Why I Like Yahweh

Seems like an odd premise for someone who grew up in the Church from the time he was but a zygote attached to a uterine wall, doesn’t it? I’ve never not been a “Christian,” so it seems a given that I would bear some consistent affection for my Lord. More and more, though, I realize why I hang on to this God of mine: because He is present and involved. Sure other gods throughout antiquity were involved but only as it suited them. Greek gods and goddesses were involved and present as it suited their needs and desires, acting as chess master over a board of helpless pawns. The ancient gods of earth, sky and sea were moody, aloof and unpredictable. Most civilizations had their versions of these gods, but they were essentially all the same.

Not Yahweh. His involvement has always been for the good of us, not himself. From before the Creation His bent was towards that which he would create. The act of creating itself is proof of this inclination. God did not in a sense need to create; he chose to create. He knew that love only reaches its fullest measure when it is given and returned. So God created in love a world that could love him back. The book of Revelation contains an astounding passage that seems to point to this pre-creation love and involvement. The passage describes Jesus as “the Lamb who was killed before the world was made” (13:8). From the beginning God’s plan for us were in place, and, in a supernatural way, already accomplished.

The opening phrases of the Genesis poem describe the Spirit hovering over the primeval waters (1:2). Here in the chaos is God present to an infantile world, not simply present, but actively involved from the opening word. In Genesis 3 we find God “was walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (3:8), present in his world, and, seemingly, enjoying that which he created. From the text you are drawn to surmise that this was not God’s first saunter through his garden.

Fast-forward a long time from Genesis to 400 years of forced Israelite labor by the Egyptians. God, at least from an enslaved Israelite perspective, has been noticeably absent and uninvolved (wouldn’t you feel that way if you knew nothing but slavery from birth to death over the course of 15 or so generations?). But he wasn’t (and He isn’t…How’s that for spoon-feeding you?). Thus spaketh the Lord: “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering” (Exodus 3:7). Seeing. Hearing. Concerned. This is not a God who is absent and ambivalent; this is a God who is close enough to see, hear, and act on behalf of the misery of his children. Following the exodus from slavery, after laying a celestial smack-down on Pharaoh and Egypt via the Plagues, God himself guides the people of Israel through the wilderness in a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day.

“By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people” (Exodus 13:21-22). “Neither…left its place in front of the people”—God remains ever-present, active and involved with the people of Israel as a guide and protector.

(Skip ahead a whole bunch, but understand that God is doing His ever-present, active and involved routine throughout the history of Israel. I just don’t have the energy to record a whole bunch of examples.)

Enter Jesus, stage right. He comes as the embodiment of the Creator-God of Genesis, the God of the Exodus, the Pillar of Cloud and Fire. It was not enough for God to in cloud and fire, or a disembodied voice on Sinai; it was not enough for Him to come in visions to the Patriarchs; it was not enough for Him to come disguised as “an angel of the Lord” and wrestle with Jacob. God took on flesh. There is no greater involvement in the history of creation than this: God walks among us (John 1:14). Isn’t this the majesty and mystery of the life of Christ? In this one man is the fullness of the Divine (Colossians 1:19)? After his death and resurrection he sends His Spirit as His continued presence in the world. But this Spirit is not just present to us. He is present in us. God is actively at work inside of us, transforming and resurrecting us from the old life of sin and death, bringing us into new life.

Ever-presence. That is why I like Yahweh.

shalom, matt