What God Intends for Us to Know

As is often the case, a recent conversation with one of my best friends, Steve, turned into a discussion about the nature of God. This has been an ongoing discussion for several years and grows more interesting as time goes by.

Today, Steve asked, “You know that I am reading through the Bible…”

Actually, both of us are reading through the Bible, though we are using different plans. It is the beginning of the year, so we are both in Genesis. My wife and I are in the midst of the story of the life of Joseph. You will see why this is important as the story progresses.

Now right about here, imagine that my brain has amped up, reviewing what we are both reading, and beginning to formulate my thoughts to stay up with, or maybe even stay ahead of where Steve is going with his point. Since no one’s brain works like Steve’s and since his comments seldom give clear clues to where he is going, I’ve never been successful at this. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying.

OK. So, now I am thinking. Steve continues... 

“As I have been reading lately, I’ve begun to ask the same question more and more, ‘What is it that God wanted Israel to know about Him?’ God delivered Israel after they had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years…”

Right about here in his comments, my mind takes in this new data and, at synaptic speed, continues to process: Almost everyone knows about the years of Israel’s captivity in Egypt. In addition, I had just read about how Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt and unjustly imprisoned there by his master. In both cases, God intervened in the lives of both Israel and Joseph to free them from bondage and captivity.

So, without giving my words due consideration, I cut in...

“That God is redeemer….”

“Whoa,” Steve interjects before I could utter another word. “Wait just a minute. Let’s stop right here...”

This is not an unusual occurrence in our conversations. Once Steve is on a roll to his objective, he doesn’t want to be interrupted, especially when it is obvious that I have taken the path most traveled by and he is off on a safari to seldom trodden places. More often than not, about the time he is really into his processing and explaining, someone or something will interrupt, like the telephone will ring. This is pestilence. It seems to happen every time. Wait for it…

Steve continues...

“The nation of Israel is in slavery in Egypt, yet God was the one who put them there. He must have had a purpose in doing so, but why? And when He delivered them from slavery, it began with the Red Sea. You know that there was the I-75 route – the shortest route – right up to the Promised Land, but no, He had them turn right and travel through a wilderness. So what is it that He is trying to teach them? What is it that God wants us to learn about Him?”

So here is a clue. My mind should pick up on something here, but I am still processing along my earlier track: Not only did God deliver the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, much later in their history they were carried off into captivity by Babylon. And, once again, God delivered them and restored them to their homeland and to Jerusalem.

All of these events – Egyptian slavery, Joseph’s imprisonment, and the Babylonian captivity – ended the same way. God delivered His people. They were all redeemed.

The same thing is true of those who know Christ as Lord. We were in bondage to sin and death until God, in His providence, redeemed us and granted us salvation and freedom in and through Christ.

So I chimed in once again...

“He is the God of redemption. God wanted the world to understand Him in terms of redemption.”

Right about here, you guessed it, “R-i-i-ing.”

Steve answers, and the conversation is ended.

I told you that Steve is my best friend, but he is also my employer. As he continued his phone conversation, I returned to the warehouse that I oversee a couple of miles away. Shortly after arriving, I am on a ladder retrieving a file when my cell phone rings.

It’s Steve.

“Remember what you said about God wanting men to understand Him in terms of redemption? You were right about that…”

At this point, I could begin to feel a bit of pride, but from experience, I know that another shoe is about to drop.

“…but...”

See? This is the way it always is. But never fear, because the outcome is always enlightening and on target. Steve has a real gift of discernment and an ability to see a picture from such a different perspective that I am seldom if ever disappointed. This case is no exception.

“…God is the one who put them there. God did not just know that Israel would be slaves; He caused it all to happen. This was His plan. But what is it that He wanted them to learn – that He wanted us to learn from all this? OK, He wanted men to learn about redemption, but I believe that there is much more to this than just redemption. ”

Everything I have shared with you so far is a summary of the events. The conversation was much longer and the dialogue much more involved. I have only used quotation marks for effect. 

Now, if you will permit, I want to drop the conversation and summarize where the dialogue lead us.

