PORTRAITS OF GOD

“A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation.” (Psalm 68:5)

A picture is worth a thousand words.  That’s the old saying—and it’s true.  There is something about a visual image that connects with our brain more quickly and clearly than words.  We have employed many words about God during the course of this series, “The God You Should Know.”  We have considered words like omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, for example—all important words—but in the end we have discovered that God is so far beyond our vocabulary.

So, the Holy Spirit has also taken His brush, and on the canvas of Scripture, has painted several portraits of God.  We will examine seven in these studies, though there are many more we might view in the Sacred Text.

The portraits of God we will contemplate are: God as Father (which we see in Psalm 68:5), Defender (also seen in this verse), Savior (found in this same Psalm), Shepherd, Helper, Rock, and Sun.  Other Psalms display the wonder of God in these ways. Join us as we travel through the Art Gallery of God!

THE GOD YOU SHOULD KNOW: The Personality of God—One God in Three Persons

 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭6:4-5‬)

There are a number of teachings that separate Christianity from every other belief system in the world.  One distinct doctrine is that of the Trinity—One God in Three Persons. The great confessions and creeds throughout Church history have affirmed this.

Here is the 2000 statement from the Baptist Faith and Message—which the Southern Baptist Convention, of which I am a part—declared concerning God:

“There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.”

A God who is three in person, and yet not three gods, but One in Being is not a contradiction to Deuteronomy 6:4-5. The word for “one,” in the Hebrew is used to describe a plural unity, such as one cluster of grapes.  The word is “echad,” and is used in Genesis 2:24 where it says Adam and Eve became “one flesh.”  Again, this does not illustrate the Trinity as Adam and Eve were not only one in union, and two in person, but two different beings, as well.  I am just showing that the Hebrew term for “one,” can have a plural connotation. So, does the word “Elohim,” as one of God’s names. We will examine this crucial doctrine in the next few days, God willing.

THE GOD YOU SHOULD KNOW: First Things First

Read Genesis 1:1.

Theology—it is the study of God. That is what we find as we examine His Word—a Book devoted to revealing God to us.   That is a journey, we commence today.

Can you imagine being a little league baseball player facing a major league pitcher and being expected to hit a home run?  Or being asked to swim across the Atlantic Ocean?  Maybe jumping across the Grand Canyon?  It would be more likely that I could do all of those, then to fully explain God.  He is beyond all comparison, greater than human imagination can dream or vocabulary describe.  My assignment is to explain the unexplainable so you can comprehend the incomprehensible.

I feel like a man on the beach who must count every grain of sand or one given a thimble with which to empty the ocean.  All I can do is ask God for a miracle as I open this Book with fear and trembling, trusting that the Holy Spirit will teach us more than we could imagine.

How important is this?  "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."  (A.W. Tozer). What comes into your mind when you think about God?  Let me begin with a few thoughts—and what better place to begin than in the beginning!

So, this week we will consider Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

KNOWING MORE IN ADMITTING TO KNOWING LESS

“The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, his utterance. This man declared to Ithiel—to Ithiel and Ucal: Surely I am more stupid than any man, And do not have the understanding of a man.

Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.”

Proverbs 30:1-2, 5-6 NKJV

Who is Agur?  I admit to knowing nothing about him, except what is written here.  Yet, in knowing little, there is a desire to know more, and as one can learn much about an unknown artist in his paintings, and an unknown musician in his songs, we can say a few things about the man in his proverbs. 

He admitted to knowing less than he wanted to know—to the point of calling himself “more stupid than any man,” and yet, it was this humble admission that seemed to motivate him to search for knowledge, and in so doing, he came to know more than most!  Blaise Pascal was a brilliant Christian thinker, who knew enough to admit the same.  He said, “The last proceeding of reason is to recognise that there is an infinity of things which are beyond it.”

Those who humbly admit how little they know of a limitless God will soon discover this as the path to knowing more than they could ever dream.  Then, the more they do know, the more they will know there is more to know.  The truly ignorant man is the one who thinks he knows much.  The unteachable man is the one who believes he knows it all.

In my early days as a Christian, I dove into Scripture, God grew me, and called me into ministry.  I went to Bible college and passed all my courses with flying colors—and became an arrogant student who knew much less than he thought he knew. I would make statements and ask questions of my lovely wife, who worked hard each day to put me through school, and had little time to contemplate the theological propositions I was soaking in. She put me in my place one evening!  Humbled, I became a real student of Scripture, that after nearly a half-century now knows how little he knows—and thirsts for more!  I thought I was drinking from a fountain, and now I see I am floating in the middle of a boundless ocean!

I know this—“every word of God is pure”—and the mystery of God and the majesty of His Word convinces me of that the longer I linger over the text. It is deadly to subtract from Scripture—that is what liberals do.  Yet, the “stupid” Agur, smartly warns us, it us just as wrong to add to the Bible—as the legalists do.

Contemplate this chapter alone, and you will find how smart this stupid man was!