I’ve sat back and wondered about what God is doing in our culture with Tim Tebow. Our God does all things well, but He is certainly mysterious.

Tim Tebow has become a cultural phenomena (with his name having become a verb), which I am normally put off with when Christians are at the center of such things (because too many Christians have been more of a disgrace to Jesus than a genuine witness in the end). But this has seemed different to me somehow.

We live in a time when, on the one hand, people do not generally believe in or want to submit to God. God is perceived to be the enemy of good living, and Christians (in particular) are buffoons to be casually laughed off as throwbacks to a failed religion. On the other hand, people generally know that a world without God and the supernatural is somehow not right.

I think many are wondering to themselves, “What if?” People will be tuning it today’s game just to see if God will intervene again in history and surprise everyone. People are going very, very far out of their way to deny that they believe anything of the kind. But they…do.

It doesn’t de-throne the King of kings if the Broncos lose the game, nor am I under any delusion that multitudes people will place their faith in Jesus if they win today or even the Super Bowl. But what will it all mean to our culture, and what is God doing?

With the many critics of Tebow contemptuously ridiculing both Him and God, I’ve not been able to shake the way this phenomenon is similar to past enemies of God and His people mocking Him before a decisive battle. Like Goliath:

⁸Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. ⁹If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” ¹⁰And the Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.” ¹¹When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

⁴²And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him; for he was only a youth, ruddy and good-looking.  ⁴³So the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. ⁴⁴And the Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!”

⁴⁵Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. ⁴⁷Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.” (1 Samuel 17 )

What about the great conflict between Sennacherib of Assyria and Yahweh our God?

²⁹Thus says the king [Sennacherib]: ‘Do not let Hezekiah [King of Judah] deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you from his hand; ³⁰nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us; this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ’ ³¹Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; ³²until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive groves and honey, that you may live and not die. But do not listen to Hezekiah, lest he persuade you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.”

³³Has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ³⁴Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim and Hena and Ivah? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ³⁵Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’ ” (2 Kings 18)

¹⁵Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: “O Lord God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁶Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. ¹⁷Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, ¹⁸and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them. ¹⁹Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord God, You alone.”

Yahweh God answered and said: ³⁴‘For I will defend this city, to save it For My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ” ³⁵And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead.  (2 Kings 19)

Is God using the Tebow phenomenon to draw attention to Himself in an unexpected way, and to use it to show Himself strong and mighty for His people? I just don’t know. But this I do know, whatever happens, God’s name will be glorified on the earth, which is my first prayer. My second prayer is for Tim Tebow, that he remains a godly and faithful Christian through it all.

Tags: Football, NFL, Tim Tebow, Witness