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Acts 17.25 (NIV)
“He is not served by human hands,
as if he needed anything.”
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| Other nations were haunted by the unpredictability of their gods. Who could tell what would anger or please them? But because of the covenant, Israelites knew exactly what God required and where they stood before him. They had a basis for trust and security as a nation.* |
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Like
children leaving cookies and milk for Santa Claus, idol-worshippers brought
food offerings to their gods. In Isaiah chapter 44 is a humorous look
at the absurdity of idolatry. In short, a man plants a tree, watches it grow,
cuts it down, burns half of it for his cooking and warmth, and makes an idol
out of the other half. “No one stops to think,” Isaiah says (I can just picturing
him shaking his head). “Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”
Paul
could be thinking about Isaiah’s words as he continues in this speech to the
educated Athenians, “He himself gives all men life and breath and everything
else . . . God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for
him and find him.”
Some
religions today contain a component of providing for their god’s needs, rather
than the other way around. But what could our God need from us? He doesn’t need
us to carve him out of wood and cover him with gold. He doesn’t need us to move
him from place to place or repair him when he breaks. Our God provides all our needs and all he wants from us is
for us to reach out and find him!
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| He is the Lord of Creation, and not its servant.* |
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