Is There Really Only One God? Ben Sirach Argues the Case Before the Nations

What if the most powerful prayer you could pray today had already been prayed twenty-two centuries ago? In Ecclesiasticus 36, Ben Sirach lays out the case before God with the precision of a lawyer and the fire of a prophet. And the verdict he is asking for concerns the nations, not just himself.

Scripture, history, and the quiet testimony of ordinary human lives have all been called to the witness stand. The case being argued is ancient but the verdict is urgently contemporary: there is no God but the Lord. Ecclesiasticus 36 opens the courtroom door.

Core Message Conveyed Through the Blog Post

God Continues to Reveal Himself Through History, Scripture, and Human Experience

The reflection argues that the question of God’s reality is not merely philosophical but deeply experiential and historical. Using Ecclesiasticus 36:5–7 as its foundation, the post presents humanity as standing in an ongoing “courtroom,” where evidence about God is continually being examined.

The Central Claim

There is no God but the Lord, and His presence continues to be revealed through divine action, historical endurance, and personal transformation.

In One Concise Statement

The blog post conveys that God continues to reveal His reality through Scripture, history, and transformed human lives, and believers are called to become living witnesses of that truth before the world.

A Roadmap to the Reflection

 The reflection begins with an Opening Statement that presents Ben Sirach’s prayer as a bold legal appeal addressed to heaven on behalf of the nations. From there, the meditation unfolds through three distinct “Exhibits”: first, the testimony of Scripture — from the Exodus to Elijah on Mount Carmel; second, the testimony of history — from Rome’s conversion to the underground Church enduring Soviet and Maoist persecution; and third, the testimony of ordinary life — the quiet but enduring signs of grace that believers carry as personal evidence.

At the centre lies The Prayer as Legal Argument, exploring how Ben Sirach’s intercession is far more than passive devotion. It becomes missionary urgency expressed through the language of praise, testimony, and witness.

The reflection then arrives at The Verdict, presented in a shaded block of solemn clarity: there is no God but the Lord.

Finally, the Closing Argument turns directly to the reader, reminding us that we are not spectators but witnesses in a courtroom that the world is still conducting. The piece concludes with an engagement question that invites readers into personal reflection and testimony.

Today’s Bible Reflection – 26 May 2026

“Then they will know, as we have known, that there is no God but you, O Lord.

Give new signs and work other wonders;

make your hand and right arm glorious.”

Ecclesiasticus 36:5–7

“കർത്താവേ, ഞങ്ങള്‍ അങ്ങയെ അറിഞ്ഞതു പോലെ അവരും അങ്ങയെ അറിയുകയും

അങ്ങല്ലാതെ മറ്റൊരു ദൈവമില്ലെന്നു മനസ്‍സിലാക്കുകയും ചെയ്യട്ടെ.

അടയാളങ്ങളും അദ്‍ഭുതങ്ങളും വീണ്ടും പ്രവർത്തിച്‍ച് അങ്ങയുടെ കരബലം പ്രകടമാക്കണമേ!”

പ്രഭാഷകൻ 36:5–6

THE CASE BEFORE THE NATIONS

A Reflection on Ecclesiasticus 36:5–7

Written by Johnbritto Kurusumuthu

OPENING STATEMENT

Every court of law begins with a question. Someone steps forward. A claim is made. And the world is asked: do you believe it, or do you not?

Ben Sirach steps forward in Ecclesiasticus 36 not with a trembling petition but with a bold legal prayer. He does not whisper it. He argues it. He lays his case before the throne of heaven with the confidence of a man who has already seen the verdict — and is simply asking for the sentence to be carried out.

The case: that there is no God but the Lord.

The remedy sought: new signs, fresh wonders, a glorious display of the divine hand and arm.

The intended audience: the nations — every people, every power, every proud civilisation that has either forgotten God or never known Him.

Today, we enter that courtroom.

EXHIBIT A: THE TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE

The first witness called to the stand is the entire sweep of sacred history.

Look at the record. Egypt stood as the greatest empire on earth, its gods carved in granite, its armies the terror of nations. And yet the God of a band of Hebrew slaves parted a sea, rained bread from heaven, and led His people through a wilderness for forty years. The Exodus was not a quiet miracle. It was a courtroom spectacle — God entering the stage of history and announcing, with unmistakable clarity, who He is.

Then came Elijah on Mount Carmel — one man against four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal. The test was simple and devastating: call on your god, and let fire fall. The prophets of Baal called. They shouted. They cut themselves until blood flowed. The altar remained cold. Then Elijah prayed — and fire consumed not just the offering but the wood, the stones, and the water in the trench. The watching crowd did not need to be persuaded. They fell on their faces and cried: The Lord, He is God.

The testimony of Scripture is not a gentle suggestion. It is a forensic exhibition: case after case, century after century, demonstrating that when the living God acts, even the most resistant heart must acknowledge what it has seen.

Ben Sirach knew this record. He prayed from within it. His prayer was essentially this: Lord, do it again.

EXHIBIT B: THE TESTIMONY OF HISTORY

The second witness is the long arc of human civilisation, and its testimony is equally compelling.

