Just recently, a work was discovered in a Swiss vault that may be a 500-year-old lost masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci. And what did the finders do? Why, they called in the experts to authenticate it, of course; to search for those particular characteristics that will determine, without a doubt, whether or not it’s genuine.
And though most people would have no idea what the marks of authenticity in a Da Vinci painting might be, it’s safe to assume that the experts do. We trust their conclusions because they know what to look for and will recognize it when they see it. That’s why they’re the experts.
But suppose we called in the experts not on Da Vinci paintings, but on something far more valuable: the very thoughts of God Himself.
How would our experts on the thoughts of God go about establishing whether or not a particular interpretation that we had found tucked away in some Swiss vault was really a 500 year old lost masterpiece of God? What would be the special and unique characteristics that would confirm beyond a doubt that our understanding of His thoughts was authentic?
Let me pause right here to note that experts on the thoughts of God seem to abound these days. There’s one on every corner. And ten on every cable channel. They constantly assure you of their own expertise as they carefully make their examinations, declaring this thought to be authentically God’s, and that thought to be an obvious fraud. “Trust me,” they say. “I know what to look for and I’ll recognize it when I see it.”
But one word of warning: if your chosen expert on the thoughts of God doesn’t start right here, exactly where the prophet Isaiah instructs him to, searching diligently to find not the likenesses between God’s thoughts and your thoughts, but the immeasurable-by-a-universe differences, then beware:
That masterpiece you have hanging in your spiritual gallery – might turn out to be nothing more than a cheap forgery.
The process of determining authenticity in anything of value is always a search for similarities based on some accepted standard of comparison. To make their determination, our experts would need something already known to be authentic with which to compare the thoughts of God.
But therein lies the problem.
Da Vinci expressed his thoughts in many paintings. God expressed His, so to speak, in only One. To authenticate a Da Vinci, you just need another Da Vinci. To authenticate God, you just need another... well, you see the problem. It’s a little more complicated than that with God.
Why? Because, God informs us through Isaiah, in no uncertain terms, that there simply is nothing ‘like’ His thoughts – anywhere. Nowhere in the entire universe is there anything authentically-like God’s thoughts, outside of God’s thoughts themselves.
Remember? My thoughts are not your thoughts. Not once. Not ever. No exceptions.
And that’s a real problem. In order for our experts to give an accurate confirmation, there must be a separate standard, because for reasons that are obvious, you cannot compare a thing to itself in order to authenticate it.
Unfortunately however, there isn’t one single original thought of anyone else, at any time, or any place, in all of human history, like God’s thoughts but still separate, with which we might compare His to find the needed similarities for our own authentication.
Nope. Sorry. Your thoughts, no matter how lofty they may be, still don’t quite measure up.
My thoughts, says God, are not your thoughts. They aren’t now your thoughts, nor have they ever been your thoughts. Not a single one. Not a single time. Not a single exception.
There just isn’t any outside, independent, stand-alone comparison anywhere to be found. So... what would our experts do?
In this unique one-in-a-universe kind of situation, with the tool of comparison rendered completely useless, our experts would be left with only one choice: they would be forced to authenticate our understanding of God’s thoughts using only the tool of contrast.
And here’s how that would work: imagine a universe where all of the paintings in all of existence were all Da Vincis – except for One.
All of the Da Vinci paintings would share in common all of the exact same characteristics with all of the other Da Vincis – but no resemblance whatsoever to the One that was different. All of the Da Vincis would be easily recognized and easily authenticated by their comparative likenesses and similarities to all of the other Da Vincis.
However, in our search for the One, we would know that It could only be authenticated by It’s unique quality of un-likeness and dissimilarity to all of the others. Every one that looked like all the others would automatically, without a second thought, be rejected as not-the-One.
So it is with God’s thoughts. Listen very carefully:
Isaiah tells us that, of all the thoughts that have ever been thought by all the men who have ever lived – and of all the thoughts that will ever be thought by all the men who are yet to live – none of them – not one single one of them – will ever be found to be like His thoughts.
Because, My thoughts, says God, are not your thoughts. Not one. Not ever. No exceptions.
In a world filled with uncertainty, this is the one single thing of which you may be absolutely sure beyond any doubt: God guarantees, through Isaiah, by His very own unalterable utterance, an “un-changing un-likeness” between His thoughts and your thoughts.
And because of that guarantee, here is the most astonishing conclusion you could never have even imagined apart from Isaiah’s revelation:
Even if you don’t know for certain what God thinks, you can always know for certain what God does not think:
God does not think – never has thought and never could think – what you think He thinks.
Because, God says, My thoughts – are not – your thoughts. Not one. Not ever. No exceptions.
And that thought changes absolutely every other thought. Because that means any thoughts ‘like’ your thoughts could never be any of His thoughts.
And that means every one of God’s thoughts, when laid beside every one of your thoughts – even your best thoughts – especially your best thoughts – must evidence a difference from your own before they can be authenticated as genuinely His.
Not a likeness to your own thoughts, but a difference. And that difference must be a big difference. An exceedingly enormous difference.
And just how big must that difference be? Listen very carefully:
It must be a difference big enough to justify the fact that, in God’s very own Expert ‘opinion,’ the only thing big enough in the entire universe to accurately represent the difference between His thinking and yours – is the entire universe itself!
That means, if you can’t find the difference between God’s thoughts and your thoughts, when God Himself could find nothing smaller than the entire universe with which to fittingly compare that difference... then there are only two possibilities left:
Either God is wrong – in which case, there really is no immeasurable difference between His thoughts and yours – or – you haven’t even been looking for a difference!
Personally... I’d bet on door number two, myself. Every time.
I’d bet, every time, without exception, you’ve been looking for a “measurable likeness” between God’s thoughts and your thoughts, instead of an “immeasurable difference.”
Because if the difference between the way God thinks and the way you think really is as big as God Himself says it is, then you ought to be able to find that difference – with one eye tied behind your back.
You do remember, of course, that God Himself is the One and Only Expert on God Himself. Right?
And God Himself says that your search to authenticate His thoughts must always be a search for the difference – and only the difference – an entire immeasurable universe of difference – between every one of His thoughts and every one of yours.
Do you remember why it could never be a search for the likeness between His thoughts and your thoughts?
That’s right! Because the Expert says there isn’t any!
Because, My. Thoughts. Are. Not. Your. Thoughts. Not one. Not ever. No exceptions. End of story.
That’s why a real expert on the thoughts of God would always apply the “Isaiah test” first – before he did anything else.
And if a rightly conducted test on a thought that possibly belonged to God produced a positive result, that positive result would always be the same: “Wow! I’m astonished! That’s not what I would have thought... not by an entire universe!”
But on the other hand, if the test produced a result of, “Well, of course! That makes perfect sense to me! That’s exactly what I’ve always thought, and God and I are in complete agreement,” then a real expert would know, without even thinking twice, that that could not possibly be what God was really thinking.
That thought might be my thought or your thought – it might even be an angel’s thought – but it could never, never under any circumstance, be God’s thought.
Because, My thoughts are not your thoughts, says God. Not once. Not ever. No exceptions.
Simply said:
God thinks nothing like you think He thinks.
That’s what Isaiah thinks.
And if you don’t think like Isaiah thinks, Isaiah thinks you don’t think like God thinks.
And if you don’t think like God thinks, you need to change the way you think.
Because neither God nor Isaiah, at this point, is very likely to change the way they think.