At first glance, it seems odd that human acts of any kind could affect God.
After all, the distance between the Lord and us is infinitely greater than the distance between us and a worm or a fly or a slug. It’s true that we are uniquely created in His image. But He is eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, the Creator of the universe, while we are here today and gone tomorrow, full of weakness and corruption and wickedness.
That’s why many atheists and agnostics reject the very concept of the God of the Bible. If such a deity existed, they reason, His last concern would be how human beings lived – unless, of course, He was a petty, mean-spirited, tyrant bully. Otherwise, why would our sins concern Him?
But it’s not just atheists and agnostics who have raised this question. It is actually posed in the Bible itself, as Job, in the midst of a tormenting trial, cries out to God, “If I have sinned, what have I done to you, you who see everything we do? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you?” (Job 7:20)
Put another way, “Since You are the Almighty Creator, how does my sin affect You? Why should it bother You? What impact could it possibly have on You, seeing that you are an Eternal Spirit?”
I was struck by this question again while meditating on the last verse of Psalm 139 in Hebrew...