Saul was a man dedicated to serving God, giving his entire life to protecting the ways of God and coming down hard on any and all who spoke out against what he knew to be true of God.
He was a student of Gamaliel, one of the premier teachers of Pharisaic interpretations of the Scripture. He was committed to the ways of his faith. In his own words, Saul would later write that he was “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless” (Philippians 3:4b-6).
Saul had stood at the side of the mob who had stoned Stephen, a deacon and follower of the Way, for his heresy. According to the Bible, Saul gave his approval to Stephen’s death.
It was this zeal and certainty for the truth of God that led Saul to travel to Damascus in search of other heretics, those who followed Jesus. He was determined to stamp out this dangerous movement.
It was while he was on the road to Damascus that Saul had to radically reconsider everything he knew about God, about Jesus and about himself.
As Saul walked to Damascus, “breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples,” according to Acts 9:1, he found himself suddenly under a light from heaven which flashed around him. Falling to the ground (no doubt covering his eyes from the brilliance and origin of the light), he heard a voice call to him. “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” (Acts 9:4)
Saul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The response came immediately, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:4-5a).
The Bible says that Saul got up from the ground and opened his eyes. Physically, he could see nothing and had to be led by hand into Damascus. But though he was blinded by the light, for the first time in his life, Saul began to see more clearly than he had ever seen before. This encounter on the road began a great journey of discovery for this man from Tarsus. He changed his name from Saul to Paul. According to his own testimony in Galatians 1, upon regaining his sight, he went immediately to Arabia and later returned to Damascus. He waited three years in that desert, presumably being taught by Christ Himself, and learned to see God in a new light (no pun intended). At the end of the three years, he went to Jerusalem, then to Syria and Cilicia. From there, he was brought to Antioch by Barnabas, and ministered to that church and went on a missionary journey.
The story of Paul is one example of how we can put God into a box, and when we do, it usually takes something radical to force us to see beyond the box and come to a new awareness of God.
Why Do We Put God in a Box?
There are several reasons why we put God in a box. The first is that God is infinite and we are finite. We only know Him in part, and we cannot wrap our heads around the magnitude and majesty of God. We relate to Him as we encounter Him. For most of us, the encounter is limited to church-related events, with the occasional intervention in our lives outside the church setting. For the vast majority, the understanding of God is based on third- or fourth-hand information. Their understanding of the Bible is limited, their understanding of church is limited and their understanding of God is relying upon the testimony of flawed and distant people. Far too many in our society equate God with the Jimmy Bakkers and Jimmy Swaggerts of the world, or the Jim Jones/David Koresh crowd, or today Franklin Graham and those like him. Far too many in our world are looking for reasons to justify a refusal to follow Him, and, regrettably, there are many excuses to find in our world today.
Another reason we box God in is the God we “know” fits within our comfort zone. We all have comfort zones, and we are all reluctant to disrupt this comfort. The phrases, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and “We’ve always done it this way” are but two examples of ways we use to remain in the comfort zone. We resist change, particularly when that change is personal. People who are overweight know they need to lose weight, but they’re reluctant to make the long-term steps to permanently reduce, because it’s a lifestyle change. People walk out of their churches, shake the pastor’s hand, tell him it was a great sermon that really challenged them, then walk away from the church and give it very little thought afterward. If we let God out of the box, we risk being asked to radically change. Moses was tending his father-in-law’s sheep when he came to the burning bush. He was so beaten down and so certain that he wasn’t good for anything else that he flat out told God to find someone else.
Moses is but one example of someone confronted by God and was reluctant to make a change in the way he understood God. We also put God in a box because the box doesn’t require us to think, to ask questions and to reconsider our world view. We grow up seeing the world in a certain way and, if that way is contradicted by Scripture, we overlook that passage or find other passages that counter it. (The amazing thing about the Bible is that it can be used to justify just about anything to anybody.)
What a Box Does for our Relationship with God
These are just some of the reasons we put God in a box. But when we do that, we also limit His effectiveness in our lives and we limit the possibilities that await us. Consider Jesus at His hometown. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, there is a report of Jesus returning to His hometown. Luke’s is the most detailed, while Matthew and Mark make brief discussion of the matter. In all three accounts, Jesus teaches in the synagogue, and everyone who hears is amazed. But in all three, He is ultimately rejected by the people. In Mark’s account, he writes, “’Where did this man get these things,’ they asked. ‘What’s this wisdom that has been given Him that He even does miracles? Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t His sisters here with us?’ And they took offense at Him” (Mark 6:2-3). The passage concludes with the comment, “He could not do any miracles there, except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them. And He was amazed at their lack of faith” (Mark 6:5-6). The point of the passage in all three Gospel accounts is that the people of Nazareth were challenged with the way they had always seen Jesus, they were not prepared to see Him outside their own “box,” and the result was that He could do very little for them. The damning phrase was the people had a lack of faith, and that was what kept Jesus in their box.
The story of Job is a fascinating tale, one that shows us another way that God tends to explode our box. By all accounts, Job was a righteous man, declared so by God Himself. He was highly respected and successful in the eyes of God and man. When God allowed him to be tested, Job had a lot of questions. In the dialogue between Job and his four visitors, Job repeatedly says he wants to talk to God about what’s going on in his life, and his frustration is that God is being silent in the whole ordeal. It is only in Chapters 38-41 that God finally speaks to Job, and even then, He refuses to tell Job why Job had to endure the hardships he endured.
It is at the end of hearing God speak that Job makes this confession. “Then Job replied to the Lord: ‘I know that You can do all things; no plan of Yours can be thwarted. You asked, “Who is this that obscures My counsel without knowledge?” Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, “Listen to Me, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.” My ears had heard of You but now my eyes have seen You. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes’” (Job 42:1-6). The key part of this passage is Job’s confession that he had a greater awareness of God as a result of the ordeal, and the knowledge reduced him to confession and repentance. When God takes hold of our lives, He is preparing to shatter the box, and if we are willing to let Him, we grow in our awareness of Him.
How Do We Break Our Box?
The first step in breaking the box is realizing that God is greater than our understanding. Read through Job 38-41. Look again at Isaiah 55:8-9. And realize that all things are possible with God. When we come to these truths and embrace them, then we begin to open our minds to the possibilities that can await us with God.
Spend time in prayer, not necessarily speaking with Him, but listening for Him and to Him. Read the Bible with an open heart and mind, letting it challenge us to see the world as He sees the world.
As we begin each day, we ask Him to show us His world as He sees it, to open our eyes to see as He sees, to hear as He hears, to speak as He speaks. In short, surrender ourselves to Him each day, letting Him show us things we had never seen before.
Conclusion
I do most of the driving for my wife and me, but I’m not averse to letting her take the wheel. Lately, I drive us to church and she drives us home. The route we take is one I’ve driven for over 12 years, and now that she’s driving us back, I’m seeing the road differently, discovering things I’d never had the chance to see because I had to keep my eyes on the road. When my wife is driving, I can look around, I can see the countryside, I can relax.
The same is true in our walk with God. Once we realize that we’ve been boxing God in, we can take the box away and let God can control of the situation. We can let Him do the driving, so to speak, and we can watch as He shows us His great wonders.
One of the most meaningful parts of our relationship with God is that, no matter how much we learn about Him and from Him, there is always something more to learn, something more to discover, something more to see.
Letting God be God means we get rid of the box.
© 2018 Glynn Beaty