Making God?
Follow-on questions
The question we’re looking at tonight is “Who made God?” It’s an interesting question to think about - though actually, the most interesting thing about it isn’t the question itself, it’s the follow-on questions that come from it. After all, anytime you ask a ‘Who’ question the answer is just one or two words: ‘Somebody’ or ‘Nobody’.
There are lots of “Who” questions like that:
- Who shot JFK?
- Who was Jack the Riper?
- Who first discovered America?
- Who invented the internet?
All those questions are interesting, but that’s largely because of all the other questions that flow from them – the Why, When, How, Where, What questions. So what we’ll do this evening, is we’ll start with the Who question – Who made God? – and then we’ll look at some of the issues that flow out of it.
So – Who made God? Well, as I said, with all “Who” questions, there are only two types of answer to that. Either “Somebody” made God – and you have to go on to explain what that means, who the Somebody was – Or else “Nobody” made God and you have to go on an explain what that means.
Let’s think about the “Somebody” option first. Suppose somebody really did make God. The thing about that is, it doesn’t actually work. It doesn’t make sense. If there was a time before you existed, then you’re not really God. If somebody makes you, then you’re not really God. If somebody makes you, then you’re dependent on them. But if you’re God you’re not dependent on anybody. That’s the thing about God he’s independent of everything. And that means nobody made him.
Can you 'plan'
an 'accident'?
I tried to think of another question that would fall apart if you gave the wrong answer. The best one I could come up with was this. Suppose you see an accident happen. Imagine that at the end of this talk I trip over the power cable and go flying head-first down the steps. So you see this happen and you ask the question, “Who planned this accident?” Well, either the answer is “Nobody” – or else it’s not an accident. If somebody planned it – say some of the guys on the sound-desk cunningly left a little loop sticking up, in order for me to catch my foot on it – if they planned it, then it’s not an accident. It’s a trap. Or if I plan it, then again it’s not an accident – it’s a setup. So you can’t really give the “Somebody” answer to that question. If you ask “Who planned the accident?” then the answer has to be either “Nobody” – plain and simple, “Nobody” – or the answer has to be “Somebody, and so it wasn’t an accident.”
It’s the same with the question, “Who made God?” If somebody made him, then he’s not God. So the answer is either “Nobody – God has always been there, he’s not dependent on anyone else, that’s what makes him God.” Or, else the answer is “Yep, somebody made him – and so he’s not really God.” If a god has been made by somebody, then it’s not really God at all.
That’s at it’s most obvious if it’s a god you make for yourself. It might seem a silly thing to do, to come up with a DIY god – well, it is a silly thing to do. But people slip into it all the time. In our reading, Isaiah has a bit of a pop at the way it was done in his day. Have a look at verse 18:
To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to? As for an idol, a craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it. A man too poor to present such an offering selects wood that will not rot. He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple.
How good is
a wooden idol?
I’ve brought this along [a wooden carving] – it comes from West Africa. Now it’s not really an idol – it’s actually an ornament. There’s a pair of them, they’re a bit like bookends. But just imagine for a moment is was an idol. Think about it – you’ve chosen a nice bit of wood, wood that won’t go mouldy, you’ve found a good carpenter to carve it out nicely, make sure it’s not too wobbly. It would be a shame if your god toppled over on it’s face. And if it really was an idol, you’d probably cover it with silver or gold to make it a bit more shiny and impressive.
And suppose you make it and then you bow down to it and start worshipping it. Wouldn’t that be silly? You’ve made it. It didn’t make you. You don’t depend on it, it depends on you for its existence. It’s not God. You know that because you know who made it. It’s just a wooden idol.
Now that would be silly, and we’re probably all a little to sophisticated to fall for a physical wooden idol. But we do sometimes get taken in my more sophisticated idols.
Things like money or success or power. They’re pretty aggressive idols. There are softer ones too, maybe things like being liked and loved and valued by others. Having the right friends. Even family can be an idol. Or security. Or fun, pleasure, having a good time.
An idol is whatever controls our lives
An idol is the thing that controls our lives. It’s the thing we desire to have, the thing that sets our goals, the thing we give our energies too. It’s a little god that we make for ourselves. And all of us, we’re great at making these little gods, these little idols to give our lives direction and meaning. It might be something that’s perfectly good in its own right. The only problem with it is that it’s become our little god. It’s replaced the true God at the centre of our lives. And it’s worth stopping to ask: *What is my god?
- What gives my life direction?
- What sets my priorities?
And it’s also worth turning our original question around: Who made my god? Cos if I made it, or if others around me made it – then it’s not really God after all, is it?
But the real God, the one we’re talking about here – he’s not like that. Nobody made him. There’s a few verses at the start of our passage that make the same point:
Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counsellor?
Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?
If God needs someone to instruct him, then he’s not really God. If God needs someone to enlighten him, then he’s not really God. If God needs someone to teach him, someone to show him the right way, then he’s not really God. The point of all those “Who” questions is that the answer is “Nobody”.
If God needs made,
he's not really God
And that’s also the answer to our starting question. If God needs someone to make him, then he’s not really God. “Who made God?” – the answer is “nobody”. That’s what it means to be God. If you’re God then nobody made you. You’ve always been there. God isn’t dependent on anybody else, or anything else. It’s the other way round, we’re all dependent on him. There was a time before we existed. If you wound the clock back 90 years, then probably nobody in this room would have existed. It’s not like that with God. You can wind the clock back as far as you like, and he was always there. There was no time before God existed. He never was made. He has always just been. That’s part of what verse 12 is saying, in vivid picture language. Have a look again:
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?
