WHAT IS GOD LIKE?

A little girl was lying on the floor with her crayons and a large drawing pad when her father came into the room and asked, "What are you drawing, honey?" Without looking up, she replied, "I am drawing a picture of God." Her father smiled and said, "But no one knows what God looks like." Without a pause, she retorted, "They will when I am finished."

What am I? Those who know me know that I am a man, a father and a husband. In the working world I have been known by my profession. Others know me as a Christian, a Bible teacher and a servant of God. But what am I really?

The truth is that I am more than just the sum total of my attributes. I am more than a list of things. They are descriptive of what I am, but they are not me. In the same way, God is described by His attributes, but He is much more than just a list of attributes. We often make the mistake of trying to relegate God to a place in a notebook, but He is too big for that. And yet, if we are to come to know about God, we must begin with these descriptive attributes.

The point is well taken. Even though we will be listing a number of the various attributes of God, this list is by no means exhaustive. Neither does an outlining of His attributes tell us all that there is to know about God.

Before we begin our actual examination of the attributes of God, we must ask the question of what will be the nature of our knowledge of God. There are three possibilities:

1. Equivocal Knowledge.

2. Univocal Knowledge.

3. Analogical Knowledge.

The problem with both the Equivocal and the Analogical views is that when I say that something is true, I do not mean that it is true in the same sense that God sees it to be true.

If either the Equivocal or the Analogical view in epistemology were correct, then this entire debate would be fruitless because no matter what conclusion we came to, it would not be true in the same sense that God sees it to be true.

Jesus went against this kind of teaching when He said, You shall know the TRUTH (John 8:32). If He does not mean that you could know the truth in the same sense that God knows the truth (and if we hold to the deity of Christ, then also in the same sense that HE knew the truth), then what does He mean? Certainly He is not saying that you can only know something that is similar to the truth but that the truth itself cannot be known.

The arguments of the Equivocalist and the Analogicalist also fail to recognize the foundational truth (no pun intended, but they would not even recognize it as such, for it would not be truth, but only a similarity to the truth) - they fail to recognize and apply the truth that man is created by God as a being in the image of God. Certainly if this means anything, then it means that there is a basis of communication between God and man. Animals do not communicate with God, but man does.

If we say that man's knowledge is not univocal with God's knowledge, then we are forced to conclude that there are certain things that God does not know, since He does not share in the knowledge that man possesses.

On the other hand, we can affirm both the continuities and the discontinuities with our thoughts versus God's thoughts:

The most common distinction made by theologians between the attributes of God is to view those that are incommunicable versus those that are communicable.

• The Incommunicable Attributes: These are the attributes of God that are NOT communicated to us and in which we do not share.

• The Communicable Attributes: These are the attributes of God that ARE communicated to us and in which we do share.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism gives one of the most concise definitions of God: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.

The first phrase of the Catechism is taken from John 4:24 where Jesus said to the Samaritan Woman, "God is Spirit." The Greek construction of that passage is interesting. It has no verb. The verb is understood. By this construction, Jesus is not saying that God is A spirit, as though He were one of many spirits. Instead He is saying that the very nature of God is Spirit. The fact that God is spirit leads us to three implications.

1. God is Personal.

2. God is Non-Corporeal.

3. The Second Commandment prohibited the making of graven images.

God calls Himself the Alpha and Omega. These are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. We would say that He is the A and the Z. The encyclopedia of human history begins and ends with Him. In the beginning there was God. In the end there will be God. He is and He was and He is to come.

This verse deals with God's infinity in relation to time. He transcends the beginning of all things. He has no beginning or ending. He has always existed and will always continue to exist. This quality is graphically portrayed in a Psalm attributed to Moses.

There is nothing that seems so permanent as a mountain. Nothing in our realm of existence is so immovable. Yet God says that He existed and that He was God before the birth of the mountains. The same God to whom we pray is the same God who was God before the earth existed.

We tend to view existence through a very limited perspective. All things in our realm of experience have a beginning and an end. Such is not the case with God. He exists independently of time. He transcends time. This is why He calls himself Yahweh -- "I am."

I recall once standing on the top floor of the Landmark Building in Fort Lauderdale and watching a trail go by. From my vantage point of thirty stories, I could see the entire length of the train in a single glance, even though it stretched almost a mile across the city. I think that might illustrate the way God sees the progression of time. God sees all of history in one glance. We, on the other hand, have a lower perspective. We stand on the street corner of time and watch the events go rolling by us.

