Let us Make God in Our Own Image?
Robert Wurtz II
And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed not in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. (Numbers 20:12)
Moses was one of the great leaders of the Old Testament and served as the peoples’ point-of-contact for God Almighty. God called him to this unique position with these words, “Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5) God introduced Himself to Moses by showing him He is separate and other than anyone or anything he had encountered in life. He had been raised up in Pharaoh’s house, but now He is being raised up in God’s House. He is stripping away any future seeds of familiarity because it can never be employed with God, not even once. The great prophet Isaiah had a similar experience in Isaiah 6:1ff when he was taken to see the Throne Room of God. The old-timers used to place a similar focus on God in their teaching and it is that of the fear of God. Why? Because for the careless, rebellious and froward holy ground is dangerous ground.
Smiting God?
Here Moses had been given express command by God to speak to the rock that water my flow out by the hand of God; yet being perturbed by the people, rather than speak to the rock Moses stated, “shall we fetch water from this rock for you?” (v. 10) He then proceeded to smite the rock with his rod twice. Water came out, the people and their cattle drank, and everyone seemed to be happy. Or were they? Certainly God was not happy. For he told Moses, Because ye believed not in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. (Numbers 20:12) Moses, in his frustration, had treated God irreverently before the people. He had given them the impression that God can be trifled with in disobedience. The rock was a picture of Christ, to which we have the first account of Moses smiting the rock and then he was to speak to the rock. In a figure we have Christ being smitten twice. That is to say, it was akin to crucifying the son of God afresh and putting Him to an open shame. (Hebrews 6:6) Rebellion before God is serious business.
God in our own image?
Man is a pathological idol maker. Idolatry in one sense is the making of God into something He is not. But in this crisis hour in which we live, people seem to have little trouble speaking of God in an irreverent way. Let me say categorically, that no one that has ever truly had an encounter with God either by revelation or experience can treat God in a flippant way and their not be some consequence. Moses had forgotten for a brief moment of time what it looked like to see the Mountain on Fire or to have God pass by him in the cleft of the rock. He had been with God and was expected to act like it.
This event with Moses meant that both he and Aaron failed in their calling. Aaron had earlier created a Golden Calf for the people to worship. What men do is they fabricate for themselves a god that can be trifled with. They fabricate for themselves a god that they can speak of irreverently. In the case of Ananias and Sapphira, they fabricated a god they could lie to. Some fabricate a god they can smack up side the head with their rod when He don’t move fast enough to suit them. This is folly and wholesale idolatry.
The consequence?
Moses lost his job over it. As we would say in modern terms, God had to fire (sack) him and replace him with Joshua. Why? Because he failed to sanctify the Lord before the eyes of the people. He treated God like He would a common man. Was he angry when he did it? Probably. Was that an excuse? Never. Joshua is a type of Jesus Christ and he was the one to lead the people in. Jesus Christ in His humanity was utterly submitted to God. Unlike Moses that disobeyed God and was not allowed to enter the Promised Land, Jesus Christ utterly sanctified the Lord in the eyes of the people. That is to say, He obeyed God in such a way that God was exalted into His rightful place in the eyes of men. We need to sanctify the Lord in the eyes of the world, the Devil and all the angelic host.That is a first responsibility of every Christian and leader. How is the world ever going to place their faith and trust in God if we will not treat Him with the highest reverence? What sense does it make to worship God with our lips and then irreverence Him with our words and actions? Moses’ act of irreverence cost him his calling. Ananias and Sapphira’s act of irreverence cost them their lives.
A right impression of God
The Lord Jesus left no one with the impression that God could be disobeyed or trifled with. This is the primary requirement for any person in the Kingdom of God; we must obey God resolutely and absolutely. This is why Jesus told the Disciples, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20) The Pharisees, according to Stephen in Acts 7 did always resist the Holy Ghost as did their fathers. They simply were not qualified to be in the Kingdom of God. This is why John the Baptist preached repentance as a first order. We can’t even talk about going on with God until there is a willingness to come under His authority and treat Him with the absolute reverence He deserves. The Pharisees after Stephen’s message went on to create Rabbinical Judaism, a belief system that gives the Rabbi’s authority to overrule God Almighty. They say that authority is NOT IN HEAVEN and that God laughs with joy because HIS CHILDREN CAN DEFEAT HIM. Are we better than they? Certainly not if we dance around a Jesus that can be treated with irreverence and contempt. This is what manufacturers atheists. This is what destroys people’s hope in God.
Attitude adjustment
When God got ready to get John the Revelator’s attention He manifested Himself in a way that John fell at His feet as dead. He showed John a God of whom some day the heavens and the earth is going to flee from before His face- so that no place will be found for them. (Revelation 20:11) How does that reality fit into your concept of God? If it does not fit then you certainly have fabricated a god after your own imaginations. God is loving and graceful, but He is equally a holy and righteous God that is not to be trifled with. Dare we behave as the infidels in Revelation 16:21 and blaspheme God because He does His own will and not our will? Jesus told two of His followers that were disillusioned by the events that took place at the cross, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! (Luke 24:25 emphasis added) Understand that human nature hears what it wants to hear rather than all that the prophets have spoken.
God had not failed these men, He had just purchased for them redemption and liberty from the power and penalty of sin. What failed them were their own false notions about what God was doing in the earth. They did not believe all that the prophets had spoken, only the parts that suited them. Selah. Jesus called them ‘foolish men’. Lesson? Don’t blame God for your wrong interpretations of what He has said and definitely don’t stoop to treat Him irreverently because of it. In the last days men will have itching ears and we have to guard ourselves that we don’t have itching ears right along with them. This is a crisis hour. As in the times of Israel so as today. People are moving in Clairvoyance and cannot tell that it is not God. Why? Because there is often no discernment. The times we live in many ways parallel Israel when they were backslid. Typically people want to hear what they want to hear. They don’t want any bad news. They are demanding and impatient. they have bought into the sales pitch of the Devil until their expectations are in the clouds- therefore the let down is all the greater. Disappointment is proportional to expectations. if the Devil and our own lusts maximize our expectations we are easy prey for severe depression and disappointment. But Paul and the Apostles taught godliness with contentment.
Dangerous religion
How long will men go on selectively hearing the things God has said so that they can accuse Him? God never failed anyone at any time or any place. That is common sense. He may not have done what we wanted Him to, but then again who are we to expect anything of the Lord? That we have our next breath ought to be a cause for thanksgiving. Rat Poison is 90% good corn it is the 10% poison that makes it deadly. Is our religion a poison to us? We need to take responsibility for our own thoughts and beliefs. We need to seek the face of God for our own lives. Many people are ripe for deception because they would rather have someone prophesy over them than get alone with God in the word and let God speak to them. If a person at the least has not told you the secrets of your heart you can view the words with suspicion. If you uttered the words with your mouth to anyone at any time they are no longer a secret. That is common sense. They can be picked up by spirits and repopulated in the mouth of any man or woman purporting to speak for God so as to give a sense that they are ‘on’ with God. A secret is a secret is a secret is a secret. That means that nobody else knows about it but you and God alone. Even well intentioned people can become vulnerable to this phenomena, not just wolves or false prophets. We have to be careful because the enemy is setting people up for the fall of their lifetime. Why? Because he wants us to act out in a way that will cast doubt on God. We risk casting more doubt on people than we do faith. We have to be very very careful.
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