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Apart from Him

                 I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed— I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God.” (Isaiah 43:11-12)

                How many times was Israel saved? I almost feel as if I should tally it. Of course, it depends on your definition of “saved” and where you set the bar for it, but a quick look online gave answers from 7 to over 40, and I suspect it was many more times than that. Sure, we can easily pick out the dramatic ones like the exodus from Egypt and several different battles, but how many times did He do so quietly?

                How many times has God saved you or your loved ones? I’m not talking about eternal salvation. Do you have dramatic examples? How many quiet examples didn’t you notice? And put aside the direct, physical protection. What about the emotional, spiritual, and relational protection and salvation that you’ve been given? Do we thank God enough for these even if we don’t recognize them?

                Now, how many times has another god saved you? Yes, I know, every time that we attribute to God, we can probably attribute to anyone and anything else, but the point is that we have been saved, and even if we want to claim dumb luck or random chance were responsible, we’re still claiming that something was responsible. And even if someone says, “figurative language,” its doubtful that they would use such figurative language if there weren’t some sense of the truth that someone or something was involved. But, how do we determine which God? Again, how many times have you heard of another god saving someone – especially someone who wasn’t important somehow? How many gods are described as being involved in historical events?

                In the end, Israel and we will be witnesses. The question will be whether we are honest witnesses, or whether we’ll make excuses.

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