Nature of God

Interpreting Scripture: The Bargain

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“If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God. And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.” Genesis 28:20-21

The other day while doing some biblical reading and study, I came across the story of Jacob as he fled from the murderous rage of his brother Esau. Growing up in the church, I was always taught that bargaining with God was wrong. I still believe this is wrong today. However, like so many other things I was raised to believe, I decided to examine this more closely to understand it for myself, no longer believing this just because I was told to in my youth. Out of curiosity I went online to see what other’s views were on this story and found some who of the opinion that it is acceptable to make a bargain with God.

If you have read all my other articles on this site, then you know my main focus is on the nature of God. I use the nature of God as the standard for understanding truth. When it comes to interpreting biblical stories, I look to His characteristics as a guide to better understand what I am reading and seeing what these stories have to teach us. I find it helps to weed out my own selfish and subjective views and see God more clearly within the writings that He inspired. The scriptures teach us of God’s nature, and understanding His nature increases our understanding of the scriptures. Thus, we are enabled to continuously go deeper in His ways. Lets look at the story of Jacob with God’s nature in mind and see what we find.

Jacob was a young man and at the beginning of his relationship with God. One could say this was the beginning of his relationship with God. After all, God introduces Himself to Jacob in verse 13 as, “I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac”. And Jacob says in verse 20, “then the LORD shall be my God”. Suggesting that the relationship of the LORD being the God of Jacob and Jacob being His faithful servant had yet to take root. So, he was both youthful and a bit inexperienced in the ways of God. It is entirely understandable if he were to say or do things that were unwise or blatantly wrong. As a patriarch of Israel and a major faith figure in the bible, it is easy for us to understand everything he says or does as being acceptable. But just because scripture doesn’t say in plain letters: “what he did was wrong”, that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t.

So let us look at what he said to determine if he spoke wisely or not. We will look at it in two pieces. The first part is: “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God.” Another way of wording this is: “If God will be faithful to me and fulfill what He promised me, then I will His disciple.” As I said above, Jacob was inexperienced in the ways of God. By studying the nature of God, we can see that God is faithful. Not merely by choice but by His very essence. If He makes a promise, He keeps it. Period. His bargain or vow opens up with the question of whether God will be faithful. But faith in God results in knowing that He will be faithful and knowing that it is not within His power to lie or to contradict Himself. Who He is and how He operates never changes. And there is no other force in all of creation that can stop or thwart His plans.

Jacob did not speak out of understanding born of faith, but out of his own ignorance and doubt. This shouldn’t be too difficult for us to understand however. How many of us have had similar moments in our lives? In the early days of our faith, facing dangers and difficulties, uncertain as to what will happen, we ask God for His help and we bargain with Him, as if He could be fooled by us into thinking that it is He who must prove Himself and not us. He is faithful, always has been faithful, and will continue to be faithful forever, even as man is faithless time and time again.

This brings me to the second part of Jacob’s bargain. “And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will surely give a tenth to You.” As if it wasn’t enough to call into questions God’s faithfulness, Jacob vows his own faithfulness in response. Mankind, Jacob included, is changing, sinful, and inconsistent, even on a good day. And yet, here is Jacob promising his own faithfulness as if it were something that he could guarantee. He promises to give a tenth of everything that God will give him despite having never proven himself faithful to God first. He expects God to prove Himself, while thinking that his own faithfulness is guaranteed.

Only God is faithful in His very nature. Man is unable to fulfill his promises like this. “If we are faithless, He remains faithful – for He cannot deny Himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13) Sure, we may set out to be faithful and fully intend to be so. But our own shortcomings and sinfulness get in the way. We cannot offer perfect, unfailing faithfulness to God. It is not the nature that we have. It is not within our capacity to perform as such. To offer this up in a vow to the Faithful God is deceptive and blasphemous. We cannot offer to God that which we do not have to give. And on that same subject, Jacob offered God a tenth of what he was expecting God to give him. It is always easier to offer something that you do not currently possess, and always harder to give it away once you have it. His forefather Abraham gave a tenth of what he had to God in the form of Melchizedek. He gave of what he had in his possession, did so freely without being commanded, did it without having to think about it, and without regret. His sense of security was in who God was for Him. He had already learned that God was faithful. Jacob instead seemed to have his mind on worldly things, namely his current situation – lack of food, water, or clothing, and future expectations – land, offspring, and wealth. His sense of security was in himself. In faith, Abraham looked to heaven and valued the presence of God more than the physical possessions he had received. Jacob looked down at what he didn’t have and saw God as a way out of his situation, which was ultimately his main concern. He had yet to learn to trust in God’s faithful nature. This was probably due to the fact that he was too reliant upon his own cleverness in getting what he wanted or getting out of tough situations, such as tricking his brother out of his birthright. Hence his brother’s declaration: “Is he not rightly named Jacob ? For he has cheated me these two times?” (For he was using Jacob’s name in the context of a supplanter or usurper.)

