In 1995 a female solo artist from Anchorage, Kentucky came out of nowhere and into the spotlight with a song that asked, “What if God was one of us?” In the song, Joan Osborne imagines God as just another face in the crowd, trying to make it through life like the rest of us. In the chorus she sings:
“What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin’ to make his way home?”
The song became a huge hit, climbing up to the number four spot on the Billboard charts and garnering Osborne seven Grammy nominations. People seemed to really connect with the idea of God being just like the rest of us, just trying to catch the bus home at the end of another long day. While there is something warm and fuzzy about this idea, it doesn’t match up to the way God describes Himself in the Bible. For many people, both Christians and non-Christians, the idea and identity of God has shrunk over the years. We tend to think of God as a little bit bigger, little bit smarter, little bit better version of us. We haven’t rejected God as much as we have reduced Him.
As a pastor, I have to admit to having a role in this. Every Christmas we talk about Jesus as Immanuel, meaning, “God with us,” and we emphasize Jesus’ humanity: how He was born as a baby and grew up as a carpenter’s son, going through the same things we go through. We talk about Him as being a “personal God,” a God who wants to know us personally. These things are in the Bible and they are true, but they can contribute to the idea that God’s essentially a lot like us, just a little better.
This is a huge contrast to how God is portrayed in the songs and sermons of church history. Those messages focused heavily on the greatness, the power, and the holiness of God. If our current culture has reduced God to someone like us, the historic church leaned in the opposite direction. They magnified Him as a great, all-knowing, all-powerful God, but also as a totally impersonal deity. So who’s right? Is God one of us, or is He watching us from a distance (another hit song) with His finger hovering over the lightning bolt button?
I believe the answer is not an either/or, but a both/and. The Bible describes God as all-powerful, all-present, all-knowing, and eternal, but He is also described as a loving Father, a friend that sticks closer than a brother, a Savior, and a gentle shepherd Who takes great care of His flock. The Bible describes a powerfully personal God.
In the Old Testament book of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah describes a powerfully personal God in chapter forty. He writes:
Who else has held the oceans in his hand? Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers? Who else knows the weight of the earth or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?...He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand…To whom can you compare God? What image can you find to resemble him?...God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to him! He spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them…Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing. (Isaiah 40:12-26)
Isaiah describes a God so powerful He holds the oceans in His hand and created and named every start in the skies (fun fact: there are 3 septillion of those, which is a 3 with 24 zeroes behind it). Isaiah is reminding his audience, and us, about how great and powerful God is. Nothing is comparable to God, and nothing is impossible for Him. That’s what makes the next thought Isaiah writes so amazing. After listing God’s credentials, Isaiah pens this encouragement:
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31)
Did you catch it? Isaiah describes God as someone who is without equal, then he tells us that He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. It’s one thing to believe that God is without equal, it’s another to believe that He is all that, AND He cares about you and wants to lift you up and give you the strength you need.
Imagine bumping into Jeff Bezos, the guy who owns Amazon and is the wealthiest person in the world. As you stood there racking your brain, trying to come up with something interesting to say to the world’s first trillionaire, he speaks first. He asks your name, wants to know about your family and how things are going. Then he reaches into his pocket, hands you a card with his personal cell number, and says, “Call me if you ever need anything.” What thoughts would bounce around in your head? I’d be trying to figure out how long I needed to wait before I called him up and asked for that favor.
Isaiah reminds us we have that kind of access. That the God who holds oceans in His hands and knows the name of three septillion stars (another fun fact: a septillion is a trillion trillions; let that sink in.), is also interested in what’s going on in your life and mine, that He will give us strength when we’re weak and power when we feel powerless. In a year like 2020, that’s worth way more than Jeff Bezos’ cell number.
God’s not like one of us. He’s not a slob on a bus or a little bit better version of us. He’s the creator and sustainer of this universe and your life. But He does want to be your source of strength and sustenance. He’s powerfully personal.