This is not a child’s question.
There is nothing and no one with whom we can compare
Him. He is in a unique category,
and we can know Him only as He has chosen to reveal
Himself.
The psalmists were always
calling men to praise the name of Yahweh. “Praise
the LORD” is repeated in the Psalms.
The LORD God is an infinite
person. We can come to know
Him only as He has chosen to reveal Himself in
nature and in His own Word. “The
heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their
expanse declaring the work of His hands” (Psalm
19:1). God has chosen to reveal
Himself in His creation (Col. 1:16-17; John 1:3;
Rev. 4:11; Rom. 2:14-15). The
Creator did not leave Himself without a witness to
His grace and mercy. He reveals
Himself to the world by His common grace (Acts
14:17; 17:24-29).
God has revealed Himself in His
personal name. In Exodus 3:14 He
revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush as “I
AM WHO I AM.” “I AM” is the LORD,
“the God of you fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob” (v.16).
This is the “four letter” name
of God, called the Tetragrammaton.
It has four consonants commonly spelled YHWH,
YHVH or JHVH. The vowels are
supplied and hence the spelling “Yahweh.” Several
English translations of the Bible use the word LORD
in all capital letters to signify Yahweh. Others use
the name “Jehovah.” All of these are attempts to
communicate the unpronounceable Name. The meaning
can be “I AM,” or “I will be,” from the verb HAYAH,
“to be.” It can also correctly be
used with other vowels and translated, “He who
causes to be,” or “He who brings into existence.”
The simplest meaning is “I am who I am,” or
“I will be who I will be.”
As a divine person, He has
revealed Himself and communicates His person to His
creation made in His image. He
has revealed Himself as three persons in one – The
Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.
There are not three Gods.
He is One God in three persons.
He can be known, and He wants us to have fellowship
with Him.
This great personal name
Jehovah, or LORD, reveals to us that He is eternal.
He is the great “I AM.” He
is God eternal, everlasting, without beginning and
without end.
Hebrew scholars tell us the
name contains each tense of the verb “to be.”
You could translate “I was,” “I shall always
be,” and “I shall always continue to be.”
He is the eternal I AM, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He is always
the same in His eternal being, so we can depend upon
Him to be consistent.
Not only is He eternal, He is
also unchangeable. He is
immutable. What He was to Moses, Abraham, Isaac,
David, etc., He will always be to us. He does not
evolve, as if an evolutionary religious hocus pocus
created Him. He acts with
self-dependence. He answers to no
one.
He is the Self-determining One,
absolute, independent in harmony with Himself
throughout eternity. He is today
what He will be tomorrow. He has
no needs and therefore not dependent upon anyone or
anything in His creation. He does
not need anyone to defend Him, love Him, or support
Him. He is the only All
Self-sufficient One.
“We love, because He first
loved us” (1 John 4:19).
He is the One we worship and
praise. “Who is a God like
you, who pardons sins and forgives the
transgressions of the remnant of His inheritance?”
(Micah 7:18)
Yes, He is the God of
salvation, and the God of grace.
The God who reveals Himself in Jesus Christ will
always be like Jesus Christ and never change His
eternal attributes (Heb. 1:1-3).
In a confrontation with the
Pharisees Jesus declared, “Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”
So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty
years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to
them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham
was born, I am” (John 8:56-58).
He is “our great God and
Savior, Christ Jesus who gave Himself for us that He
might redeem us from every lawless deed and purity
of Himself a people for His own possession, zealous
for good deeds” (Titus 2:13-14).
“To Him who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and
dominion forever and forever” (Rev. 5:13).
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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Unless otherwise noted "Scripture quotations taken from the NASB."
"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE" © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://www.bible.org/. All rights reserved.
Wil is a graduate of William Carey University, B. A.; New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Th. M.; and Azusa Pacific University, M. A. He has pastored in Panama, Ecuador and the U. S, and served for over 20 years as missionary in Ecuador and Honduras. He had a daily expository Bible teaching ministry head in over 100 countries from 1972-2005. He continues to seek opportunities to be personally involved in world missions. Wil and his wife Ann have three grown daughters. He currently serves as a Baptist pastor and teaches seminary extension courses in Ecuador.
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