Bible in 90, Day 13: Image Bearers, Not Image Makers

Numbers 33 – Deuteronomy 7

Originally at Words of Reason

Bible in 90, Day 05: Ian sent you?

Exodus 1-15

*image courtesy of dimitri_c at stock.xchng

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2

Shakespeare was right about some things, but on this one I have to call shenanigans.  I won’t go into the linguistic debate about prescription versus description, but suffice it to say that I think the name of a person is quite different than the name of a flower.  A person’s name is bound up in who they are.  The combination of sounds that make up the name call to mind not just letters and syllables, but the person himself.  When you hear “George Washington” or “Britney Spears” or “Fred Flintstone,” your mind conjures up all kinds of facts, images, and even emotions related to that name.

When it came time for Moses to tell the people of Israel that someone had sent him to deliver them, what was he to say?  This is the very question on his mind in Exodus 3.  In asking God this question, he is also asking Him to identify Himself.  God replies, quite cryptically, “I AM WHO I AM.”  So, Moses is to tell Israel that “I AM” has sent him.  Good thing he didn’t have to email that in, imagine the typos…

“Ian sent you?  Who’s Ian?  Hey, does anyone know the divine Ian?”

God has done an amazing thing here.  This is the first time in recorded revelation that God revealed any kind of personal name.  Look in v. 15.  In the English, it reads like this:

“Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

Ok, so God declares quite clearly that His name forever, the name to remember is “The LORD.”  Do you notice how “LORD” is all caps?  There’s a reason for that!  It’s because this is a translation of an old custom of substituting LORD for the divine name.  That’s right, our God has a name!  In Hebrew, it is YHWH (originally Hebrew had no consonants).  If you add the vowels that we think go in there, it’s Yahweh.  This Hebrew words sounds a lot like the Hebrew for “I am,” the answer God gave to Moses.  This is why you may have heard the God of the Bible referred to as The Great I AM.

Now, why is this name significant?  First off, it sets Yahweh apart from any other supposed God.  He is not Ra, or Dagon, or Asherah, or Baal, or Zeus, or Jupiter.  More modernly, He is not Allah, or Vishnu, or Sophia, or Shiva.  It’s important to know what God you’re talking about, because (contrary to popular opinion) they are not many names referring to one truth!  Compare the traits of Yahweh with any other god mentioned in the Bible.  Compare Yahweh’s love, compassion, and involvement in the universe with that of many eastern gods of today.  You will find that Yahweh is indeed a unique God, because He is the true God.

Secondly, Yahweh is telling us something about Himself through His name.  Your Bible probably has some kind of footnote in v. 14 that says that “I am that I am” could be translated “I will be what I will be.”  The reason for this is that there is no tense in Hebrew verbs.

The less-boring, more-important thing is this: God is saying that He is the eternal one.  He is the self-being One!  He simply is.  God doesn’t not have beginning or end, and He doesn’t require us to exist.  He existed long before us, and will continue on forever!  He is the being one.

God is.

Let’s understand that our God is a specific God.  He has a name that represents who He is, Yahweh.  Let’s never take this name in vain, let’s never abuse it, and let’s never downplay it as one label among thousands.  Let’s remember that our God is the Eternal One.  He has no beginning or end, and He has no need of us.  Let’s also remember that even though He doesn’t need us for His survival, He still loved us by sending His Son, Jesus, to die for us.

Originally at Words of Reason

Bible in 90, Day 43: …for He is good!

Psalms 90-108

*image courtesy of my buddy Billy at stock.xchng

“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.”

You’ll find this phrase all over the Old Testament (1 Chronicles 16:34, 41; 2 Chronicles 5:13, 7:3, 7:6, 20:21; Psalms 106:1, 107:1, 118:1, 118:29, 136:1-3, 136:26; Jeremiah 33:11).  It seems to have started with David, and became a customary word of praise.  It sometimes was used as a call and response, where the leader would say the first two parts, and the congregation would respond with “His love endures forever!”

Today we came across the first of eight uses of it in the Psalms.  We talked previously about this phrase (Day 34), but there we focused on the faithful love aspect.  Today, we will look at the middle section of the phrase, “for He is good.”  There is a saying today that is somewhat parallel in that it is widely known and frequently used by many churches.  It goes like this:

Leader: God is good!

