My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
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| EVERLASTING FATHER |
| Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. |
| My brother-in-law once asked me if Jesus is our Father? What? Why would you even think that? It turns out that he was asking a very good question, a question challenged me when he referred to the above verse to justify his request. Although there are ways to address this seeming problem while referring to the Trinity as One God, that the characteristic of Fatherhood is consistent through each of the persons of the Trinity. Although it is common to refer to the Father as the One who sent Jesus the Son on mission to the earth, each of the persons in the Trinity may be thought of as Fatherly. One additional viewpoint is that the term “Everlasting Father” speaks of Jesus as the author, or source of eternity. The phrase may be expressed as father of eternity if I understand it correctly. No matter how you understand this name as it relates to the Savior, we have a passage that speaks of the Fatherhood of our God, and as a believer who lost his father early in his life, I have not typically thought of our God in this way. This speaks of my spiritual poverty, for to consider the Creator/Redeemer as my Father provides a life changing perspective on God. So many impacts of relating to God as my Father come to mind, but for this post, the approachableness of God bears on my thoughts. To think that the One who has been offended by my sin, rejected by my attitudes and actions, and occasionally ignored in my thinking has His arms open to me, His door always open, and His heart ready to hear of my repentance and love to Him is a truly amazing truth. And as a father, I have come to know the joy of my own children coming to me for advice, of their reaching out for help or guidance, of their sharing a joy or trial with me. Is it correct to think we bring joy to the Everlasting Father when we come to Him with our burdens, our concerns, our request for guidance? As a child years back, I would think this would only be a burden for my father, but now I realize to be a father is to look for these times when your children come to you. He is the Everlasting Father, and He waits for us to reach out, to ask for forgiveness, to seek guidance or to simply be with Him. |
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
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