Who Is God?

“Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, ‘I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.’ When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said, ‘Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ And he said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

“Then the LORD said, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.’” [1]

From the text before us, it seems evident that Moses knew about God, but he didn’t yet know God. He was vaguely aware that there must exist a higher power, but Moses had not personally connected with that higher power. Knowing there is a God and knowing God are two different things. In this description, it is apparent to me that Moses wasn’t so very different from many, dare I say “most,” contemporary Canadians. We know there is a God, even if we don’t acknowledge the reality of God’s existence. We seem to imagine that if God does not reveal Himself in some dramatic manner, He must not matter. Thus, we relegate the thought of God, and consequently the thought of personal accountability to God, to the dark recesses of our minds.

Perhaps we should listen to Agur the son of Jekeh when he asks,

“Two things I ask of you;

deny them not to me before I die:

Remove far from me falsehood and lying;

give me neither poverty nor riches;

feed me with the food that is needful for me,

lest I be full and deny you

and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’

or lest I be poor and steal

and profane the name of my God.”

[PROVERBS 30:7-9]

In contemporary parlance, Agur appears to be based; he is balanced, his feet firmly planted on the ground. He isn’t seeking advantage over others, nor does he seek great wealth or excessive comfort. His great concern is that he does not dishonour God through what he holds or what he does.

Moses and Aaron stood before Pharaoh, requesting that the Israelites be permitted to go into the wilderness in order to hold a feast to the LORD. The request was modest, but we read, “Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go’” [EXODUS 5:2]. Pharaoh was adamant that he did not know the LORD, and therefore he felt no compunction to listen to the LORD. Though most of our contemporaries are not so crass as to openly refuse to obey God, they apparently feel much as Pharaoh felt. Why should anyone obey God when they refuse to acknowledge Him? And yet, He is God, and all shall at last acknowledge Him.

We Christians, we who are twice born members of the Family of God, have heard, and we believe the words of Scripture that teach us: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” [PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11]. Amen!