Knowing the God whom we serve

Synopsis: The answer is always God, and because it is life eternal to know Him, it is essential that we know Him for who He really is.

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Who is He?

If you were asked to describe the God whom you worship, what is the first word that would come to mind?

We know from Christ himself that it is “life eternal” to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent (John 17:3), but whether we can or will want to (by God’s grace) attain eternal life depends on our answer to these questions: Who do we know God to be, and who do we know Christ to be?

Burying our pound

Who we know God to be will determine everything about how we live our lives. We are no doubt familiar with the parable of the pounds in Luke 19:12-27, the purpose of which is to engrave in us this very lesson.

A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive a kingdom. He delivered his goods to his servants with a simple instruction: “Occupy until I come.” When the Lord returned, he found that the servants to various degrees invested their time and efforts into this occupation. After praising those who had borne fruit, we encounter one servant who hid what was entrusted to him in his napkin and buried it in the ground.

The story leads us to focus on the latter servant. He was not one of the citizens who hated his lord (cp. v14) — rather one who valued what he was given by placing it carefully in a napkin and burying it in a place he clearly planned to unearth it from. What prevented him from “occupying” with His lord’s goods? Christ’s parable shows that it had everything to do with who the servant knew his Lord to be.

The servant had an inaccurate, and unhealthy opinion of who his Lord was. He knew his Lord to be an “austere man”. His Lord, in his mind, was a rough, rigid, or harsh man. He “feared” him, because he, in the servant’s mind, took up where he laid not down, and reaped where he had not sown. Essentially, his lord was not fair. Not only that, but he had unrealistic expectations. His servant felt he had been asked to harvest in a field that had not been planted. Through whatever circumstances of life this servant had suffered, he had chosen to know Christ, the embodiment of God’s glory, as an uncaring, unfair, unhelpful, fear-inspiring taskmaster (Exodus 5:7–8). Would any of us be able to serve such a master? Would we want to?

How have we come to know God?

Who do we know our Lord to be? What is the first thing that comes to mind when we think of who our God is? When asked the question at the beginning of our article, what came to our mind? Did we think of God as a God of Truth? Perhaps a being who views us as a simple pawn in His game? Or perhaps we recalled how He revealed himself to Moses?

It is easy for us, in our familiarity and technical understanding of the character and glory of God, to gloss over the power of who God reveals Himself to be in Exodus 34. What was the first characteristic that God revealed that He is? And the second? The third? What is He abundant in? What does He keep? How does He respond to the repentant? If we thought first of His punishment of the deliberately disobedient and unrepentant, we may be heading for the challenges faced by the servant of Luke 19. If we find ourselves in a moment wrapping our pound in our napkin, we need to take the opportunity we have now to fall in love with our Lord, to draw near to our God who reveals himself first as merciful (Heb. compassionate), gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness (Heb. steadfast love) and truth (Heb. truth or faithfulness).

God is good and fair

Before we entrust our lives, our struggles, our prayers and our reputations into the hands of our God and His Son, we need to know them for who they are. He is a God of righteousness – but righteousness includes the entire character of God.

To those who in their distress turn to the One whose name is Holy, who dwells in a high and lofty place and also with him that is of a contrite heart and humble spirit (Psalm 120:1; Isaiah 57:15)  seeking first His righteousness (Matthew 6:33,34), our God is a father who:

• pities His children (Psalm 103:13)
• calls us to draw near (James 4:8)
• is close to each of us so that we can feel out for Him and find Him (Acts 17:27)
• promises to preserve our reputation (2 Timothy 1:12)
• promises to put gladness in our hearts far greater than anyone else will ever experience (Psalm 4:7)
• promises to remove feelings of abandonment (Psalm 4:8)
• hears our prayers (Psalm 34:4)
• promises to free us from shame (Psalm 34:5)
• sends his angels to surround us and deliver us (Psalm 34:7)
• promises to provide for all our needs (Psalm 34:9)
• will not withhold anything from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11)
• did not spare His only son for you and promises to freely give you all things (Romans 8:32)
• promises to hold us by the hand and lift us up when we fall (Psalm 37:24)
• encourages us over and again, “do not be afraid” (Gen. 15:1; 21:17; 26:24;; 46:3; Deut. 1:21; 20:3; 31:6,8; Josh. 8:1; Judg. 6:10,23; 2 Chron. 20:17; Isa. 35:4; 41:13,14; 43:1,5; 44:2; Lam. 3:57; Dan. 10:12,19; Joel 2:21; Matt. 28:5; Lk 1:13, 30; 2:10; 5:10; 8:50; 12:7, 32; 18:4; Acts 27:24; Rev. 1:17 to name a few)
• promises to never leave us and to never, ever, abandon us (Hebrews 13:5)
• cares for you and encourages you to cast your anxieties on Him (1 Peter 5:7)
• desires to give us the kingdom (Luke 12:32)
• having begun a good work in us promises to perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6)

His son:

• is touched with the feelings of our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15)
• has compassion on the ignorant and those who are out of the way (Hebrews 5:2)
• has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows (Isaiah 53:4)
• has been given all power in heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18)
• relieves us in our temptation (Hebrews 2:18)
• ever lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25)
• will cause mercy to triumph over judgment (James 2:13)

O taste and see that the LORD is gracious

God is for us, His son died for us (Romans 8:31, 32), and yet our flesh wants to replace them with what we see of men — the ugliness that we see in ourselves. We all carry heavy burdens – anxieties, fears, sins, doubts, emotions out of our control. To truly cast them upon our God, we need to know Him as a God whom we can trust, whom we can draw near to. If that is not the God we know, we need to renew our knowledge of Him.

God knows this is hard for us to do. He knows our frame; He knows we are dust. He knows we battle with letting go, and so He says to us through the psalmist what a father would say to his child. He says through the psalmist: try it. Taste and see that Yahweh is good. We, as children at the dinner table, not wanting to taste something that we haven’t experienced before are encouraged by our Heavenly Father to trust Him. To pour out our complaints like water (Lam 2:19), to cast our cares upon Him, for He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).

This week, let us unwrap that pound that has been entrusted to us, to re-evaluate the holy God who called us out of darkness, who not only trusted us with this blessed hope, but works in us through His son,  who knows that we can’t… but that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13).

“…for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
2 Timothy 1:12