“Tell me! Present the evidence! Let them consult with one another!..I have no peer, there is no God but me, a God who vindicates and delivers; there is none but me.” Is 45:21
In my last blog, I quoted 1 Sam 2:2 where Hannah presents case after case of how the God of Israel is so vastly different from all the other gods of the nations. Here, Isaiah speaks as a mouthpiece of Jehovah where God Himself challenges anyone to present evidence for any other object that may be worthy of worship and reverence. He chides them, give me your best arguments, come on, show me! And of course they cannot. He rightly says He has no peer. There is no one like our God.
The language here is like that of a court proceeding. Several times in these chapters in Isaiah God refers to us as My witnesses. My mind jumps to the multiple times throughout my years of service to the King of kings that I have shared the good news with peoples who have never heard of Jesus before only to have them become astounded, even overjoyed by the gospel. The moment they hear there is One in the heavens Who truly loves them, One who vindicates and delivers, Who knows them by name, Who does not make demands upon us but freely and richly gives and keeps on giving, their response has been as it was for the Philippian jailer: “What must I do to be saved!” (Acts 16:30). Within hours his entire household was baptized. They saw it; this God is awesome! Who wouldn’t desire a God like that?!
For those of us who have been raised in cultures steeped in Judeo-Christian values, we do not have the benefit of contrast. The wonders of our God are often buried in the tomb of familiarity. We don’t realize many people in the world live in fear of demons, fear of death, battling curses, forced to bear back-braking burdens in an effort to appease their gods. We are ill-informed about the doctrines that breed jihad, or justify the wholesale suppression of castes of people who don’t have the right pedigree, or ideology.
We may not have really considered how very different Jesus is from other spiritual leaders. The Buddha abandoned his own wife and newborn son to seek enlightenment. While Jesus had twelve disciples, Mohammed had around a dozen wives, including Aisha whom he married when she was six, consummating his union with her when she was nine. Or how about comparing Mohammed not with Jesus, but Mother Teresa. If Mohammed had subjugated Calcutta when Teresa was there, he may well have ordered her killed as an infidel. But if Mohammed had been gravely injured in the battle, she would have spent countless, selfless hours binding his wounds and weeping for his recovery.
Beloved, our God has no rival. Of this fact we are called to be witnesses. We who have been the beneficiaries of His mercy, His grace, His healing, peace, redemption and joy, are given the privilege of sharing these glad tidings to who are bound yet long to be free, who are blind, ignorant of the joy that awaits them the moment their eyes are opened, or whose dreams have long died, replaced by recurring nightmares.
As we celebrate the birth of our nation 250 years ago, we would be wise to listen to contrasting voices too. Multiplied thousands of foreigners have posted billions of views on social media praising America as awesome in so many ways which we have taken for granted. We fail to realize no generation in history has ever lived as comfortably as ours. And despite the attempts of media and their naysaying minions to denigrate our nation and pervert reality, we are blessed to live in the greatest country to have ever existed throughout time. The castles kings lived in not long ago sit empty. An average suburban home is an upgrade! Don’t get me started on the irony (tragedy?!) of someone pulling up to a MacDonald’s drive through to order a Big Mac meal while typing his grievance about “affordability” on their iPhone 17 as he waits.
It’s little wonder people from every nation flooded across our Southern border when there was no enforcement whatsoever during the Biden years. If China opened hers (which she would NEVER do!) we’d hardly notice. Because I have been blessed to visit so many nations, and in traveling to go beyond the show-cased tourist and whitewashed parts, I can say from experience that we are a uniquely and extraordinarily blessed land. Not perfect, mind you, but when presented with the evidence, America also has no peer.
As sons and daughters of the God of Jacob, and as citizens of America during this “Super Centennial”, let us be boundlessly grateful. Consider any and all alternatives. If we are honest, we’ll all just have to agree: we are wonderfully and abundantly blessed.