Fortunately for Jacob, and us, God is understanding when we are ignorant and foolish. We speak words that we believe are wise and flowing out of our faith, but are truly saying things that are wrong and born out of doubt, ignorance, and pride. God is merciful with us as we say worthless words with no meaning. Instead He tries to teach us of His truth so that we weigh our words, consider His ways, and speak more wisely.

So, we see that bargaining with God this way does not work. It is not an act of faith but of doubt. Jacob’s words question God’s character and ability, while exalting man’s. It is understandable for a young Christ follower to make this mistake. But let us move past this blind bargaining, and enter into a deeper understanding of and a more mature relationship with God. A relationship where we think, speak, and act out of the truth of who He is. And know where we truly stand: a sinner who is unable to be faithful and righteous without the intervention of God, in the form of the man Jesus who died for us and made us righteous in Christ. (2 Cor. 5:21)

His Nature: Wrath

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When it comes to the nature of God, His wrath is the single attribute that seems to inspire the most controversy and debate. Scripture is quite clear that God has wrath. Just a couple of verses out of many are: “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.” (Ps 7:11) “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (Rom. 1:18) “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” (Eph. 5:6)

So, if scripture is straightforward on this matter, than why do so many people fail to believe that this is a part of God’s character? The answer lies with our misunderstanding of what wrath is and how it relates to His other attributes, namely His love and goodness. In this blog, I want to look at one particular misunderstanding that we have about His wrath. That misunderstanding being that we fail to realize that God’s wrath is not the same as ours. Wrath is understood as an intense degree of anger in which our emotions become unstable and we tend to lash out at those who are the target of our wrath. Wrath is when we seek to punish or avenge ourselves. And because we are familiar with God’s wrath coming in the form of divine judgement, such as with the flood or Sodom and Gomorrah, we assume that they are one and the same.

What I would like to point out however is that we tend to give in to our strong emotions, allowing them to steer us in our decision making. Wrath leads us into physical conflicts, crimes of passion, or harsh words being spoken without thinking of the consequences. In short, we lose control over ourselves when our anger or wrath becomes too hot. But this presents to us a problem: God is sovereign and thus subject to nothing but Himself. Can God be controlled by His emotions, like a man? No, of course not. He created our emotions and dictates how they work. If He were able to be moved by emotions, then we could emotionally manipulate Him. But God answers to no man. Instead, as hard as it may be for us angry humans to comprehend, God is in complete control over Himself and His anger. I’m not going to claim to understand how that looks or feels like for God for I surely cannot comprehend it. I just know that God is in control of His wrath and knows when it is best to withhold it and when He should unleash it. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Scripture grants us evidence of this and the greatest example of it is in Exodus 32. This chapter is about the Israelites making the golden calf and worshipping it. I believe that it is the best example of the difference between God’s wrath and man’s because it shows us both of them, allowing us to see them in contrast to one another.

As Moses is on the mountain, the Israelites become inpatient and rebel. They make the idol and sin against God. God then tells Moses to get down the mountain and says to him, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.” This was followed by Moses pleading with God to not destroy them. Then it says, “So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.” What many people miss here is that God, in His wrath, is still self-controlled enough to continue a conversation with Moses and to even be persuaded to relent from unleashing His wrath. I have heard theologians teach that God was testing Moses here and did not truly intend to kill all the Israelites. While that may be true, God does not lie and He was being honest in regards to how He felt towards there evil. He was wrathful, yet He was calm and coherent and able to engage in sensible conversation. These are not typical behaviors for us when we are overcome with anger. Our anger usually results in our reason and logic going out the window as we scramble to hurt someone.

