How Do You Understand God's True Nature?

 So here is what is going on in my mind this week:  The two, quite startingly opposite, theologies on God’s character. 

The one the Old testament often appears to profess.

The one God, Himself, came in Jesus’ skin to manifest to the whole world.

My reason for this complicated conversation, in my brain, comes from two Sundays reading in the common lectionary.

First, before I left for vacation I read from Philippians 2:

⁶ who, though he was in the form of God,

   did not regard equality with God

   as something to be exploited, 

⁷ but emptied himself,

   taking the form of a slave,

   being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form, 

⁸   he humbled himself…(Phil. 2)

He humbled himself.....

This image of God is the one I cling to for may personal faith.  I believe in Jesus’ modeling of God because it is extraordinarily accepting, loving and forgiving of our inborn natural human tendencies.

No matter how weak and tempted we are; no matter the size of our faith; Jesus/ God takes us right where we are and slowly molds us into possibilities never imagined. 

When we stay focused on the New Testament, and Jesus’ teachings, we begin to know a God who is gracious not wrathful.

However before God came in Jesus’ skin we had only the Hebrew image of God.  Which is a mixed bag of divine characteristics. 

If you read the Wisdom books you hear, mostly, of a faithful and all sustaining God of steadfast love and kindness. 

However, there are also stories of God’s constant battle with his people and their unwillingness of follow God’s will.

Stories like the forty year in the wilderness led by Moses.  Where we hear of the creation of the golden calf; and finally the Ten Commandments.

We can read about stories of Saul and David with all of their religious, as well as personal, battles.

Or the Flood story where God decided to destroy all of creation and begin again.  That attempt, to right a wrong, didn’t prove too successful in the long run.

And how about the story of Job, where God allowed Satan to basically ruin Job’s life?

This last Sunday we heard a reading, from Isaiah 45, of a God who once again uses great force to right a wrong.

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,

   whose right hand I have grasped

to subdue nations before him

   and strip kings of their robes,

to open doors before him—

   and the gates shall not be closed:

I’ll talk about that tomorrow.