Who is Like the Lord?

Who is like the Lord? Sometimes, in the familiarity of our culture, where Jesus seems almost ubiquitous, we forget who He really is. We can grow desensitized to His holiness, grace, mercy, and power. 

In today's episode, as we consider the things the Lord is requiring us to surrender or devote to destruction, let's fix our eyes on Jesus. Contemplate the character and goodness of the Father. Think about the faithfulness and leading of the Holy Spirit.  The Lord is not capricious. He does not live to make us miserable. Instead, He delights in conforming us to His image. He fights for our deliverance. 

Let's ask ourselves: who do we really think the Lord is? And then compare it to these verses. I pray the Lord opens our eyes and deepens our understanding and love for Him and that gratitude would pour out from us because of who He is and what He has done. 

Scriptures Referenced:

• 1 Samuel 15
• Ephesians 6:10-18
• Isaiah 44:6-8
• Isaiah 6:1-5
• Exodus 15:11
• Mark 9:20-24
• John 10:7-11
• Colossians 1:14-20
• Philippians 2:5-10
• Revelation 1:12-18

You can find me on Instagram / Threads

Transcript

Carrie 0:05

Hey everyone, welcome to a new episode of Honey from the Rock. I am so glad you're here. And before I get started, I am just going to apologize. I will not deliberately try to sniffle my way through this episode, but there might be a few in here. I am fighting a spring cold, which is the worst. And it's just, you know, it comes with this crazy Colorado weather. Last week we had rain and snow, which we thank you, Lord, for the moisture. Seriously, we we so needed it. And now today it's 85. So, you know, last week it was freezing. This week it's hot, you know. That's oh my gosh, I just said the word hot, and I could totally hear my Midwestern accent come out. So that was fun. Anyway, let's dig into today's episode and stop talking about the weather. How does that sound? I think that sounds great. So after last week's episode talking about devoting things to destruction, I wanted to take a moment before I continued down that path, because I have more that I want to talk about with 1 Samuel 15, 16, 17, because there's just so much that goes on in those chapters and so many amazing things that the Lord does for his own glory. And it's fascinating to read Saul and David's paths on the throne, how the Lord raises up David and all the things that happen. But before we go down that road, I wanted to pause because last week, as as we were talking about devoting things to destruction and looking at our lives and examining our hearts and seeing the areas where the Lord is saying, This thing that you're holding on to, it's between you and I and it needs to be destroyed. I don't even want it offered to me as a sacrifice. We need to get it out of here because it's it's not good. It is hurting you and it's between you and I, and I don't want it. Um as I was thinking about that episode and thinking about what to do this week, I really wanted to take a moment and and look at the Lord. You know, the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 12, uh Hebrews 12 tells us to fix our eyes upon Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith. And I think it's important when we're talking about dealing with the sin in our lives, when we're talking about cutting things out, letting go of things and devoting them to destruction, that we really ask the Holy Spirit to open our understanding in the word, to show us who this God is that is calling us to not only devote things to destruction, but to sacrifice certain things, to pick up our cross and follow him. Who who is this Lord? And as I was preparing for this episode, I was listening to Isaiah, and there were some verses out of Isaiah 44 that caught my attention. And these were the verses that kind of started the whole foundation for this episode. And when I read it, I it was one of those moments where I was like, yes, this is this is where I want to go, Lord. I think this is where you want to go. And chapter 44 falls in the middle of the Lord's address to Israel through uh Isaiah, because Israel has accused the Lord of forgetting them, amongst several other things. And the Lord has taken chapters to respond to Israel. But I love what he says here in Isaiah 44, verses 6 through 8. And he says, This is what the Lord says, he who is the king of Israel and his redeemer, the Lord of armies, I am the first and the last, and there is no God besides me. Who is like me? Let him proclaim and declare it, and let him confront me, beginning with my establishing of the ancient nation. Then let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place. Do not tremble and do not be afraid. Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? Or is there any other rock? I know of none. I love the picture here. The Lord saying, I mean, first of all, I am the first and the last. Hello, can we connect that to Jesus in Revelation 1? And I believe Revelation 19. I mean, just how many times Jesus tells us he is the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega. There is no God besides the Lord. And so when we're talking about devoting things to destruction, we're not giving them over to a capricious and um absent God. We're not giving these things over, hoping and praying that man, when I give this over, maybe this will finally assuage him and and he'll be happy with me. No, when when we're surrendering things to the Lord, when we are worshiping him and praising him, when we are devoting the things that he requires us to devote to destruction, we are we are giving them over to a God who he is all powerful, he is our