Who Is God? [3]

. . . I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 

Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that 

are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:  

Isaiah 46:9-10

Knowing how God Identifies Himself in the Bible is an important topic as I believe that many folks today don’t fully recognize God for who He is.  The bible tells us 

We discussed the fact that God allows Himself to be known and is described or known by many different descriptive names in the bible such as: 

Ø Yahweh: "I Am" or "The Self-Revealing One"

Ø  Elohim: "Creator" or "Mighty and Strong" 

Ø  Adonai: "Lord" or "Master," God's sovereignty and position as owner of all 

Ø  El Shaddai: "God Almighty" or "The All-Sufficient One

Ø  Jehovah-Jireh: "The Lord Will Provide" or "The Lord Who Provides"

Ø  Jehovah-Rapha: "The Lord That Heals"

Ø  Jehovah-Nissi: "The Lord My Banner," the banner of victory & protection.

Ø  Jehovah-Shalom: "The Lord Is Peace,"

Ø  Jehovah-Rohi: "The Lord Is My Shepherd

Ø  Jehovah-Mekoddishkem: "The Lord Who Sanctifies," sets His people apart as holy 

Ø  Jehovah-Sabaoth: "The Lord of Hosts," the commander of heavenly armies 

Ø  Jehovah-Tsidkenu: "The Lord Our Righteousness," 

Ø  Jehovah-Shammah: "The Lord Is There," God's abiding presence with His people.

Ø  Jehovah Maphalti – the one who delivers 

Above all, know God is absolutely holy — without any moral or character defect. 

He said:  Be ye holy for I am holy  1 Peter 1:16.  Peter’s repeating what God spoke to His people in Leviticus 11:44-45.  God doesn’t change.  In fact, the Bible says that God is incapable of being anything different despite being all powerful. God is unchangeable.  

God said it:  For I the Lord do not change . . .  Malachi 3:6

 

In other words, He doesn’t change any of His attributes or character at any time. Despite humanity's tendency to change its definition of morality, God's moral character does not evolve with the times, but remains constant.  He’s not fickle; following every wind and whim of man.  We need to get to know Him in all of His ways so that we won’t be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We won’t be deceived or be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.  Ephesians 4:14

 

So, in all these various descriptive names we find in the bible, we can learn even more of who God is and what He’s all about through our experiences with Him.  God wants us to know Him not only through His creativity but also through our personal experience with Him.  I want to share an account of someone who got to know God in a very personal way and that person is Job.

 

So first, let’s consider the account of this righteous man, Job, in the bible. This account relates the spiritual transformation of Job from a man who knew a great deal about God to a man who really came to know God in a personal and intimate way.

The account of Job – to me – is highly thought-provoking and we really shouldn’t dumb it down to ‘there once was a man who suffered greatly and got double for his trouble’. And this is what we should [know] about; that Job got rewarded for his suffering while not even understanding the purpose behind it and the spiritual benefits that resulted from the suffering. We live in a highly materialistic word, but this account is not about the accumulation of wealth just for the sake of accumulation. For most of the account, Job and his friends are stating what they think they know about God and why Job is going through, but their limited views fall far short of understanding the great mind, purposes and plan of God. After God talks with Job, [I encourage you to read Job 38 – 41]. Job has a major breakthrough in understanding as God reveals who He is. Job said, Before I knew only what I had heard of You, but now I have seen You. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. Job 42:5-6

Job came to see God in a deeper way with the eyes of faith and spiritual understanding. Job was ashamed of his cockiness, thinking he understood more than he really did, and he deeply repented. When he said, "I abhor myself," he meant that he despised his self-justification and implications that God had been unjust with Him.

Job apparently came to realize more deeply that everyone's life includes suffering and that suffering is a necessary part of spiritual growth as we learn to rely on and lean on God in all matters. Job surrendered to God's will, having come to understand that God is the sovereign Lord of the universe, God has perfect understanding, and

He always does what is best for us in the long run;

not what’s good to us in the moment!

We have to learn to trust Him though we don’t see Him with our natural eyes. Our human nature makes it difficult to trust or believe what we don’t see. You’ll see as you read Job 38 – 41 how God revealed His majesty through his creation of the heavens and the earth. Se we are without excuse as Apostle Paul explains:

People know the truth about God because he’s made it obvious to them. Every since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So, they have no excuse for not knowing God. Even though they knew God, they won’t worship Him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God is like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worship idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. Romans 1:19-23

There’re 2 scriptures that we aught to believe without reservation:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1

And

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1

If you don’t believe these 2, that in the beginning God – you might as well give it up, call it a wrap. It started with God – who is alpha and it will end with God who is omega:

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Revelation 22:13

We should pray the same prayer that Apostle Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus that we have the power to understand that the love of Jesus is infinitely long, wide, high, deep and surpassing everything any of us have previously experienced and that the fulness of God flood through our entire beings. That prayer extends to us all. We should want to know every single aspect of God that He reveals to us.




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