Is God Your Cosmic Waiter? – by Desmond Ford

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Jan 14, 2016 2174

Genesis 28 says that after Jacob had the vision of the wonderful stairway to heaven, that he set up a stone and said,

“If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth. – Gen 28:21–22, NIV.

It almost feels like he is making a bargain with God. The great danger, even from the early days of religion, is to think that God is a cosmic waiter and if I give him a tip he will do what I want. Jacob offered God ten per cent.

This is a terrible deception, to think that God is running around in this universe to do my will. Could there be worse pride than to think that? No.

I am part of the flotsam and jetsam of humanity that God can irradiate, bless and magnify and endow with life. I am here to do His will. My tongue is to do His will; my imagination is to do His will; my hands and feet are to do His will. I own nothing. I live by his permission. My heart continues to beat by His grace. I am his.

I am the bellhop, the waiter, and I don’t give God a tip now and again in the hope he will indulge my selfish whims.

Jacob means “cheater.” When Jacob tried to bargain with God, he still had too much of Jacob in him.

Sin offers benefit and is always lying. Sin never brings benefit. Sin is suicidal. Purity is paradise. Only righteousness can endure. Lies have short legs; evil cannot endure. It has the seeds of death in itself.

The universe is run on moral law because its author is moral. Sin is a cheat but the vision of God delivers me from sin. The pure in heart see God, and the seeing of God purifies the heart.

Anything that is against the law of unselfish love cannot last.

– Des Ford. Rom 8:27–32. Adapted from “The Night of Wrestling.”