When NOT to Be Like God

Source: 843 Acres | The Park Forum

Relevant Text: Isaiah 14:13-14 (underlined)

Desire | All of us want to be like God. After all, we were made in His image [1] and His Word exhorts us to conform to Christ [2]. In the garden, however, our sinful desire for His authority moved into the very center of our fallen nature. It started when our ancestors ate the fruit [3] and continued when Babylon boasted, I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high … I will make myself like the Most High[4]. Yet, why is this wrong? Can God run our lives any better than we can?

Knowledge | We lack knowledge; He is omniscient. Thus, as Job issues his indictment, God interrupts: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” [5]. He reminds Job that He alone - without any help - formed the earth, created the seas, summoned the dawn, and sculpted the depths [6]. He alone knows where to find light and darkness, storehouses of snow, and stars in heaven [7].

Power | We lack power; He is omnipotent. Not only does God know all things throughout all time, He also has power to accomplish His purposes [8]. Thus, He reminds Job that He alone - without any help - satisfies the hungry animals, brings life to their young, frees the wild beasts, and gives flight to the birds [9].

Love | We lack love; He is omnibenevolent. God is not better equipped to be in charge just because He knows everything and can do everything; He also is good and right and just. He is not capricious, arbitrary or irrational. His power has purpose and its purpose is consistent with His excellence. He works for the good of those who love Him [10]. He does not have ulterior motives.

Prayer | Lord, We often indict you for not working in our lives as we would. Yet, we confess with Job: “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know” [11]. We are surrounded by mysteries and do not know the first thing about the ten million things you do in every moment. Thus, we joyfully hand our doubt and confusion over to you - for you know all things, have the power to accomplish all things, and choose to do all things for our good. Therefore, make us humble people, as we seek to be like you in love and service and unlike you in authority and might. Amen.

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Footnotes

1 Peter 3:18-4:1; Job 38:39-39:18.  |  Romans 8:28. See also Psalms 84:11.  |  [11] Job 42:3 ESV

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Full Text (Relevant in Bold)

Full Text: 1 Kings 16:19-20 + 2 Chronicles 28:26-27 + Isaiah 13-14

1 Kings 16:19-20 NIV1984

 19 because of the sins he had committed, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD and walking in the ways of Jeroboam and in the sin he had committed and had caused Israel to commit. 20 As for the other events of Zimri’s reign, and the rebellion he carried out, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

2 Chronicles 28:26-27 NIV1984

26 The other events of his reign and all his ways, from beginning to end, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 27 Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of Jerusalem, but he was not placed in the tombs of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiah his son succeeded him as king.

Isaiah 13 NIV1984

A Prophecy Against Babylon. 1 An oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw: 2 Raise a banner on a bare hilltop, shout to them; beckon to them to enter the gates of the nobles. 3 I have commanded my holy ones; I have summoned my warriors to carry out my wrath - those who rejoice in my triumph. 4 Listen, a noise on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations massing together! The LORD Almighty is mustering an army for war. 5 They come from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens - the LORD and the weapons of his wrath - to destroy the whole country. 6 Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty. 7 Because of this, all hands will go limp, every man’s heart will melt. 8 Terror will seize them, pain and anguish will grip them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at each other, their faces aflame. 9 See, the day of the LORD is coming - a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger - to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. 10 The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. 11 I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless. 12 I will make man scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the LORD Almighty, in the day of his burning anger. 14 Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land. 15 Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword. 16 Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives ravished. 17 See, I will stir up against them the Medes, who do not care for silver and have no delight in gold 18 Their bows will strike down the young men; they will have no mercy on infants nor will they look with compassion on children. 19 Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory of the Babylonians’ pride, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. 20 She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flocks there. 21 But desert creatures will lie there, jackals will fill her houses; there the owls will dwell, and there the wild goats will leap about. 22 Hyenas will howl in her strongholds, jackals in her luxurious palaces. Her time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.

Isaiah 14 NIV1984

A Prophecy Against Babylon (continued). 1 The LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Aliens will join them and unite with the house of Jacob. 2 Nations will take them and bring them to their own place. And the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the LORD’s land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors. 3 On the day the LORD gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end!  How his fury has ended! 5 The LORD has broken the rod of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, 6 which in anger struck down peoples with unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations with relentless aggression. 7 All the lands are at rest and at peace; they break into singing. 8 Even the pine trees and the cedars of Lebanon exult over you and say, “Now that you have been laid low, no woodsman comes to cut us down.” 9 The grave below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you - all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones - all those who were kings over the nations. 10 They will all respond, they will say to you, “You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us.” 11 All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you. 12 How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! 13 You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” 15 But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit. 16 Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, 17 the man who made the world a desert, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?” 18 All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb. 19 But you are cast out of your tomb like a rejected branch; you are covered with the slain, with those pierced by the sword, those who descend to the stones of the pit. Like a corpse trampled underfoot, 20 you will not join them in burial, for you have destroyed your land and killed your people. The offspring of the wicked will never be mentioned again. 21 Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for the sins of their forefathers; they are not to rise to inherit the land and cover the earth with their cities. 22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will cut off from Babylon her name and survivors, her offspring and descendants,” declares the LORD. 23 “I will turn her into a place for owls and into swampland; I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD Almighty.

A Prophecy Against Assyria. 24 The LORD Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand. 25 I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.” 26 This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. 27 For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?

A Prophecy Against the Philistines. 28 This oracle came in the year King Ahaz died: 29 Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken; from the root of that snake will spring up a viper, its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent. 30 The poorest of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety. But your root I will destroy by famine; it will slay your survivors. 31 Wail, O gate! Howl, O city! Melt away, all you Philistines! A cloud of smoke comes from the north, and there is not a straggler in its ranks. 32 What answer shall be given to the envoys of that nation? “The LORD has established Zion, and in her his afflicted people will find refuge.”


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