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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| Great Mighty Awesome God |
| Nehemiah 9:32 “Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. |
| Can you see a progression in our names of God recently? Two posts ago, we considered our “Great God”, and in our last post, we spent a few moments on the “Great and Mighty God”. From previous studies, we understand that to be great is not a matter of comparison against something or someone. To be great is not necessarily the opposite of bad, or poor, or weak. Each of those terms have their compliment. And with “mighty”, we understand this describes God’s abilities, and it goes without saying that in describing His abilities, His abilities are also without comparison. It is not as thought we could say God could perform this action but not that action. (Of course we know He is limited to within His own will, but again – that goes without saying!) So when we come to the term “awesome”, what are we to understand? Back in the nineties, awesome was a byword that everyone used for anything that was above average, kinda cool or somewhat likeable. It kind of degraded the English word awesome, at least in my mind. The term awesome, when we find it in our verse here in Nehemiah, relates to fear. Yes, our modern culture pushes the idea of respect and reverence in relation to God, and of that, this word has some meaning. To be sure, we need a healthy dose of godly reverence towards our God in our modern way of thinking! But the term also carries with it the element of bone jarring fear, of a fear that overrides all other emotions. This term “awesome” is the same term that describes our ancestor’s first emotion after falling. Genesis 3:10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Adam was afraid. This completely new emotion for God’s creative masterpiece must have been excruciating. The Lord had become One to fear, due to Adam’s actions. Let us remember that the Lord had not changed. We had. And we invited massive fear into our lives. To go from a state of innocent bliss with the eternal God, to the internal knowledge that the Creator God who walked with you in the cool of the garden is now offended – well that must have been such an incredible shift in reality! Nevertheless, the fear described in the fall of man is of the same fear each of us have lived under if we honestly face our destiny. To be alone before the Great and Mighty God is to be in a fearful place, a place of utter aloneness and nakedness before Him. Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 4:13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. He is God and we are but His creation, a creation that is fallen and in rebellion, with nothing to offer Him, nothing to placate the Holy God we stand before. Let us not dull the sharp edge of truth, even in our desire to give us some sense of comfort, some sense of false security or safety. As we stand, we are not great. We are not mighty. And we are to fear. As believers, we are compelled, even by the love of Christ, to consider the Lord in the all encompassing manner we are responsible to Him. In that meditation and in realizing we fail Him in so many ways, a dread or fearfulness should rise up in our consciousness. A sense of complete hopelessness in our soul, a fearful looking over our shoulder, realizing we fall so short. We are a sinful people in such a desperate situation! If not for our Savior. If it wasn’t for the massive sacrifice of His unmatched life to provide a ransom for a people who spat on Him, rejecting His counsel, and taking part in the spirit that crucified Him. If it wasn’t for Him, we would be without hope. Crippling fear with no hope would be our experience. As believers, Jesus has provided the right to be considered children of God, having removed the crippling fear we deserve. He has opened the door to the throne room of God’s kingdom, and we have the right to enter by the blood of Christ. At such a cost, should we not continue to carry a fear that is rightly associated with such a Great and Mighty God, even our Great and Mighty, Awesome God! |
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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