The Character and Characteristics of God
Know God, how He thinks, His immutability
The Character of God
God is Lovingkindness AND Just
Exodus 34:6-7 ASV
(6) And Jehovah passed by before him, and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth;
(7) keeping lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.
The above verse was the first time in the Old Testament that God explained to Moses His primary character attributes. There are two parts to the character of God outlined in this verse:
God’s unending lovingkindness towards mankind - God can never change His loving disposition towards mankind;
God is justice - those that do not obey His commands will be judged by God.
The primary way we return our love to God is by being obedient to Him. Deuteronomy 28 shows both the blessings and curses on Israel, the blessings for their obedience to His commandments, and the curses when they don’t obey. Sadly for Israel, they have not obeyed God’s commandments and many of the curses have befallen them. Israel was chosen by God to spread His love throughout the world. An obedient Israel would have been light on top of the hill for all nations to point to God as the provider of blessings. Jesus was the atoning sacrifice required to fulfill the promise of Israel blessing the nations.
God’s loving arms are always wide open for those that return God’s love by exercising faith in Jesus and obeying His commandments.
We see this in the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, where the son wanted his inheritance early so he could live a “better” life elsewhere. His father agrees and off the son went with his inheritance, which he squandered on wild living. When he became destitute, he decided to return to his father in a repentant state and work for him on his farm again as a laborer. Instead, his father was ecstatic and threw a big party on his return, saying his son was lost and was now found.
This parable is meant to tell us about the character of God. We can exercise our own free will and leave His covenant blessings any time we want, but He will welcome us back any time we surrender to His will.
God is Jealous
Deuteronomy 6:4-6 ASV
(4) Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah:
(5) and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
(6) And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart;
Deuteronomy 5:6-10 ASV
(6) I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
(7) Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
(8) Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
(9) thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I, Jehovah, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me;
(10) and showing lovingkindness unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
You can see the theme here running right through scripture. God is loving and merciful, but jealous. You cannot have anything more important in your life than God and keeping His commandments.
The Characteristics of God
God’s characteristics are impossible to get our minds around. The more we try to fathom these, the more worldly we become, and the less we will ever know of God. Believing these characteristics of God can only be by faith. Faith by its very nature is that which is unseen. We cannot have faith in something we see and can reason.
Hebrews 11:1 ASV
(1) Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.
God is Omniscient
Dictionary.com defines this as:
adjective
having complete or unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding; perceiving all things.
God knows not only our own hearts’ desires but everyone in the entire world, past, present, and future. I cannot get my head around this. By faith, I know it is true.
God is Omnipotent
Dictionary.com defines this as:
adjective
almighty or infinite in power, as God.
having very great or unlimited authority or power.
noun
an omnipotent being.
the Omnipotent, God.
God is the master of all creation. Everything we see, touch, hear, feel, and smell has its origins in the creation word spoken by God in Genesis 1.
God is Omnipresent
Dictionary.com defines this as:
adjective
present everywhere at the same time:the omnipresent God.
Not only is God everywhere at the same time, but He is also everywhere over all times past, present, and future at the same time. This is the only way to explain the accuracy of Biblical prophecy.
This one revelation alone opened up to me a whole new way of interpreting scripture.
What an amazingly gracious God we have. Not only has He given us the story of mankind by divine inspiration to the writers of scripture, but He tells us how the story ends. He knows how it ends because He is already there and telling us in advance so that we can adjust our attitudes by repentance and exercising faith.
Let’s look at a biblical example.
The beginning of Daniel Chapter 9 contains one of the great prayers of the Bible. Daniel bleeds for Israel in this prayer:
Daniel 9:3-19 ASV
(3) And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
(4) And I prayed unto Jehovah my God, and made confession, and said, Oh, Lord, the great and dreadful God, who keepeth covenant and lovingkindness with them that love him and keep his commandments,
(5) we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from thy precepts and from thine ordinances;
(6) neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, that spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
(7) O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of face, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
(8) O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
(9) To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him;
(10) neither have we obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
(11) Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even turning aside, that they should not obey thy voice: therefore hath the curse been poured out upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God; for we have sinned against him.
(12) And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil; for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
(13) As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet have we not entreated the favor of Jehovah our God, that we should turn from our iniquities, and have discernment in thy truth.
(14) Therefore hath Jehovah watched over the evil, and brought it upon us; for Jehovah our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth, and we have not obeyed his voice.
(15) And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
(16) O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, let thine anger and thy wrath, I pray thee, be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are round about us.
(17) Now therefore, O our God, hearken unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.
(18) O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies' sake.
(19) O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God, because thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
Daniel is rewarded by God who discloses the complete story ending by sending the Angel Gabriel:
Daniel 9:20-23 ASV
(20) And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Jehovah my God for the holy mountain of my God;
(21) yea, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
(22) And he instructed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee wisdom and understanding.
(23) At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment went forth, and I am come to tell thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision.
The interpretation of the vision of Daniel is contained from verse 24 onwards. This is a topic for another day, but this prophecy accurately predicted the victory of Jesus on the cross at Calvary and the final seven years of tribulation before His return. Jesus then gave more detail to the Apostle John of the dispensation period from His death to the end of the church age (Revelation 2 and 3) and how the Tribulation period will play out in Revelation 6 to 21.
I have personally been a great beneficiary of God’s unending grace and love. I have chosen to pursue God with every breath I take.
This has been the hardest thing I have ever done.