Spotlight Stage Left
This morning in church, the sermon was on the third commandment, the one about taking the Lord's name in vain. Sometime during the first few minutes, Pastor mentioned how God has many different names in the Bible. That sent me off on a mental tangent that occupied me for most of the sermon. I was wondering, what if all of the different names of God are less in reference to the characteristics of God and more about how a particular group of people at a particular time related to God. While I am sure that all of the particular characteristics about God are true, is that what we should really be concerned with? Maybe Jehovah Jireh isn't in the Bible just so we know that God can provide--maybe it is there to describe the emotional duress that His people were under at that specific time. Maybe we have been pointing the spotlight at stage left when the meaningful action was taking place on the right next to the curtains.
So the question that left me with was, if the diferent names of God reflect the struggles of His people, what kind of name would God have if I was in the Bible? Would it be God that Forgives? God that Doesn't Stab You In The Back? God that is Always There? God that Doesn't Stereotype? God that is Not Hypocritical? Or God that Cuts Through the Crap? What would your name for God be?
So the question that left me with was, if the diferent names of God reflect the struggles of His people, what kind of name would God have if I was in the Bible? Would it be God that Forgives? God that Doesn't Stab You In The Back? God that is Always There? God that Doesn't Stereotype? God that is Not Hypocritical? Or God that Cuts Through the Crap? What would your name for God be?
posted by oneweekend at 6:38 PM
3 Comments:
Good thoughts! And I'm glad to find out I'm not the only one who gets off on those musings about other topics during sermons.
Are all of your posts going to be composed of your comments on the morning's sermon? That's cool, but if so, perhaps you could take out an ad in Calvary's bulletin so more people could get the post-sermon commentary. I enjoy it; others probably would too.
My name for God: God who's great enough to do something useful with me in spite of my many failures.
I agree with the idea that we may be missing the focus of the names, but at the same time, I don't think we're misinterpreting anything. God is all of those things. We should take note of that and be changed by it.
I'm afraid that in our readiness to experience God rather than just learn about Him, we're setting ourselves up as the judge of God. Check the names we've all come up with for God. So many of them are focused on us and our experience. We can't measure God by the failures of ourselves or others. We have to measure ourselves by God's greatness.
Please, I'm not trying to just criticize your comments. I agree with them, but I know people who start where we are and get off into all kinds of wrong theology and philosophy.
Sorry for seeming contrary. I'm not trying to challenge your posts, just writing what's coming to mind as I read them. That's probably dangerous.
Part One—My Take On The Original Post
I was getting the feeling that Dale was suggesting we have been focusing on stage left when we are focusing on who God is, while at center stage is the events in the lives of His children. [Dale, am I getting this right?] I'd rather say God is at center stage, but we can better understand what's happening stage left—what was happening to the Israelites—when we consider the meaning of these names for God. I agree that the events are the main literary focus of these passages, but I believe the primary focus of the Bible is to reveal God. I'm not sure I'm willing to relegate God to stage left because the author is giving his primary attention to historical data. But if, as may be the case, the events are occurring center-stage, I'm perfectly comfortable focusing stage left on God.
Part Two—Clarifying My Last, Poorly-Worded Comment
Matty, I think I'm still a little taken aback by the challenges to normal thinking about God and Scriptural things that are coming out of your and Dale's blogs. I'm agreeing with your ideas and conclusions, but how you present them is still a little shocking for me—I know and know of so many people who say things similar to what you are saying and end up in gross sin or meaningless "spritualizing." (Sorry, I know that's still vague, but I don't want to get into specifics here.) I'll be more careful in my responses from now on.
Your last comment really clarified the point I tried unsuccessfully to make—God is too great to be limited to what we know of Him. Rather than saying God is greater than ourselves or people who have failed us (e.g., "God who doesn't Stab You In The Back"), I'd rather see God in the perfection in which He reveals Himself to us (e.g., "God that is Always There").
Your first comment said we "stuff God in a box" by only recognizing Him by the attributes revealed by His names. You're right, we shouldn't do that. My point was that we should not stuff Him in a box by only allowing Him to be better than the shortcomings we have experienced in ourselves and others. I'm not denying that He is greater than these failures, I'm saying God is far greater than that. In your last comment you state, "the israelites had no identification with 'God who provides' until he gave them water from the rock and manna from heaven." I agree. However, I don't want to wait until God miraculously delivers me from extreme hunger and thirst to realize God is the great Provider. I'd rather recognize that all that I have is provided by God, even when I don't realize my great need. And I'd rather know when I am in great need that God is more than capable of meeting all my needs. In other words, I want to point out that we must not throw out what God has revealed about Himself in His Word until we experience it. We must accept and cherish His revelation and add to it the personal revelation we experience.
One example might help clarify the issues: I have an uncle who believes we can not really know God apart from our experiencing Him (and He experiences Him driving down lonely desert roads). I don't want to have to wait for lonely desert roads to experience God. I totally agree with your pointing out that God reveals Himself to us in our experience, and we need to grab that, but that is not all we should grab.
I guess I was trying to say two (2) things: 1) Let's not only allow God to be as big as we experience Him to be. 2) Let's not only allow God to be bigger than the failures we experience.
Hopefully, this comment combined with your last comment clarify the point I was trying to make in my last comment [follow that? :)].
Part Three—Comments On Your New Idea About Swearing
Good call. I can't help but think of OT Survey, when Dr. Radford gave a little lecture on when to appropriately say hallelujah since the literal interpreation is "Praise the Lord!" and we must not take God's name in vain. You're right, we do it way too often. You pointed out prayer, and I'd like to add singing. How many times do I zone out when I'm singing about God. Convicting.
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