Seeking the Wrong Saviour

The Hebrew text is more emphatic: õøàá éúöôç àì êîòå íéîùá éì éî mi li bashshamayim; veimmecha lo chaphatsti ba arets. “Who is there to me in the heavens? And apart from thee I have desired nothing in the earth.”

This is reminiscent of the forty second Psalm . . . “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God . . .” Psalms 42:1-2

The living God is manifest to us in the person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To the people of God, He is our fondest desire, our greatest treasure. Nothing else that we desire could ever compare to Him. He is the wellspring of every blessing, and He invites us to come to Him for whatever we need. Guidance, provision, protection, deliverance. The cry of the Saviour is, Come unto ME. “Come unto me . . . and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 “Look unto me, and be ye saved . . . for I am God, and there is none else.” Isaiah 45:22

In Him we have everything we could ever need, and more. So why would we ever look anywhere else but unto Him?

Yet that is exactly what so many of God’s people are doing.

In this dark and evil day, people are clearly looking for a saviour. They cry, Who will help us? How can we ever get back to where we were? How can our peace and safety ever be restored? But they’re looking to politicians, philosophers, preachers, personal trainers, science, the arts and even within themselves — anywhere and everywhere but above!

But this is nothing new.

In 1 Samuel chapter 8, we read that there was a time when we actually had God as our Sovereign, but we decided that was not good enough. The men whom God had chosen for His administration had disappointed, as all men will, so we decided we wanted a king like all the other nations . . . “Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel . . . and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” 1 Samuel 8:4-7

God told Samuel to give the people what they asked, but he told him to tell them what would happen, that they would be sorry and that it would not go well for them, but still they insisted on having a king like all the other nations.

And so, we have the mess that we have today.

Why is it, when we need a saviour, we look to men and not to God? Can any man save like God can save? Can any man lead like God can lead? Can any man care for us like the Good Shepherd?

Where does our help come from? Where is our hope? In whom do we trust? “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.” Psalms 121:1-2

“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever.” Psalms 146:3-6

I exhort you, people of God — in the tempest, look not to those who can never make things right, no matter how good or noble they may seem to be. Look unto Jesus, for He is the ONLY one who can fix the mess we have made for ourselves!

Look unto Jesus — the author and finisher of faith — and be ye saved!