The eternity of God speaks directly to His self-existence. He is the uncaused Cause. Nothing ever happened to bring Him about. He transcends the entire chain of cause and effect relationships. There never was a time when He was anything less than He is now. He has not grown any older. He has not become any smarter. He is the eternal God.

We believe that the Bible is the Word of God -- that it is the written communication of the Creator of the universe to mankind. As such, there is little doubt that it is the most important book ever written.

Yet as we pick it up and read it in our quest to know God, we often find ourselves overwhelmed by a myriad of events of ancient history. The people described therein seem very long ago and far away. They are of other cultures and of other lands and their problems and struggles do not seem relevant to the modern world of today. It may be of interest to historians and stuffy professors, but how can the common man relate to the teachings of a book that was written thousands of years ago?

Bible teachers have pointed out that the Biblical characters shared many of the same problems that we deal with today, but there is still a sense of remoteness as we read of their various situations.

No matter how hard I try, I find that there is still a sense of remoteness between the issues and problems that I face on a day to day basis and those characters of the Bible.

So what is the answer? How can I see the Bible as relevant in the 21st century? The answer is seen in the truth that we have an UNCHANGING GOD.

God does not change. He has not learned anything new in the last 4000 years. His outlook on life has not grown with age. Neither have His absolute standards of righteousness undergone any revision.

This is hard to comprehend because we change all the time. I am not the same person I used to be. I am constantly growing and changing. I continue to learn new things that change my old outlook on life.

God has not changed. He is the same as when He created the heavens and the earth. He is the ancient of days. That does not mean that He is getting old. He is not "getting" anything. He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). His knowledge is always fresh and up to date.

We look at people who have not changed with the times and think of them as "old-fashioned." But God does not have to change with the times. He is fully aware how times change. He made them that way. He is the one constant in an ever-changing universe.

When the universe has come and gone there will only be One who has not changed -- the Unchanging God.

This brings up an interesting question. What do we do with certain passages like Genesis 6:6 or Jonah 3:10 that tell us God repented? If this repentance is to be understood as a change in attitude, then is this not an example of God changing?

In answering, we must first ask whether these passages reflect a real change in the character and purposes of God. For example, when Jonah says that God repented in His plan to destroy Nineveh, it is not that God's attitude toward the people of Nineveh had changed, but rather the Ninevites themselves who had changed. This in turn brought about a change in God's actions toward them. Thus, it did not involve a change in the character or the purposes of God.

The sun is not showing a change in character just because it melts ice but hardens clay. The changed is not in the sun, but in the objects on which it shines. Neither do I change in my character because I punish my child for disobedience but praise that same child for doing what is right.

Here is the principle. God's character never changes. But His dealings with men do change as men themselves change in their attitudes toward Him.

Now I want to ask you a question. Is this principle relevant for today? Does the fact that God does not change make a difference in the way I live? I believe that it does. When I am faced with the remoteness of the Biblical records, I am able to balance that remoteness with a reminder that God has not changed. The same God who spoke to Moses from a burning bush is listening to my prayers right now. The same God who protected the young men who were cast into the fiery furnace can protect me as I drive on the highway. The same God who provided manna in the wilderness can make sure that I have a hamburger to eat for lunch. The same God who raised Jesus from the dead is going to raise me as well. The same God who sent the flood upon the earth has promised that He will come again.

Circumstances have changed. Problems have changed. Society had changed and is still changing. But God never changed.

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to return to the Junior High School that I had attended as a youth. The first thing that I noticed is that it had shrunk in size. The halls that were once so wide and spacious were now rather narrow. The ceiling was now so low that I could reach up and touch it.

What had happened? Had the building really shrunk? No. It is that I had grown. That is the way it is with almost everything. The older and the bigger and the smarter you get, the less things impress you. It is that way with everything except God. With Him it is the complete opposite. The older you get in the Lord and the more you come to know Him, the bigger He becomes.

In his Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis tells us of a meeting between Lucy and Aslan, the Christ figure of his story. "Aslan," said Lucy, "you're bigger.

"That is because you are older, little one," answered he.

"Not because you are?"

"I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger."

Isaiah was a man who was in tune with the majesty and the holiness and the immensity of God. This was not due to any lack of growth on his part. He did not consider God to be great and awesome because he was only a primitive and inexperienced man. To the contrary, the Hebrew of Isaiah is of the highest literary quality.

