Who He Is

“Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am He; I am the first, and I am the last. My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together. Isaiah 48:12-13 (NKJV)

It was a song with a narrator speaking over the children singing. He was saying: “He is the Holy One, The I AM. The Beginning and the End. The Infinite, all powerful, all-knowing, ever present, miracle-working God. He is the Creator of the world. The Righteous Judge! The King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the Rewarder, the Healer, the Prince of Peace, the firm Foundation.”

These are not the names of God that a composer wrote. These are the Names that God has revealed in the words of Scripture about who He is. God’s Word is the one place we can get to know Him.

A very basic truth that the Lord Himself teaches is in Isaiah 55:8. He says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD (Isaiah 55:8)

It is only by reading and learning what God says about Himself that we can come to understand who He is. Our thoughts are not lofty enough to have a clue without His help. Even with His help our minds cannot fully grasp the depth and breadth of who He is and how much He loves us (Ephesians 3:19).

The thing that is not frequently taught is how much God’s acts of justice and wrath are equally as loving toward us as His acts of generosity and healing. He does all things out of mercy for us in our fallen spiritual condition before Him. It is His desire to communicate to us our need for repentance and reconciliation to Him.

If we define Him by human standards of what others think He ought to be or who we want Him to be, we will be worshiping another god, not God.

In His grace, God has left us with His Word. He has not left us to wonder what it is that He wants or expects from us. He tells us so that we are without excuse to know it and live it. If we choose to believe our own thoughts for our own comfort we will not have the abundant life He promises. We can’t ask, “Where is God?” when He seems absent or distant because He isn’t doing what we think He ought to be doing.

There is so much to know of God. The scriptures reveal that He is “a consuming fire, a jealous God (Deuteronomy 4:24), a merciful God (Deuteronomy 4:31), wise in heart and mighty in strength (Job 9:4), a just judge (Psalm 7:11), He is exalted as head above all (2 Chronicles 29:11) and He is love (1 John 4:8).

There is so much more about Him that it is not possible to completely cover who He is. Where is our understanding of God coming from? Do we know Him?

The challenge is to check what we believe about the Most High God with the scriptures that He has inspired. Then, to worship Him for who He is and not who we want Him to be.