Every generation has
asked the question: "Who is that God? Does He exist? Will
we have anything to do with Him? Why should we have anything to
do with Him? If He exists, who. . . who. . . who is He?"
After the days in which
Adam and Eve no longer walked and talked personally with God in
the Garden of Eden, one man has pointed to another to "that
God" down through the generations. "O earth, earth,
earth, hear the word of the Lord." Jer. 22:29. "I have
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear," Job declared. As
it was in 1520 B.C., so it is now. We hear of God by the hearing
of the ear. Still the question is repeated, "Who is that
God?" Man answers to man about God. Those who know Him best
proclaim His greatness. But God Himself has not remained silent.
He has spoken time and again about Himself to us. There is no
voice where He is not heard, the sound has gone out unto the
ends of the world.
Prior to the knowledge
of writing, stories were handed down by word of mouth. Those who
stood at the fires, in the evenings relating these stories, were
known as "mages." The stories made images in the minds
of the listeners. The world would like us to believe that many,
if not all, of the stories of the God of old were stories of
imaginations. "Who is that God, the world inquires, who
could do these things: speak from a burning bush that was never
consumed; lead over a million people across the wind-dried Red
Sea bed; protect three men in a furnace, heated extra hot, so
they were not burned; and close the lions' mouths at feeding
time? Who is that God who directed a small stone from a sling to
a tiny opening on the far stream bank. Who is that God who would
do such a thing, or who is that God who could do such a thing?
Is He real?" The skeptic and unbelieving say these things
are contrary to nature. Of course, the God who created nature
can do with nature as He pleases. He is that God.
When Ahab was king,
false prophets abounded causing people to worship gods of stone
and wood. Idols were carved and covered with a thin sheet of
gold which glistened in the sun. It was so easy and convenient
to worship the gods of wood and stone, for the idols didn't make
demands on one. It was easy to pay homage and go about one's
way. It took just a few minutes of bowing before the idol and
dropping coins in a bowl. Why be bothered thinking about a
living God? After all, what would He demand of one-the
elimination of pride and self in the heart-holiness? So, it was
much "safer" and convenient spending a few minutes
with a stone god who didn't talk. And so the social conscious
mind found it impossible to conceive a living God.
Such was the social and
moral consciousness of Egypt when Pharaoh was faced with Moses
and Aaron. "And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I
should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord. . .
." Ex. 5:2. Can you hear the sneering pride, arrogance, and
disdain in Pharaoh's words?
But Moses already knew
the Lord. Hadn't God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning
bush which burned, but was not consumed? How could Moses doubt a
God like that? Had not God spoken from that bush declaring,
"I AM THAT I AM." Look closely at that statement-it
contains a mathematical verity-I AM equals I AM. "God is
His own equivalent, and God needs nothing but Himself to achieve
the great purposes on which He has set His heart."-Taken
from Springs In The Valley. Did God then need Pharaoh to ask,
"Who is that God?" God would and could do as He
pleaded without asking leave of Pharaoh. Nor do we find Moses
upholding God as having any particular quality that the king
could identify with. Either his language didn't hold such words,
or Moses knew whatever he might say about God would be lost on
the Egyptian mind. However, since the Egyptians were using math
in a greater and higher degree than the other nations around
them, maybe Pharaoh understood the equation of God's statement
better than we think he did. Since Pharaoh considered himself a
god, some shepherd declaring "I AM THAT I AM has sent
me," bordered on sheer treachery.
Moses declared,
"The God of the Hebrews hath met with us." (Ex. 5:3).
Because God had previously met with Moses, and Moses knew God,
he proclaimed, "God is. God is the Great I AM." God
spoke "unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord: And I
appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name
of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to
them." Ex. 6:2-3. "Now shalt thou see what I will do
to Pharaoh." (Ex. 6:1). Jehovah means "Creator"
and "Eternal" of which God is both.
By the time God
delivered Israel out of Egypt, all nations round about had heard
of God. They may not have had telegraphs, nor the evening news
on television, but they had heard. It brought fear to their
hearts whenever the Israelites approached their borders. They
knew who God was, even if they didn't know Him on a personal
basis. In other words, here was a God who dealt directly with
humans, and as such, He deserved respect.
King Solomon's prayer in
1004 B.C., as recorded in II Chronicles 6:14 says, "O Lord
God of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven, nor in
the earth; which keepest covenant and shewest mercy unto thy
servants, that walk before thee with all their hearts:"
Solomon witnessed the dealings of God with his father David, and
to him, that God was real and living.
When Elijah demanded
Ahab to bring the priests of Baal to Mount Carmel, he felt that
he alone was the only prophet left to fight for God. It was
approximately 906 B.C. It has been said that one soul on fire
for God can set the universe ablaze. Listen to Elijah's dramatic
appeal to the idol worshipers: "The God that answers by
fire, let him be God." When fire fell from heaven,
consuming the water-soaked wood and sacrifice, doubts were burnt
up as well as the water. The people proclaimed, "The Lord
He is God! The Lord He is God!" They knew who that God was.
Hear the voice of the
prophet Jeremiah praying, "Ah, Lord God! behold, thou hast
made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched
out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: Thou shewest
lovingkindness unto thousands, . . . the Great, the Mighty God,
the Lord of hosts, is his name, Great in counsel, and mighty in
work: for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of
men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to
the fruit of his doings:" Jer. 32:17-19.
"Who is that God
that I may know Him?" the young people of our nation are
asking today. Will Christians, as Daniel and others before us,
have to go through great trials before they are willing to
listen about that God? People asked about Christ when He
preached in Israel and Judah. "And there were certain
Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast: The same
came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and
desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus." John
12:20-21. Since this was very near the time of Christ's
crucifixion, they probably saw the event, may have heard Christ
cry, "My God! My God!", witnessed the darkness, felt
the earthquake, and heard the railings of the Jews: "Save
thyself." "If thou be the Son of God come down."
"Himself He cannot save." "Let Him come
down." "He trusted in God." "If He will have
Him." All was summed up by the Roman centurion: "Truly
this was THE SON OF GOD."
The risen Lord is that
"King of kings, Lord of lords," God Almighty, Eternal
Father, Creator of all the earth, Saviour, Shield, Buckler,
Strength, Light, Salvation, Comforter, Sanctifier, Keeper, and
much much more. The answer to the question, "Who is that
God?" can be found in its depth and entirety when you seek
Him with your entire being and desire, for He will be found of
you as He promised. -Vesta-Nadine Robertson