As Moses is about to illustrate to us. After convincing God to relent, Moses goes down the mountain and upon seeing the Israelites with their golden calf, his immediate response is one of violence and aggression. First, he slams the ten commandments, two stone tablets carved out of the rock and written on by the very finger of God, into the ground, smashing them into pieces. Second, he destroys the idol with fire and grinds it into powder. Third, he mixes it into water and forces the people to drink it. It is not until after this that he finally finds words to speak. Of course, those words came in the form of the confronting of Aaron for his role in the sin. “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?” (Ex. 32:21)

This confrontation is then followed by the fourth and worse violent act. He says, “Whoever is on the LORD’s side – come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.” In the end, about three thousand people died.

When we contrast these two responses, God vs. Moses, we can see a clear difference between them. God, often accused of being violent and genocidal, is calm and seemingly patient in His response. Moses is instantly angry and resorts to violence before speaking to anyone. Also worth noting is the fact that in verse 10 God says “that My wrath may burn hot against them”. Then in verse 19 we read, “So Moses’ anger became hot“. Even the scriptural terminology is the same, further showing that God and Moses were both dealing with intense anger but expressed it differently. Moses’ response is so much more intense that as I was reading this chapter I almost missed the last sentence of it. Verse 35 reads, “So the LORD plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made.” God plagues them yet this line seems almost mild in comparison to Moses’ response.

If you look at other instances in the bible of God unleashing His wrath you will find the same thing playing out. When He came down to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, He visits with Abraham and allows him to try and talk Him out of it, as Moses did. When He decided to flood the earth, He warned Noah in advance so that there was someone who testified to the reality of what was happening. All of humanity had the opportunity to repent but were unwilling. When Enoch had his first born son, he named him Methuselah which means “his death brings forth” or “when he is dead it shall be sent”. Enoch is said to have walked with God from that day on until he was taken up. Scripture doesn’t explicitly say this but it would seem to imply that Enoch had an encounter with God and was informed that the flood was coming and would arrive with the death of his son. Methuselah lived for 969 years. So, if that was when God first informed someone of the coming judgement, then that would mean that God was patient in His wrath. 969 years patient!

Thousands of years have passed since the flood. In that time God has shown mankind great acts of mercy and love. He showed the ultimate display of this love in the incarnation of Christ and His death and resurrection. But to repeat Psalm 7:11 once more, “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.” God is angry at sin and evil every day, and has been for thousands of years. And in the midst of this anger, He sent His son to earth to die for sin so that we would not have to suffer His wrath. This is an amazing display of patience and self control. Even more impressive is that after Christ’ death, He has waited yet another two thousand years (and counting), allowing us more than enough time to choose Jesus as His cup of wrath continues to fill and will be poured out at the appointed time. Appointed sounds more like a day that is planned in advance than it does an uncontrolled emotional outburst.

So, far from wrath being an attribute that doesn’t fit with the rest of His character, His wrath actually fits perfectly with who He is. And now we see how His wrath highlights His patience, longsuffering endurance, committed love, and self-control. And that, I believe, is something to take comfort in.

Spotting God’s Nature

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“Ears that hear and eyes that see – the Lord has made them both.” Psalm 20:12

Many times I ask fellow Christians about their thoughts on the nature of God and most often they either respond by saying their not sure what I mean or they completely misunderstand me. The scriptures are pretty clear about the unchanging truths and characteristics of God and if we are to walk with God like Enoch did than we must learn how to have faith in God for who He says He is and not just faith that He exists. Yet somehow many of us miss the significance of these truths about our God and instead worship a false version of Him. For example throughout the bible we read that God is merciful. But then many of us believe that God is upset with us every time we screw up, even after we ask Him to forgive us. If we believe He is going to stay mad and punish us than we clearly don’t believe that He is very merciful. None the less, we can spot His nature through both the scriptures as well as our encounters with Him in our relationship. That is, if we are actually looking.

Recently I was reading through the book of Daniel and noticed something interesting about the story of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon and he worshipped many god’s. He had surrounded himself with many enchanters and magicians and yet when he has a troubling dream he behaves in a very unusual way. Instead of telling the magicians the dream he demands them to tell him his own dream and interpret it! A closer examination of the scriptures reveals that Nebuchadnezzar wants the truth and these enchanters and magicians have been deceiving him (Dan 2:8-9). He even goes as far as threatening to have them dismembered if they can’t interpret it. I’m assuming many Christians know this story so I’m not going to go through every detail. If you haven’t read it then I recommend you go ahead and do that now.

Today there are many people who claim to be able to interpret dreams. There is no end to the books and websites of various psychics and spiritualist claiming to know what your dream symbols mean. But when it comes to having a dream from God, He can and often will speak to us in a way that is either very specific to us or in a way that no one can understand without Him giving us the interpretation. Hence why we have the gift of dream interpretation. It seems that Nebuchadnezzar had been dealing with a similar situation with his magicians, enchanters, and sorcerers.

