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.
| 195 |
| GOD OF JACOB |
| 2 Samuel 23:1 Now these are the last words of David: The oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel: |
| David is on his last legs. He is about to take his last breath. At the end of life, it is well known that as a man looks back on his life, he doesn’t waste words or speak of frivolities, of nonsense and of things of no importance. David describes himself in four ways. The son of Jesse The man raised on high The anointed of the God of Jacob The sweet psalmist of Israel. It is the third description that catches me this morning. To associate his anointing with the God of Jacob. Jacob, the liar and cheat. A man willing to sacrifice family to get ahead. A man who would stop at nothing to take what didn’t belong to him, that would break relationship with his older brother, tearing him away from his parents. He had his eye on the goal and let nothing stop him. Morally reprehensible. Jacob, a man who was self willed, never backing down, even as he wrestled with God. In some ways, he was the perfect antithesis of the True Follower of God, The Son of God, by living by the “Not your will but mine” life! And yet David associates God with Jacob. Granted, this is not the first time God is associated with such a terrible man, but for David, who is the great king of Israel, a prophet of God, and such a clear type of Christ, to refer to himself as the anointed of the God of Jacob, surely implies David’s own sense of wickedness in his own heart. David identifies with the God of Jacob, the God who accepts “less than perfect” men. As I have read the Word for the last 40 some odd years, I have regarded the general story of David, and of his “Bathsheba” incident as the great sin, the affront against God that David entered into. Yet as we are going through the life of David in our Wednesday series, we are currently considering David’s backsliding years before the Bathsheba event. It is simply a terrible condition that David entered into. To be committed to the “arch enemy” of Israel, even willing to go into battle with the Philistines against his own people, just seems so wrong. Beyond being disloyal to his people, he became a cut throat rebel, killing and stealing, turning into a vicious mercenary, killing every living soul in towns he raided. (See Life of David – 21.03 for more information). Yes David could relate to Jacob. David was a fallen man, that actually pursued his fallen nature, even to depths that Jacob may have shied away from. David clung to the God of Jacob, as well we must, for He is a God who redeems the “less than perfect”, who bends down to pick up, who reaches out to help. Be thankful, my friend, for God has rescued Jacob, and God has rescued David. And God can rescue us, as we also admit our poverty, our “less than perfect” status before a holy and righteous God! Less than perfect? Such an understatement! But the God of Jacob is the God we worship! |
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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