Mar 21, 2016
We are, as you well know, engaged in a fascinating election cycle -- one that I have been following with great interest.
Last week, one prominent commentator told of the time when, shortly after the swearing-in of a relatively recent President, he asked him, “What does it feel like to be President?”
His answer, in case you are interested, was this: “I suddenly realized that everything I say will profoundly affect something somewhere in the world.”
As you will hear in this PODCAST, that question, “What does it feel like to be President?” piqued my curiosity. Truth be told, there have been times when I have curiously wondered how God would respond if we were to ask Him, “What does it feel like to be God?”
The thing is, God has already answered that question.
God has told us exactly what it feels like to be God.
Fact is, His answer might honestly surprise you. Surprise you in a profoundly emotional way. It sure does me!
Now, in considering His answer that question, “What does it feel like to be God?” we have to start with this.
Jesus said this in John 4:24, “God is spirit.” God is, in that sense, ineffable. Meaning, inexpressible, indescribable, like nothing we’ve ever known before.
As God Himself said to Isaiah, in chapter 55, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
God is, by His own definition, utterly incomprehensible. So in an effort to help us relate to Him at least on some level, God chose to describe Himself to us using word pictures. Very meaningful word pictures.
Remember how I’ve told you Bible is picture book? Remember how I’ve told you that after stating a proposition, a good rabbi will always paint the picture?
For instance, the biblical writer states the proposition, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). He then follows this proposition by painting word pictures which describe what God’s love looks like.
So through the quills of the biblical writers, God was forever providing Scriptural snapshots what He is like, of which there are several throughout pages of Bible.
The Lord is my shepherd, He shelters us under His wings, He is our rock, mountain, fortress. So, so many.
The technical term for these portraits is anthropomorphisms, morphe (form), anthropos (human, man) -- God describing Himself in forms, images, pictures we humans can understand.
OK, now watch this: Of all of the pictures that God painted (anthropomorphisms each), there are basically two iconic images of God in the Bible. As if to say, Of all of the pictures that I have drawn of Myself for you, there are two predominant portraits of Me that I want you never to forget. Shepherd, Bird, Rock, Mountain, Fortress, so many others -- these are great, accurate, and most helpful. But if you are going to remember only two, and forever cherish these two in your hearts, these are the two I want you never to forget: One in the Old Testament, and one in the New Testament.
If you think about it, God chose the two most intimate, precious, personal, and cherished of all human relationships.
You are in for quite a treat, and a stunning surprise as you listen.
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God bless you richly as you listen.