* It is a sad reality that many Christians have a warped sense, or maybe no real sense, of who God is, what God is like. We harbor many thoughts about Him that have no basis in Biblical teaching. Some see Him as a spy in the sky looking down on earth trying to catch us doing something wrong. Others think that no matter how sinful and unrepentant an individual is, God will accept them into Heaven. But we don’t need to wonder. The Bible tells us a lot about what it means to be God. How often do we attempt to understand things, or even attempt to think of things through God’s perspective? Consider the following.
Being God means creating a perfect world of peace and harmony for Your ultimate creation, man, to live in and giving him one negative rule, don’t eat the fruit of one tree, only to have him do exactly that upon his first temptation. It means the one for whom Your entire creation was made, and to whom it was given, rejected Your only rule to follow a leader whose only desire is evil and its propagation (Gen. 3:1-6.) But You knew that would happen before You created man (2 Tim. 1:9.)
Being God means bestowing on mankind the ability to choose his own way only to have him choose time and again to turn his back on You and do the bidding of Satan, evil personified. You didn’t want a robot who had no choice but to do as You programmed him. But You knew that would happen before You created mankind.
Being God means dealing with a world in which the thoughts and intents of the hearts of mankind (except for Noah and his family) were only evil continually, though they knew Your righteous requirements and how they ought to live. It means having to start over with Noah and remove the evil by flood when You had created this world of beauty and plenty for all Your creation to enjoy and thereby love You and worship and praise You (Gen. 6:5-8.) But You knew that would happen before You created mankind.
Being God means knowing the pain of Your chosen people, the Israelites, enslaved in Egypt, and sending Moses to deliver them, which entailed the defeat of the Egyptian army in dramatic miraculous fashion only to have the Israelites gripe and complain about their circumstances on the way to the promised land (Ex. 16:3, et al.) But You knew this would happen before You created mankind.
Being God means having Your people tremble at the display of, and their realization of, Your power at Mt Sinai where You delivered The Law to them, then almost immediately turn to idolatry and wickedness like they had known in Egypt and from which You were delivering them (Ex. 20:18-20, Ex. 32:2-6.) It means bringing Your people to the promised land with many displays of Your power and greatness only to have them turn their back on You and show no faith or trust in You when it was time for them to take the land. (Num. 14:1-4.) But You knew this would happen before You created mankind.
Being God means loving Your creation and desiring to have love shown to You in return only to have people despise You and Your ways multiple times over. It means sending prophets to tell mankind of the results of his evil ways and the need to turn and live a righteous life and praise and worship You, only to have people ridicule and kill those prophets, and mock You in the process (Luke 13:34.) But You knew that would happen before You created mankind.
Being God means being so righteous and holy that sinful man is not welcome, in fact has no claim to be, in Your presence (Isaiah 6:1-6.) It means being so just that evil cannot go unpunished, which means that You must mete out judgement and punishment because of the choices in thought and deed of Your cherished creation whom You love. It means being so compassionate, kind, merciful, gracious and loving that You have had a plan in place since before You created the world to properly punish the evil in which Your created beings have taken part and thus allow for mankind to spend eternity with You, not burdened by the guilt of sin (Eph. 1:1-10,) because You knew all this would happen before You created mankind.
Being God means incomprehensibly loving Your creation so much, even while they disparage You, defile Your name and blaspheme You, that You would willingly offer Your son, who is one with You, to take upon His sinless self the burden of all the sins of the entire world, and die a horrible death on a cross so You could redeem sinful, undeserving, and mostly rebellious, mankind to Yourself and from the horror they most assuredly deserve, and would suffer without Your loving intervention (John 3:16.) And You knew this would happen before You created mankind.
Being God means watching for thousands of years while those who believe in You, and appreciate Your love and sacrifice, try to order their lives according to Your precepts while the forces of evil are arrayed against them. It means seeing the forces of evil lie about, demonize, mistreat, imprison, torture and make martyrs of Your people. It means seeing those who love You most mistreated mightily by those who are vile in every way, seeing evil prosper while righteousness is laid low (Rev. 13, et al.) But You knew this would happen before You created mankind.
Being God means seeing many of those who are fortunate enough to have been exposed to and know Your word, and have been baptized into Your family, living lives of lukewarm apathy without true appreciation of what it means to be a follower of Christ, and without concern for what sin has done to the world. It means watching them never miss a child's or grandchild's sporting event or other activity and participating in every fund raising activity, while not supporting the youth program at church or encouraging their family to be active in it. It means being fully aware of people thinking “what a weariness this is” as they sit in worship and sing songs and pray and hear Your word proclaimed (Mal. 1:13.) It means watching them claim church membership because they gather for worship a couple of times a year without love in their hearts or true words of praise and adoration to offer (Rev. 3:14-20.) But You knew this would happen before You created mankind.
Being God means hearing people say that a loving God would never condemn anyone to an eternity in Hell, showing that even if they’re aware of the history discussed above they have no appreciation for what it has meant to You, or even really what it means to them. It means loving Your creation, mankind, so much that the only way anyone will make it into an eternity in Hell is over Your dead body (John 12:48, Heb. 10:26-29.) And You knew some would take that option before You created mankind.
God's experience with mankind has been one of repeated heartache and disappointment. He could have properly exerted His righteous anger in a dramatic and powerful destructive end of mankind forever, but that's not what being God is all about. Instead He sacrificed something precious to Him in order to provide a way to save mankind from the result of his sinful ways, because that's what being God is all about.
Rather than a representation of God (such as found in Isaiah 6), because all I found were not really what I was looking for, the image connected with this article is a picture of a mountain in Zion National Park. The name of that mountain is
The Great White Throne
Very thoughtful, thought provoking, and well written, Jeff. Three little words: God so loved....mean so much.
In short, your examples show us that, "Being God is patience and sacrifice. Being God is Love."
Yet, we're good at getting impatient with God's timing. It's so easy to forget His patience, sacrifice, and love.
We're "made in His image." Genesis 1:27
"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."
I'm thinking about the weary exhaustion that we feel at the end of a frustrating day. Surely, we can't imagine how weary God must feel; yet He never gives up on us. I pray that we will never give up on His promises. Patience, Sacrifice, and Love.