Understanding God: The God Who Sustains All Things
…In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. – Genesis 2:4-6
Today, as we continue our exploration of the personality and nature of God, another of His attributes that we shall dwell on today is sustenance. He is a God of sustenance. He sustains everything and everyone.
From the passage above, we see that before rain started to fall on the earth God had a system in place that would sustain the earth. Even with all the civilizations we have around today, imagine what the earth would have been like without rain, not to talk of the prehistoric times when the earth had not been broken and domesticated by humans. It would have been impossible for life to survive on a parched and unstructured earth. Worse, the earth itself would have caved in and self-destruct without something to keep it moistened.
However, God being ever so thoughtful, methodical in His ways, and with such immense foresight, knew that He needed to have an organism in place to keep the earth wet, and thereby keep it sustained. What did He do? He caused the earth to generate mist from itself in order to wet itself. As simplistic as that sounds, it is an awesome thing to do and another testament to the omniscient power of God.
In other words, God while creating the earth also created the capacity for the earth to sustain itself. The same way He made plants and other living creatures “whose seed is in itself according to its kind” (Genesis 1:11-12) to be self-sustaining. The same way He also made we humans. Our capacity for sustenance however is not because of a random or unexplainable biological configuration. It is God who made us so. He is the One who wired us, an intricate unity, to be self-sustaining.
The Bible says, “the desire of every living thing” is satisfied by God (Psalm 145:16) and He “gives food to all flesh” (Psalm 136:25). That means whatever capacity we have to work for means of livelihood is an endowment from God. Therefore, it is “not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient…” (2 Corinthians 3:5-6).
God is the sustainer of all. Sustenance is one of the social pacts He is sworn by duty to all His creatures, man and beast, believer and non-believer, old and young.
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. – Habakkuk 2:14
Understanding God: He is NOT Omnipresent Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of…
Understanding God: He is NOT Omnipresent
Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground… And the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.” – Genesis 18:1-2,20-21
God is not omnipresent. That sounds heretical, doesn’t it? Particularly as it also challenges thousands of years of theology and the long-held beliefs of an innumerable number of people, both dead and alive.
Omnipresence is a myth, one of the fictional attributes we ascribe to God in awe and worship. And He indeed deserves our awe and worship because of His gargantuan stature and the indispensable role He plays in our lives and our universe. However, there is no passage in the Bible where God describes Himself as omnipresent. Now, we need to draw a line between what God Himself says He is in a direct address and what the various writers of the books in the Bible describe Him to be. If you draw this line, you will realize that all the biblical passages that are being used to justify the omnipresence of God are not His own direct account of Himself. They are more of what the scribes, the prophets, the apostles and other writers of the books attribute to Him.
For context, this writer has also held and described God as omnipresent all his life. And it was not until recently that his attention was drawn to the myth that humanity has held for Aeon about the omnipresence of God. This piece will also be followed by several series drawn from and supported by scripture, to demonstrate that omniscience is a myth and does not accurately represent God.
The idea of omnipresence also highlights our ignorance of the sheer magnitude of God’s creations. The realms and the works of the LORD are so vast and humongous that they beat the wildest imaginations. We primarily focus our attention on the earth and use it to aid our understanding of God. But then this earth, as huge as it is to us, with billions of people living on it, is indeed a very tiny entity among the creations and the realms of God.
The planet Earth is part of the Milky Way galaxy. Now, in terms of size, the Earth is incredibly tiny in that galaxy. The Earth’s size is so small compared to the Milky Way that if the Milky Way were the size of a football field, Earth would be smaller than a tiny grain of sand! Even though the Earth seems huge to us, it is super, super tiny in the vast galaxy we live in! To drive that home, Earth’s size is about 0.00000000013% (1.3 trillionths of the total size) of the Milky Way!
Now, let’s take a closer look at the Milky Way itself, where the Earth and its billions of people are just like a grain of sand. There are estimated to be 100 billion to 200 billion galaxies in the universe. Some studies even suggest there might be more, possibly up to two trillion galaxies. The Milky Way is just one of these, and in terms of size, it is average-sized compared to the other galaxies in the universe of God’s creations. There are other galaxies, numbering in the billions, that are much larger than our Milky Way. Each galaxy has its own stars, its own planets (just like the Earth is one of the planets in the Milky Way), and its own structures. Let’s still not forget that the Earth, through which we understand and relate to God, is just like a tiny speck in its own parent galaxy.
Now, to our reference scripture today, the Bible tells us that God appeared to Abraham “by the terebinth trees of Mamre”. He was not there before that time. In fact, from Genesis 2, when God began relating to humans (we will still conduct a blow-by-blow analysis of biblical references from Genesis 3 onwards on the myth of omniscience), God was always either coming or appearing. He was not always present there either physically or spiritually.
Location-wise, God is in heaven (Psalm 11:4, Psalm 115:3, Ecclesiastes 5:2, Matthew 6:9, Matthew 7:11, Matthew 10:33, Matthew 16:17, Matthew 18:10, Matthew 18:14, Matthew 23:9). Positionally, He is seated on His throne in glory and majesty, and He is being fawned over and worshipped by an innumerable company of angels in the highest where He is (Isaiah 6, Revelation 4).
Inasmuch as God is not omnipresent or everywhere, He nonetheless has the ability to be wherever He wants to be at any time. He can also be in multiple places at the same time as He desires. But that does not mean that He is presently present everywhere at the same time as we have long believed Him to be. No, that is a myth.
