Because I said so

I'm reading through the Bible in a year. Actually, somewhat less than a year because I can't help but be competitive, even with myself. That aside, I'm in Isaiah right now, and one thing that's struck me about the book is how often you see some variant of one of the following: "I am the Lord your God, there are no other gods besides me," "For My name's sake, I will do it," or, "I have spoken, shall I not I do it?"

Essentially, the message of the book, aside from the prognostications of doom for seemingly everyone who has ever pestered Israel, seems to be that God really wants us to know He is God and praise Him. God calls out idols and idol worshipers, wondering where the idols are who will save those who pray to them and making fun of those who make idols, saying they chop a log in half, use half of it to cook their food, and bow down to the other half as a god.

I had a debate last year with a friend over why God does what He does. She held that it was all for His glory. I maintained it was because He loved us. Both views were biblically supported, her point in Isaiah and mine in John 3:16, with support in other places for both of us. I think now that perhaps those two viewpoints are not as divergent as they once seemed.

When I am praising God, there is a release of all the emotional and psychological garbage in my life. My problems don't all disappear, but they do leave my mind while I am really praising God and focused on Him. It is His glory that causes us to love Him, and our love of Him that opens the door for Him to work in our lives. God can do what He wills to anyone, of course, but why would He bless someone who does not believe in Him, so that they believe they themselves or their gods have done it for them? The one exception was His greatest gift to us, His Son, and that points us only toward Him, because that's nothing we nor any other god can do.

In other words, God needs nothing from us, but He desires our praise. He wants all nations to fall before Him and worship Him. If this added to Him, though, or if the lack of it detracted from Him, He wouldn't be God. This is a desire of His, but it cannot be a need because God needs nothing. When we praise Him, though, we are coming to Him and letting Him do what He wills, and He wills to love us.

Getting back to Isaiah, the children of Israel "are a stiff-necked people." They run to God when they need Him, then turn away as soon as crisis is averted. (Sound familiar in your own life? Be honest.) They didn't deserve His blessing upon them. They actually deserved to be wiped out. God says it is for His name's sake that He forgives all their sins (Isaiah 43:25-26) and blesses them (Isaiah 42:6-9). It adds to His glory that He forgives us.

Consider it this way: if you and I have a contract for me to do your taxes for a given amount, and you pay me and I do them to the best of my ability, where is the glory for either of us? We had an agreement and both of us fulfilled it. We did only what we said we'd do and, while it means we have some sense of honor, it's no more than what should be done.

Conversely, if you don't pay me and I do your taxes anyway because I care about you and know you need it, then I am going above and beyond what I should do. Then I'm not just the guy who did your taxes for a fair price, I'm "the really generous guy who saw [you were] hurting for money" and blah, blah, blah...

And that's just one small service. How much more should God be thanked continually for sending His Son, part of Himself, to die a horribly painful death for us after we've run (and continue to run) to pretty much everything else to fulfill us? He wants us to glorify Him and there is no one and nothing we can even imagine that's nearly as worthy of it.