Chapter 8 -

What is God like?

 

 

 

 

As for the most common claims, which especially the people in the Middle East have made about the doctrine of the New Testament, one of them is what God is like. For example, many Jews do not believe the New Testament’s message that the One God has revealed Himself as a Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They think that this is an error of Western and Christian thinking and is in no way supported by the Books of Moses, psalms or prophets; or by commentaries of the rabbis. They think that this view developed late and it is not based on Scriptures.

   However, if we look at the books of the Bible, we can find support for the belief that God is Triune. Even the Creed of Israel (Deut 6:4), which has been regarded as strong proof for the oneness of God, refers to it. We can also find other support. We will consider some of the most familiar sources:

 

Deut 6:4. The Creed of Israel is "Shema Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu Adonai Echad" – Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD (Deut 6:4). It has often been used to refute the teaching of the New Testament, that one God has revealed Himself as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The creed is often used to describe the nature of God.

   However, it is good for us to note that the last word of this creed, ‘echad’, always refers to a unity, which is composed of parts. The word ‘yachid’ is not used, which would refer to an absolute oneness, but instead the word ‘echad’ is chosen, and it refers to plural in which unity or oneness can be composed of several parts.

   So the Creed of Israel actually provides us with one of the clearest examples of how one can consist of several parts. This appears in other places where the word ‘echad’ is used. For instance, Ezra 2:64 speaks about the unity of the whole congregation; in Ezekiel 37:17 two wooden sticks become one; in Genesis 2:24 man and wife become one flesh; and in Numbers 13:24 the writer speaks about a cluster of grapes which is also composed of many parts:

 

 - (Ezra 2:64) The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and three score,

 

 - (Eze 37:15-17) The word of the LORD came again to me, saying,

16  Moreover, you son of man, take you one stick, and write on it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write on it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his companions:

17  And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in your hand.

 

 - (Gen 2:24) Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall join to his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

 

- (Num13:24) The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from there.

 

The word Elohim. One reference to God's different forms of manifestation is the word ‘elohim’, which is actually a plural word. It appears in many Scriptural passages. In the first chapter of the Bible alone it appears several times. The verbs after it are always singular to describe how God created everything. The same word, Elohim, also appears in the First Commandment in which the word God is plural, even though the verb is singular. This commandment refers to God being many, yet one:

 

 - (Ex 20:2,3) I am (singular) the LORD your (plural) God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3  You shall have no other gods before me.

 

Plural expressions. If we continue our examination of the tension between the plural and singular, we also find examples in other parts of the Bible; they all use the first person form of the plural for God, even though the accompanying verb is singular. We should especially note that in the first of these examples (Gen 1:26,27), God could not speak to angels (as it is commonly believed), but to Himself because man was created as the image of God, not that of angels; the verse 27 indicates this clearly:

 

- (Gen 1:26,27) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

 

 - (Gen 3:22) And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

 

 - (Gen 11:6,7) And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7  Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

 

 - (Isa 6:8) Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

 

The angel of the Lord. As we noted earlier, based on the Scriptures, it is impossible to deny the multiplicity of the manifested forms of God. We can also state that, based on the Scriptures, only three different persons can be regarded as divine. They are:

 

1. The Lord, also called Yahweh, who is spoken of many times.

 

2. The second name, which appears is the angel of the Lord. He simply calls himself God and so do the writers.

 

3. The Spirit of God – the Holy Spirit -- is also mentioned on several occasions.

 

In several Scriptural passages we find mention of the “angel of the Lord” – which seems to refer to the second person of the divinity:

 

We read in Genesis that the angel is identified with the Lord and that Hagar called Him “God.” The angel speaks in the first person singular and promises to increase the descendants of Hagar so they will be too numerous to count; this is a promise that can only be given by God. Thus, we can safely assume that the angel of the Lord mentioned in these verses is the Lord while being other than Him -- being the second person of divine nature.

 

- (Gen 16:7,10-13 ) And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.

10  And the angel of the LORD said to her, I will multiply your seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.

11  And the angel of the LORD said to her, Behold, you are with child and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Ishmael; because the LORD has heard your affliction.

12  And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brothers.

13  And she called the name of the LORD that spoke to her, You God see me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that sees me?

 ______________________________

 

When the angel of the Lord appeared to Abraham he was identified with the Lord and God, the same one as named in His appearance to Hagar. The angel gave a similar promise as the one Hagar received which is probably possible only for God to accomplish:

 

- (Gen 22:1,15-18)  And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said to him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.

And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham out of heaven the second time,

16  And said, By myself have I sworn, said the LORD, for because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son:

17  That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is on the sea shore; and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

18  And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed my voice.

______________________________

 

The angel of the Lord -- the angel of God -- appears to Jacob in a dream, and in the dream is identified as the God of Bethel:

 

 - (Gen 31:11-13) And the angel of God spoke to me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I.

12  And he said, Lift up now your eyes, and see, all the rams which leap on the cattle are ringstraked, speckled, and spotted: for I have seen all that Laban does to you.

13  I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar, and where you vowed a vow to me: now arise, get you out from this land, and return to the land of your kindred.

