the nations.

I will show how holy my great name is—the name on which you brought shame among the nations. And when I reveal my holiness through you before their very eyes, says the Sovereign Lord, then the nations will know that I am the Lord.
Ezekiel 36:21-23 (NLT)

And what is motivating God to act and to “protect” His name? Why is He so concerned about restoring the people to the land? Quite simply, God’s credibility is at stake: He had made a promise to Abraham that his descendants would possess the land:

Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.”
Genesis 12:7 (NLT)

So even though it may appear to the exiles that God has forsaken them, and although it probably looks as if God is breaking His word, Ezekiel’s prophecy is God’s way of telling the Israelites that their captivity is only temporary. God has not forgotten the oaths which He swore to Abraham, and He is letting the people know that everything is under control. They will return to inherit the land, just as He has promised.

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.”
Jeremiah 29:10

Blessed Be the Name

Despite these passages and countless others, we are still prone to downplay or ignore the emphasis that God places upon His own glory. Quite frankly, we get it backwards most of the time, for we tend to assume that God acts mainly out of concern for us. In reality, though, God’s primary motivation is always to increase the glory and honor of His name.

The fact that this statement sounds so bizarre to most Christians today underscores just how far off-base we truly are, because Scripture is emphatic that God is zealous for His name and His reputation. Even one of the most well-known Psalms has this message hidden in plain sight:

He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Psalm 23:3

Indeed, the premise that God jealously defends His name is a theme that is woven throughout the pages of Scripture, although it is not the petty jealousy that we are prone to. His is a holy jealousy that drives Him to act out of concern for His name, His reputation, and the glory that is rightly His alone. From a human vantage point, this sounds arrogant and prideful, almost sinful, but we need to keep in mind that unlike our selfish desires for recognition, God’s expectation for honor and praise is justified.

Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise.
Psalm 145:3

And after all, since we are talking about a God who truly is excellent in every way—as opposed to you and I who are not—doesn’t He actually deserve all the glory and honor He receives?

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 8:1

Therefore, due to the fact that we regularly fail to glorify God like we should, we need to realize that He will not stand idly by and allow us to bring dishonor to Him. Look at how He dealt with the Israelites who continually robbed Him of His glory by worshiping the pagan gods of their neighbors. Each time that the people strayed from Him, He would raise up another nation to bring them back in line. In other words, whenever Israel refused to glorify God through their actions, He would act to glorify Himself.

Furthermore, we have also seen that God intervenes in order to guarantee that nothing will jeopardize the fulfillment of His promises. For if He ever fails to make good on even a single promise, then that would call into question His character as well as His power. Either way, His integrity would suffer because He would cease to be a God whom you could trust to keep His word.

In practical terms, then, we need to understand that everything God does is for His glory and in accordance with His own purposes—even His acts of mercy and grace. This means that every benefit we receive from God’s hand, while deliberate and gracious nonetheless, is clearly subordinate to His overarching purpose of bringing glory unto Himself. That’s not to imply that we are inconsequential to God’s plans, and neither are we an afterthought, but we are always “second place” at best:

I will defend this city and save it, for My sake and for the sake of David, My servant.
Isaiah 37:35

Thus, even though the absolute preeminence of God’s glory may seem to be a daunting prospect, that’s only because we’ve unwittingly bought into the culture’s view of God—the “God of love.” As a result, we have become so preoccupied with ourselves that it’s difficult to conceive of God’s all-surpassing glory. Yet how many times have you prayed for this very thing in the “Lord’s Prayer” and not even given it a second thought? Didn’t Jesus teach us to pray that our Father’s name would be “hallowed,” and that He alone would receive “glory forever”? We need to remember that we are here to glorify Him, not the other way around…

“Thy Kingdom Come”

Speaking of the Jesus’ model prayer, right after He tells us to pray that God’s name would be regarded as holy, He then instructs us to pray for the fulfillment of God’s kingdom upon the earth. The fact that Jesus gave God’s kingdom such a place of prominence should make us sit up and take notice, but once again the words tend to roll off our lips so easily that we usually don’t think about what we’re saying. Still, Jesus is clear that God’s kingdom is to be our top priority:

Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness.
Matthew 6:33 (NKJV)

Does this mean that God needs our prayers in order for His kingdom to actually be established? Certainly not! God will ensure that His plans come to fruition whether we pray for them or not,
so the point of reflecting upon God’s kingdom is not that He is somehow stymied apart from our prayers, but rather that we would be encouraged by His promise of restoration. In other words, having the assurance from God that better things await, we should not lose heart in the face of trials and disappointments in this life. Because after all, God has promised to make all things new—and we know that God always keeps His promises.

Even beyond motivating us to persevere, however, it is also important to recognize that everything contributes in some way to the establishment of God’s holy kingdom—nothing is pointless or coincidental. Each act of judgment, mercy, and even God’s grace is deliberate and purposeful, done with His kingdom in view. Indeed, all of history is building to the fulfillment of God’s kingdom on the earth, and every event—past, present, and future—is a building block in this divine objective.

Consider why God chose not to annihilate Adam & Eve on the spot. He was under no obligation to spare their lives and would have had every right to judge them instantaneously for their disobedience. But since God is preparing a kingdom, and since every kingdom needs subjects, He withheld judgment and allowed them to live:

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.

Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”
Matthew 25:31-34

Still, delaying Adam & Eve’s physical death is only a small part of the picture, for if God had merely postponed their deaths without providing a means to redeem them from eternal punishment, then the glory of His kingdom would have been ultimately diminished. How so? Because God created us to be with Him for all eternity, to be in His presence and to praise Him forever. He created us for glory and for life, not for sin and death:

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
Revelation 7:9-12 (NKJV)

Therefore, since God knew in advance that Adam & Eve’s rebellion would spoil this arrangement, He had the plan of salvation in place even before He spoke the first words of creation. He ordained Jesus’ death and resurrection from the very beginning, thereby ensuring that Adam’s fallen race could both be redeemed from His wrath and become children fit to enter into His kingdom. In short, by showing mercy and grace to humanity, God made it possible to bring many sons and daughters unto…glory.

Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Ephesians 5:25-27

Once again, God certainly could have filled creation with beings that were incapable of rejecting Him, effectively creating robots that perpetually worshiped Him, but their praise would have been empty and lifeless, devoid of genuine emotion and affection. And as we know from Scripture, this is not exactly the kind of praise that He desires! He wants our worship to be heartfelt:

These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
Isaiah 29:13

For that reason, God created us with the capacity to respond to Him in love, even though it also meant we would have the ability to reject Him. Because in the final analysis, God wants each of us to give Him our heart because of who He is. He longs for our willing devotion and praise, for that is what truly honors and glorifies Him:

Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful.
Psalm 33:1 (NKJV)

So does the fact that God spared Adam and Eve for His own purposes somehow diminish the grace and mercy which He has bestowed upon us all? Absolutely not! On the contrary, it only
underscores the vital truth that any benefit we receive from God is completely an expression of His grace, His unmerited favor. In fact, the realization that a holy God has condescended to include us in His plans for eternity should only increase our gratitude, not lessen it.

Furthermore, now that we understand that God’s kingdom is the backdrop for all of history, we should begin to realize that everything contributes in some way to God’s master plan—including those things that would seem to be opposed to it. Because with God there are no accidents, no unforeseen events, and nothing has been left to chance. In other words, there is no absolutely no doubt that everything will work out exactly as God has intended, it’s only a question of timing. Thus, we can rest assured that regardless of how things may appear from our vantage point—even when it looks like evil is running amok—God always has things under complete control.

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