To be elevated.
In Exodus 6:3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself fully known to them.
God is multifaceted. He not a simple person. We are infinitely more simple the He is and yet we try to reduce Him and say that He is always this way or that and never changing. It is true that he is never changing but what He chooses to make known about himself in any given generation will change.
He showed Himself with plagues, judgement, fire and thunder to the slaves and to Egypt. To the psalmist we see a God that is described in many many different ways. We live in time while He does not and maybe that is the rub. Maybe it's that we can only take in information in such a simple and linear way that He must accommodate that to show us who He is.
When I read the book of Job I see God saying that he really really loves and almost respects Job. There is nobody like my servant Job. God almost seems to gush over this guy which is kind of cool except when I think of how I know that I don't merit that kind of gushing; it really does bother me.
Job is one of my favorite people and I will believe what God says about him over the observations of his friends and the theologians that sprout up with an agenda. He was a godly man pleased God and God wanted to take him deeper.
God pressed him until he cracked in order to get that sliver out and make him even better.
Moses seemed to have the favor of God and was built to deliver; Moses wanted to do it one slave master at a time and had to be dealt with. Paul was improved and improved and I think was doing it better than the TV evangelists of today; I actually doubt that many of those on TV could hold up to what Paul did. I don't want to speak too far out of turn though; to be clear some of the guys on TV have the marks on their bodies to show their commitment.
My point and my concern is that the God of the bible is being simplified to a cartoonish image instead of a complex and multifaceted person who is not satisfied with a caricature of himself being presented to the world.
Some explain Him in holiness terms, some abundance and provisioning, while Paul experienced a God that called him and showed him all that he must suffer for him. What happens when we demand that the revelation Paul, David, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Job and many of the rest are the only one. We get so caught up in our facet that we just cannot believe that the God who shows compassion on the sick could strike another dead.
What if Peter insisted in a glowing Jesus because he saw him that way on a mountain and the rest insisted he does not glow.
I know people that God wanted to display his healing power through them and they see and just know with respect to healing. I have known people that God has dealt with them on the topic of holiness and they are caught up with that. And abundance, and giftings and on and on.
What if it's us? What if it's the fact that at 80 we are just beginning to be able to put all of the pieces together and understand that they are all true. I am looking for a tidy way of closing and putting a bow on this but I find it difficult.
One of my greatest concerns is that we can double down when se are shown something that appears to conflict with our perception. The God that created all of creation; thousands of varieties of birds alone must be complex. He is generous to one in eye sight while another is nearly blind. One flies high and does acrobatics while another can only walk or can only swim with it's wings. Some are extraordinary in their ability to mimic, build, be trained while others it seems a miracle that they are not extinct from stupidity.
My point is that this God of the birds did all of that before noon while he was making all kinds of other things.
He could have done it all in an instant but I think he wanted to slow it way down to 6 days for us to get some kind of handle on who He is. He restrained Himself because he wanted us to be able to take Him in and have a glimpse.
Church history is full of seasons of revelation that don't conflict with each other while the people do conflict with each other.
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