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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 realize 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.
To begin, let’s read Luke 11:1-2 and Luke 11:13, from the NIV translation, which offer two “bookends” to Jesus’ instructions regarding prayer:
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say:
“‘Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.”
…13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Note the bookends of this discussion on prayer; it begins with referring to God as Father and it ends with referring to God as Father. We’re going to discuss this.
With all of the pictures that fill our Bibles of what God is like, there are two that eclipse all others, one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. The iconic image of God in the Old Testament is that of a husband, with Israel as his wife. This picture of God you will find over and over in the Old Testament. The iconic image of God in the New Testament is that of a Father, with us has his children.
Even these Biblical images have significant limitations, being that there has never been on this planet a perfect husband or father. However, if God is to relate to us with an image, it must be an imperfect image. We must understand that though there are imperfect husbands and fathers, there is only perfect husband and father, and that is God. God sets the standard by which we measure every husband and every father, a standard that every husband and father should strive to meet.
Listen to God’s own words as he describes himself as a husband to Israel in Isaiah 54:5
For your Maker is your husband—
the Lord Almighty is his name—
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
he is called the God of all the earth.
Another example can be found in Ezekiel 16:4-8 where God speaks to the rejected nation of Israel.
On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. 5 No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised. “‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!” I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew and developed and entered puberty. Your breasts had formed and your hair had grown, yet you were stark naked. “‘Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your naked body. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.
Perhaps the single most heartwarming montage of images of God as a husband can be found in the poetry of the Song of Solomon. The Song of Solomon has two levels. The first, most shallow is one is simply Solomon expressing the love he feels for a woman. The second, more spiritually deep one portrays God’s love for his bride, Israel. This is why the book was included in the canon of scripture. It is an allegory that captures the depth of God’s love that is described as “sweeter than wine” and “adoring.” He also speaks of Israel’s “radiant beauty,” and describes her as a “lily among thorns” and “my private garden, my treasure, my bride, a secluded spring, a hidden fountain.” God is totally and completely devoted to his wife. This is what it feels like to be God, devoted and loving.
In the New Testament, God is referred to as “Father” over 250 times. In Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, God was referred to as Abba, which is a term of endearment that denotes both respect and intimacy. It very far away from the cold, distant word “father,” which has negative connotations for many people, especially young people, today. The first time this hit me was when I was in Israel and I saw a young boy running towards his father, yelling “Abba! Abba! Abba!” and greeting him in a warm embrace. This is what the Biblical writers were trying to convey, although part of the meaning was lost in translation as they spoke a different language than Jesus. So whenever we see the word “Father” in the New Testament, we should think of it is “Abba”, with its heartwarming connotation. Within all of his letters, Paul refers to our God as our Father, or Abba, to convey to us the great warmth and comfort God brings into our lives.
Remember what Jesus says in John 10:29
“No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand”
We are that secure when we are with God. One can also look at what John wrote in 1 John 3:1
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!”
However, despite these spectacular examples, one can look at the familiar story of the prodigal son for perhaps the best visualization of God as Father. What the prodigal son did was inconceivable at the time. He disgraced his family, especially his father, and no one would have blamed the father if he had his son stoned to death. Most families at the time would have considered the son basically dead. However, the son’s father does not do this and instead forgives him, which would have been shocking for any family to do at the time. When he sees his son returning, the Father runs out to his son to embrace him and graces him with great gifts. This is the image is the God wants us to think of when we hear the phrase “God our Father.”
All of this is to answer the question to answer the question “What does it feel like to be God?” He feels like a husband madly in love with his wife, loving, devoted, and attentive. He feels like an Abba, someone who would do anything for His children. A devoted father who love could never be diminished. The love of a husband to his wife and the love an Abba to his wife is what it feels like to be God.
Now, you know half of the story. There is another half of this story that we must understand and feel deeply. God is a loving husband, but he is also a jilted husband who has been betrayed by his bride over and over again. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God says,
“Have you seen what fickle Israel has done? Like a wife who commits adultery, Israel has worshipped other gods under every hill and under every green tree. After she has done all this she will return to me, but did not returned to me. Israel treated it all so lightly. She thought nothing of committing adultery with idols made of wood and stone. She only pretended to be sorry.” Jeremiah then spoke, “Then the Lord said to me ‘O, Israel, my faithless people. Come home to me again. For I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever. Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you have rebelled against the Lord your God and committed adultery against Him by worshipping idols under every green tree… Confess that you refuse to listen to my voice, one from this town, two from that family, from wherever you are scattered, and I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will guide you with knowledge and understanding. Return to the land I gave your ancestors as you inheritance forever.”
The good news is that is that we live in a day when the people of God are finally coming back to the land God gave to their ancestors as an inheritance forever. God kept His promise to welcome His bride home into His arms. He is as we speak, welcoming His bride back into his heart. He has been faithful to them. Yet, many of them have yet to be faithful to him. The state of Israel in its current incarnation is a secular state. In 1948, when Israel’s new declaration of independence was read out, David Ben-Gurion said, “Placing our trust in the rock of Israel, we affix our signatures to this proclamation at this session of the Provisional Council of State, on the soil of the homeland, in the city of Tel Aviv, on this Sabbath eve, the 5th day of Iyar, 5708.” That phrase “the rock or Israel” is as close the declaration got to naming God. However, there was much debate regarding this phrase. The rabbis wanted a mention of the “God of Israel.” Despite this, the founders of the state, many of whom were secular, including Ben-Gurion, settled on the “rock of Israel”, which can be interpreted as either God or the soil of Israel itself. So by design, Israel was formulated as a secular state. Now, nearly 41.4% of the Jewish population in Israel identify as secular. Tel Aviv is in fact a city that has embraced secularity. The holy land, my friends, is not so holy. God still sheds many a tear over his adulterous wife.
God is indeed a loving Abba, but he is also a rejected parent, betrayed by many of his own children. Peter once compared once committed Christ followers to “dogs returning to their vomit.” As Jesus said in the parable of the sower and the seed,
“Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.”
In the same parable Jesus also spoke of seed that fell among forms that produced no fruit, which represents those who hear Gods word, but are quickly distracted by the worries of this life and lure of wealth.
So what does it feel like to be God? A husband who adores His bride, but betrayed by her unfaithfulness. An Abba who loves his children, yet who has been rejected by a wayward child. If you have gone through anything similar, then you may understand how God feels on a much more profoundly personal level than someone who has never gone through such trauma. That is how God feels, and yet He loves us still. He loves Israel and He loves us. He will always be the loving husband and the loving dad. We must thank Him, that no matter what we do, God will always love us unconditionally.