（申10）祂是你的神 (Deuteronomy 10) He Is Your God
(ChatGPT translation from Chinese, edited by Mijiale, revised on 08/22/2024, 中文在后面）
Deuteronomy 10:21 “He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your eyes have seen.”
This verse contains an important biblical teaching: the God revealed in the Bible is not an impersonal God who merely governs universal laws without regard for individual lives. He carries out His will in the personal experiences of every believer. In our respective life journeys, we can personally experience that He is a living God. Below is a believer’s personal testimony. Apart from possible differences in some details of memory or expression, the basic concept expressed is true.
“When I was in college in China, I read Einstein’s collected works and admired his religious belief. He was influenced by Spinoza and believed in an impersonal God who governs the operation of the universe. He thought that traditional biblical faith was too naive; I think he was referring to the belief in a personal God.
Later, when I participated in a nationwide exam for some graduate programs abroad, I ranked last among all the students admitted. I was very curious as to how such a coincidence could happen. Was it a meaningless random event? I remember that after learning about the exam results, I was sitting on the grass chatting with a good friend. I talked about how life could have so many coincidences and mentioned many other similar events, such as how I hoped to grow to a certain height when I was young, and later I ended up growing exactly to that height, and other reflections of this kind. This good friend was the son of a philosophy professor. He said he had also thought about these issues and felt that he later figured it out. He gave an analogy: it’s like someone hitting many golf balls—some fall here, some fall there—and each golf ball could have its own sighs. One might sigh about how close it is to the hole; another might marvel at how flat the grass is where it landed; another might observe that it’s exactly in between two other balls; yet another might notice that the grass here has three different colors. Each of us has our own unique experiences, but these have no real meaning or purpose.
Looking back decades later, barely getting into a graduate program abroad did change the course of my life, but if there were no personal God, this would have just been a purposeless coincidence—like my friend’s analogy of a golf ball’s landing spot, where just a slight difference would have caused it to roll to the other side of the slope.
Soon, I found such an explanation unsatisfactory. The school’s visa documents took a long time to arrive, while other admitted students had already received their documents and gone to Shanghai for training. I worried that because my exam rank was too low and the school that admitted me was one of the top ten Ivy League schools, they might reconsider. My diary recorded my doubts and anxieties. I realized that Einstein’s impersonal “God” was incomplete for me and couldn’t help in my situation. I didn’t need a natural law that governs gravity and electromagnetism simultaneously, but a personal God who could hear my prayers and cause the school to send out the visa documents sooner. Gradually, my diary began to include calls to God. The visa documents finally arrived on July 1, and I was able to go abroad in time for the fall semester. The week before Christmas that year, I was invited by some new friends to a Chinese church, where I began to come into contact with the Bible. I slowly discovered that the God of the Bible is the same God who helped me. He not only governs natural laws but also controls my exam rankings and hears my prayers. For me, He is a complete God. In Him, there is no coincidence; every individual “golf ball’s landing spot” is determined by Him. My journey abroad that year was not accidental but intentionally arranged by Him to give me better opportunities to come to faith in Him and serve Him so that I may enter the ‘promised land’ in the afterlife. As Deuteronomy 11:7-9 says, ‘But your own eyes have seen all the great things the Lord has done. Therefore, keep all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land you are about to enter, and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.’”
（申10）祂是你的神
申命记10：21 “他 是 你 所 赞 美 的 ， 是 你 的 神 ， 为 你 作 了 那 大 而 可 畏 的 事 ， 是 你 亲 眼 所 看 见 的 。” …
这经文包含着一个重要的圣经教导：圣经所启示的上帝，不是一个单单掌管着普遍规律而不管个体生命的非人格化的上帝。祂在每个信徒的个体经历上中贯彻着祂的旨意。我们在各自的生命历程里可以亲自体验到，祂是活的神。以下是一个信徒的亲身经历，除了在一些细节的记忆或表述上可能有些差异，其表达的基本概念是真实的。
“我在中国上大学时，读到爱因斯坦文集，很欣赏他的宗教信仰，他受斯宾诺莎的影响，认为有一个非人格化的上帝，掌管宇宙万物的运行。他认为传统的圣经信仰太幼稚了，我想他指的是关于上帝人格化的信仰。后来在考一个全国范围的出国研究生项目时，我在被录取的学生中名列最后一名。我就很好奇，怎么会这么巧，这是没有意义的随机事件吗？我记得考试结果知道后，我和一个好朋友一起坐在草地上聊天，我说起人生怎么会有这么巧的事，还说了很多其他很巧合的事，类似于我小时候希望长到身高是多少，后来正好长到那么高，诸如此类的感想。这个好朋友是一个哲学教授的儿子，他说，他也想过这样的问题，他觉得他后来想通了，打个比方，就像有人打出很多高尔夫球，有些落在这里，有些落在那里，那么每个高尔夫球都可以有自己的感叹，有的感叹我这里离洞多么近，有的感叹我这里的草地怎么这么平，有的感叹，我的这里正好处在两个球的中间，有的感叹，我这里的草有三种不同的颜色。我们每个人都有自己的奇特经历，而这些都没有什么意义或目的。
几十年后回头看，勉强考上出国研究生这件事，改变了我个人的人生轨迹，但如果没有一个人格化的上帝，这就只是一个没有目的的巧合。就像我朋友所说的一个高尔夫球的落点，只差了一点点，就滚动到了斜坡的另外一边。
很快我对这样的解释就不能满足了。学校签证文件迟迟不来，别的被录取的同学早已拿到文件后都已经去上海集训了。我担心自己考的名次太低了，而录取我的是专业排名前十的一个常青藤学校, 会不会他们反悔了？我的日记上记载了我的疑虑和焦急。我发现，爱因斯坦的非人格化“上帝”，对我来说不完备，不能帮上我的忙，我需要的不是同时掌管引力和电磁场的自然规律，而是能听我的祈求、能让学校早日寄出签证表格的、人格化的上帝。我的日记里逐渐出现了对上帝的呼求。我的签证文件到七月一日才到，但后来还是及时出国赶上了秋季的入学。当年圣诞节前一周，我被新地方的朋友带去一个华人教会，开始接触到圣经，我慢慢发现，圣经里的上帝，就是那位帮助我的上帝，祂不光掌管自然规律，也掌管我考试的名次，也垂听我的祈求，祂对我来说才是完备的上帝。在祂也没有偶然，每一个个体的“高尔夫球的落点”，是祂有意决定的。我当年的出国，不是偶然，而是祂有意决定的，为了我后来有更好的机会信仰祂和侍奉祂，使我将来进入来世得‘应许之地’。就像申命记11:7-9所说， ‘惟 有 你 们 亲 眼 看 见 耶 和 华 所 作 的 一 切 大 事 。所 以 ， 你 们 要 守 我 今 日 所 吩 咐 的 一 切 诫 命 ， 使 你 们 胆 壮 ， 能 以 进 去 ， 得 你 们 所 要 得 的 那 地 ，并 使 你 们 的 日 子 在 耶 和 华 向 你 们 列 祖 起 誓 ， 应 许 给 他 们 和 他 们 后 裔 的 地 上 得 以 长 久 。 那 是 流 奶 与 蜜 之 地 。’ ”