Isaiah was in awe of the majesty of God because he had been an eyewitness of that majesty. At the outset of his ministry, Isaiah had partaken in an experience to which few can lay claim.

Can you imagine anything more profound than to be in the presence of the Creator of the universe? Isaiah was filled with a holy terror. Yet it was not a terror that drove him away, but only one that attracted him to the throne.

The Apostle John had a similar experience. John also saw a vision with the Lord seated upon His throne and attended by angels.

Do you see it? The song has not changed. John hears the same song that Isaiah heard seven hundred years earlier. The reason for this is that God has not changed. He is the same God who was and who is and who is to come. He is the same today.

This is a Psalm of David. He lived in a day when the world had been turned upside down. He came to the throne of Israel at a time when the tiny kingdom was about to collapse. Surrounded by enemies both within and without, David was under constant attack.

The Philistines of David's day had the ultimate military weapon -- the secret of smelting iron. This meant that their weapons were more advanced in every way. Not only did David have to deal with those surrounding nations who were enemies of Israel, but there were also those who had supported his old archenemy Saul, the previous king. These saw David as a usurper to the throne. To make matters worse, members of David's own household eventually rose up against him, seeking to take his throne away.

What was David's point of stability in the midst of such unstable situations? How did he handle such stress without going off the deep end? How did he cope? I believe the answer is to be found in this Psalm.

This is a song of praise to Yahweh, the God of Israel. It begins with a statement concerning the knowledge of God.

Notice how David pictures God. He could have spoken about how God knows all historical events. He could say that God knows all things, both past, present and future. He could say that nothing is hidden from the knowledge of God. But instead, David makes this very personal. He says to God, "You know ME."

David did not want to give you a lesson in systematic theology. He did not want to give you a seven point outline that you could place into your notebook and forget. He wants to bring you face to face with the living God.

I've got news for you. If the all-knowing God knew David, then He also knows you. He has searched you and knows you. He knows when you sit down and when you rise up. He understands your thoughts from afar. He scrutinizes your path and your lying down. He is intimately acquainted with all your ways.

That puts things into a slightly different light. God knows me! He knows you. He understands what you are going through. He knows your own unique situation. You are not merely a number on a heavenly database. You are not lost amidst the millions. The God of the universe is personally aware of your day-to-day problems.

This puts a whole new emphasis upon personal prayer. God does not have an angelic staff who go through all of His prayer mail and who only forward the really important correspondence. God personally hears your prayers. He hears your prayers before you even pray them.

God knows your thoughts. He knows your mind better than you do. He knows what you think and He knows all your needs and desires.

Have you ever come to a point where you wanted to pray to the Lord, but just could not find the words to say? Do not worry, for at such a time the Holy Spirit is interceding on your behalf.

What does this mean? It is couched in military terms. David was a military man. He knew the value of strong fortifications. He went on to build a whole series of fortifications to link up the tribes of Israel.

Here is the best kind of fortification. It is the fortification that God provides. David recognizes that God has set up defenses both behind him and in front of him. Nothing can come into his realm of existence without God knowing about it and taking an active part in it. The same is true for you. Nothing comes into your life that has not first come through a nail-scarred hand.

You might be thinking, "This is a bit much to take in." Many people have a limited view of God because they cannot imagine anyone with such knowledge and such power. Do you feel that way? If so, you are not alone. Look at the next verse:

David is blown away by this kind of knowledge. He admits that he cannot grasp it. He cannot imagine that God could have such knowledge. And yet, he believes. This is his point of stability. He believes in a God that is beyond belief. That is because his concept of God is not dependent upon himself. David did not dream up this kind of God. This is the God who revealed Himself. This is the God who is there.

What else does the Bible say about the knowledge of God? How far does His knowledge go? What is the extent of His knowledge? Here are a few verses that give us some insight into the knowledge of God.

1. There is Nothing Hidden from God.

2. God's Knowledge Spans Every Event in the Universe.

3. The Unchangeableness of God's Knowledge.

4. God's Knowledge Includes All Possibilities.

At this point, we ought to consider the relevance of such a teaching. What difference does it make in my life to know that God is omniscient? Is this merely an academic thesis on a subject that has little or no value for day to day living? It is unfortunate that this is exactly the way in which this subject is often presented.

Is this relevant? It certainly is! If you are a normal human being, then you have certain problems in your life. They might be big problems or they might be little problems that only look like big problems.

