Is God a Vending Machine?

I read this week that the Israelites of Biblical times had such a fear of God that they considered His name Yahweh too holy to be spoken by human lips. Additionally, if His name needed to be written, the scribes would take a bath before they wrote it and destroy the pen afterward. They had such incredible respect, a holy fear of the God we serve. 

 Today, the opposite seems to be true.  People don’t fear or revere God. They can treat Him as common or ordinary. Viewed as a Giant Vending Machine in heaven, God will you a “prize” if you put in enough currency. Or, people see Him as Grandfather figure who looks the other way at His children’s misbehavior. 

 So, who is God? Romans 11:22 says, “Behold then the kindness and severity of God.”  NASB.  Other translations say the goodness and the sterness, the graciousness and the harshness. The Bible tells us to consider both. He is both a loving Father and a righteous Judge, who is to be feared. His mercies are new every morning but there is a wrath to God that must not be ignored. How often do you ponder God’s wrath?  It’s not a comfortable question to answer, is it?  

 Often, it seems like people want to focus on one side of God and not the other. Let us not take lightly His lovingkindness, His majesty, or His holiness. May we show Him respect and reverence, standing in awe of His holiness.  And as we have this proper attitude toward the Lord, we can take comfort in the fact that we serve a big God.  As we fear God, we need not fear man, or what man can do to us, because our God reigns.  He is omnipotent; He is omniscient, and we can rest in His all-consuming presence. He is holy and righteous; He is loving and kind.