God did not communicate Himself to us in this way. The only thing He claimed to be is the Almighty, or Omnipotent (Genesis 17:1). As for Him being omnipresent, that is a myth.
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. – Habakkuk 2:14
Understanding God: He is Omnipotent When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless….
Understanding God: He is Omnipotent
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. – Genesis 17:1
The attribute of God for our meditation today shall be His omnipotence. From our reference passage, we see God introducing Himself to Abraham by saying He is the Almighty God. Another word for almighty is omnipotent. In other words, the God of all might and power who has the ability to do and to undo.
It is pertinent for us to note this attribute of God, particularly as a grounded conviction in it would serve as a guardrail to help us successfully navigate the intricate terrains of life and living. God is the Almighty. He has all might, all power and all abilities. Nothing is beyond Him.
Knowing that one has an ally in God who has this facility should therefore make life’s issues more bearable for anyone who has a relationship with God. Knowing that God is on your side is one of the best antidotes for pressures of any kind, and life will throw all manner of pressure at you. However, those who know God are well-equipped to cope with whatever life may throw at them.
A passage in the Bible states, “The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits” (Daniel 11:32). This illustrates the dual advantage of knowing God: it offers the benefit of strength, another manifestation of omnipotence, and exploits, yet another derivation from the omnipotent power of God, who devolves power and abilities to those He trusts.
Therefore, if you desire to make something of your life in a just and clean way, the God’s way, that is devoid of scheming or manipulation, then you need to have a good relationship with God, as that avails you the needed energy and facility to make it happen.
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. – Habakkuk 2:14
Understanding God: He is Agreeable Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I…
Understanding God: God is agreeable to human dreams
Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you… So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. – Genesis 12:1,4-5
Another endearing attribute of God that we shall meditate on today is His predilection for agreeing with human dreams and wishes, particularly those that are lofty, audacious and do not conflict with His will, a la the tower of Babel. He is an agreeable God.
There was no indication that God and Terah had any conversation about this journey before he embarked on it. However, his move must have impressed God enough that even after his death, God approached his son, Abraham, and invited him to continue the journey.
This is an eye-revealing insight into the character of God indeed. He knew Terah’s original intention and saw how he fell short of his target by dying enroute the journey in the land of Haran. God also saw how Abraham, the son of Terah, appeared to have settled where he was with no intention of continuing the expedition that his father had started.
One cannot blame Abraham for deciding to settle down in Haran. After all, the audacious 2,000-kilometer journey through rough and rocky terrains was not his own idea in the first place. It was his father who wanted to embark on the journey. He, Abraham, was only being a good son by going along with him.
God knew all this. But more impressive was the fact that God decided to help Abraham to complete the journey rather than just watch him settle down in Haran. So He approached Abraham and called him to proceed on the journey.
This gesture of God tells us that He is agreeable to our ambitions, aspirations and plans. He says ‘Yes’ to our dreams and is not all out to scuttle them as some portray Him to be. He is not a killjoy. Even when we max out and become weary along the way, as we see with Terah, who died on the way and Abraham, who wanted to settle for less, God is willing to step in and help us keep going.
We did not read that either Terah or Abraham prayed to God at any point in their endeavors. But God had become so vested in Terah’s ambitious expedition that He came to Abraham uninvited to discuss the stalled subject of continuing the journey. Some God, isn’t He?
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. – Habakkuk 2:14
Understanding God: He Incentivizes Obedience Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I…
Understanding God: He Incentivizes Obedience
Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. – Genesis 12:1-4
In continuation of our exploration of God’s personality and character, we shall consider today another of His traits: incentivization. He is a God who incentivizes or offers rewards to facilitate obedience.
Over the years, puritanicals have portrayed God as an ogre and killjoy. This is because they mostly see God from the standpoint of rules and instructions alone, with rewards or punishments only following obedience or disobedience. But God is much more than dos and don’ts. He is dynamic and personal enough to engage humans directly and encourage obedience. That is perhaps why most of His instructions usually have a catch to them, thus enabling His children to make intelligent choices and informed decisions about whether or not to comply.
As we can see from His conversation with Abraham, God did not just ask him to leave or step out. He also dangled promissory notes in Abraham’s face. He made enticing promises to Abraham of what he stood to gain by stepping out of his comfort zone to resume the journey that his father had started but could not complete.
God had read the room and observed Abraham’s willingness to settle rather than proceed. One cannot blame the poor man for not being interested in continuing the journey to Canaan at the advanced age of 75, as it was not his idea in the first place. It was his father, Terah, who embarked on the audacious 2,000-kilometer journey. However, Terah died only after covering halfway of the entire journey, and his son, Abraham, was content to settle at Haran, where they stopped.
God knew that Abraham would need motivation to continue this destiny-defining journey. So He came to him with the following promises:
“I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”- Genesis 12:2-3
Now, who would not want all these? Even though Abraham appeared to be complacent and laidback up to this point, the array of promises that God made him was enough to spark him awake and get him up and doing to continue, not minding his old age. Imagine if God had not promised him anything and only asked him to continue the long, arduous journey; Abraham arguably would not have moved an inch. But by incentivizing His invitation with promises of blessings, greatness and a tantalizing future, God made the decision easy for Abraham to make and his obedience a no-brainer. He Incentivizes and motvates.
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. – Habakkuk 2:14
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