The First Encounter

So Nebuchadnezzar was tired of the deception and wanted the truth about this dream. Daniel receives both the dream and interpretation from the Lord and gives them to the king. But what I found interesting was how the king responded. He says “Truly, your God is God of god’s and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.” (Dan 2:47)

The king in this moment recognized not only that the God of Israel was real but also spoke out a specific characteristic of His. He is a “Revealer of mysteries”. If Nebuchadnezzar had never gotten tired of his so called wisemen then Daniel may have never had this opportunity. He wanted the truth, and he got more than he probably expected. The king learned something about this God of the Jews and praised him as God of god’s and Lord of kings.

The Second Encounter

After this encounter however the king continued in his idolatry. He knew God was real, yet still didn’t worship Him alone. Daniel 3:1 tells us that the king then set up a golden image and required everyone involved in his kingdoms administration to bow before it. The scripture doesn’t tell us what exactly this image was of but the dream he had from God had depicted him as the golden part of the statue and the next thing he does is erect a golden statue. Perhaps the image was of himself, or at least what he had seen in his dream.

He commands all of his officials to bow to the statue or they will immediately be thrown into the fiery furnace. He then says “and who is the god that will deliver you out of my hands?”(Dan 3:15). Nebuchadnezzar thought too highly of his own power. After having Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown into the fire for not worshipping the golden image the king saw what looked like a “son of the gods” in the fire with the three men. His second encounter comes when God shows up and delivers Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace.  Nebuchadnezzar responds “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants, who trusted in Him, and set aside the kings command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own.” The king went from thinking no one could deliver from his hand to recognizing God as the Deliverer. Whether the statue was of himself or not, this encounter showed Nebuchadnezzar who the God was that could deliver from his hand.

The Third Encounter

Nebuchadnezzar’s third encounter is when he speaks haughtily of himself and is driven from the kingdom and lives with the beast. When his reason is finally restored to him, he lifts up his eyes to heaven and blesses God. His words are “I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored Him who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and He does according to His will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand or say to Him “What have you done?”

And again he says “Now I praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are right and His ways are just, and those who walk in pride He is able to humble.” This is a beautiful expression of praise for who God is. And this came in response to the king being driven mad and sent out into the field with the animals! I hate to have to say it but Nebuchadnezzar responded to this discipline a lot better than many Christians do today. Many of us want to get upset with God when something bad happens. Nebuchadnezzar praised God and recognized Him for who He was. In these final words he expresses God as eternal, Sovereign over all of heaven and earth, that He obeys no one but His own will and that He is all powerful with no one to stay His hand. Then he points out that His works are right and His ways are just and He humbles the proud.

My prayer for all of us is that God will open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and our minds to recognize who He is. Through miraculous encounters and discipline alike we learn more about Him and proclaim praise of Him in response. And that like Nebuchadnezzar we grow in our appreciation of our God and His beautiful nature. Walking away from each encounter learning something new about God’s character.

The Nature of God

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“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those who by their nature are not gods.” Galatians 4:8

If we want to walk with God and avoid the constant tricks and lies of the enemy then it is imperative that we learn to understand the nature of God. So many Christians today are confused about who God is. Some believe that our God and gods of other faiths are one and the same because they fail to understand the difference. Calling something god, whether a spirit or the idols they hide behind, does not automatically make it equal to the one true God. Our God is unique, He is One and their is no other.

So what is Gods nature exactly? When I say nature what I mean are characteristics or attributes that are an innate part of something’s being. For example we have a human nature which means we have characteristics that are specific to a human being and we cannot be a dog or a bird, even though we often act like animals. They have their own nature and we have ours. So the nature of God, because He is the only true God, is unique to Him. These characteristics are things that are true about the way God acts or speaks and they are unchanging. They are automatically expressed when He moves. Scripture tells us that God is love which means that when God acts or speaks He does so out of love. He never reacts to us in hatred. God is good so He never makes or does anything that is bad. God is perfect and when He acts or speaks it is always perfect, making mistakes is something God never does. These are just a few examples of Gods character.

God made us in His image yet we have been corrupted because of sin. Some of Gods characteristics we can also express, while others we cannot. But when we do we only express them on a smaller scale and often imperfectly because we are changing while God is unchanging. And because we do not have certain attributes of His nature, namely His perfection and immutability(unchanging), we must make the choice to express love, mercy, etc. while God does so naturally.