Congregation: All the time!

Leader: And all the time…

Congregation: God is good!

Hearing this on a regular basis, just like hearing the phrase from psalms frequently, is a good thing.  It serves as a reminder to us of one of God’s essential attributes – His goodness.  This is what I call one of God’s “omnis.”  He is omnipresent (He is everywhere), omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent (all powerful), and omnibenevolent (all good).  Now, without the fourth omni, the other three are pretty scary.

Think about it for a minute.

Imagine a Being that is everywhere, knows everything, and can do anything.  That’s a bit scary.  All that power, but can you trust it?  Isn’t that the great fear in Superman 3?  The man of steel loses it after being subjected to red kryptonite, and goes on a rampage.  The world’s greatest hero becomes the world’s greatest villain because now all his power is not being harnessed by good intentions.  Now, multiply that by infinity, and this is the Malevolent Being we’re talking about!

What makes the God of the Bible who He is instead of a cosmic sadist is that He is good.  It is the goodness of God that makes it so we can trust Him.  Unlike some religions that must appease their god through ritual and sacrifice, we can serve God with a glad heart, trusting that He is all good all the time.  We don’t have to worry about Him suddenly snuffing out the universe.  He is good.  And as we’ve discussed before, even when things seem to be going bad, God is still good and is working out His plan (Romans 8:28).

Let’s remember this.  Let’s give thanks to the Lord, because He is good.  Let’s praise Him with our words, our actions, and our lives, because He is good and His love endures forever.

*originally at Words of Reason

Bible in 90, Day 41: That’s a lotta cows!

Psalms 45-69

*image courtesy of Thoursie at stock.xchng

We were driving home from a youth event in Charlottesville, VA.  It was one of those stretches of road that winds through rolling pasture land, dotted by the occasional barn, silo, or farmhouse.  As we rounded one bend, we saw a green hill with several black cows roaming about on it.  My buddy Daniel, who was the youth pastor at the time, said, “Hey look!  My dad owns those cows!”  The youth were incredulous.  “No way!” they shouted.  “Yeah, right!”  But Daniel insisted, “Yes he does!  My father owns those cows, and a lot more!”  I caught the reference right away, but he strung the youth along for about 15 more minutes before he broke into a small Bible study in the van.  It was a great teaching moment.

“…for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10).

God speaks to two people in this psalm, the righteous and the wicked.  To the righteous He commends their sacrifices.  But with the commendation He adds a reminder of His independence.  He reminds them that He doesn’t need their sacrifices.  God asks rhetorically, “Do I eat the flesh of bulls?”  (v. 13)  He is reminding the readers that He is not a man and does not require food.  Unlike the religions of the nations, the sacrifices the Israelites offered were not food for God.  The righteous are to continue in their sacrifices (v. 14-15), but not because God is reliant upon them.

Here comes some of that God humor I love.

God says, roughly, “If I were hungry, you’d be the last one I’d go to!  I own it all!  I could eat whatever I want to.”  God created everything, and therefore He owns everything.  Not only does He not require food, but if He did, He has access to all He could need without us!  The fancy theological term for this is God’s aseity.  That is, His self-being.  God has no cause or creator, He just is.  He is not sustained by anything (food, water, air, some other force), He simply is.  We, on the other hand, are contingent beings.  Our existence is contingent on something else (food, water, air, God’s sustaining power).  The fact is, we need – God does not.

However, this does not diminish our standing.  In fact, it almost elevates it.  In religions where the god needs sacrifices sets up a different kind of relationship.  The god needs the people, so he must put up with them.  The truth of the Scriptures is that God doesn’t need us, He chooses us.  He doesn’t put up with us because He needs our worship, He chooses to be in relationship with Him out of love.  Think about that – God chose you.  But, let’s remember that this choice is by grace, and not anything wonderful we’ve done (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Let’s live in light of this truth. We have nothing God needs from us.  He is not, nor will He ever be, obligated to us.  We owe everything, our very existence and its continuation, to Him.  Let’s honor God with our sacrifices of praise so that we might see the salvation of God (Psalm 50:23; Hebrews 13:15).

*originally at Words of Reason