The Master’s Touch by Greg Olsen
It is interesting how our minds work. Unlike God, who is infinite and eternal, Everything we imagine or we comprehend or understand is based on measurement and subsequently comparison. These 2 mental exercises allow us to analyze and categorize everything perceivable by our senses. And thus, we say, we “know” a thing. Pythagorean taught, “The problem of knowledge then becomes a search for the kind of truths that will match up with mathematical certainties,” Professor Daniel N. Robinson informed us in The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition, “Plato’s Search for Truth” from the Course Guidebook of “The Great Courses, Page 36.
Animals are compared taxonomically; colors by how much of 3 base colors [red, green, and blue] they contain. Everything we do involving the senses is measured and then compared. This is what science is all about.
The difference between abstract and concrete is the difference between all cases compared to the one. Persons differ by comparing the degree to which they love family or country … or God, for example. And how much of that love is shown measures commitment. What is reasonable is less me and more you in the mix.
So what if God creates a heaven that contains no rulers or scales, no watches, no clocks, no means of measuring anything because everything will be “exceedingly abundant” and “full of glory” made infinitely available by an Eternal God? It might be like needing a drink of water and there’s the ocean—go for it.
Look at Isaiah 1:18 “Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord.” What does God mean by “reasoning together”? The Greek word in the translation means usually “to investigate and expose” a matter but here it means “to dispute,” according to the dictionary. Interesting, in Job 9:33, it is translated “days-man” or umpire: “Neither is there any days-man betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.” Micah 6:2 also uses the word, translated “plead” in the King James: “the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.”]
The New Testament word that bears on this discussion is the Spirit’s work to “reprove” the world—us—of sin, righteousness and judgment in John 16:8. Interesting thing about this word: “The answer,” Professor Robinson tells us, “is: a rational enterprise that takes the form of a dialectical or argumentative [not argument as in English, but a presentation of the facts] approach. This approach is not simply a rhetorical device; it’s an investigative device. Through the philosophical mode of investigation, we come to consult whatever is contained in the rational resources of the soul itself. ” [Hebrews 4:12}.
So, according to this meaning, God wants to investigate with me in dialogue …my sin!! I must tell you that, indeed, it has been an ongoing conversation between us and until I am perfect I pray He never stops wanting to talk!
Isaiah 1:18 continues, “though…[?]” The Hebrew simply asserts the condition: from scarlet in color to snow white.
God knows us. We understand things by comparing and measuring them. Our sins will not be “whitened;” they’ll be forgiven and gone! But God speaks our language here because He is discussing this matter with us.
Make sense?
