|
About Jesus Steve Sweetman Love In Context - Part 2 God
Almighty Defining
God in His totality is a subject way too big for this format.
Besides, I can't do that. I
only wish to share a few Scriptures that state the awesomeness of the
God we serve. I seldom use
the word awesome because I think it should only apply to God, for He
only is awesome. If we can
see just a little glimpse of God's awesomeness, it should humble us.
At that point, we'll begin to appreciate His love.
Therefore, the degree to which we can understand the awesome
nature of God will be the degree to which we can begin to appreciate His
love. Despite
Jacques Ellul's quote found in chapter 6 of The Shack, the first aspect
of God we see in the Bible is the Almighty Creator God, which Ellul says
is not the aspect of God we should first think of
when we think of Him. Genesis
1:1 says that "Elohim" created the heavens and the earth.
Elohim is a Hebrew word and is the first name for God that we see
in the Bible. It expresses His Almighty Creative power that Ellul says
is a secondary aspect of God. "Elohim"
simply spoke all things into existence with absolutely no effort.
Man has hardly begun to understand His creation, even though many
scientific minds believe we have. The
name "Elohim" clearly expresses the almighty and awesome
nature of our God. The
next aspect of God we see in Genesis is that of "Yahweh".
"Yahweh" is associated with the loving nature of God
because this name is often linked to God's covenantal promises he spoke
to the patriarchs of The
next aspect of God we see in Genesis is in Genesis 15:2
when Abraham recognized God as His "Sovereign Lord".
That's "Adonai Yahweh".
The Hebrew word "Adonai" implies ownership.
Abraham was saying that "Yahweh", the eternal "I
AM", owned him. "Yahweh"
was Abraham's master. Abraham
did not think for a minute that "Yahweh" was his buddy.
Now that's something to think about in our "I'm my own
master" world.
The
next aspect of God seen in the Genesis account is reflected in yet
another name associated with God. In
Genesis 28:3 Isaac recognized God as "El Shaddai", or,
"God Almighty" in English.
The earliest meaning of "El Shaddia" that we know of
seems to be symbolized in the term "The Mountain One",
suggesting strength. Thus
the term "Almighty" in English.
Once again, "almighty" according to Ellul is a
secondary aspect of God. Exodus
6:2 and 3 in the NIV reads, "God also said to Moses, 'I am the
Lord. (Yahweh) I appeared to
Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, (El Shaddia) but
by my name the Lord (Yahweh) I did not make myself known to them."
God is saying that He appeared to the patriarchs as "El
Shaddia", the Almighty One. That
was their mental image of Him. Even
though the patriarchs used the term "Yahweh", they understood
Him as "El Shaddai", the Mighty One. It
appears that the name "Yahweh" was further clarified during
the days of Moses. The
reason why I mention Exodus 6:2 and 3 is for its context.
God was going to judge and deal with If
you stop and think about it for a bit, "Elohim",
"Yahweh", "Adonai", and "El Shaddai" are
four inseparable aspects of God. I
don't see that any one aspect of God is more important and predominant
than any other. These
aspects of God, and others as well, all show the powerful and awesome
nature of God that Ellul says is a secondary aspect of God.
I don't think we can simply view God as love and ignore the rest
of who He is. So
there you go. I've only
scratched the surface of one Old Testament book that clearly shows the Almighty Creator aspect of God.
We can't ignore this or else we are ignoring the Bible that
Christians claim is the authoritative Word of God, or at least we used
to make that claim. That
seems to be changing these days. Just
in case you think Elohim has changed since Old Testament days, we'll see
that He hasn't changed in my next chapter when we take a look at the
New Testament.
|