rock, he has been since the beginning, and and and there is no end. Like he is outside of space and time, my friends. And and just reading these verses out of Isaiah 44, look at the words that the Lord is using to describe himself, the King of Israel, the Redeemer of Israel, the Lord of armies. There is no God besides him who is like the Lord. And and and even in our distress and in our struggle and in our wrestling, we should be able to say, Lord, there is no one like you. I don't always understand what you're doing. I don't always get why you require certain things of me, but I I will wrestle with you and not against you, to surrender and to worship you and to give thanks for all that you have given me and what you are doing in my life, to be honest with you and to bring everything that I am before you, not just part of me, so that I can really know you. And and the fact that the God of the universe gives us the ability to know him is amazing. And and that is why when he is calling us to do things that we don't understand, when he is pruning us and working on us in areas that are so painful, and yet we surrender to his gardening, his pruning touch. It's so important that we keep the perspective of who the Lord is before our face always. And so I want to read another verse. This is gonna be a really, really scripture-heavy episode, my friends. I'm just gonna warn you. Um, in the same, in the same book in Isaiah, Isaiah 6 has one of the most spectacular pictures that we get of the Lord in his in his heavenly uh court, and and how he Isaiah gets a glimpse of what it is like around the throne of the Lord. And he says, In the year of King Um Isaiah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple. Seraphim were standing above him, each having six wings. Two covered e his face, and two covered his feet, and with two each flew, and one called out to the other and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of armies, and the whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, Woe to me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean clean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of armies. And this is from the NASB 2020 version. But I but I mean again, think I saw the Lord sitting on a throne lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple and the seraphim, they've covered their eyes and they've covered their feet and they're flying, but they're crying out to one another: holy, holy, holy is the Lord of armies, the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And again, going back to the things that I've shared with you in my own life and the things that we were talking about from 1 Samuel 15. Friends, when you're walking through the difficulties of life, this is the Lord who is calling you to surrender to him. His holiness, and and his holiness is his goodness, but his holiness cannot is is what causes him to hate sin. And it is out of his holiness and also his love and his compassion that the Father sent Jesus to come and give us his gospel and also to die on the cross for us, to be the bridge, the the mediator between us, that his blood would cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and that we would then be able to be conformed to his image, that we would be able to stand with Isaiah and say, Woe unto me, I am unclean. I am unclean. I'm ruined. I live among a people. We are unclean, Lord. We with our hearts, maybe we haven't had a vision of you like Isaiah, but our hearts have seen you. And in seeing you, Holy Spirit, you've given us the witness of the holiness of the Lord, and that your light has shined into my sin, Lord Jesus. And I want to confess that sin and I want to deal with the things in my life that are that are keeping me from knowing you, Lord. And I know that you are coming after these things in my life, and you are showing me these things and and desiring to root them out of me because of your holiness and because of your love. And I think it's interesting in both of these passages that one of the names that the Lord is called is the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies. And it is, it's it's a military term, you know, and in Ephesians 6, Paul tells us that we don't fight against flesh and blood, but we fight against these principalities and these powers and these demons and these dark, you know, in the in the atmosphere, in the air. And yet the Lord gives us his armor. He stands us firm in him. We are clothed in Jesus. This is not a battle that we have to fight alone because we have the Lord of hosts on our side living in us, equipping us to fight the battle. And this, these things, I as you're thinking about and as I'm thinking about and laying before the Lord, the things that he wants us to devote to destruction, and the things that he wants us to surrender, and the things that he wants us to take joy in and be excited about in our life, in all of it, that we would not lose sight of the giver of these wonderful gifts or the one who is coming and saying, Give, give that to me, child, surrender it to me, son or daughter, because I don't want it between us anymore. I want to free you, I want to see you walk in the light as I am in the light, as as 1 John 1 says. And there, I mean, just contemplate Jesus, contemplate the Father, contemplate the Holy Spirit, fix your eyes on them, as the writer of Hebrews says, fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. I know I've said it before um in several episodes, but but friends, Jesus is not asking us to do anything that he hasn't already done himself. He has gone before us, he has made the way. This is the way, walk in it, as