Discernment

“Folly is joy to him that lacks sense, but a man of understanding walks straight.” Proverbs 15:21

Scripture tells us to discern between the spirits as well as to test everything, even the teachings from leaders that we trust (1 John 4:1). In order for us to do this we need to be able to recognize what is God and what is not. The devil does his best to mimic God yet because he does not have Gods nature he always speaks or acts in a way that is in line with his own nature. John 8:44 points out that the devil was a murderer from the beginning and the father of lies; his nature is opposed to God and he needs to disguise himself to trick us into believing him. We know that he wants our enslavement and destruction so even if he speaks something that seems to be true it will always be to lead us into sin and destruction.

He quoted scripture to Jesus in the wilderness yet Christ made it clear that he was wrong, not because he spoke the scriptures incorrectly but because he spoke them with the intention of leading Christ into sin. God hates sin and will never tempt us. When God speaks or acts we can recognize that it is Him by seeing if it is rooted in His character or the enemies. If something is said and we recognize that it is meant to inspire fear, doubt, selfishness or some other sinful behavior then we can assume that it is not of God. Sadly, many in the church, instead of engaging in discernment, would rather throw out everything that is said and claim that God doesn’t speak to us anymore because they fear getting it wrong. When we accept the belief that God no longer has anything to say to us anymore than the enemy has already scored a victory in our lives. I would also like to point out that the enemy used scripture against Jesus. Even our reading and understanding of scripture can be hijacked by the enemy. Just look at how many divisions we have in the church resulting from disagreements on interpreting scripture or someone developing heretical doctrines. Scripture points us to Christ and so even our reading of it must be done with Gods nature in mind.

Godliness

We also need to know His nature so that we know how to act. In the beginning God made man in His image. After the fall He sent His Son to show us the Way and to give us access to the Truth, while the Holy Spirit works within us to purify us. As Romans 8:28 points out we are to be conformed into the image of Christ. This is godliness, to be like God. Understanding Gods nature is necessary for us to recognize whether we are walking as Christ did or being misled. Many in the church suffer from self-righteousness and judgmentalism because they think themselves godly when they are in fact acting in a manner that is opposed to God. This is because they accept there own ideas of what is right as truth instead of what God has said is truth. Christ is the Truth, therefore He is the standard by which our ideas, words, and actions are to be measured. By knowing Gods character we can then have a better idea of how to act in our everyday life.

How can we walk with God if we cant recognize whether it is Him we are walking with? His nature should be the foundation of our entire understanding. There is no better role model for ourselves then Christ.

Enoch’s Walk (Purpose of this Blog)

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“By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.” Hebrews 11:5

There’s not a whole lot that is said concerning Enoch in the scriptures. Yet what little is said I’ve always found interesting. A man seems to have accomplished the impossible, he has pleased God to such a degree that God takes him without him ever seeing death. Genesis 5:24 says “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.”. What exactly does it mean that he  “walked with God”? How does one go about it? Enoch lived in a time predating the Bible and even the Law. There was no Israel at this point in history either so clearly its not devoting more time to study, attending more church services, or performing works. To walk with God is to live your entire life with Him, to walk in a constant relationship with Christ. Its what Christ and the apostles refer to when they say “abide in Christ”. Its learning to live your life moment by moment in the Presence of God, lead by the Holy Spirit. Walking with God means that your ultimate goal in life is to get as close to your Lord and Savior as you possibly can. It means you’ve counted the cost and have determined that sacrificing everything is a small price to pay to obtain the riches found in God and the understanding of His nature and ways. It means you’ve made God your first love and the ultimate desire of your heart. Its behaving in a way that is in accord with Gods character and making decisions that will keep you close to Him and avoiding the wrong choices that you know are presented by the enemy in an attempt to draw you away. All because of your love for the Lord.

There is no shortage of blogs out there that talk about scripture and our Christian religion. My vision for this blog though is to get to the bottom of what it means and looks like to walk with God, to understand the walk of Enoch. To go deeper into the knowledge of our great God, to learn how to approach Him and to develop an ever deepening relationship with Him. My hope is that through this blog we might establish a firm foundation in our understanding of Gods nature and how to live a life in the Presence of God. Through His death Christ tore the veil so that we could draw close. We owe it to Him and to ourselves to do so. There is no greater blessing from God then to know Him.