WHO IS GOD?

This is not such an easy question to answer, but the answer is essential. It serves as the foundation of our lives – our hopes, dreams, decisions, ethics, commitments, and understanding of ourselves. He provides the lens through which we can understand all else. God is the Light who sheds light on all else, as C.S. Lewis had famously claimed:

·       I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/c_s_lewis_162523

How do we know that by this Light, we can see all else? Because, through this Lens, we can observe a coherent worldview, a completed puzzle, where all the pieces fit together, and where a coherent picture emerges. This worldview also serves as a roadmap that has enabled countless millions to navigate their lives profitably.

Of course, the knowledge of God isn’t so simplistic and doesn’t take shape immediately. How then do we know that we simply didn’t impose our own mental image of God upon the puzzle, pieced together by our desires and needs? How then can we be sure that we know the One in whom we have placed our hope?

There is another analogy that might be helpful. I like the books entitled, “Magic Eye.” They contain collections of computer-generated images. They look like a hodge-podge, but if you can allow your eyes to go out of focus, a coherent image, for example, of a horse or unicorn, begins to emerge. I ask myself, “Was it I who created this image of the confused computer mosaic?” No! How do I know this? Simple – in the back of the book the image is provided, and it precisely matches and confirms the image that had emerged for me.

Does this analogy tell us anything about our knowledge of God? I am confident that it does. How? I have found that the knowledge of God, which had emerged from my experience matches the picture that the Bible presents, even though it is incomplete. And without the missing parts in hand, the two pictures we derive do not perfectly fit together.

We are all faced with this problem. Moses had been crushed by the Israelite sin with the Golden Calf, which had resulted in God striking down thousands of His people. It had been the first time that God had used deadly force against His people, and this left Moses staggering for answers. He, therefore, asked His God to show him His glory, and God granted his request by revealing to Moses His character:

·       The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. (Exodus 34:6-8 (ESV)

Evidently, God’s Self-disclosure had satisfied Moses, since he bowed and worshipped, even though he hadn’t received a comprehensive revelation of God and His ways, and God had prepared him for the fact that His revelation wouldn’t explain everything. Moses had been shown His backside but not His face, which concealed the secret things of God (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Even now, we do not have all the pieces of the puzzle, even though we have been shown far more of the face of God than Moses. Although our puzzle is not complete, I think it is complete enough for us to proceed confidently with our lives.

I’m sure that Moses had also been left with many questions like, “God, since you are all-powerful, why could You not have taught us a less costly lesson?” However, it seems that he had been satisfied with God’s self-disclosure regarding His righteousness, faithfulness, and love. As a result of what Moses already did understand about his God, He was willing to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7; Romans 8:24-25).

In the midst of his ongoing suffering, Job had been struggling with the idea of walking by the faith he already had in God. Instead, he brought damning accusations against God. Job thought that he had enough understanding of God to do this. Therefore, God disciplined him with about 60 basic questions to show Job that, if he couldn’t answer any of these, He certainly lacked the necessary understanding to bring his indictments against God. Job got the point and humbly repented of his sin (Job 42:1-5).

This is a lesson that we too must master. Even though far more has been revealed to us than to Moses and Job, there is still so much that we don’t understand. This has become even more obvious to us through the revelations of science. Science cannot even answer the basic question like, “What is light, matter, space, and time?” While it can observe quantum events, science remains clueless about them and even about much more mundane things like gravitational causation or even the workings of any law of science.

Awareness of our lack of understanding should humble us, as it had for Job, but yet we can be confident about our Lord. In fact, we need to be confident:

·       Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:19-23)

How can we be confident about God and His Gospel, even though there remains so many things that we don’t fully understand? Ultimately, it is God who is able to give us this confidence and to enable us to stand in this assurance:

·       Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. (Romans 14:4)

If God is able to make any of us stand in confidence, we mustn’t despair that we are too sinful (Romans 5:20) or too weak (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) to live for Him. Instead, if God is for us, there is nothing that can disqualify us (Romans 8:31-32) from receiving His gift of assurance and confidence. However, we also have a role to play, as God had instructed Joshua:

·       “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:7-8)

In the next chapter, I'd like to take up the question about, "What specifically do we need to know about God from the Bible."

UNDERSTANDING THE BOOK OF JOB

The Book of Job is essentially about our ignorant self-righteous judgments. Job’s three friends were good friends. Remember, they had sat with Job for a week, mourning with their friend, without saying a word. However, in ignorance, they judged him guilty of having committed terrible sins, wrongly convinced that his sins had brought Job’s great misfortunes upon him.

The friends understood far less than they thought they did. Their understanding of God had been too limited, and their understanding of Job was both degrading and totally off-base.

Instead, Job had been the most righteous of men, but he too had judged God wrongly:

•                Job 9:21-24 "Although I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life. It is all the same; that is why I say, 'He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.' When a scourge brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent. When a land falls into the hands of the wicked, he blindfolds its judges. If it is not he, then who is it?”

