God is not a Man that he should Lie

Reading in Numb 23.19 this morning. John Calvin is pretty good: "Hence, however, a lesson of supreme utility may be extracted, namely, that men are altogether wrong when they form their estimate of God from their own disposition and habits. Still, almost all men labor under this mistake. For how comes it that we are so prone to waver, except because we weigh God’s promises in our own scale? In order, therefore, that we may learn to lift up our minds above the world, whenever the faithfulness and certainty of God’s word are in question, it is well for us to reflect how great the distance is between ourselves and God."

This is so often our mistake. We form our estimation of God and what he does and how he acts by looking at our own actions and attitudes. Indeed the gods of the Ancient Near East cultures (as well as Roman and Greek gods) were like men with the same greed, desires, and attitudes, only they were more powerful and lived longer.

This is not our God. We must understand that there is a great difference between us and God.