The Incomprehensible God

 Have you ever tried to comprehend God?  Have you ever tried thinking about how big or awesome or powerful He is?  There is no way to be able to comprehend the vastness of how great God is. 

Let me ask you another question.  Do you remember a teacher ever telling you that there's no such thing as a bad question? There probably isn't; there are just some questions that may be better than others.

In Exodus chapter 3, Moses asks a couple of questions that may help us define the incomprehensible God.  This is the passage where Moses, at the burning bush, is called to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.

The first question he asks is “who am I?”  What a great question.  Although that question goes unanswered in the passage there is an answer to that question.  Moses was human: limited and finite.  As we consider an infinite unlimited God, we cannot grasp Him nor can we attain to Him.  He is beyond our comprehension. He is absolutely transcendent.  In order for us to have any hope of knowing Him at all, He must stoop to us.  He must reveal himself to us.  He did that through His Son and does that today through creation and His Word the Bible.

The second question is equally intriguing:  “Who are you? “  Now Moses doesn’t say that in so many words.  Neither does he mean any disrespect.   In Egypt in Moses’ time there were hundreds of gods.   He is simply asking; amongst all these gods, “Who then should I tell them sends me?”  Unlike the first question, God answers this one:  “Tell them the great I AM sends you.”  That name, amongst all the other names that God uses for Himself, is probably most descriptive.  It sets him apart from all of His creation and all of the hundreds of gods that Egypt had.

That name tells us that He is self-existent.  He is eternal. No one created Him; He always existed. It is absolutely necessary that God exist. Creation would not change if we did not exist.  It would not change if any of those gods in Egypt did not exist.  However, creation would change if God did not exist.

That name also tells us that He is absolutely independent. His very existence does not depend on our belief in Him.  No one can counsel him, no one can tell him what to do or where to go.  God does not have to work at existing. Conversely we exist because of His will.

That name also tells us that He is unchanging.  We get older, wiser and stronger in some approximation. He does not.  For us, time is a series of changes. Time for Him is nothing; He never changes, there’s no need. He is absolutely and infinitely perfect in every way.

He is also incomparable to anything.  We tend to compare ourselves to everything and everyone around us.   When He is compared to anything such as King of kings and Lord of lords, He is stooping.

When we begin to try to understand and comprehend God it should cause us to become increasingly aware of how ignorant we really are.  We are closer to knowing nothing about God than knowing anything about Him.  We may know more about Him today than we did 5 or 10 years ago but we are no closer to the end of knowing who He is than we were those many years ago.  God does want us to get to know him. He has revealed himself to us and has given us a lifetime to get to know Him.  What a great privilege to know the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.

           

God is Sovereign

Sovereignty: the ability to rule or act independent of interference from another.  Have you ever wondered if God is really in control?  All around us we see evil, wickedness  and the dreadful effects of sin.  We may be tempted to ask if God is really in control. We may be tempted to wonder if God even cares. Some may wonder if God is sitting on a throne somewhere and in some twisted way enjoying watching his creation fight and claw their way through life while throwing curve balls at them.  Rest assured God is not that kind of god, although He is in control of everything.

There are five essentials for kings: authority, power, a kingdom, subjects and a position. The Triune God is King and possesses all of these essentials. In fact His sovereignty is infinite, universal, absolute and immutable. An earthly king has all of those things because they have been granted to him by God.  God has all of those things because He is self-established.  Consider 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, And You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, And You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it is to make great And to give strength to all.

God rules over everything: humans, animals, plants, Sea creatures, nations, angels, everything. Some ask what about Satan? What about evil? The answer is yes He rules over Satan and evil as well. If he did not rule over everything including Satan and evil He would not be God. Another question often asked is why doesn't God just get rid of the evil? The answer is someday He will. Another thought to ponder: if God got rid of evil you and I would be gone. The Bible says there is none righteous; all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 

So why is this important you may ask. Well, if God was not sovereign He would not be God. Sovereignty is part of His nature.

 It is important to us because since God is sovereign, we need not worry about anything. We can fully trust in His ability to rule and because He is God we know that nothing catches Him by surprise. There is nothing that can happen to those who love and obey God that God hasn't intended for our good. To worry is an attack against God's sovereignty. In Daniel 3:16 the Bible says Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. "If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. "But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up." Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were not afraid of king Nebuchadnezzar. We can have the same confidence as they did when we obey God.

Help with Your New Year's Quest

Consider for a moment the Transcendence of God.  Webster defines transcendence as exceeding the normal limits.  As it relates to God he exceeds all imaginable limits.  He is absolutely unlimited and incomprehensible.  A.W. Tozer, in talking about the transcendence of God said " He is not the highest, he is absolutely transcendent."  We can understand the difference between a bike and a jet.  The bike has 2 wheels, the jet many; the bike is powered by man, the jet by engines, the bike is limited to the ground, the jet flies through the air; the bike is relatively slow by comparison to the jet.  Yet to compare the jet with God there is an infinite difference.

            The Crab Nebula is exploding star discovered in 1054 ad by Chinese astrologers.  It is some 6000 light-years away.  When discovered, those astrologers were only observing the light from its explosion shortly after its creation.  It is 3,520,000,000,000,000,000 miles away.  It would take you 85 lifetimes of 70 years a piece to reach the crab nebula.  To put that in perspective, shining a flashlight At the moon, the light would reach the moon in 1.5 seconds.  It is difficult to grasp the immensity of our universe.