I have news for you. God knew about your problems long before the creation of the universe. Not only did He know about them, but He also made provision for them.

God designed the universe with you in mind. It has been custom-built to your specifications. He knew everything about you before you were even born. And He has not forgotten. He is not senile. His knowledge is still fresh. He is the all-knowing God.

These words were not written in a seminary library. They were written by Jeremiah in a day of imminent danger. They were written by a man who was witnessing the fall of Jerusalem and who was surrounded by enemies both within and without.

These times were especially dark for Jeremiah. The tide of public opinion had turned against him. The king did not care for his preaching and had thrown him into prison. From the depths of his prison, Jeremiah could still realize the truth that God was in control of all of these events.

God is all-powerful. There is nothing that He is not able to do. He made everything that exists from His power. When earth's mightiest telescopes continue to explore the furthest reaches of the countless galaxies, they are bringing testimony to God's handiwork. There is nothing that is stronger than God because there is nothing that was not made by God.

This is a great source of comfort for the believer. You need to be aware of this basic truth when you are facing trouble.

• God is BIG enough to help. There is no situation that He cannot handle.
• God is SMART enough to help. He knows what to do about your problems.
• God is CONCERNED enough to help. He demonstrated His love for you when He sent His Son to die upon the cross.

There is no situation that can ever come into your life that is too difficult or too complex for God to handle.

The principle is clear. Nothing will ever be able to exhaust the infinite resources of the Almighty God. Because He is almighty, He is able to give strength to us in our weakness.

At the same time, we must point out that there are things for which it is impossible for God to do.

1. God cannot do the Irrational.

2. God cannot do that which is Contrary to His Character.

3. God cannot Exhaust His Power.

In the midst of his discourse with his three friends, Job gives a graphic description of the creative works of God.

Notice how Job sums up his description in verse 14. When we look at all the wonderful works of God and consider what He has accomplished, we are only seeing the fringes of His ways and the faint word of His might.

David begins with a question. It is really a rhetorical question. It is a question with an obvious answer because it obviously has no answer:

It is not that David is actually seeking to escape God's presence. He asks these two questions to drive home a point. He wants to point out the truth that it is impossible to escape the presence of God. No matter where you go or what happens to you, God is still there.

I am reminded of the prophet Jonah. Here is a man who is told by God to go to Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. Jonah is commissioned to take the message of God to the Assyrian people.

Jonah does not want to go. It isn't that he does not believe; it is that he has absolutely no use for the Assyrian people. Jonah is a bigot. He decides to go as far from the Assyrians as possible. He wants nothing to do with the Assyrians. He knows that there is one place where no Assyrian has ever gone. No Assyrian ever traveled by water. They had no navy. They were a mountain people. So what does Jonah do? He gets on a boat headed in the opposite direction. In so doing, he escapes the presence of the Assyrians; but he cannot escape the presence of God.

Imagine the scene! The boat is well on its way and Jonah has gone below decks to catch up on his sleep. Dark clouds appear on the horizon and soon spread over the entire sky. The wind begins to blow and the waves soon reach monstrous proportions. The ship is in danger of sinking. The sailors frantically seek to lighten the ship. When that does not work, they come down to where Jonah is sleeping and awaken him. Perhaps if he prays to his God, the storm will abate.

Jonah hears and Jonah knows why the storm has come. He knows that it is directed against his own willful disobedience. He instructs the sailors to throw him overboard. At their wits end and having tried every possible alternative, the sailors take Jonah that throw him into the depths of the Mediterranean Sea.

If this were not enough, Jonah is swallowed by a great fish. You would think that this would be the end of the story. But even in the depths of the sea and in the belly of a fish, Jonah has not escaped the presence of God.

You cannot escape the presence of God. This can be a great comfort to the believer in the area of prayer.

God is always there when you pray. Imagine what it would be like if this were not so. You might start to pray and suddenly a voice would come down from heaven saying, "Good afternoon, this is the Lord. I am so glad you called. I'm away from my desk, but if you will just leave your name and number I will get back with you..."

God does not use mail-messaging. He doesn't use a pager. He isn't even hard of hearing. He is always available. He is not just the God who is there -- He is also the God who is HERE.

The truth of God's omnipresence is also a warning to those who would be disobedient to His commands.

Have you ever been in a situation where you thought that it did not matter what you did because no one was looking? There are no secret things. God is there. He is watching the good that you do and He is also watching the bad that you do. That should be a warning to you when you are tempted to sin.