Isaiah 30 says. Don't look to the right, don't look to the left, but keep walking straight ahead and listen to the voice of your teacher who is behind you. I know, I know that there are areas in each of our lives that we are wrestling in. Areas of anxiety, of fear, of anger, maybe bitterness, maybe grief, um, maybe rejection, you know, things that we are wrestling through with the Lord. And and we need to remember that we have the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies on our side. I want to read you one more voice or a verse that fits in with that theme. And it's from Exodus 15, which is out of the song of Moses after after the Lord brings them through the Red Sea. And Moses and the Israelites sing, Who is like you among the gods, Lord? Who is like you? Majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders. I love that. I love that so much. So these three verses really kind of show us the Lord of armies. This is this is He is He is fighting for us, and He is fighting alongside us, He is in us, He's fighting with us, but He doesn't want to fight against us, and He doesn't want us fighting against Him. And that's what I talked about last week is that in devoting things to destruction, we need to be wrestling with the Lord and for Him, not against Him, and not holding on to things that we know are damaging to us, we know are keeping us in bondage, but instead being willing to wrestle, you know, as the man cried out to Jesus, whose whose son kept falling into the fire because of the demon that had possessed him. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief to cry out to the Lord in in desperation, saying, Lord, I know that these there are these things that are binding me, you know, and and sometimes we do look at him and say, if you are able. And the Lord says, if you are able, if I am able, we know that the Lord is able. But sometimes it is, it is the it is the in the wrestling and and the fear that we have because we don't know what the Lord's going to do. Sometimes we don't know what he's going to require. We don't know what it's going to take from us. And so we need to, we need to know that we can cry out to him, I believe, Lord, help my unbelief. And we need to know that the Lord of armies, the Lord of hosts, he is fighting for us. He is fighting with us, and he wants to see us free. And he wants to eradicate the things within us that are that are keeping us in bondage and keeping us from knowing and experiencing his love and his grace and his mercy in in much deeper and more beautiful ways, to see how his pruning and his discipline are good things for us, even though they're painful for a time, that we come to love them and appreciate them. And so I want to pop into the New Testament and and remind it. So we've seen this picture of the father, you know, of the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies. But what did Jesus say about himself? Well, in John 10, he says, Truly, truly, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All those who came before me are thieves and robbers, and the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came so that they would have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And the juxtaposition in these verses, again, we talk about devoting things to destruction. The one who holds us in bondage, the things that we are wrestling with and dealing with the warfare that we're fighting when we know that the Lord is delivering us, when he is freeing us. The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy. The devil loves nothing more than when we, out of out of fear, hold on to things that destroy us. He loves nothing more than when we continue to surrender and give in to his whispers and his lies and his destruction. He loves nothing more than when we refuse to trust the Lord, when the Lord comes in and says, I want to bind the strong man and chuck him out. And I want to free you. I want to, I want you to walk in the abundant life that I have come to give you. I want you to see me as your good shepherd who loves you and has given his life for you. And that's sometimes the lies are so loud. And sometimes it seems easier, which is also a lie. It seems easier to give into things. It seems easier to partially obey than to fully obey, like Saul did. Sometimes we're like, well, the Lord said to do this, but I'm just I'm gonna massage this over here. Like I said last week, I'm gonna do like 85% of it. And the other 15%, I'll just kind of fiddle to make it fit. And the Lord in his goodness says no. When I when I tell you to do something, when you when you read my commands, I want you to see that because I am your good shepherd, because I've laid down my life for you, what I command is not a suggestion. I want, I, I want you to enter through me. I want, I am the door of salvation. I want you to come into the fold of my sheep so that then when the thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, you know you have a good shepherd who is watching out for you, who is protecting you, who will use his rod and his staff to comfort you and to pull you back, who will keep you safe in the midst of your enemies. But that requires that we trust Jesus. We trust him for what he has done for us, and we trust that what he commands us is the best thing that we can do. Because in his commandments are the pathways of life. He is found in the commandments of his word. And what he tells us to do, he tells us to do for our benefit and for us to know him, that we would experience grace and mercy and freedom, that we would know what it is like to walk in newness of life, no longer bound by our