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
Understanding God: He Honors Parental Decrees Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on…
Understanding God: He Honors Parental Decrees
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.” – Genesis 8:20-21
In continuation of our series on understanding the nature and character of God, another of His personality attributes that we shall focus on today is the fact that He listens to parents, and He honors their decrees over their children, be that good or bad.
History abounds with accounts of parents, male or female, who had engineered the destinies of their children, positively or negatively, through their utterances. There are also a number of examples in the Bible where parents have made certain declarations concerning their children, either in joy, in annoyance, or in pain, and those decrees have come to pass. This is because God has placed the destinies of the children primarily in the mouths of their parents and secondarily in the mouths of prophets, who can either establish a parental blessing or reverse it in cooperation with the parents or as an oracle of God.
For our reference today, we see from the above passage of the Bible how Noah came to live out the destiny decreed concerning him by his father, Lamech, hundreds of years later. We had earlier read about how Lamech made a rather unusual declaration concerning his son, Noah, when he was born.
Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.” – Genesis 5:28-29
Lamech made this statement when he had Noah at the age of 182 years. He then went on to live for another 595 years. Between the years that Lamech died and the year that Noah was called by God, the earth had become even more corrupt, with everyone doing his or her own thing, much to the vexation of God.
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. – Genesis 6:5-8
This passage ends on a rather interesting note because while the whole earth was perverted and displeasing God, there was no indication before this time that Noah was any different from the rest of the world. However, he found grace in the eyes of God. In other words, even though Noah himself might have been sinful and corrupt like the rest of the people, he, in particular, found grace (favor unmerited) from God that distinguished him from everyone else and singled him out for God to walk and work with.
Although the next verse following this passage describes Noah as a just man, he did not attain his upright nature until he was first a beneficiary of the grace of God. In other words, Noah came to be known as just, perfect, and walking with God only after he had found grace in the eyes of God (Genesis 6:9).
Why was Noah’s case different? Why did he come to be distinguished in an era filled with sinners and perverts? The answer is simple, because his father had made a decree concerning him when he was born that he would be the one to offer comfort to the earth concerning the curse that God had placed on the grounds after the disobedience of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:17-19, Genesis 5:28-29).
Thousands of years after the curse of the ground and six hundred years after his father’s prophetic declaration, Noah indeed fulfilled this destiny by virtue of the force of the spoken word or the influence of a parental decree.
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake. – Genesis 8:20-21
That this scenario played out as it did was a testament to the power of a parental declaration and the important role a parent’s utterances wield in the life and destiny of a child because God listens to them.
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 Starts Afresh So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. – Genesis 9:1 Another lesson we…
Understanding God: He Starts Afresh
So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. – Genesis 9:1
Another lesson we can learn from God’s attributes is that He starts afresh. He is not a God who is afraid to appraise performance and then use the insights learned from there to start afresh or anew.
The scenarios leading to the flood that wiped out the entire earth represent an example of God taking a dispassionate look at the evolving dynamics of His own works, particularly the human race, and admitting to Himself that they had metamorphosed into something entirely different and unrecognizable from His original intent, thus necessitating the need for a system format, a total cleanup of sorts so that He could rebuild.
The flood episode that followed this realization was God doing something practical about eliminating a faulty or defective product line He had in hand in the form of humans and other live forms around then. With the deluge, God wiped out everything, except for Noah, his family the animals and birds that were housed with them in the ark.
After the flood, however, and with everyone else and everything else gone, except those preserved in the ark, God made a fresh start. He started with the remnants in the ark. With them, He started His own version of Project Rebuild by blessing humankind, represented by Noah and his family, and then setting new rules of engagement for them, as seen in Genesis 9:1-17. If you compare this passage with Genesis 1:26-31, when God started the first project, you will see striking similarities between the two instances.
The important lesson here is that God, in His omniscience, did not hesitate to admit that His process had gone awry and contrary to expectations at some point and then moved to start again, afresh and anew. As Henry Ford famously said, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
Therefore, if God can admit mistakes as to His works (Genesis 6:5-7) and see the need to redo the whole thing all over, what makes us think we can do without?
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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