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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| GOD OF ISAAC |
| Exodus 3:6 ESV – And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. |
| In our last post we considered the name “God of Abraham”, and how Isaac was encouraged as a man of peace by the Lord. Centuries later. a young man who would become the lawgiver of Israel was addressed in the wilderness by God. Moses was simply out tending his sheep, when a strange sight caught his attention. As Moses decided to turn aside to see this great sight, the Lord took notice of his interest, for verse 4 speaks of the Lord seeing Moses turning to the burning bush. Exodus 3:4 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Moses decided to turn to see this sight, and that decision triggered a series of events that has changed the world, created nations, produced a renown leader, and furthered the plan of God for the salvation of the world. After Moses turned to the bush, the Lord identified Himself as the “God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob”. Moses knew this was the God of the fathers, and hid his face. Eventually Moses became a man who could talk to God face to face. Exodus 33:11 …the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. For now, in this passage, Moses hid his face. Nowhere in the Word is the God of Isaac referred to without his father and son being included. For God to be referred to as the God of Isaac, we always find Abraham and Jacob included. As we consider our next name, related to Jacob alone (the God of Jacob), it becomes almost a standard name to refer to when discussing Israel’s existence and standing, but with Isaac, his association in the names of God is always with his father and son. He is a part, or portion of the description of who God is. His name is added to the description of God to show continuity, to provide to Moses that God is the God of the patriarchs, and of the promises provided to these men as they learned and walked with God. Moses needed to be reminded that this sight he saw, this voice he heard, was not some trick of the mind or new message, but was related to the same God that spoke to the patriarchs. Not one of the patriarchs, but all three. This surely provided Moses the background and history of God’s relationship with the patriarchs, giving Moses information on who God is, what God is like, and the future of the people of God. Little did he know that the future of the people of God would become his driving motivation for the last 40 years of his life. Moses was called into service as God identified himself thus, and many centuries later, another great teacher brought this name to the attention of His hearers. Jesus spoke of “the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” as He rebuked the Sadducees about their denial of the resurrection. After the Sadducees provide a question that supposedly supported their position of no resurrection, Jesus laid them flat. He spoke of resurrection as a fact and corrected these “teachers of Israel” in front of the entire audience. Matthew 22:32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” For Jesus to pull out the truth of the resurrection from the use of the present tense first person singular of “be” is amazing. For Moses to hear the name of God we are looking at not only identified God as the historical God associated with the patriarchs, but since the patriarchs are now long in the grave, and God speaks of being (not was) the God of these men, speaks of these men as being alive also! Thought they are in the grave, God is their God, centuries after their death, even as Moses heard the message, and even much later as Jesus addresses the Sadducee’s heresy. An amazing truth pulled from the name we are considering this morning. When we think on the name of the God of Isaac, we can be reminded of the historicity of our God, that is, that He made a historical continuous contact with multiple men in the past, and that this relationship with these men continues even to this day, for it also speaks of the resurrection! |
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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