Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Isaiah 14:14 - Becoming like God

Isn't there similarity in these verses:

Isaiah 14:14: "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High."

Genesis 3:5: "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God."

Ezekiel 28:2: "yet you are but a man, and no god, though you make your heart like the heart of a god"

Ezekiel 28:6: "Because you make your heart like the heart of a god"

Ezekiel 28:9: "Will you still say, 'I am a god,' in the presence of those who kill you, though you are but a man, and no god"

Here are statements made by or about one who is not God who desires to be like God: the king of Babylon in the first case (Satan personified); Satan in the second case, and the prince of Tyre in the third case (Satan personified probably). God will not share his glory because it belongs only to him. Mark the following:

Exodus 8:10: "Moses said, "Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God.""

1 Samuel 2:2: "There is none holy like the LORD; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God."

Psalm 89:6: "For who is the skies can be compared to the LORD? Who among the heavenly beings is like the LORD?"

Psalm 113:5: "Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high?"

No creature in God's universe is like him or can aspire to be like him without his help or permission. See the following:

Exodus 7:1: "And the Lord said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh."

Zechariah 12:8: "the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the Lord, going before them."

Ephesians 4:24: "to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."

Indeed, in wanting to be like God, man or angel will only end up fit for wrath and destruction because we pursue divinity without the attendant righteousness and holiness befitting the divine. Such ambition corrupts and cannot be permitted to continue. Rather, God provides a way for man to be like him. Before, he has created man in his own image (Genesis 1:26-27). Now, he has opened the way for redemption of our sinful selves in Jesus Christ that we might be renewed in his likeness (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10). Only then can we share in his divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Only then can we become like God.

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