God is Redeemer and Savior (Is. 43:1-3). When we come to recognize Him as our Lord and our redeemer we are thankful and our love for Him increases and motivates us to worship Him.

Yet, while it is true that God is the God of redemption, there is so much more to be understood about who He is from what He has revealed of himself in the Bible. To see Him primarily as the God of redemption is sufficient to elicit praise and worship from His people, but it is a limited concept of God.

Before there was creation – before there was redemption – there was God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And everything He does is for His own glory. (Isaiah 43:6-7) Stated from another perspective, God desires worship.

Angels – including Lucifer, aka Satan in later reference – were also created by God (Col. 1.16; Ez. 28:13-15). Angels were created with personal will or else Lucifer and his followers could not have rebelled against God.

As far as we know based on God’s revelation, angels cannot be redeemed. Thus Satan’s destiny has been the same since the moment he first determined to rebel against God.

So we know that angels recognize God as Lord and worship Him and apparently do so in response to some motivation – maybe even love, but that motivation is not rooted in redemption.

Steve proposed that, for a moment, we forget about redemption. Take it out of the equation. Then ask the same question, “What is it that God wants us to know about Him?”

When God repeated and reaffirmed His promise to Abraham concerning the nation that would come from his (Abraham’s) seed, He also informed Abraham that that same nation would first go through a baptism of adversity as slaves in Egypt for 400 years (Gen. 15:13). He also promised that He would judge Egypt and deliver the nation of Israel, bringing them out of Egypt “with great substance.” (Gen. 15:13-14)

Not only did God know that Israel would spend time as slaves in Egypt and ultimately be delivered from bondage. God was the instrument by which the entire process was set in motion.

The story of Joseph is one of the most interesting stories in the Bible, telling how a set of jealous brothers sold their youngest brother (Joseph) into slavery, how Joseph thrived there and later became the second most powerful man in the nation of Egypt. God instructed Jacob to take his family down into Egypt in response to Pharaoh’s invitation. Jacob was not to fear the outcome of this migration, because God would accompany the people there and would make of them a great nation (Gen. 46:2-4).

Then, at the very end of the story (Gen. 50:20), Joseph convinced his brothers that they had nothing to fear from him because, even though their original intent to harm him was evil, God intended it for good.

God is so much more than a savior. He does not exist simply to deliver us from evil. Instead, He himself orchestrates the evil itself so that it cannot help but accomplish His purpose and His will, which are always good (Rom. 8:28).

The holiness of God is not just a reference to some degree or magnitude goodness, but a statement of God’s relationship to sin and evil. When man considers sin, he is threatened by its ability to demean and destroy, and when he succumbs to temptation and embraces sin, the result is death.

However, the same cannot be said for God for He is holy, meaning that He is impervious and immune to the effects or penalty of sin and evil. In fact, sin and evil are subject to His will. Thus He may handle it, mold it, or use it in any way He chooses to accomplish His will and purpose. God’s plan in redemption is to render the redeemed holy, even as He is holy, so that we, too, are not affected by the effects of sin.

God created man to worship God, not simply for the things that God does – create, sustain, redeem – but for who God is. God is much, much more than the sum of all of His actions.

That is why He identified himself to Moses as “I AM.” God is, and therefore, we are to worship Him simply because He is.

Not only is there no other greater than God – there simply is no “other.” (Ex. 8:10, Deut. 4:35, 39; Is. 46:9) Therefore, none can hold Him accountable or overcome Him or prevent His will or teach Him anything.

He cannot even be disappointed in us, because He has no expectations of us. Based on the dictionary definition of the word, an expectation is a feeling or belief about how successful or good (or bad) something or someone will be at some future time. But God’s awareness of our future actions is not based on a feeling or faith, but on facts. He is omniscient. He has perfect knowledge of who we are and what we do or will do because He is our Creator.

When we look beyond God as simply the source of redemption and blessing and see Him in His sovereign role as Lord of eternity and of the Universe, then we cannot help but to fall on our faces and worship Him in awe and wonder, and we cannot fail to rise and apply our worship in service.

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