•                Job 10:2-3 “I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me. Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked?’”

•                Job 27:2-6 "As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made me taste bitterness of soul.”

•                Job 16:12-17 All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target; his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground. Again and again he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior…yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.

Had Job been judging himself correctly? Not according to the narrative:

•                Job 32:1-5 These three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God.

At this point, the prophetic Elihu began to speak, and he accused Job of self-righteousness:

•                Job 33:8-12 "But you have said in my hearing--I heard the very words-- 'I am pure and without sin; I am clean and free from guilt. Yet God has found fault with me; he considers me his enemy. He fastens my feet in shackles; he keeps close watch on all my paths.' But I tell you, in this you are not right, for God is greater than man.”

Preparing Job for his confrontation with the One whom Job had been accusing, Elihu charged that humankind does not have the wisdom to bring indictments against God:

•                Job 37:19-21 "Tell us what we should say to him; we cannot draw up our case because of our darkness. Should he [God] be told that I want to speak? Would any man ask to be swallowed up? Now no one can look at the sun, bright as it is in the skies after the wind has swept them clean.

If we are unable to look at the sun, how can we expect to look at God accusingly? Only someone who has an inflated estimation of his understanding would attempt to do so.

In many ways, God, who then came upon Job in a whirlwind, affirmed Elihu’s denunciation of Job:

•                Job 38:1-2 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

In order to make His point clear, God asked Job a series of questions, which Job could not even begin to answer. The lesson was clear – Job lacked the understanding to bring indictments against God:

•                Job 40:8 "Would you indeed annul My judgment? Would you condemn Me that you may be justified?

This is exactly what Job had been doing, and this is what we do when we have to experience trials. Since we lack understanding, we blame God. However, even the most righteous need God’s correcting fires, as Elihu had explained to Job:

•                Job 33:13-18 Why do you complain to him that he answers none of man's words? For God does speak--now one way, now another--though man may not perceive it…. to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride, to preserve his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.

Job had been prideful and self-righteous. In love, God had been correcting him so that Job would not perish. However, Job had only blame for God and asserted his own righteousness. However, God used these afflictions to bring Job to repentance twice:

•                Job 40:4-5 "I am unworthy (“vile” NKJV)--how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer--twice, but I will say no more."

•                Job 42:3-6 You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?' Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know…My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."

Meanwhile, The Jewish Study Bible comments that “Suffering is Incomprehensible!” Accordingly, Job had nothing to confess or repent of. They too are judging God wrongly, leaning to their own very limited understanding.

God also corrected the judgments of Job’s three friends:

•                Job 42:7-8  After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has."

The friends had misjudged both God and Job and needed correction. However, it seems that God contradicts Himself. Twice, He charged that the friends “have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” However, before this, He had charged Job with NOT speaking rightly about Him.

Contradiction? Not really! Why not? When we confess our sin, He forgives and cleanses us (1 John 1:9). Job had learned his lesson, and God had wiped his slate clean. “Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13).

GOD’S WARNINGS, OMNIPOTENCE, AND THE GUILT OF HUMANITY

Job was not the first or the last to indict God, charging Him with “injustice.” In fact, such indictments are ubiquitous in Western society today, where any form of punishment is disparaged as “insensitive” and “mindless.” Even now, students at OSU are mourning the death of a terrorist who had knifed and plowed down a number of students with his car. In another case, a woman refused to bring charges against a migrant who had raped her because she felt that he had been driven to commit the rape.

In our moral and intellectual climate, it should not be surprising that God is scorned as a vengeful, medieval deity. “Christian” evolutionist, Karl Giberson, affirmatively quoted atheist Richard Dawkins in this regard:

·       [God is a] “tyrannical anthropomorphic deity” and “commanded the Jews to go on genocidal rampages.” But who believes in this [OT] deity any more, besides those same fundamentalists who think the earth is 10,000 years old? Modern theology has moved past this view of God.” http://biologos.org/blog/exposing-the-straw-men-of-new-atheism-part-five/

The late and renowned atheist, Bertrand Russell had been asked, “What if you meet God after you die and he asks, ‘Why didn’t you believe in me?’ How will you answer him?” Russell answered:

·       God, there was simply not enough evidence, just not enough evidence.

Is this true? Does God punish without sufficient warning? Scripture gives us a resounding “No.” Why then do people claim that there is no evidence? According to Scripture, humanity suppresses this evidence (Romans 1:18-20) and prefers the darkness to the light of truth (John 3:19-20).

Scripture gives us many accounts that substantiate this claim. For example, Pharaoh continued to harden his heart, even after the horrific 10 plagues. His chariots even pursed the fleeing Israelites into the sea with waters walled up on either side – an unmistakable testimony to the fact that Israel’s omnipotent God was with them.

How can we account for such willful blindness and foolishness? Only in this way: that humanity’s hatred of God is so great that it overrides every other consideration.