Rome buried the Church. Caesar fed believers to lions. Emperors decreed that the Name of Jesus should not be spoken publicly. And yet within three centuries, the empire that had crucified Christians raised a cross over its own capital. Historians debate the politics of Constantine’s conversion. But no historian can explain away the simple and extraordinary fact: the most powerful empire in the Western world bowed before a carpenter from Nazareth.

Later, waves of totalitarianism swept across the twentieth century — Soviet atheism, Maoist suppression, the systematic erasure of faith from public life across vast nations. Churches were shuttered. Priests were executed. Bibles were burned. And yet when the walls fell — literally and figuratively — the faith emerged, not weakened, but refined. Poland. Romania. China. Russia itself. The underground Church outlasted its persecutors.

History does not prove God in a philosophical classroom. It demonstrates Him in the ruins of every empire that tried to silence His name. The nations rose. The nations fell. And the God of Ecclesiasticus 36 remained.

EXHIBIT C: THE TESTIMONY OF ORDINARY LIFE

The most persuasive evidence in any courtroom is not the grand historical sweep. It is the witness who takes the stand, looks the jury in the eye, and says: I was there. I saw it. It happened to me.

You know this witness. You may be this witness.

The diagnosis that the doctors said was irreversible — and then was not. The marriage that was beyond saving — and then was saved. The addiction that had swallowed a person whole — and from which they walked free, not by willpower alone, but by something that arrived in the night and would not let them go. The moment of absolute despair in which a word, a verse, a stranger’s kindness, or a sudden and inexplicable peace arrived and changed everything.

Ben Sirach prays for signs and wonders. But signs and wonders are not reserved for the spectacular stage of history. They happen in quiet rooms, in medical wards, in broken families, in the souls of people who called out with no expectation of an answer — and received one.

The courtroom fills with witnesses. Every person of faith in every generation has evidence to submit.

THE PRAYER AS LEGAL ARGUMENT

Here is what makes Ecclesiasticus 36:5–7 theologically extraordinary: Ben Sirach is not merely asking God to act. He is constructing a case for why God should act.

The argument runs like this: Lord, You have already established the precedent. The nations need to know what we know. The only way they will know it is if You act again in a manner they cannot dismiss. Therefore, give new signs. Work other wonders. Make Your hand and right arm glorious.

This is not passive piety. This is bold intercession — the prayer of someone who stands in the gap between those who know God and those who do not, and refuses to accept that the gap is permanent.

It is the prayer of a people who are not content that they alone should experience the glory of God. They want the nations to know. They want the world to see. They carry within them a missionary urgency dressed in the language of praise.

And notice the phrase that anchors it all: as we have known. The prayer is grounded in personal experience. Ben Sirach does not pray from theory. He prays from testimony. He has known the Lord. He has seen the hand move. He has experienced the right arm stretched out in rescue and power. And from that ground of knowing, he asks for more.

THE VERDICT

There is no God but You, O Lord.

Every piece of evidence has been submitted. Scripture has testified. History has testified. Ordinary human lives have testified.

The verdict is not in dispute — not for those who are willing to see it.

There is no God but the Lord. Not the gods of prosperity, comfort, or human opinion. Not the god of political power or technological prowess. Not the gods fashioned from fear, habit, or cultural inheritance. The Lord alone — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is God.

And this God has not retired. He is not the God only of ancient Israel or of the first-century Church. He is the God of this morning. He is the God of your situation, your need, your nation, your generation.

Ben Sirach’s prayer is still valid. Give new signs. Work other wonders. Make Your hand and right arm glorious. It is a prayer that carries across twenty-two centuries and lands with full force in the present moment, because the God to whom it is addressed has not changed.

CLOSING ARGUMENT

Every morning, you walk into a world that is still conducting its case against God. The nations still debate. The cultures still question. The headlines still doubt. And the world is watching, not always to argue, but often because it is secretly hoping someone will show it something it cannot explain away.

You are a witness in that courtroom.

Not a theorist. Not a philosopher. A witness — someone who can say, with the quiet authority of lived experience: I have known Him. I have seen what He does. He is real, He is present, and He is not finished.

Pray Ben Sirach’s prayer today. Not as a relic from the past, but as a living legal argument addressed to the living God: Lord, let the world know what I know. Act again. Show Your hand. Make Your glory visible.

And then watch. Because this God — the God who parted seas and raised the dead and outlasted every empire that dared to ignore Him — still answers prayers. He still works signs. He still makes His right arm glorious.

Court is still in session.

Note: This reflection is a devotional and theological meditation rather than a formal historical or philosophical proof. Historical events and personal testimonies are presented as witnesses to faith through the lens of Christian belief.

Today’s reflection is written by Johnbritto Kurusumuthu, inspired by the verse shared this morning (26 May 2026),

by His Excellency, the Rt. Rev. Dr Selvister Ponnumuthan — a cherished practice he has faithfully continued for over three years.

For Reflection

What is your testimony? What has God done in your life that the world needs to hear? Offer it today as your evidence in the case that is still being argued before the nations — and let your life become a sign that points to the only God there is.

Wake-Up Calls  |  Reflection 127 of 2026  |  Post Streak 1037

26 May 2026

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