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GOD

Before anyone, or anything, there is God. He is eternal, timeless in nature. He is unique, holy; there is no one like Him. He is the creator, and originator of all things. In many ways, He is mysterious, awe inspiring, and in many ways He has revealed Himself to us.

There is so much that could be said about God, who He is, and what He’s like, but ultimately, all of our words fail to describe His matchless beauty, and wonder.

Is there a way for us to know what God is like?

In the book of Exodus, we read the story of God freeing the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt, and at the core of that story we see God, making Himself known to the people, so that they might worship Him. Worship is the way that we interact with God: we recognize who He is, and who we are, and we surrender to His greatness. In fact, in worship we are invited to know this matchless God, but just like you can know about someone, and not really know what they are like, if we are not careful we can come up with false ideas of who God is.

In order to know what God is like, and how He is to be worshipped, we can look at what He tells us about Himself.

In Exodus chapter 34, verses 6 and 7, God declares His name to Moses, and in doing so, He describes Himself. God is aware that we will struggle to know Him, projecting our ideas of who He is onto Him, rather than knowing Him as He is. To help us see Himself more clearly, God gives us clarity about His nature:

• He is the one God, and Lord of all
• He is full of compassion and mercy
• He is slow to anger
• He is full of unfailing love, and faithfulness
• He gives His unfailing love to a thousand generations
• He forgives sin, and rebellion
• He is just, not excusing evil, bringing a lasting judgment to 3, and 4 generations

Some people focus on the last thing that God tells us about Himself; that He is the judge, but notice the order in which He describes Himself: He is the one God, and Lord of all, and then He gives us FIVE descriptions of how gracious He is, BEFORE telling us that He will bring justice, and judgment. He shows unfailing love to a THOUSAND generations, and judgment to 3, and 4.

In other words, God is first of all holy; secondly He is compassionate, merciful, slow to anger, loving, faithful, and forgiving; and then finally, He brings about justice against those that continue to practice sin, and evil.

God’s describes Himself as holy (unique singular in nature), compassionate, and just.

This is how we are first invited to know Him:

To worship Him, because He is holy.

To adore Him, because He is compassionate.

To fear Him, because He is just.

Everything begins with Him, so let’s determine to think of Him as He is, and not as we try to make Him.