Devotion:
Read Isaiah 55:6-9.
We read in Genesis that we were created in the image of God. A natural extension of this would be to assume that we can learn about God and the nature of God by studying humanity. The twentieth century theologian Karl Barth insisted this is not the case, saying that “God is not man writ large.” If we stop and think about how we often view God, we do think of God as being like us but larger, all-powerful, majestic, and awesome. Barth saw God as what he called a “wholly other,” very different from human beings.
Our passage for today underscores Barth’s theological point. Isaiah writes beautifully to tell us that God’s thoughts and ways are as different from ours as the heavens are higher than the earth. We know God because God reveals God’s self and nature to us, primarily in Scripture. From Genesis to Revelation, we see God’s nature growing more and more clearly expressed. God’s ultimate act of self-revelation was in sending Christ into the world as a human but retaining the nature of God. Be prepared to read and reflect this week on how God’s ways are so very different from those of the world.
Personal Worship Option:
As you pray today, ask God to help you know Him more personally and intimately. Acknowledge that we are God’s created beings, and there will always be a mystery about God that we will not understand. But we love God and desire to know Him as best as we can.
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