QT 10 Sep 15, Isa 37:1-4, What is our concept of God?

Isa 37:1-4 (ESV) As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, 'This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. 4  It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'"

NOTE: Yesterday I may have incorrectly stated that Hezekiah went to Isaiah (indirectly to God) first, and that is not true. He went to the house of the Lord first. And then he sent a message to Isaiah asking for prayer. What is unusual in Hezekiah's message to Isaiah is that twice, Hezekiah refers to God as "the Lord your God," instead of "the Lord our God." Maybe it was humility because spiritually Hezekiah's faith was nowhere near as strong as Isaiah's. And so he did not want to communicate that his concept of God was the same as Isaiah's. In other words, he felt Isaiah really knew who God was (as best as a human might), and his understanding of God was much more limited and even incorrect. He wanted Isaiah's God, not the idol he might have created in his own mind of who God is and how he must act. We all do this to some extent. We form a picture of who we want God to be as opposed to what scripture says him to be. We pick and choose verses to build our concept. And so we end up creating an idol that we call the one true God. But if it is based on our desire for what God ought to be and not scripture's description of what God is, it IS an idol. And it is not much different than olden times where people took a piece of wood and fashioned it into an idol (their picture of God). And then they placed it on some central place (which is supposed to suggest centrality in their life, but it didn't), and also it was a shelf usually. When they needed him, they would go to him, but otherwise they would ignore him. If they needed to move him, they could control him and re-position as they felt necessary. What a false concept of God! But is the idol we have created in our mind any different?