What God?

“You need God in your life.” “We are one nation under God.” “In God we trust.” Not many people in our country become upset when you talk about God. “God” in a multicultural country such as ours is quite a malleable word. It is a fill-in-the-blank-with-whatever-deity-you-want word. When we hear actors or politicians say something about “God,” we assume they are talking about our God, but many times they are only saying “whatever higher power you worship.” Just be religious. The problem is, of course, that all of these iterations of “God” conflict with one another in being, character, actions, and purpose.

Jesus ran into this problem with the Jews, no less, at the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah), recorded by John (Jn 10:22-42). Jesus answers the two questions that John’s Gospel sets out to prove (Jn 20:30-31): 1) Is Jesus the Christ? and 2) Is Jesus God?

At the Feast of Dedication, anyone claiming to be the Christ would have expectations placed upon him set up by Judas Maccabeus. In 168 B.C., Antiochus IV, “Epiphanes,” conquered Jerusalem, outlawed Judaism, turned the Temple into a pagan temple, built an altar in it, and sacrificed a pig. In 164 B.C. Judas led an army of guerrilla warriors to expel Antiochus’s armies and rededicate/reconsecrate the Temple. The Jews crowned him king, and his family reigned for the next century. The Feast of Dedication was an eight-day feast of lights that celebrated (and still celebrates) this event.

This is what the king of Israel, the Christ, does. He will be a greater Judas Maccabeus who will throw off the yoke of Rome with military might. The Jews want Jesus to answer the question directly: Are you the Christ? (Jn 10:24).

Jesus told them that he had already told them; he told them when we spoke of himself being the good shepherd. He is the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy (Ezek 34:11-31). He is “David.”

But he is more than David. He is David’s Shepherd. He is Yahweh. He and the Father are one.

The Jews understand him to be saying that he is God, and they pick up stones to stone him. Jesus doesn’t correct them, saying, “You’ve got it all wrong, boys! I’m only a man. I meant that the Father and I are on the same page. That’s all.” No. He turns to his works, the signs he has been performing, and then appeals to Psalm 82. God, the one who inspired the Scripture that cannot be changed, called earthly judges “gods.” Elders of Israel are called “gods” (Ex 21:6; 22:7-8). Judges stand in God’s place, receive his name, his authority, and are to act as he acts. What do judges do? They deliver God’s people, just like all the judges in the book of Judges. What is Jesus doing? He is delivering God’s people. He is doing so at a more fundamental level as he breaks the power of sin and death, freeing, for example, a man from blindness (Jn 9). He is dealing with the root of the problem, but he is doing what God does.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the closing words of Psalm 82: “Arise, O God, and judge the earth, for you shall inherit all nations.” He arises as God to judge, and as the Christ, he inherits all nations (cf. Ps 2). Both questions are answered: 1) He is the Christ, and 2) he is God.

The Jews failed to see God for who he was because of the lies that they created in their minds about who God was. The same is true today. We imagine God to be what we want him to be. Voltaire is attributed the saying, “It is said that God made man in his image, and man returned the favor.” People fill “God” with whatever they want. He is the Hindu pantheon, Muslim Allah, the god of the Mormons, or simply a “higher power.” People act as if choosing a god is like walking into an ice cream shop and choosing a flavor: your flavor may be different from mine, but they are all ice cream. The problem is that if we create false images of the real God, we have created a lie. You may want to believe that God is Santa Claus, who never gives anyone coal in his stocking, or that he is a divine genie to give you what you wish. Then, when your god doesn’t come through, you become disillusioned with “religion,” becoming angry and bitter toward God.

We must stay humble before the Scriptures, seeking to understand God as he has revealed himself and not what we simply wish him to be. Only then will we know him truly and know his salvation

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