Called

Long before I was in politics, I was a Christian. Christianity motivates my politics enormously.  When Trump said he never asked God for forgiveness because he hadn’t done anything wrong, I choked pretty hard.  That seems the antithesis of Christian faith.  And I write this having once said that I would support even an atheist if they were very principled. But maybe I need to give Trump some space. Donald, you want to explain this?

            Here’s how it was explained to me.  Beth Moore has almost this same expository in her Bible study on Isaiah.  Smarter heads than I can explain it better.  In Isaiah 43:1, God speaks in poetry, “Fear not for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine.” That is, we are called out.  It may seem like we were seeking, but truth be known, God pulled our string.  “Love that found me wondrous thought.  Found me when I sought Him naught.” Charles Wesley put it.  For the people reading in 700 BC, they understood ‘called by My name’ to be Israel, God’s renaming of Jacob (a huge step up from his name which means “cheater”). And down through the generations, God introduces himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To us Christians, we too have been named ‘little Christs’ as the label means in Greek. 

            Skip down to verse 7.  “Everyone who is called by my name, Whom I created for My glory, Whom I formed and made…”  So what is God’s name?  In Genesis, He is introduced as Elohim, plural of El or “God”.  35 more times in Genesis 1-4 Elohim is used.  Why plural?  Does this imply multiple gods?  By no means.  Jewish scholars say that the plural is multiplied majesty, a literary device.  But then God actuates this “Let us make man in our image.”  Though indivisible and One, leaves the possibility of some sort of multiplicity, which we Christians know as the Trinity.  Over and over, Elohim rescues his chosen people.  This is the Saving God.  “Deliver us, O God of our salvation.” I Chr. 16:36.  Then in Exodus, this same God identifies as the God of the forefathers, but Moses asks His name.  “I am that I am,” He replies.  This is abbreviated YHWH in Hebrew scriptures but our modern Bibles substitute “the Lord” whenever it occurs.  This was because when the Hebrews read the scripture, they substituted “Adonai” or “Lord” which happens when you put vowels in and YHWH becomes Yahweh (and then in the Middle Ages it morphed into Jehovah).  Yahweh was used as a third person name so it really is more likely translated “He who causes to be”.  The reader in 700 BC would identify as called by Elohim, and Yahweh to be Israel.  Once again, the God who saves.  The Jewish first commandment is, “I am the Lord (YHWH) your God (ELohim), who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Ex. 20:2.

            We were created for His glory.  “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”Is.40:5.  Two things.  First, it was public. The only event in scripture that was fulfilled to be God’s glory and in public was Jesus’ death and resurrection. God’s greatest glory is thus explained.  It isn’t His creation of the universe, or His seat in heaven. It is His salvation for us, the unlikeliest turn of events in history.  The author entered the play, solved the dilemma of sin and triumphed.  But there is more.

“ I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness.  I have taken you by the hand and kept you.” Is. 42:6.  This is also the God of relationship.  Calls us out and doesn’t let go of our hand.  No matter what we have done, He keeps coming back in hot pursuit of us.  He told Moses, “I will be with your mouth and teach you what to speak.” Ex.4:12

            Then came the bombshell for the people of that day who saw the God of Israel as just the best god among many.  “Before Me no god was formed, Nor shall there be any after me.  I, I am the Lord and besides me there is no Savior. Is 43:12.  Psst! He’s the only God!

            But why does the only God make contact with us?  Already Isaiah has said, “All flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers, the flower fades, …but the word of our God will stand forever.”  Is.40:6,8. And ‘He Who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers” Is. 40:22.  The landlord in me wants to say ‘cockroaches’ but God chose ‘grasshoppers’, a plague that any farmer can understand.  So vile, pesky, and utterly without any redemptive feature!  That’s us. Yet the words continue in Isaiah 43:25, “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for My Own sake, And I will remember your sins no more.” Here then is the God who loves.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.

            I am just plain thrilled to be a “whosoever”