Wednesday Bible study- the questions of Gork part 2

 

The second question Grok said it gets asked most often about God is, "What is God's nature?"  And Grok made three categories on this question that I'd like to look at before putting in my own two cents.

First:  What IS God- a person, a force, or something else?  To begin this, I want to take you back to Genesis:

Gen 1:26  Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 

Gen 1:27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 

In His own image- do you get what that means?  You as a human being are made of three natures- the mind, which controls what you do; a body, which does what you do; and a spirit, which is your thoughts, your dreams, your conscience.  If this is an image of God, then it shouldn't be hard to see the Trinity of God- the Father, who commands; the Sons, who does; and the Spirit who connects it all- but with God so much greater than us, so too the meaning of these three.

Given this, if God was just "the Force", or the Tao, what would that make man?  If still in His own image, man would be little more than ghosts- but we are so much more. God himself has told us He is personal:

Exo 20:5  You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 

Exo 20:6  but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. 

Can a force be jealous?  Would a being that 'created the universe and just let it go" even CARE if you worshipped something that didn't exist?  

Can a force love?

The second aspect of the question was: "Is He loving, or judgmental, or indifferent?"

Obviously, we've already eliminated the last choice.  As for the other two, the answer is, "Yes".

It's not a 'one or the other thing'.  First off, God loves ALL He has made...

Joh 3:16  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 

Joh 3:17  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 

But the question is, do you love Him? 

Mal 3:8  Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 

Mal 3:9  You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 

Mal 3:10  Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 

Mal 3:11  I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts. 

Mal 3:12  Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts. 

I was reading Malachi as I started this journey, and it struck me that this book truly brings God's nature into focus.  He wants to love all of us, to give us all His heart.  But we prevent that, by:

-Denying His love

-giving less than our best

-acting as if it's a "weariness" to serve God

-being faithless, both to God and others

-accepting evil as good

-thinking God makes no difference in our lives

And so many other ways.  But yet, we expect God to continue to treat us just the same...

Mal 2:13  And this second thing you do. You cover the LORD's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 

Mal 2:14  But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 

The third direction the questions to Grok went were in the area: "Omnipotence, omniscience, benevolence".  And in a way, I'm glad these got grouped together.  "IF there is One God, who can do anything, and knows everything, how can He look at the souls of mankind and not destroy us?" SHOULD be our question.  Instead, much like the Jews of Malachi's day, we rather ask, "If God is loving, why does He allow hurricanes, cancer, Joe Biden, etc.?"  If we once remembered that OUR SIN separates us from God, our sin is what caused the fall of the perfect world made for Adam, our sin allowed Satan to manufacture all the evils that beset us- it would be a lot easier to see in God the benevolence that allows us another day to come to Him, to receive to our record the promises He gives to those who seek Him with a whole heart.

In closing, I think we ask these questions not because we can't understand God's nature, but because we are desperately trying not to have to change OUR nature.  We want to see Him impersonally, that we may disobey without courting judgment.  We want to see Him only as a judge we can't please, so that we don't have to be bothered with pleasing Him.  And we want to question His benevolence, so that everything is His fault, His capriciousness, and not ours.  I believe in studying His nature, we see the truth in ours, a truth I found some time ago- we have it ALL backwards.