Today we’ll tackle the biggest question of all: who is God?  We’ll take a journey through scripture together to discover what God is like, stopping at key moments to consider what this or that interaction tells us about him.
—— Notes ——
theology: one’s understanding of God
Ontology vs. Functionality

ontology: understanding something based on what it is (it’s essence)
tendency to define God based on what he is (omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent)
perfect being theology: reasons from perfection to generate characteristics that God must have independent from what he reveals about himself in the bible
bible tends to define God based on what he’s done and his relationship w/ people

Creator desiring trusting relationships

creation
Adam and Eve

Limited participant in human affairs

in time, with us, not aloof (we’ll get to predestination later)
Cain and Able

warns Cain
does not force him or prevent him


Lamech

Heartbroken exception maker

Nephilim
Gen 6
Noah’s flood

Preemptive preventer

Babel

the God of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob

the call (Gen 12.1-4)
Yahweh is going to be Abraham’s God

he’ll have his back
bless those who bless
curse those who curse


he’s just looking for someone to believe him, to trust him, to do what he says
three tests of trust

leave your land
circumcise yourself and all your men
the Akedah (binding of Isaac)


with Abraham and Sarah we find the opposite of Adam and Eve

believed God’s promises
left their native land to be with God in promised land
trusted God to perform the impossible
over time grew more faithful
died trusting God


by the end of all of this, God irreversibly yoke’s himself to this family through covenants

covenant faithfulness and chesed


henceforth, God’s dealings w/ Abraham affect how he PRIMARILY refers to himself

I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob



Powerful liberator and god-mocker

burning bush
how does God introduce himself to Moses?

the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob


the name
Pharaoh’s question (Ex 5.1)
10 plagues as God telling Egypt and the world who he is vis-à-vis the Egyptian gods

he is the God above all other gods


Passover meal memorializes the historical event of God liberating Israel

this is how God intends to imprint faith on each generation (festivals)



Exclusive moralist

ten commandments begin w/ several statements of exclusivity
singular pronouns!

whenever anyone ever uses a pronoun for God in the bible it is singular: he, him, his, you (sg.)


basic moral code

8 attributes of God

Exodus 34.6-7
6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

chesed (חֶסֶד)

John Goldingay: “It is sometimes described as covenant love, though in the OT it rarely appears in the company of the word “covenant.” It is used in two connections: when someone makes an act of commitment for which there is no reason in terms of prior relatio

Ver todos los episodios