Exodus 9

God’s Uniqueness 

There is a central theme of the Bible that covers every chapter and verse.  The sooner we recognize it and make it the theme of our lives the better our circumstances will be.  No matter if God uses a flood, a plague, a hailstorm, a death angel, a cloud by night, a pillar of fire by day, a prophet, two tablets of stone, thundering and lightenings, an earthquake, a still small voice, a king after God’s own heart, an undying Davidic dynasty, a virgin, a Savior, a church, a mission, a missionary, a final judgment…. no matter what God uses, no matter its dispensation, God has a singular theme and purpose for it all.  What is it?

…that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. (v14)

This is the one singular theme that all understanding of the Bible must root itself into.  Not just understanding the Bible and its texts only, but to understand your place in the world.  Do you want to vanish away with the rest of the world that will soon be judged?  Or do you wish to have a part in God’s eternal plan, where nothing will fade or be forgotten? (see Isa. 40:8)

No matter what passage of Scripture you may be reading, the reader can always zoom out far enough to see the larger context and purpose that God is fulfilling.  There is none like Him.  Sure, we learn this in Genesis 1 and 2, but all students of hermeneutics (bible interpretation) learn that the most important themes of Scripture are often repeated.  In the scope of the entire Bible, nothing gets repeated more than God’s uniqueness, He’s one of a kind.

Idolatry Is the Basis of All Sin

With that in mind, the bottom line of all sin gets boiled down to idolatry, which is the point at which something else gets exalted in God’s place.  There is a reason why “there is no one like Him” is the central theme of the Bible, because it is the point at which human beings are constantly belittling the God who is there with their idolatries.   No matter if it be stealing, using God’s name as though its an insignificant common word, or bowing down in front of an idol, sin is attack on the only God of the universe.  His transcendence makes Him the center of everything in the universe in that there is no circumstance that people are excused for not recognizing Him in His rightful exalted place.  Once something, anything becomes so valuable in a person heart that he or she would even discard God  or God’s commands to have it, it becomes a matter of idolatry.

In most cases sin, even bowing down before a wooden idol, is really self worship.  The thing that is being exalted is not the object that is being fawned over, but the individual who is seeking to exalt him or herself through gaining the benefit from sin.  When a person sins, he or she is basically saying, “I will ignore God’s rightful place in my life because I decide that what I want to do will benefit me greater than submitting to God.”

A simple way that people attempt to deal with this guilty charge is to attempt to deny the existence of the God who is there.  Pharaoh, attempted the same thing, though he worshipped the gods of Egypt, he holds the attitude of modern day atheists. “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.” (Ex. 5:2)  As if the LORD can be cast off so simply just by denying to know Him, or deny His existence.  Does not this reasoning of pharaoh amply show how human beings think they are the center of the universe?  “Who is God that I should pay Him any attention? I am here in my universe and here will I remain.  Let God come to me if He wishes, otherwise I will not budge.”  This is what is so despicable about the idolatrous heart.  It assume we owe God nothing and He owes us everything.

Later the pharisees will reveal the same attitude in other words, “If you really are the Messiah, come down from the cross then we will believe you.”  In other words while people were watching with their own eyes the Savior atoning for their sins, they still in their ignorance demanded their own way.  “Do what we say Jesus, that is the only way we will believe you.”  And sadly that is the bottom line for many “Christians” who are Christian as long as they have a God “who better jolly well do what I want”.  Idolatry is the basis for all this sin and ignorance and so naturally the central theme of God’s message to human kind is, “there is none like me”.  But there are plenty of idolatrous human beings who deny that.

Wisdom Through the Ages

And so the reader will continue working through the Bible and eventually come to a section dedicated to wisdom. I will not use space here to expound on the genre, but only to say that many of the psalms and proverbs are reflections of God’s uniqueness combined with a track record of performing His Word.  God accomplishes what He says.  And so here is true wisdom.  There are really only two paths a person can take, though one be wider and the other quite narrow.  Pharaoh found himself on a wide path, a path that many after him have taken.  Though the religion of pharaoh and the religion of my buddhist friends here in Taiwan are quite different in name, they are essentially the same in their conclusion.  They both serve the idolatrous desires of the individual.  But there is none like God, and all will soon find out like the Egyptians in the night of the passover, that God word is to be obeyed, and if not, only death and destruction awaits.  The gods of Egypt will not save you, Buddha will not end your suffering.

So here is wisdom, believe God.  Humble yourself under His hand and His Christ.  All through the order of judgement and wrath upon Egypt there was a land where God’s mercy was simultaneously being revealed.  The land of Goshen was untouched by God’s wrath (see 9:4; 9:26), the wrath against human idolatry.  God will bless His own people who call themselves by His name, who humble themselves and acknowledged His place as the Highest.