June 29, 2013
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The Incomprehensibly Great God!
Doubtless, my scant understanding and experience should and will disqualify me in this woefully feeble undertaking. So, why am I so compelled to dare speak of His Majesty--the Majesty of our Master Lord God? Certainly, I am as completely dependent on what the writers of Scripture have revealed, as ALL others who have traveled this very path before me.
Had Yahweh not made Himself known to us through His Scriptures, what little we might know about Him would have to be gleaned by what we could discover in the world around us! Wonderfully, He has not left Himself without a witness: "He has shown kindness by giving . . . rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; He provides . . . . plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." (Acts 14:17). Even "the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands . . , their words aren’t heard, their voices aren’t recorded . . . [however] . . . their silence fills the earth: unspoken truth is spoken everywhere!" [emphasis mine-e.m.] (Psalm 19:1-4 [NIV/MSG]).
"The basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of His divine being. So nobody has a good excuse . . . [even though many have] traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in His hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand" (Romans 1:19-20, 23 [MSG]).
A god that cannot be seen or conveniently understood is too easily dismissed as a phantom or figment of one's over active imagination. The idea of conceptualizing the invisibly eternal God of Scripture is nigh impossible. Wrapping our minds around a god who lives, breathes and permeates all that is in the Universe is so beyond our ability or capacity to grasp in a serious way. However, quite often in our attempts to dismiss such an all-encompassing and awe inspiring God, we unintentionally(?) replace Him--learning to value and foolishly honor the extremely limited gods of our own making:
As impossible , incomprehensible and past finding out as it seems He is, we may feel He is there just beyond our grasp, and yet so very close at hand! This may have been what Elihu, one of Job's friends, was struggling to say: "Certainly, God is so great that he is beyond our understanding. The number of his years cannot be counted" (Job 36:26 [GD'S WD]). Perhaps this was the same dilemma the philosophers at the Areopagus in Athens were up against. In passing through their city, the Apostle Paul took note of a shrine dedicated to 'The Unknown God' and addressed these people with the following words; "What . . . you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything . . . that they should seek [Him], and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us [e. m.], for in him 'we live and move and have our being'" (Acts 17:22-28 [ESV]).
How do we begin to understand or fathom the God who is described as the One who “inhabits eternity” (Isaiah 57:15 [ESV])? The author of Psalms said of Him; “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God (Psalm 90:2 [ESV]). Finite minds are more than hard pressed to unravel the boundless mysteries of the vast expanses beyond, and completely confounded in their ability to adequately explain the “Ancient of Days”.
And yet . . . wondrously there has existed within the human heart the urgent need to find something/somebody(?) beyond its own limitations and mortality. Does this in part account for its constant and utter restlessness and urge to risk great loss for the purpose of finding, discovering and encountering possible realities beyond itself? The insatiable and curious need to look into the unknown--to explore and perhaps uncover something completely new, unheard of or even dangerous--to 'push the envelope' of human safety just so 'we can know' seems always to be a part of who we are as human beings.
I suspect this was the very thought Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes was trying to convey when he wrote; ". . . God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart (e.m.), but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end" [though try as they may] (Ecclesiastes 3:11 [NLT]). God has placed a part of Himself in the heart of each of us so that in its deep discontentment, we are incessantly compelled (or propelled) to search for a deeper meaning beyond ourselves. Someone has described this seemingly profound urge as a 'God-sized hole' in everyone of us that somehow must and will be filled. Surely someone will say this is a rather shallow and simplistic effort in addressing such an enormous and complex issue (and so it may be). However, this very idea that we should seek Him, and perhaps feel our own way toward Him and find Him, though He is not far, but actually within everyone of us (cf. Acts 17:28) is precisely what the Apostle Paul had in mind when he spoke with the Athenians.
The prophets of old who knew Him best were completely bewildered and confounded by Yahweh God in His ways and the messages that He had often spoken through them. They, themselves had revealed the Most High God's elaborate plans He intended and, in fact, eventually accomplished. But they, along with the angels of heaven, though looking deeply into these things, had completely failed to unravel or begin to comprehend His master plan for hundreds and hundreds of years.
They did not understand Him. His ways were completely above and beyond their own. Should it be so amazing then, that even the highly schooled of the people of Israel--the doctors, lawyers and scholars among them, who daily studied and searched the Scriptures, should completely misunderstand who God was and what He wanted for all of humanity? They had searched—no, scoured the Scriptures continually, and still could not discover the unfathomable ways and purposes of the eternal God.
The creation was not enough. A book, even a sacred book was woefully inadequate. There were/are things to be learned about Yahweh God that we could never have known without these sources, but they are not enough, and never will be. The WORD who was with God from the beginning and is God, ". . . became flesh and lived among us. We saw his glory. It was the glory that the Father shares with his only Son, a glory full of kindness and truth (John 1:1, 14 [GD'S WD]). Thus the earnest and deep longing expressed by Phillip is the same cry of the human heart of all ages; "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." (John 14:8 [NIV]).
And that is exactly what God did--He became Emmanuel ("God with us"). The Everlasting God of the heavens stepped out of the unlimited glories of eternity's realm and into the arms of Mary, His mother. Within the sphere of time, He moved into the extreme limitations of the world's 'neighborhood' so that the Father might at last truly come to be known in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. The author of Hebrews made this astounding declaration; "God's Son has all the brightness of God's own glory and is like him in every way (e.m.). By his own mighty word he holds the universe together" (Hebrew 1:3 [CEV]).
If Jesus shows us the Father (and He does), do you realize that it is just as reasonable to conclude that the disciples of Jesus show us--US? Even a cursory examination of the Gospels bears this truth out. They were like us in every way and we are like them in those very same ways. The same arrogance, selfishness, stupidity, insensitivity, jealousy, rivalry, weakness, fear and failure that so often afflicted and assailed them, are the realities we too must face. Their humanity is our humanity, pure and simple. And yet--(though Jesus refused to 'pull any punches' in giving them what they needed), there was a kindness, gentleness--even compassion and acceptance that pervaded His interactions with some very unsavory and guilty people who look a lot like ourselves!
Nevertheless, the questions come; What is God's attitude toward you? What do you think He thinks of you, and how do you suppose He is dealing with you in your life? The sad, discouraging or even tragic circumstances of your life could cause you to conclude in the very least, that God is ignoring you or perhaps, that He has completely rejected you! But you might very well be surprised. How can you know—how can anyone know? Well, since Jesus is like His Father in every way, and His disciples show us—US, then it should follow that a close examination of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) in viewing how Jesus treated His disciples and other people may give us a pretty good idea of God's attitude toward US, right?
And so what is it? Don't just look to the stars or the books or the people who look like they might know God or claim to know Him (some of the worst caricatures of who God is and what His attitude toward us is, may come from the 'religious professionals' or the religious fanatics, who honestly 'don't have a clue!'). They know all about Him, but still do not know Him. Saturate yourself--with the daily interactions of the Jesus in the Gospels. Get to know Him! Seek Him and you will be found by Him--Seek His face and experience His redemption and healing! (I Chronicles 28:9 & II Chronicles 7:14).
There are many things that we do not understand about this world and the death that we all must face as a part of this life. There are two things, however, that are certain. First, Jesus Christ clearly shows us the God who loves us so profoundly that He has left His home and stepped out of eternity into time, which must certainly have seemed like a death to Him. And second, those who die in the Lord are supremely blessed, when they finally step out of time, into the arms of their Everlasting Father, the Ancient of Days! (Revelation 14:13).
L.A.Williams
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