God Cares about His Reputation

Reading through the books of the prophets (Jeremiah, Ezekiel etc) recently, I was drawn to a phrase which was repeated so many times that it was impossible to ignore. Many of the writings in those books are the warning messages that God sent to Israel and the surroundings nations before He visited great judgement on them in the Old Testament. As God would narrate His plans for judgement to the prophets, every now and again He would throw in this phrase: "...Then they will know that I am the Lord"

After a while I started underlining this phrase whenever I came across it, pondering in my subconscious why God would say the same thing so many times. Then it hit me, GOD CARES ABOUT HIS REPUTATION!

Sometimes, it would seem like God isn't really bothered what people think about Him. I mean, if the number one question asked when people doubt He exists is really the "why is there so much suffering in the world if there is a God?" one, surely He should have put an end to that problem by now to defend Himself?

Then again why should He? - after all, He IS God; Whatever people think (or not) about Him does not subtract anything from who He is, right? The Bible says He is exalted above all nations... that He sits enthroned on high and stoops to look on the earth. The earth is His footstool and as the King of kings His rule is sovereign – basically whatever He says goes. So why would anyone entertain the thought that such a high God would concern Himself with something as subjective as reputation?

Here's why: Because He goes through the trouble of letting us know time and again in His word that He desires to be believed. He makes it known that if He says a word we should expect it to come to pass and that He's not a man that He should lie. If He so badly wants to be believed then I think it follows that He cares what we think of Him.

We see this demonstrated in the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. God cared so much about His reputation that when Abraham tried to get Him to consider sparing the lives of the righteous people dwelling among the sinful people of that land and posed the question: "will not the Judge of all the earth do right?", God did not go ahead and destroy all of Sodom and Gomorrah – at least not until Lot and his family had escaped. 

God cared so much about His reputation that when the Israelites in the wilderness annoyed Him and He wanted to wipe them out, Moses remark about how the neighboring nations would hear of the destruction and say that God took them out of Egypt only to kill them off in the desert because He could not take them into the promised land, seemed to cause Him to simmer. God's reaction was almost like, LET IT NOT BE HEARD that such was assumed about Him and His dealings with His people - and this was despite the stiffnecked behaviour of the people He was dealing with. I think it's encouraging that in spite of our shortcomings God wants to do things in the lives of His people that 'they' may know that He is the Lord and there is none besides Him!

It seems He really does care that in your life and mine He is glorified... that the desires of our hearts are met and that those who diligently seek Him can do so with the guarantee that they will be justly rewarded in this life and the next. He cares that when we put our trust in Him we can boldly say that we will never ever ever put to shame - and because He really cares He lets us know that there are things we ought to do in order to receive the outcomes that we desire at the end of the day - and He gives us the grace to do them!

So when God says that He shall be our God and we shall be His people, He's OK with us holding Him to it just like He's OK with us holding on to every other word He has ever spoken. In fact He wants us to hold Him to it because He so badly wants to show Himself strong on our behalf...

..that 'they' may know... 

...and that WE may know... 

that He is God.

Awesome, ei?