God holds the whole world in his hands
God can hold the whole world in his hands. The mountains and the seas, the earth and the sun and the whole universe. He knows them inside out because he made them. Look at verse 26:
Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
God made everything, but nobody made him. That’s what it means to be God. He doesn’t depend on anything. Everything else depends on him. He’s totally independent, but we’re not.
I guess sometimes we forget that. Maybe because God has given us a measure of independence in lots of ways. We can move around in our world, we can make things and create things. We can damage and destroy things. We think our own thoughts, make our own choices. God has given us quite a lot of independence.
How long
would you last?
But sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking we are totally independent. And we’re not. There’s lots of things about life that should remind us of that. Food for example – if you last 40 days without food, you’re doing well, but you won’t last much longer. And water – if you last 4 days without water, you’re doing well, but you won’t last much longer. And air – if you last 4 minutes without air, you’re doing extremely well, but you won’t last much longer.
We’re dependent on all these things. We’re dependent on the world God has made, the world he’s put us in. And ultimately, we’re dependent on him.
There are so many things we can’t control. We make our choices but they don’t always turn out the way we want. We plan our futures, but the future doesn’t always play ball. And then there’s death, the great leveller. That’s something we’d all love to be able to control, and avoid, but none of us can.
Isaiah also reminds us of that. He draws a stark contrast – the God of heaven who is eternal, and our lives which are so fleeting. Verse 21:
Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? 22He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 23He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. 24No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
God is big,
we are small
That’s a big contrast, isn’t it? God is big, we are small. He sits enthroned in the heavens, we’re bound to the surface of the earth. He made us, nobody made him. He lasts forever, we come into the world, and then pass out of it again. Verse 24 is very poignant, isn’t it? It’s talking about even the great people of the world – the princes and rulers – and it applies just as much to them as to all the rest of us. No sooner are we planted, no sooner do we take root in the ground, but the wind blows on us and we wither and are swept away. God lasts forever, but our lives are fleeting.
And that’s because God is independent, while we are dependent.
We were never designed to be independent. We were created to be dependent on God, to receive life and meaning and purpose and love from him. And the tragedy of our world is that we’ve walked away from that. We’ve walked away from the one who made us, and the one who gives us life. We’ve walked away from the one we should be depending on.
The people in Isaiah’s day were doing much the same thing. They’d wandered away from God, and then they wondered why he seemed so distant. Look at verse 27:
Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God"?
So they’re complaining that God seems far off, that the doesn’t care, that he’s not interested. But that’s not true – look at how Isaiah responds, v28:
The Lord is the
everlasting God
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no-one can fathom. 29He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
When we try and live life independently of God, it will wear us out in the end. We’re not designed to be totally independent. It’s not good for us when we live life at cross purposes to our design. Think of another example for a moment. You could use your mobile phone to hammer in nails. You could. It’s not designed for it, but you could. And if you’ve got a tough enough phone, it might work for some of the smaller nails. But you’re going to end up with pretty bashed up phone after a while. It’s like that with life. We aren’t designed to live independently of God. We can probably make it happen for a while, but it’s not what we were made for.
You just need to look around the world to see that there’s all sorts of things that aren’t right, all sorts of things that are out of shape. That’s because we’ve tried to live independently of God, and it doesn’t work. The same is true closer to home. You probably just need to look around you own life to see all sorts of things that aren’t right.
We're not designed
to work like that
It’s the same reason. We were never designed to live independently of God. We were never designed to make our own little idols to replace God. Pleasure or money or whatever it is. They never work. It’s no good depending on them – we need to depend on the real God. We can try to pull it off for a while – maybe for a while that even seems to work. But in the end we’ll grow tired and weary. I’m sure there are people here who are feeling that right now.
But that’s not how it should be. And that’s not how God wants it to be. And indeed, that’s not the way it has to be. God himself – he doesn’t grow tired or weary. He doesn’t stumble and fall. But he can help those who do. Did you see the good news in v31:
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
In a way, that sums up the whole message of the Bible. Problem and solution. The problem is that we’ve tried to live independently, apart from the God who made us. But it doesn’t work. Maybe you can fool yourself for a while, but not forever.
That’s our problem, that we’ve turned away from God. The solution is to turn back to him. The whole Bible tells us that. Jesus himself calls us to come to him:
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
God is willing
to take us back
The good news of the Bible is that God is willing to take us back. In fact, Jesus came into the world to call us back to himself. And that’s no cheap thing. It’s not like our attempt at going our own way hasn’t had consequences. Our world is awash with painful, terrible consequences. So are our lives. But Jesus came to earth to pay the price for us going our own way. He came to die, to make up for the mess of our independence, the mess that comes from us chasing after little man-made gods.
That’s why we can come back to God freely. It’s not free because it’s cheap, it’s free because someone else has already borne the cost. The God of the Universe calls us to come home to him. Nobody made God, but he made us, and he calls us back to himself.
Let me finish by reading again from verse 21:
Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? 22He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
And verse 29:
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Let’s pray.