The art of god-making is very common among men

Charles Spurgeon, "God of the hills and god of the valleys"

(You will find it helpful to LISTEN to the Audio, as you READ the text below.)

1 Kings 20:23, "The officials of the king of Syria advised him: Their gods are gods of the hills. That is why they were too strong for us. But if we fight them on the plains, surely we will be stronger than they."

While the Syrians thus ascribed their defeat unto Jehovah, they made a great mistake as to His character, for they supposed Him to be a local god, like their own imaginary deities. They had gods for the mountains, and gods for the valleys, gods for the rivers, gods for the fields, gods for their houses, gods for their gardens--and these so-called gods were powerless outside of their own sphere. They imagined the only living and true God, to be a local god like their idols.

Let us abhor this dishonoring of God and avoid the sin of idolatry, by never daring to make a god after our own ideas.

The art of god-making is very common among men. Instead of going to Scripture revelation to see who God is, and humbly believing in Him as He reveals Himself there--men sit down and consider what sort of god He ought to be, and in so doing they are as foolish as the man who makes a god of mud, or wood, or stone.

If we make a god in our own thoughts, and after our own ideas--then we have virtually made an imaginary deity of God Almighty; and in so doing we are idolaters in mind and heart!

No man knows what God is, except only as He has revealed Himself in Scripture. All thoughts and imaginings apart from this, are idolatrous.

Believe what He reveals about Himself, but do not follow the way of the Syrians, and begin to conceive of Him according to the darkness of your own feeble and foolish minds, or into what other blasphemies your own proud thoughts may lead you.

"The man of God came up and told the king of Israel: This is what the LORD says: 'Because the Syrians think the LORD is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the LORD.' " 1 Kings 20:28