Who is God? – Day 8
Truth
Um(Imi)bhalo weBhayibheli
UNumeri 23
U-Isaya 45
Do you tell lies? Do you make promises that you cannot keep, or perhaps, forget about?
The above Scriptures speak of that very thing which separates man from God in essence, and contrast the fallen human nature with His divine nature. It is that quality of truth which is so important in life which people find so difficult to attain to. Not all lies are necessarily intentional. Sometimes people tell lies to protect others, or thoughtlessly promise something to side-step a difficult situation, and then are not able to keep that promise because of changed circumstances; but most often it is something that people do deliberately and often hurt others, and themselves, in the process.
Wherever you go in life you will find people hurting as a result of a lie, or lies, and the lying is not limited to children who don’t know any better, criminals who have a problem in doing what is right, or compulsive liars who have psychological problems. It makes no difference what the motivation is, lying goes hand in hand with deception, pretence, double-dealing, cheating and other wrongdoing, and is practised by even the most respectable people in even the most respectable places.
How awesome is God! He never experiences this problem! Why does God not lie? Why does He always fulfil His promises? Because He is perfect and His integrity is part of who He is. He does not need to lie: He is answerable to no one; He does not need to impress anyone. He is goodness personified and is, alone, entirely trustworthy. If He has said something, it is the truth and He will not change His mind. There is no questioning of His integrity.
Man, on the other hand, is always answerable to someone (even if he prefers not to acknowledge it). Unlike God, man is weak and fallible and is often caught up in situations where he feels he needs to lie to save his dignity, or not admit to wrongdoing to appear better than he really is. What a sad situation!
Why we need to know God personally is because we need to experience daily the beauty of His absolute truth and perfection in our broken world, that we will never look at the world through the same eyes again. We need this life-changing experience!
