How does one respond to someone who says that God must have a pretty big ego to create us, and then expect us to worship Him? I had never really thought about that until I was asked that question. What this person is really accusing God of is arrogance. One definition of arrogance is "excessively and unpleasantly self-important; haughty, from the Latin word arrogare, which means to claim without right." That would pretty well sum up someone with a big ego. So, does God have a big ego? Is He arrogant?
One who may have dealt with this question is Job in the Old Testament. Job suffered tremendously, and He questioned God during His sufferings. In Job, chapters 38-39 God answered Job, even though He was not obligated to. Job finally fell silent when he realized how awesome God actually is. You see, God reasons with us even though He doesn't have to, because He loves us. (Isaiah 1:18-20) He wants to have a relationship with us, but that relationship has to be based on truth, not on a lie. The truth is that He is God, and we are His creation, formed from the dust of the earth.
Why did God create us? He didn't have to. It was because He wanted to express His love. God's very nature is love. (I John 4:8) Why do human beings, who are created in the image of God, have a desire to have children? Usually, it is because they have a desire to pour out their love on another human being. God feels the same way about us. He wants to show us His love. That's why He sent His only Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for our wickedness, so that we could be restored to fellowship with Him.
Jesus told us that when you have seen Him, you have seen the Father, so the attributes we see in Jesus through the scriptures are the attributes of God. (John 14:9) Hebrews 1:1-4 tells us that Jesus is the exact representation of who God is. In Colossians 2:9 we read that in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form. Jesus was not proud. He was the most humble person who ever walked this earth. He was, and still is, God, but He didn't flaunt it. Humility implies meekness and modesty, not arrogance and boastfulness. It implies lowering rather than exalting oneself. This is exactly what Jesus did when He left heaven and lowered Himself down to our level by becoming a man. The scriptures tell us in Philippians 2:3-11 "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond servant, and being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
God could have made us like robots, totally submissive to Him with no choice on our part, but He chose to create us with a free will. He wants us to choose to love Him. Do we want people to love us because they have to, or because they want to? Love that has no choice is no love at all. The scriptures tell us that God loved us first. He loves us whether we love Him back or not, and it breaks His heart when we choose to reject Him.
Have you ever thought about what this life would be like if God was evil instead of good? What if He created us just to torment us? What if our pain gave Him pleasure? Some people have this image of God, but they don't realize that they are confusing God with the god of this world, Satan. When we choose not to submit our lives to God, then we put ourselves at the mercy of Satan, and he has no mercy. The scriptures tell us that Satan only wants to steal, kill, and destroy. He's doing a really good job of it, too. On the contrary, Jesus came that we might have life, and have it abundantly, (John 10:10) but we must submit ourselves to Him in order to receive that abundant life.
No, God is not arrogant. In fact, He has every right to expect to be worshiped by virtue of who He is. We don't have to worship God now if we don't want to, but the scriptures tell us that one day every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. He remains the same regardless of what we choose to believe about Him. He is God and He would be a liar if He claimed to be anything less, but God cannot and does not lie. He loves you. Won't you receive His love and love Him in return?
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