Who is God?

How do you get to know someone? By spending time with them. By talking to them. By doing things with them – so you can see their reactions and learn their nature.

But how do you do that with someone who hasn’t been around you – that you are just getting to know - like a celebrity?

How do you do that with an invisible, sometimes silent (we think) God?

One way is by reading stories about Him. And where better to read about Him than in the Bible – a genuine authorized biography whose authors were inspired by the subject.

In Exodus 33 Moses had the same question. –

Moses was God’s friend and he had a tent of meeting where he would go and talk with the Lord.

Then Moses said to the LORD, “Look, You have been telling me, ‘Lead this people up (to the promised land),’ but You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet, You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have found favor in My sight.’ Now if indeed I have found favor in Your sight, please let me know Your ways, that I may know You and find favor in Your sight. Remember that this nation is Your people.”

And the LORD answered, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

“If Your Presence does not go with us,” Moses replied, “do not lead us up from here. For how then can it be known that Your people and I have found favor in Your sight, unless You go with us? How else will we be distinguished from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

So the LORD said to Moses, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.”

Then Moses said, “Please show me Your glory.”

“I will cause all My goodness to pass before you,” the LORD replied, “and I will proclaim My name—the LORD—in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

But He added, “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.” Exodus 33:12-20 BSB

So God took Moses and hid him in the cleft of a rock and he covered his face with his hand and he introduced himself to Moses…

And the LORD descended in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed His name, the LORD. Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out:

“The LORD, the LORD God,

is compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger,

abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,

maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations,

forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Exodus 34:5-7BSB

Out of all of the things that God is he chose to describe himself as compassionate and gracious… The Hebrew word for compassionate is rahum which is transliterated from the word rechem which means womb. Compassionate actually means “to Suffer with” How many of you mothers have been in anguish when your child disobeys? When an adult child makes bad decisions, and they suffer the consequences of those decisions. God is not the author of that pain just like you didn’t cause that decision but just like you suffer when your child suffers … so does God.

He could have described himself as The Creator of the Universe God – Or the Author of life – The Guy who has the earth as his footstool – The Great and Almighty … all of which are absolutely true – but when he was talking to his friend, Moses, – and when Moses asked to see his glory – He introduced himself as God – Compassionate and Merciful. That is how he wants to be known by his friends. And he wants to be known by you, as friend.

Thanks to Michelle Joy Williams who spoke to a class that I took through the Global Awakening College of Ministry on emotional healing and introduced us to this subject. God calls us to be like him. Not the ruler and judge but compassionate and merciful. He loves us so much.

Another tool for knowing who God is, is hearing His voice…Mark Virkler wrote a great book called 4 keys to hearing the voice of God, and has given many conferences on hearing Gods voice. One of the tools he speaks of is “two-way journaling”. You journal to God and you write down what He says back to you.

When I journaled about this passage, here is what God said to me:

“ This is who I am. I suffer with you. I am long suffering. Over and over I watch and see the troubles that you enter into but I also save. I am your deliverer. I meet justice for the oppressed and I deliver with mercy, the accused, all because I love. I love the hurting. I love the hurtful. They are all precious in my sight. Give me your brokenness. I am the balm of Gilead. I am the water that refreshes the soul. My mercy is everlasting.”

I knew I had heard “the Balm of Gilead” somewhere but I didn’t remember what it was so I looked it up… It is a medicinal perfume called a “universal cure” used to heal and soothe. I think that’s pretty accurate.