This is a glorious vision. It is a vision that takes us into heaven and into the very throne room of God. Isaiah begins with a brief but historical footnote. His account begins by rooting the event in time and space. What Isaiah is about to describe takes place in real history. It is not a "once upon a time" fairy tale. God really did speak. He did so...

The reign of Uzziah is described in 2 Chronicles 26. He began his reign by doing right in the sight of the Lord. And because of this, the Lord blessed him and made the kingdom of Judah to be prosperous.

But Uzziah became proud. And in his pride, he took it upon himself to enter into the Temple and to offer incense upon the altar of incense. This was something that only a priest was permitted to do.

As a result, God smote Uzziah with leprosy. Because he was a leper, he was no longer to even approach the Temple. He was ceremonially unclean and he remained in this state for the rest of his life. Indeed, he could not even continue to rule his kingdom. Although he held to the title of king, his son Jotham served as regent and defacto ruler in his place.

Now the king had died. And in that same year, Isaiah was given a vision. It was a vision of the Temple. Not the Temple which Solomon built, but of heaven itself.

In contrast to the sullied career of court and king, the vision of Isaiah is one of wonder and majesty. It is a vision of the presence of the Lord. He is accompanied by Seraphim -- the Hebrew word sereph describes "fire" -- these are "fiery ones." They comprise a royal honor guard around the throne. They are there with a message to proclaim. Their message is a declaration of the character of their Creator:

The first question that we must ask in approaching this passage concerns the definition of this quality known as HOLINESS. What does it mean to be holy?

Being holy has often thought to be the same as being spiritual or being good, but this is not necessarily the case. The Hebrew word qadosh describes that which has been set apart and made special.

• It is used of places such as the ground where God showed Himself to Moses (Exodus 3:5).
• It is used to refer to the Sabbath Day that had been set apart as a day of rest and remembrance of God (Genesis 2:3; Exodus 20:8).
• It is used to speak of people such as the priests of God who were set apart from the rest of the nation (Exodus 28:41).

One synonym that can be used to express this quality of holiness is "otherness." Each of these things is said to be set apart and other than the rest of those things that surround them.

This brings us to a question: In what way is God holy? He is set apart from the rest of His creation. There is nothing else in the universe that is like Him. He is other than the rest of creation.

The message of these Seraphim point to the holiness of God. They say it repeatedly: "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory." Hebrew has no punctuation marks. When you wish to make something emphatic in Hebrew, you do so by repeating it again and again and again.

For example, when Jesus is speaking with Nicodemus and He wants to make a point, He does not just say, "I am telling you the truth when I say you must be born again." He says, "Truly, truly." He repeats it. This emphasizes and underlines what He is saying. When Peter is given the vision of the clean and unclean animals coming down from heaven, the vision is given three times.

The seraphim repeat this three times. They say, "Holy, holy, holy." There are not many things that are repeated three times in the Bible. This should cause us to rise up and take notice. God is HOLY.

When Isaiah looked into heaven and saw this picture of the holiness of God, what exactly did he see? He saw the glory. He saw the seraphim. But that is not all. This incident is quoted in John 12:39-41.

The portion of Isaiah that is quoted is from the same chapter in which we were reading. It is from Isaiah 6:10. It is from the same context as Isaiah's vision. Here is the point. When Isaiah saw the glory of God, he was not seeing God because God is unseeable. He was seeing Jesus. That is what John tells us in verse 41 -- he spoke of Him.

The subject of the wrath of God is perhaps one of the most neglected topics in the church today. It has become something of a taboo for preachers to speak about God being angry with sin. It is almost with embarrassment that some Christians admit that God is a God of wrath. Yet it is a subject found throughout the Scriptures.

1. God's Wrath and God's Goodness.

2. The Object of God's Wrath.

3. The Patience of God.

This has been called the greatest verse in the Bible. It is the gospel in brief. It is a striking acclamation of the love of God.

This is the first time that the Bible ever says that God loved the world. The Jews knew that God loved Israel. He had chosen Abraham to make a covenant with him and with his descendants. The people of Israel were God's chosen people. They were aware that God loved His people.

But they never dreamed that this love would be extended to the Gentiles. This was a unique teaching to them. It was a revolutionary concept. God loved the world.

• It could be used of the love of a man for his wife.
• It could be used of the love of a mother for her children.
• It was even used of more general things like the love that a man might have for money or possessions.