              It is even more difficult to grasp the transcendence of God.  Job 11:7-8 says "can you find out the deep things of God?  Can you find out the limits of the Almighty?  It is higher than heaven -- what can you do?  Deeper than Hell -- what can you know?"  Isaiah 55:7-8 says "for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways," declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Romans 11:33 says "Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways." We cannot begin to imagine how big and awesome God is.  It is something that will never be able to comprehend. God's transcendence must cause us to honor, respect, trust and stand in awe of Him. 

            At the same time is a personal God.  The psalmist called him "my Shepherd" and we can too.  In one sense we ought to be overwhelmed with the magnitude of God.  However, we should not be so overwhelmed that we just give up and sink into Deism which is often referred to as the theology of despair: the belief that God got things started and the only hope we have is a blind leap of faith.  That theology tends to morph into elevating experience over Scripture and leads us into inventing our own god, and worshiping that god in our own way, pleasing the flesh and making us feel good about ourselves. 

            So, that leads us to ask a very important question: can we really know God?  If God is incomprehensible and the Bible tells us he is unsearchable than how can we or can we really know Him?  The answer is in the fact that God is not only transcendent he is also immanent which means He is near to us.  We can know Him because he is near to us.  Psalm 145:18 says the Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.    Psalm 34:18 says the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves that crushed in spirit.  When we come to the Lord humbly he will be near us.  We often complain about not knowing Him or not being able to know him because he seems so far away.  The reason he is so far away is often because we have made ourselves too big and He has become small to us.  We desperately need God!  Paul says it best in 1 Corinthians 12:9 my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

            Understand that while God is transcendence, He is also immanent.  In your quest to get to know Him come to Him humbly.

New Year's Quest

         It's that time of year again, New Year's resolutions.  For those that make them the question is how long will it last?  Most don't make it past January but it doesn't hurt to try.  I would like to challenge you to try something different.  We'll call it a quest.  The quest is this: pursue hard after God this year.

Let's start with a few questions.  How well do you know God?  How much could you write about God?  Would you be able to write a sentence, a whole paragraph, fill up a page?  How accurate would what you write be?  How practical or useful would it be?  Those are all questions with which I hope you wrestle. 

         God wants us to know Him.  Consider what Jesus says in John 17:3 - this is eternal life that they know You are the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.  A lot of us think of eternity in many different ways.  Some think of the splendor of heaven, the pearly gates the streets of gold, asking your favorite Bible characters questions and other thoughts about what might or might not happen in heaven.  Jesus said however, eternal life  is knowing God.  That seems to be a lot different from how we think of heaven.  God give us a lifetime here on earth to get to know Him and then eternity to know Him further.  Since God is transcendent and incomprehensible it will take an eternity to know Him.

         I love what Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 9:23-24 - if you boast, don't boast about your wisdom strength, or wealth, boast alone that you know and understand God who practices love justice and righteousness in the earth.  It seems like we waste a lot of time in things that do not matter.  Let's make 2014 different from every other year.  Pursue hard after God.

Peculiar Genealogy

Years ago I was asked if I preached on the genealogy of Jesus At Christmas time. I replied yes to which the person questioning me asked what you preach about the genealogy? I find Jesus genealogy rather interesting. The most interesting genealogy to me is the one we find in Matthew chapter 1. I find it most interesting because this particular genealogy includes five women. As humans we tend to hide from others what we might think is damaging to ourselves and our reputation. Matthew, on the other hand, included these five women who had some questionable backgrounds.

 

First of all they were women in a predominantly male directed society. Tamar, through a series of events we can find in Genesis 38, dressed up like a harlot and seduced her father-in-law Judah to sleep with her so she could have a son and keep the inheritance for her first late husband Er. 

Secondly there's Rahab. She was unknown harlot, she was not a Jew nor was she an Israelite. Yet God chose her to protect the spies sent into Jericho to scout for the upcoming battle and include her in the genealogy.

Thirdly there's Ruth. A wonderful story of redemption. However, she had some difficult barriers to overcome as well. She was a Moabite and her only connection to Israel was by marriage. After she lost her first husband that connection seemed to fade away. She is then married to Boaz after the first kinsman redeemer refuses to marry her.

Fourthly there's Bathsheba. She is the one with whom David commits adultery. David then has her husband Uriah killed to hide the sin.  Yet we find her mentioned in Jesus genealogy.

The last woman that is mentioned is Mary the mother of Jesus. She was betrothed to Joseph but was with child before they were actually married. In that day that carried the penalty of death. One couldn't hide pregnancy forever. It was absolutely scandalous.

If these kind of difficulties were in my past I would probably try to hide some of those things. But I think there's a reason God allows those individuals to be mentioned in Jesus genealogy. Consider the barriers: gender, nationality, religion, and sin. Three of them were created by God: gender, nationality, religion. Both God and man can cross those barriers. The fourth barrier sin, which was man-made can only be crossed by God.  God crossed all of those barriers and sent His Son Jesus to die for mankind. What grace and mercy!