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
Understanding God: He is Strategic Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a…
Understanding God: He is Strategic
Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. – Genesis 11:1-9
Another lesson we can learn from God is his strategic thinking and operations. God is the epitome of strategy. The Bible is replete with examples of his strategic mindset and mode of operation. Some of these we will cover in future series under similar or different headings. But today, let us consider the strategic nous that God demonstrated for our learning in the Tower of Babel saga.
Humans, being humans, began to run contrary to the plan of God for their occupation of planet Earth. Rather than spreading across the planet and subduing it in the course of doing so, as we have done to a large extent today, they only converged in a place and built towers up to the skies as opposed to gaining ground and spreading across. This ran contrary to God’s thinking.
Again, men presented God with yet another problem, a problem that must be solved without Him resorting to the drastic measures He earlier adopted with the flood, which wiped out all living beings except those housed in the ark of Noah. So, how did God solve this latest problem? He went about it in a rather tactical way.
A common but less intelligent approach would have been to focus on the gargantuan construction going on. That would have been a daunting task in itself, one that would be more stressful and time-consuming. Imagine how long the men working on the tower would have gone in their projects. They surely must have gained considerable traction. Even if they hadn’t, it must have been quite a sight scuttling the edifice they had put up in the tower at Babel. Besides, God may be a no-nonsense God, but He is not a vandal since He Himself is a maker and knows what it takes to build something.
However, in coming up with a solution to this problem, God centered on the motivation that led to the hairy construction in the first place: He saw that “the people are one and.” It was a problem of oneness. Much as unity is a desirable state, in this regard, it was driving humankind on an opposite course with God’s design. Having zeroed in on the real cause of the problem, God also identified the driver of the unity, the one thing He needed to fix to solve the problem: “one language and one speech.”
Thereafter, God merely changed the people’s language from one to multiple, and that was it. They could no longer come to an agreement again, as everyone now speaks different languages and have different speeches. That was the end of the project. No demolition was necessary. There was no need to go to any great lengths to mobilize resources and infrastructure to stop the project. The only thing needed was to introduce diversity to the communication and perspectives of the builders, and the project was abandoned while everyone pursued something else that more aligned with their interests and worldviews across different parts of the world. Thus, they inadvertently realign themselves to the original intent of God in the process.
Now, isn’t that ingenious? Try God.
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 Perseveres and is Long-suffering Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve…
Understanding God: He Perseveres and is Long-suffering
Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” – Genesis 15:13-16
Another lesson we can learn from God’s personality is His persevering and long-suffering nature. He does not just write off people due to their sins or inadequacies. Rather, He gives them enough time to come to terms with their waywardness, repent and retrace their steps. He is long-suffering.
From our reference scripture today, we read about God’s proclamation to Abraham regarding what would happen to his descendants several years down the line. God told Abraham his descendants would become captives in a foreign land and would be enslaved for about 400 years, after which He would rescue them and relocate them to the land He had promised to Abraham.
But the catch there was that this land was being occupied by the Amorites. But they would be dispossessed of it after 400 so that the people it was promised to, the Israelites, could take possession of it. The question then is, why would God wait for 400 years for the Amorites to level up their excesses before they are punished for their wayward ways?
There is only one way to answer this: it shows the persevering and long-suffering nature of God. He was going to punish the Amorites for their sins, but He was not going to slam the hammer on them immediately they missed the mark or not long after that. He would wait for 400 years with the hope that the Amorites would repent and amend their ways so that He could rescind His decision, or continue doing their thing to the point that He would have enough, evict them from the land and give it to another people.
The latter turned out to be the case. But then 400 years was enough time for a people to get their acts together. Unfortunately, the Amorites did not and they paid dearly for it.
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 A Shield and A Rewarder After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I…
Understanding God: He is A Shield and A Rewarder
After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” – Genesis 15:1
The passage above introduces two attributes of God to us: He is a shield and a rewarder. This is particularly remarkable because it was the first time God ever introduced Himself to mankind beyond the eminence of God of heaven. Therefore, in introducing Himself to Abraham, God assured him that He was Abraham’s shield and exceeding great reward.
But why would God present Himself to Abraham as a metaphor of defence and great reward? The answer will only help us to better appreciate God’s dynamic nature. He manifests Himself to humanity in accordance with their individual experiences, circumstances, and situations. He is that flexible.
In the context of this passage, Abraham had just returned from the battle, which he undertook to rescue his nephew, Lot, from the coalition of kings who invaded Sodom and took Lot and his household captive. Thankfully, Abraham was able to mobilize his workers and friends to pursue the enemies and recapture his brother from them. A campaign where he succeeded and came back with great spoil than he might have imagined.
Then, the king of Sodom, whose territory the enemies invaded and ravaged, was so happy that he offered Abraham all the spoils of war that they recovered from the battle. However, Abraham refused to take anything for himself. For him, rescuing his nephew was reward enough. He only insisted that the king of Sodom should allow his three companions who joined him in the war to take whatever they wanted from the proceeds of war. In other words, Abraham forsook his own share of the booty because he did not want the king of Sodom to start bragging later that he was the one who made Abraham.
Perhaps Abraham later regretted his stance, or he was second-guessing himself if he had done the right thing by not helping himself, even to the smallest of treasures from the massive booties they came back with. But his mind was unsettled enough for God to take notice, appear to him, and calm his nerves. And what did He tell him? He assured Abraham that He was his defence (shield). This was to allay whatever fear Abraham might have had about a reprisal attack from the kings he defeated or a potential betrayal from the king of Sodom, who ruled close to him.
By presenting Himself as a shield, God guaranteed protection for Abraham from whatever aggression may be targeted at him, seeing that whoever wanted to harm Abraham would first need to penetrate God before they could get to Abraham.
Secondly, in presenting Himself as “exceeding great reward,” God assured Abraham that the reward for his efforts would not necessarily come from man but would directly be from Himself. By this token, God was telling Abraham not to nurse any regret in relation to the treasures he forfeited, as God would be the one to reward him, and not just in any measure, but in an exceedingly great proportion.
That was how God revealed Himself to Abraham based on his current situation at that time. That was not an isolated event either. Throughout the Bible, God kept manifesting Himself to people based on their individual needs and life events. The good news is that He has not stopped, He still reveals Himself to us in our peculiar contexts to date. You can count on Him to do the same for you as well.
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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