Biosophilia

Day & Night (Psalm 1)

by Jim Wilson

TOPIC: No Form

When the Ten Commandments were first given, that is, before the first set of stone tablets (and certainly before the second set), they were not given in pageantry. They were given in terrifying first person reality. These events are described in Exodus 19 three months after the Israelites left Egypt. Thirty-nine years later Moses recalls these events that surrounded the oral declaration of the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 4 & 5); again in Hebrews 12:18-28 the events are described in contrast to something far more wonderful.

Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of
words but saw no form. (v. 12)

You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. (v. 15)

You were shown these so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides Him there is no other. (v. 35)

Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in Heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. (v. 39)

The reasons that no image was to be made of God, no likeness, were two:

1. He isn’t like any of His physical creation, so no creation could be like Him physically: “No form.”
2. He isn’t like any other god, because there is no other God.

God is not like anything or anyone. When He is described, it is not as a likeness. He is described in character, Holy; as the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7 where His clothing and hair are described gloriously; where He dwells—“Heaven is my throne" (Isaiah 66:1); what He does—“the God of Heaven who made the sea and the land (Jonah 1:9); “sing to the Lord, for He has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world” (Isaiah 12:5). But these were visions of glory. They were described in such a way as to establish that there is no other.
We today do not make physical images, but we do make mental ones: mental images of form, and not of glory. These mental images of very nature are less than God.

When we think of God, let us think of Jesus Christ (and not physically):

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. (II Corinthians 5:16)

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being. (Hebrews 1:3)

He is the image of the invisible God. (Colossians 1:15)

Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. (John 14:9)

"Sir," they said, "we would like to see Jesus." (John 12:21) [Jesus replied,] “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” (John 12:23)

That is how He wants to be seen—“glorified”.

Father, I want those you have given Me to be with Me where I am and to see My glory. (John 17:24)

In the Lord Jesus Christ,
Jim Wilson

Community Christian Ministries
516 S. Main
Moscow, ID 83843
www.ccmbooks.org

(Reprinted by permission.)

Posted by Courtney Huntington at August 2, 2005 05:48 PM