past, the things that we have done that we are so ashamed of, no longer bound by fear and shame and anger and unforgiveness and bitterness, but instead choosing to say, you know what, Lord, I am tired. I am you have been telling me for so long that these things are burdens. And you know what, Lord, I am tired of carrying them. I am going, I am going to not only surrender these things to you, Lord, but the things that you are requiring me to just to send into utter destruction. I'm going to do it, and I'm not going to walk in that way anymore. I'm going to walk in you. Listen to Colossians 1, 14 through 20, and think, this is Jesus. This is the Father. This is the Holy Spirit. This is what he has done for us. This is what they have done for us. Paul tells us, for he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church, and he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him, and through him, through Jesus, to reconcile all things to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross. When you have time, go back and sit and read those verses again and again. His cross. But what's the requirement? And what and in our lives, Jesus must be preeminent in everything. Through what he has done, the Father has made Jesus preeminent. He sits preeminent in everything, whether we make him preeminent in our lives or not. But for us to be a part of his kingdom, for us to walk in the light, for us to have redemption and the forgiveness of sins, Jesus must be preeminent in everything. And I love how Paul says it. We talked about Ephesians 1 a few weeks ago. How the Lord, in him, we have forgiveness of sins. In him, he has called us into the beloved. In him, he has purchased life for us through the blood of his son. We are adopted. We are, we belong to him. And so whatever you are facing, whatever you are wrestling with, and wherever the Lord is, is saying, Hey, this thing right here, surrender it to me. Or this thing right here, we need to cut that out and devote it to destruction. Again, consider the person, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who is asking you to do it. He's not asking you to do it because he takes great delight in making you miserable. He's not doing it because he decided to wake up this morning, although the Lord never sleeps. So I guess he didn't wake up, but you know, he decided this morning, hmm, I just really feel like today I would like to make this son completely miserable. Or I feel like what would be great is to just really kind of muddy the waters for my daughter over here. No, everything the Lord does is driven with the with the foundational purpose of us knowing him more and us being more transformed into his likeness. And that's what that's what Paul tells us in Philippians 2, right? When he tells us to have the same attitude in us as was in Jesus, who, right, as it Paul says he already existed in the form of God, but he didn't consider a quality of God something, something to be grasped, but instead he emptied himself and he took on the form of a servant. And being born in the likeness of men and being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And again, Paul writes in this language that says, Because of what Jesus has done in the perfection of his obedience, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Paul gives us this picture of Jesus as God and man. But he but before he goes into this, he says, don't consider only your own interests, but look also to the interests of others. Don't walk in in vain ambition or conceit, right? And deal with your own life, but also be concerned with others. Minister to others in the body. Love your brothers and sisters. But again, think about Jesus. Think about Jesus. This is who the Father has sent to die that we might be reconciled to him. And yes, the Lord meets us where we're at, right? Isaiah again tells us he was with us in our sin. And yet the glory and the grace and the mercy of the Lord is that he doesn't leave us there. He doesn't leave us in our sin. He doesn't leave us as a slave to our sin nature. He actually redeems us from the pit. And I want to point out to you that Paul tells us not only every knee in heaven and on earth will bow, but every knee under the earth. Every stinking devil that that has has, you know, every demon that has roamed the earth, deceiving and lying and stealing and killing and destroying is going to is going to fall on their face in terror at Jesus, at Jesus' appearing. At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow. And everything that has tormented us, all bowing before the Lord. And friends, I I just I want to encourage you in this. But that happened because of sin, happen because this life is what it is. There is suffering and there is affliction. When the Lord requires us to walk through difficulty, consider Jesus. And I'm not saying it's going to instantly make everything better, and that he's going to just swoop right in. Oh, in this really hard thing, I consider Jesus. And so I just feel better about everything. No. But there is comfort. There is that way that the Holy Spirit takes the reminder of the truth of who the Father is. And he he threads that needle so beautifully. And he he entwines the truth into our heart. When he reminds us through a friend or through his word, hey, Jesus suffered betrayal at the hands of people he loved. Jesus walked through grief. And he has stepped in. And there is there is a time to lay ourselves out honestly before the Lord. To be honest with him about where our hearts really are at, to lay down the dispositions, the things that we're struggling with, to pour them out before them. He knows