v 21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.
What happened in those days was that people formed their own view of God. Usually that prompted them to design and make a physical representation of God – an idol or an image. It still happens in some cultures even today when stone or wooden images are set up for people to worship. But more important than the idolatrous physical representations of God, are the ideas we formulate about God’s character and purposes for us. It takes us back to basics as we reflect on questions such as “What is God like?”, and “How can we discover what behaviour God requires of us?” or perhaps, “Is God fair in the way the world runs – what about natural disasters, did He plan them? And why? Why do bad things happen to good people?” We could go on for ever with similar questions and still ask more! With so many questions and human answers can we ever say we know God? Will we be for ever in the dark, and confused about the character and purposes of God? Well, YES, we would be unless God Himself chooses to reveal things about Himself that our tiny human minds can take in and understand. So, three lines of thought for you to follow today:
1. God has chosen to speak into our lives by the Prophets He has sent. There have been individuals who have had the audacity to say ‘God says ….’ What they have told us over the centuries has hung together as consistent truth, and we have believed them.
2. Then God has spoken uniquely through His Son, Jesus. We are reminded of that as the Letter to Hebrews begins ‘Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. ‘
3. Now God continues to speak to us through the Scriptures. We ignore or deviate from the scriptures at our peril. Reading and understanding the Bible requires some effort of the mind and will. So more of that tomorrow!
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