Skip to main content

God: In His Own Words

Last week, I read an article about how courts are going away from eyewitness testimony because it is so inaccurate. In fact, the article claimed that most eyewitness testimony is based on what people think they saw rather than on what really happened and that, when studied, the details are very often fabricated.

To test this theory, I asked the congregation to look at a picture of a group of men. I left the PowerPoint slide up for approximately five seconds and then asked a series of questions like, “How many people in that picture were wearing red shirts?” “How many people were wearing glasses?” Not surprisingly, I heard all kinds of answers. Some people were right about certain details but not about others. Some were certain that they were right only to find out that they were wrong. Others simply guessed (One man kept saying “Fourteen” no matter what the question was). The information that I received was certainly inaccurate.

That leads to a scary thought: If second hand information is almost always inaccurate, what does that say about our knowledge of God? If I am relying on others to tell me what God is like, how do I know that they are telling me the truth? How do I know that the picture that I have been given of God is the right one? Wouldn’t it be great if, at some point, God described himself in his own words? Fortunately, he did.

When Moses was receiving the second stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments, it says that God proclaimed his name to him and said, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness’” (Exodus 34:6). That is God’s description of himself. (In fact, that exact description is used six more times in the Old Testament).

We have a God who loves us more than we can imagine. We have a God who gives us more than we deserve. We have a God who is simply waiting for us to come home. We have a God who is ready to remove our sins “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12).

When Moses heard God’s description of himself, he responded by saying, “Let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us” (Exodus 34:9). He wanted to be near that God. I imagine that people today would respond in a similar manner if they were given a similar picture of God.

We have a compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, loving and faithful God who is on our side.

Any other picture is misinformation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Art of Noticing.... Seeing what we need to see and what we miss when we don't

 What we focus on in life matters. Here are some scriptural reminders that will help us see correctly.  https://youtu.be/Rn76tV0ZH8s    
Post a Comment
Read more

New Article: A Path Worth Following

  Jehoram was a terrible king.  He reigned in Judah around the year 850 B.C. and he did not care about God or his people.  His first act as king was to assassinate his six brothers so that no one could challenge his authority.  He was brutal and selfish.   Therefore, when the Bible sums up his life, it says, “Jehoram… passed away, to no one’s regret, and was buried in the City of David” (2 Chronicles 21:20).  Did you catch that?  “To no one’s regret!”  What a terrible phrase for your tombstone. On the other hand, consider a lady named Tabitha.  She lived in the city of Joppa in the first century A.D. and we are told, “… she was always doing good and helping the poor” (Acts 9:36).  She became sick and died.  This caused the community so much grief that they called Peter, who was in the nearby town of Lydda, to come and help them.  When Peter arrived, a crowd gathered, bringing all the robes and other clothing that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Consider This: Press The Button!

  Consider This:  Press the Button! My favourite TV game show is Jeopardy.  I used to like it even more when my kids were younger, because I could easily beat them and look smart.  These days, after they have grown up and gone to university, it is much more difficult.  However, Jeopardy is still the only game show I will watch. In a book I read, a contestant who did very well on the show shared the secret to his success.  He said (and I am paraphrasing here), “You must press the button before you know the answer.  Everyone on Jeopardy is smart. Everyone knows the answer. The key to winning is to act.  You must jump in and press the button, assuming that your brain will catch up and supply the answer.  If you wait until you are sure, you will be too late!” Press the button! Too often, we hesitate, not because we do not know what to do, but because we do not want to do it.  Sometimes, we fail to act because we are not sure how the situatio...
Post a Comment
Read more