‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation”. (Exodus 3:15).
Someone asked “Why call God the God of Israel? Did they discover God?”
The answer you will get will depend on the source you go to for your information. Some atheists have said Israel invented “their god”, Yahweh, in order to have a sense of superiority over other nations.
Some scholars say the God of Israel is a local God, a war god of the mountains, and the herds of cattle.
Who indeed is the God Israel? Is he a local God of the mountain, a warrior local god, or an exclusive creation of the local tribe of ancient Israel who wanted to have dominion over other gods?
The authentic source of information about the revelation of the God of Israel and his acts can only be found in the Bible, through his chosen people, Israel, and not through the pages of pagan books or scientific journals.
The God of Israel is the Sovereign God who chose to reveal himself to the world through Abraham, and this election was reconfirmed through a covenant relationship with Abraham’s son Isaac and his son Jacob whom God would later rename Israel.
God chose to reveal himself to the patriarch Abraham because God yearned for a genuine relationship with man and wanted man to know Him for who He truly is.
Thus began a process of separation of Abraham from the idolatry world around Him through a pilgrimage of faith that culminates in the redemption of man through Jesus Christ, of the lineage of Abraham.
During Abraham’s time in history, humanity had fallen away from God and had chosen to cast almost all things in the form of a god or a goddess; in fact, the world laid under the darkness of Satan and idolatry.
Abraham himself was born into a pagan family and tradition in his native country of Ur in Chaldea before God called him out of the darkness of paganism by His sovereign grace alone, in order to bless him and the world through him.
Abraham was not better than the rest of the people around him but God chose him through grace and he also responded by faith, trust, and obedience: the vital ingredients to knowing the God of Israel and not through research or through idolatrous sacrifices.
Abraham was chosen to become a model for humanity in the knowledge of God, his divine identity, and his will for man. Through his relationship with Abraham, the God of Israel reveals himself as a God of love and a covenant-keeping God.
What is the key message here? The preacher in Ecclesiastes 1:9 says: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun”.
That as it was in the days of Abraham, the darkness of the ignorance about the God of Israel has begun to blind the hearts of men. Science and pleasure are the new forms of idolatry.
Men are moving away dangerously from the knowledge of God to the extent that some scholars like Neil Tyson have defined God as “an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance that’s getting smaller and smaller and smaller as time moves on.”
But the good news is that God is calling you from your ignorance and away from your modern idolatry and darkness of sin to His own light and truth in Jesus Christ.
God’s foundation in Abraham’s obedience stands even surer through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.
God himself tells us of Jesus Christ, saying: “ Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem, a firm and tested stone. It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never be shaken”. (Isaiah 28:16).
Prophetically speaking, Jesus is that sure stone, the church of God is the new Jerusalem, and you can build your faith in Jesus Christ without fear and with absolute trust that he will save you from the uncertainty of this world, towards a new life of peace and blessing.
Reading
John 8:12-27.
