神的异象
内蕴，但也是超越的
经文
以赛亚书五十七11-21
11 你怕谁？因谁恐惧？竟说谎，不记念我，又不将这事放在心上。我不是许久闭口不言，你仍不怕我吗？
12 我要指明你的公义；至于你所行的都必与你无益。
13 你哀求的时候，让你所聚集的拯救你吧！风要把他们刮散，一口气要把他们都吹去。但那投靠我的必得地土，必承受我的圣山为业。
14 耶和华要说：你们修筑修筑，预备道路，将绊脚石从我百姓的路中除掉。
15 因为那至高至上、永远长存（原文是住在永远）名为圣者的如此说：我住在至高至圣的所在，也与心灵痛悔谦卑的人同居；要使谦卑人的灵苏醒，也使痛悔人的心苏醒。
16 我必不永远相争，也不长久发怒，恐怕我所造的人与灵性都必发昏。
17 因他贪婪的罪孽，我就发怒击打他；我向他掩面发怒，他却仍然随心背道。
18 我看见他所行的道，也要医治他；又要引导他，使他和那一同伤心的人再得安慰。
19 我造就嘴唇的果子；愿平安康泰归与远处的人，也归与近处的人；并且我要医治他。这是耶和华说的。
20 惟独恶人，好像翻腾的海，不得平静；其中的水常涌出污秽和淤泥来。
21 我的神说：恶人必不得平安！
信息分享
有些神学家指出，我们现在的思维所充满的是神超越的伟大，而超越的背后是一种既独特且不同的特性，因为神是独一无二的，神与祂所创造的一切都不一样。
昨天我们说，「崇高的」这个形容词让我们看到神的宝座远远超越时空的界限。不过，虽然圣经常常用时间和空间来表达神的超越（例如：参诗九十2和王上二十28），但我们不要以为神是居住在祂创造以外的时间和空间之中。
关于这一点，我们必须坚信神是无所不在的这个真理，也就是说祂居住在已经悔改认罪的人的生命中，这是我们今天的经文所清楚带出的信息。然而神居住在我们心里的这个事实，不能遮盖了祂在我们之上、无限地超越了所有被造物的这个真理。认识神的超越能促使我们产生对神的爱慕和崇拜。如果我们心里没有这种意识的话，那么崇拜便只是徒具形式的仪式了。过去有许多明白敬畏神的生活是怎么一回事的人，以神「高高」在上这个观念作为生活的基础；无论他们与神的关系是多么的亲密，他们都牢牢的相信一个事实，那就是：神是高高在上的神。为甚么在当今的教会我们很少遇到这样的人呢？
「独特的神，与众不同」
进深研究
创十四17-20；来七1；诗二十一7；可五7
1. 麦基洗德怎样描述神？
2. 邪灵怎样称呼耶稣？
祈祷
神啊，如果我在渴望亲近您的时候，看不见您的威严、您的伟大和超越，求您赦免。求您帮助我明白，尊崇您、高举您，不是损失而是获益。奉主耶稣的圣名祈求。阿们。
The Vision of God
Immanent - yet transcendent
Bible reading:
Isaiah 57:11-21
11 "Whom have you so dreaded and feared that you have not been true to me, and have neither remembered me nor taken this to heart? Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me?
12 I will expose your righteousness and your works, and they will not benefit you.
13 When you cry out for help, let your collection of idols save you! The wind will carry all of them off, a mere breath will blow them away. But whoever takes refuge in me will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain."
14 And it will be said: "Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people."
15 For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.
16 I will not accuse them forever, nor will I always be angry, for then they would faint away because of me— the very people I have created.
17 I was enraged by their sinful greed; I punished them, and hid my face in anger, yet they kept on in their willful ways.
18 I have seen their ways, but I will heal them; I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel's mourners,
19 creating praise on their lips. Peace, peace, to those far and near," says the Lord. "And I will heal them."
20 But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.
21 "There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked."
Message
The thought occupying our attention at the moment is what theologians call the transcendence of God. The idea behind transcendence is that of distinctiveness, separateness - that God is uniquely other than everything in creation.
We said yesterday that the words "high and exalted" show us that God's throne is situated far above the boundaries of space and time. Too much must not be made of this, however, for although the transcendence of God is frequently expressed biblically in terms of time and space (see Psalm 90:2 and 1 Kings 20:28, for example), we must not think that God lives in a time and space like ours, only beyond that of creation.
Over against that thought we must hold the truth of God's immanence, and by that we mean that He dwells in the lives of those who have repented of their sin - a truth our text for today brings out so clearly. Yet the fact God indwells us must not be allowed to cloud the truth that He is above us, infinitely exalted above all creation. To think of God as transcendent inspires adoration and worship. Without this idea in our minds then worship is a mere ritual and a formality. In days past, men and women who knew what it was to walk in the fear of the Lord had, as a basis for their lives, the concept of God as "high and exalted". However intimate their communion with God, they were gripped by the fact that God was high and lifted up. Why is it that in the modern-day Church we do not meet many of this ilk?
"God is uniquely other than everything in creation"
Prayer
O God, forgive me if, in my desire to have You close to me, I have lost sight of Your majesty, Your greatness and transcendence. Help me understand that to see You as high and exalted is not a loss but a gain. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.
Further study
Genesis 14:17-20
Hebrews 7:1
Psalm 21:7
Mark 5:7
1. How was God described by Melchizedek?
2. How did the evil spirit address Jesus?
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