However it was never used in secular Greek of the love that one had for an enemy. Such a concept would have been totally foreign to the pagan Greeks. It was unthinkable that you might show love toward an enemy.

That is exactly what God did toward us. God directed His love toward us when we were His enemies.

The love of God produced an effect. The effect was that He gave His Son. God loved the world so much that He gave. This is what true love is all about. True love always produces a corresponding action.

God sent His Son so that whoever believes in Him should have eternal life. That was the purpose for the incarnation. It was the reason for Christmas. This brings us to a question: What does it mean to believe in Christ?

The idea of belief or faith always describes an attitude held by the one who believes. This word "belief" is never used of an outward action, even though it will result in an outward action. When directed toward a person, belief can have one of two possible characteristics.

Both of these characteristics are in view when we believe in Jesus. We place our confidence in His character that He will keep His word. We believe that He wants to save us. We also consider Him able to perform our salvation. We believe that He has the ability to save us. The result of such faith is that the believing one has eternal life.

The destiny of those who believe in Christ is brought out in both a negative and a positive statement.

The Greek construction of this passage is noteworthy. The phrase translated "should not perish" is in the Greek aorist tense. This tense views the action in a point in time. It looks to a point in the future when the unbeliever will perish. It points to a time of coming judgment in the future.

However the phrase "but have eternal life" is in the present tense. This is the tense of continuing action. Rather than looking to something that is coming in the future, it looks to a present, ongoing event.

Here is the point. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then you have eternal life RIGHT NOW. You won’t only have it in the future. It is your present possession. You may not be able to see it. You can’t smell it. You may not feel like you have it. But it is yours. You have eternal life.

In his introduction to the epistle to Titus, Paul refers to "God who cannot lie." This is a unique and often overlooked title for God. He is the God who cannot lie.

Here in Titus 1:2 we can literally translate the words of Paul to speak of "the NON-LYING GOD." This is a title for God. It describes who and what He is. He is the Non-lying God.

The false gods that populated the Greek and Minoan mythologies are well known to us today. The ancients had a god for every conceivable characteristic. There was a god for war and a god for wine and a god for love and a god for death. But here we see a title for God that stands in opposition to all of those false gods. Never in all of the Greek or Minoan pantheon was there ever a Non-lying God.

All of the Greek and Minoan gods had characteristics much like their human worshipers. They possessed all of the human failings of the men who created them. But the Non-lying God is seen in contrast to the gods of the Greek and of the Cretans. He is seen in contrast to the Cretans who are "always liars" (Titus 1:12). He is the Non-lying God.

But that is not all. There is more here than merely an interesting lesson in theology. There is more here than just another title for God. There is a vital reason why Paul uses this title here. The reason that this title is so important is because the Non-lying God has spoken. He has given promises to us.

Notice what it is that God has promised. It is the eternal life for which we hope. God has promised eternal life. The only reason that we can look forward to eternal life is because it has been promised to us by the Non-lying God.

A promise is no stronger than the character of the one who has made the promise. When a man makes a promise, we look to the character and the ability of the man who made the promise when we determine whether it will be fulfilled. If a man's character is questionable, then we have reason to suspect that the promise might prove false.

God has a perfect character. This is seen dramatically in God's dealing with Abraham when God entered into a covenant with Him. God used a legally binding treaty ritual to bind Himself to Abraham. God did not have to do this. He could have just promised Abraham the things that He was going to do and left it at that. But He wanted Abraham to understand that the promise would be kept, so He used a legal oath.

It was the custom in the ancient world for a man to swear by the power of something else. He might swear by his own head. Or he might swear on the head of his son. Or he might swear by his king or by his country. The idea was that the higher the object of the oath, the more solid was considered to be the promise that was given by it.

The underlying idea was that, if the oath failed to be carried out, then the thing upon which the oath was made was to be cursed and destroyed.

Now we begin to see the truth significance of God's oath to Abraham. God is saying in effect, "Abraham, if I do not keep My promise to you, then may I cease to exist."

Do you see it? When God wanted to prove to believers that His plan on our behalf would never falter or be changed, He guaranteed it with an oath. Our salvation is as secure as the very life and existence of God. If God were to fail to keep His promise to you, then God would cease to be God.

Has God ever broken His word? Has He ever spoken and it did not come to pass? Has history borne witness to the truth of His title? Is He truly the non-lying God?