Our Untamable God

Anyone who picks up the Bible and earnestly reads it for a couple of days will never walk away and go, "Wow, God keeps things simple. I never feel like he's pushing me to do anything that I don't want to do. He only wants me to do what I like doing. He's just a warm, fuzzy dad that never does anything frightening or unusual."

In most senses, if you're looking for a dependable, tame god, the God of the Bible is not your candidate. By nature, he is not a vending machine, a codependent friend, a manipulatable parent, or a passive spouse. His glory is so beyond our world that his mere presence killed many people in the Bible. A holy fear shakes everyone who finds themself near him or his messengers. He does not sit on your shelf, desperate for you to worship him. We cannot bottle up the God of the universe in our minds, and we cannot domesticate him with our wishes.

God speaks about our desire for a tame god through Isaiah this way:

So to whom will you compare me, the Incomparable? Can you picture me without reducing me? People with a lot of money hire craftsmen to make them gods. The artisan delivers the god, and they kneel and worship it! They carry it around in holy parades, then take it home and put it on a shelf. And there it sits, day in and day out, a dependable god, always right where you put it. Say anything you want to it, it never talks back. Of course, it never does anything either! (Isaiah‬ ‭46:5-7‬ ‭MSG‬‬)

The only way we're going to find a dependable, tame god is if we make him ourselves. We still do this seemingly primitive act today. We make gods out of our success, money, friends, spouses, parents, and kids. We think that if we push the right buttons and say the proper things, these gods will grant our wishes to be happy and safe.

God is not tame, but we can rely on him in the following ways:

God Will Surprise You

He is not a piece of machinery. He does not work like clockwork. While he does give us promises, these promises are not if/then statements that we can activate like pulling on a slot machine lever. God desires to provide you with good things, enrich your life, and have you be healthy and whole, but we live in a broken world. God is sovereignly honoring the decisions that humanity makes, giving us a free choice to love him or to reject him. With billions of decisions made every second, you can see how quickly things get messy. Therefore, the universe is a much too complicated place to be pretending that we, one of 7+ billion people on earth, can snap our fingers with a wish and get what we want all the time.

I am not saying that humanity's bad choices override God's promises, but I am saying that you may not get everything you expect when you demand it. Just look at the life of Job. Even in the biblical book with his name on it, this righteous man suffered greatly and didn't receive answers to his prayers for a long time. God never even told him the reason why he was allowed to experience so much suffering or why he received so much blessing afterward.

The gift of faith through Christ gives us the promise of salvation. That is a guarantee, and I do not want people thinking otherwise. However, there is much about the Christian life that is not an equation to be manipulated. It is a divine relationship with a God who will surprise you, and it's up to you to engage in that relationship regardless of what comes your way.

God Will Blow Your Mind

God is, if you will, a three-dimensional being interacting with our two-dimensional minds. He is always consistent in his wholistic nature but is revealing different parts of himself at various times to our limited perceptions. Therefore, we cannot expect to only think about him the way we experienced him last year or even yesterday. The Bible Project has a great video that explains with images what is so hard to describe with words:

God Will Not Be Tamed

We cannot depend on God to do everything we expect him to do when we expect it. He is not a domesticated cat who occasionally knocks over our cups. Our God is a lion who has conquered evil with great battles and furious love. This king of the universe will one day burn up the earth with fire. None of our most glorious thoughts about him can capture his entire essence. He is frighteningly beautiful, and he is not content to stay at a distance. He desires to move close to you, letting his holiness consume every false belief, defense mechanism, and impure motive until you become your most authentic self.

In the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis writes this about Aslan, the Christ-figure lion in the story:

"Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..." Safe?" said Mr. Beaver ..." Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

God is not safe, and he will not be tamed. But he is kind to his core and is always moving toward you. He will challenge you and knock you off balance at times, but he is doing it for your good and his glory. Move closer to the exhilarating majesty of his wildness, and you will find real life.

Question:

Where are you holding onto an idea of God that is much too small and tame? Think about it for a bit, look up scriptures that address that false concept, and share your findings with us!