The Book of Revelation provides another stunning portrait of the sin-hardened. Even after the plagues that had accompanied the opening of the seven seals and the six trumpets, we read:

·       The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. (Revelation 9:20-21; ESV)

Can we indict God because of our stubbornness? Even after this, God provided many other signs that He meant business. He sent two supernatural prophets to prophesy against the nations for 1,260 days. When they had succeeded in killing the two, humanity gloated over their death and refused to allow them to be buried. However, this worked against them. After several days, God raised them and brought a terrible earthquake upon the land (Rev. 11).

Did they repent? No! Was God finished with His warnings to repent? Certainly not:

·       The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish  and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds. (Revelation 16:8-11)

Instead of repenting and confessing their sin to their Creator and Provider, they “cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores.” Did they not know what they were facing? They must have, but they had hardened their hearts like Pharaoh. They were no longer amenable to reason.

At this point, we tend to raise another objection:

·       God, you are omnipotent. You can do all things. If you have the power to change the hearts of men, why didn’t you change all their hearts so that they would come to you? To know to do good and to not do it is to sin.

This objection represents a misunderstanding of God’s omnipotence. While He can accomplish all the things He wants to accomplish, He cannot accomplish them through any means. He cannot sin; He cannot violate His Word. Besides, He is also constrained by His very character. Jesus had prayed that the Father would spare Him from going to the Cross:

·       And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39)

Evidently, there was no other way. God’s character constrains Him. His holy nature demands that there had to be a sufficient payment for sin. There was no other way.

I don’t understand why there must be eternal punishment, at least, not completely. However, I am resigned to the fact that I only see in part (Deut. 29:29) and that there is much about my Savior that I still do not understand. However, I am willing to wait and to abide with the understanding that He has offered to us.

WHEN UNDERSTANDING FAILS US

What can we do when it seems that God has failed us? When our loved ones are afflicted and die long before their time? When God could easily heal a faithful servant and doesn’t? Even when he allows them to commit suicide? When we these kinds of things happening, we feel betrayed and wonder whether we can really trust this God.

It might surprise you to learn that even the Saints of Israel had a problem with God. The Psalmist complained that God had betrayed the covenant He had made with David:

• But you [God] have rejected, you have spurned, you have been very angry with your anointed one [David]. You have renounced the covenant with your servant and have defiled his crown in the dust. You have broken through all his walls and reduced his strongholds to ruins… O Lord, where is your former great love, which in your faithfulness you swore to David? (Psalm 89:38-40)

Another Psalmist complained that it was useless to serve God, seeing that the unrighteous thrived better than the righteous:

• Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. (Psalm 73:13) 

Of course, Job, after losing everything, had his own complaints against God:

• "Although I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life. It is all the same; that is why I say, 'He [God] destroys both the blameless and the wicked.' When a scourge brings sudden death, he [God] mocks the despair of the innocent. When a land falls into the hands of the wicked, he [God] blindfolds its judges. If it is not he, then who is it?” (Job 9:21-24)

From the narrow vantage point of his experience, it seemed that God acts unjustly in every way:

• All was well with me, but he [God] shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target; his archers surround me. Without pity, he [God] pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground. Again and again he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior…yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure. (Job 16:12-17)

From Job’s limited perspective, he was sure that he didn’t deserve the way that God had treated him. Instead, he was sure that God was guilty of unfaithfulness. However, Job placed too much trust in his own thinking. This became clear to him after God had revealed Himself and asked Job a long series of questions that Job couldn’t even begin to answer.

Job got the point. If he couldn’t answer one of these easy questions, how could he bring charges against God! Consequently, Job repented:

• "I am unworthy (“vile” NKJV)--how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer--twice, but I will say no more." (Job 40:4-5)

• “You [God] asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?' Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know…My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:3-6) 

The Psalmist had placed too much trust in his understanding, in the limited spectrum of life that he was able to observe. However, God had given him a revelation that changed all that:

• But when I thought how to understand this [the flourishing of the unrighteous], it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. (Psalm 73:16-17)

God had enabled the Psalmist to see the big picture, and he was mightily blessed:

• When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.  Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:21-26)

However, the Psalmist of Psalm 89, who had accused God of renouncing His covenant with David, didn’t receive an answer, at least as far as we know. After unloading on God, he nevertheless concludes the Psalm:

• Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David?... Blessed be the LORD forever! Amen and Amen. (Psalm 89:49, 52)
  

Although sorely disappointed, the Psalmist’s only hope remained with the Lord. He therefore blessed Him, refusing to place his trust in his own understanding.

Discouragement is the lot of God’s servants. There are going to be times when His ways do not make any sense to us. However, the wise servant will not place too much trust in what he sees and understands. Perhaps we trust too much in our wisdom, and perhaps our trust in misplaced. Perhaps we just need to reaffirm our trust in a God who alone is our hope, knowing that there will be times when understanding will surely fail us.