it anyway. We're not telling him anything that he doesn't already know. But to be able to name it before him and to be honest before him and surrender, surrender it and give it into his hand and saying, Lord, this thing that's held me for so long, please deliver me from it. I want to see it destroyed, Lord. Or this thing that I have held so tightly to, even though it's a good thing. This dream that I have, or this job that I have, or this relationship that I wanted, or whatever it is, even though it was good, Lord, I know you're requiring me to surrender it and I'm going to give it to you and I'm going to trust you with it because you are good and you are kind and you are holy and everything you do is right and righteous and beautiful, Lord. Even when I can't see it, I'm going to trust you. And friends, the reason why I feel like this is such a good tie-in from last week is because it puts us in the complete opposite disposition of Saul, where we're not trying to finagle and adjust and massage the will of the Lord and what he's requiring of us. But that we can say, Lord, help me to obey. Help me to want to serve you. Help me to follow this thing through. It's, Lord, this is difficult. I'm crying out. My flesh is crying out. My spirit is crying out. Lord, that I can sit here and say, this is hard. And this, you know what, Lord, sometimes I can tell you, this stinks, and I can't see the way out of it, but I will trust you to be able to say, Lord, I'm gonna ask you, I ask that that maybe this doesn't hurt as bad. Whatever it is, friends, that we can go to him with anything, because this is who he is, and this is what he has done. This is what the Father has done for us. He has He has sent His only Son for us. And after Jesus suffered and bled and was crucified and buried and resurrected and ascended, they graciously send us their spirit. Think of Jesus. Put your mind and your heart and your soul and your spirit on the Lord. Contemplate. Contemplate the question that the Lord asks in Isaiah 44. Is there any other God besides me? Who is who is like me? Who is like me? The Lord asks. It's a good question for us to ask ourselves. Who who have I put on the throne of my heart besides the Lord? My ambition, my drive, my desires, my dreams, myself. What is an idol in a in my life? What what have I taken, which is maybe something that is is good that the Lord has created and made it into an idol and called it the Lord? It is there, we are, friends, I I truly believe we are in a season where the Lord is is pruning his people. He is He is cutting things away that for too long have held his people in bondage and in slavery. And he is saying, it is time, it is time. I want my people to be free. Just like he did for the Israelites in Exodus. And I and please understand me, I know that throughout all of the church history, all of church history, all of biblical history, the Lord has stepped in and he desires his people to be free. But he is, I just I know too many people in my life right now who are saying, the Lord's pruning this. I ask them how they're they are doing. They're like, Yeah, I'm okay, but man, I'm really wrestling through such and such with the Lord. And I know he's requiring of me. And I can sense his goodness in it, but I'm I'm struggling or I'm wrestling, or I know the Lord's refining me. And it's difficult, but it's also good, and I'm also really thankful for it. Or friends who are just, I'm learning for the first time that I can actually really be honest with the Lord and tell him that I'm struggling, or I'm afraid, or I'm anxious, and this time is different because I I know that however he decides to step in, it doesn't matter. I know he's going to step in and to rest there. And so I want to encourage you with this, friends, as as we as I wrap up here, the Lord, he is God. And when the Lord is is is moving in our lives and and asking us, asking us to do hard things, commanding us to surrender, pruning and cutting away things that we have held dear for such a long time, that we would put ourselves in a place of surrender and and to willfully give up what he is requiring us to give up. Because he is good and he is God and he is holy and he loves us. And so I want to I want as I as I finish up, I want you to contemplate this final picture of Jesus that John gives us in Revelation 1. John says, Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me, and after turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed in a robe, reaching to the feet, wrapped around the chest with a golden sash, his head and his hair were white like wool, like snow, and his eyes were a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze when it has been heated to a glow in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man, and he placed his right hand on me, saying, Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last and the living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Friends, rest in this. This is the Lord who is calling you to himself. This is the Lord your deliverer. This is the Lord of hosts. This is Jesus, our good shepherd. This is the one who loves you and is calling you to himself. Amen. Thank you for listening to another episode of Honey from the Rock. If this episode or the podcast in general has encouraged you in your walk with the Lord in any way, could I ask a favor? Would you mind going over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify and subscribing or leaving a review? These kinds of interactions on those platforms help get the podcast in front of more people. And I would greatly appreciate it. And I pray that you are blessed in the Lord.