______________________________

 

One of the clearest references to the divinity of the angel of the Lord is when He appeared to Moses in the form of a flame of fire. There, the angel of the Lord said that He was God, and the text called Him the Lord and God:

 

 - (Ex 3:2-6) And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

3  And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

4  And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.

5  And he said, Draw not near here: put off your shoes from off your feet, for the place where on you stand is holy ground.

6  Moreover he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look on God.

______________________________

 

The following passage is interesting: the angel is separated from the Lord, but still the name of the Lord YHVH or Jehovah lives in Him. The name of God living in the angel refers to His divine essence:

 

- (Ex 23:20 -22) Behold, I send an Angel before you, to keep you in the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.

21  Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.

22  But if you shall indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary to your adversaries.

______________________________

 

The angel of the Lord is discussed in the Book of Judges, where he appears to Gideon. What is interesting in this passage is that this angel is called "the Lord", Jehovah, which is God's own name. This means that He must have been God:

 

- (Judges 6:12-16) And the angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor.

13  And Gideon said to him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD has forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

14  And the LORD looked on him, and said, Go in this your might, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent you?

15  And he said to him, Oh my Lord, with which shall I save Israel?  behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.

16  And the LORD said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall smite the Midianites as one man.

______________________________

 

Another reference to the angel of the Lord is made in the account of the birth of Samson. The angel of the Lord tells Manoah his name to be Wonderful (Old King James), which is regarded as one of the names of God (Isa 9:5). In addition, the parents of Samson regarded this messenger as God:

 

- (Judges 13:17,18,21,22) And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, What is your name, that when your sayings come to pass we may do you honor?

18  And the angel of the LORD said to him, Why ask you thus after my name, seeing it is secret (wonderful)?

21  But the angel of the LORD did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD.

22  And Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.

 

Isa 48:12,13,16. One of the clearest references to the trinity of God appears in Isaiah 48. In this chapter, God describes (in first person singular form) how He laid the foundations of the Earth and the Heavens, but then, in verse 16, there appears the person I and me, who was already in the beginning, and who was sent. It also speaks about the spirit of God who was sent to Earth.

 

- (Isa 48:12,13,16) Listen to me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.

13  My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spanned the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together.

16  Come you near to me, hear you this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, has sent me.

 

The verses above, from the Book of Isaiah, clearly reveal the three persons of God. Based on this text, they are:

 

1."The Lord" – the sender.

 

 2."I" and "me", who was already with the Lord in the beginning, and whom the Lord sent.

 

3. The Spirit, whom was also sent.

 

The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s divinity and personality are revealed to us in several passages. Consider the following examples:

 

The name "the Spirit of God". The divinity of the Holy Spirit is demonstrated by the name alone, "the Spirit of God". This name appears in the story of Creation and clearly proves His divine and eternal nature.

   Father God sent the Holy Spirit to us to help us stay connected with Himself. Though we pray to God who is in heaven, His Holy Spirit helps us here on earth. This does not mean that God and the Holy Spirit are two separate gods; they are one and the same.

 

- (Gen 1:2) And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.

 

- (2 Chron 24:20) And the Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said to them, Thus said God, Why transgress you the commandments of the LORD, that you cannot prosper? because you have forsaken the LORD, he has also forsaken you.

 

 - (Ex 31:3) And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,

 

- (1 Sam 19:20) And Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was on the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.

 

 - (Psalm 51:11) Cast me not away from your presence; and take not your holy spirit from me.

 

 - (Psalm 139:7) Where shall I go from your spirit? or where shall I flee from your presence?

 

- (Judges 15:14 / Judges 16:20) And when he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily on him, and the cords that were on his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.

16:20  And she said, The Philistines be on you, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he knew not that the LORD (Yahveh) was departed from him.

 

- (2 Sam 23:2-3) The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and his word was in my tongue.

3  The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, He that rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.

 

The personality of the Holy Spirit. Not everyone regards the Holy Spirit as one member of the triune God; people may use the term Holy Spirit as a synonym for God.

   However, it is especially noteworthy that many passages of the Bible refer very clearly to the personality of the Holy Spirit and mention that He has been sent from God. So there must be one person sending and another person doing the leaving. The following verses use the name "he" for the Holy Spirit, so the leaver is not merely energy and power. As we read below, the Holy Spirit can teach, speak and act independently – all of which can only be done by a person:

 

- (Isa 40:13-14) Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counselor has taught him?

14  With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding?

 

- (Isa 63:10) But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.

 

 - (Isa 48:16) Come you near to me, hear you this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, has sent me.

 

- (Neh 9:20) You gave also your good spirit to instruct them, and withheld not your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.

 

- (Judges 3:10) And the Spirit of the LORD came on him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war: and the LORD delivered Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed against Chushanrishathaim.

 

 - (Isa 61:1) The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

 

 - (Isa 63:14) As a beast goes down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so did you lead your people, to make yourself a glorious name.

 

 - (Psalm 106:33) Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spoke unadvisedly with his lips.

 

 - (2 Sam 23:2) The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and his word was in my tongue.

 

 - (Gen 1:2) And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.

 

 - (Isa 11:2) And the spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;

(Mere power without personality cannot be wise, or understanding and so on...)