Who Is God?*

Give & Read: Habakkuk 3:3-19

Habakkuk 3:3–19 KJV 1900

3 God came from Teman, And the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, And the earth was full of his praise. 4 And his brightness was as the light; He had horns coming out of his hand: And there was the hiding of his power. 5 Before him went the pestilence, And burning coals went forth at his feet. 6 He stood, and measured the earth: He beheld, and drove asunder the nations; And the everlasting mountains were scattered, The perpetual hills did bow: His ways are everlasting. 7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: And the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. 8 Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? Was thine anger against the rivers? Was thy wrath against the sea, That thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation? 9 Thy bow was made quite naked, According to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. 10 The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: The overflowing of the water passed by: The deep uttered his voice, And lifted up his hands on high. 11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: At the light of thine arrows they went, And at the shining of thy glittering spear. 12 Thou didst march through the land in indignation, Thou didst thresh the heathen in anger. 13 Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, Even for salvation with thine anointed; Thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, By discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah. 14 Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages: They came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: Their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly. 15 Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, Through the heap of great waters. 16 When I heard, my belly trembled; My lips quivered at the voice: Rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, That I might rest in the day of trouble: When he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops. 17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, Neither shall fruit be in the vines; The labour of the olive shall fail, And the fields shall yield no meat; The flock shall be cut off from the fold, And there shall be no herd in the stalls: 18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 19 The Lord God is my strength, And he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, And he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.

Give Subject: Who Is God?

Prayer

Introduction

Who is God?

This is an age old question that many people have tried to answer throughout mankind’s existence.

Early in our history, humans tried constructing the Tower of Babel to reach Heaven and see God for ourselves.

They thought themselves worthy of entrance to Heaven and thought to build themselves into Heaven through their own means.

But God confounded their language and caused the building project to come to a screeching halt.

Then I recall Moses asking God to reveal his glory unto him at the top of Mount Sinai.

Moses thought himself capable of beholding God’s glory and so he made a request to the Lord for new revelation.

And God came down and met Moses, but only showed him the back side of his glory to maintain Moses’ sanity

Some have even stepped beyond the realm of the spirit and sought God through scientific and mathematical means.

Physicists have tried to use mathematics to deduce God from a formula or to perhaps discover his language and communicate with him.

Seeking after the equation of life they try understanding the origins of the Universe in hopes that understanding it will bring greater understanding of God.

But no matter what they do the infinite stretches of space confound them such that they often leave with more questions than answers.

Some have tried studying the stars and heavens, seeking to find someone or something they can look to as God.

They look into the sky for a man floating among the stars or some kind of ethereal city beyond the immediate heavens of Earth.

But no matter how far they look, the light years have not revealed any new being or thing beyond the realm of our sight.

All these great men and women in fields of science, history, math, and even theology all trying to answer the question… Who Is God?

Some want to find out Who Is God because they feel if they can find out first, they will have first dibs on him?

Not recognizing that God is not a respecter of persons,

Some May want to find out who he is because they feel they could use God’s power to their own benefit.

Never realizing that All Power was in HIS hands and not their own.

Others even may want to know who is God because they feel by knowing him they could come to know themselves

Never realizing that it is his mind that must be in their mind.

And yet for all of these things, despite some of them offering some insight into who God is… none of them truly explains or clarifies the question who is God.

None of these things quite does God justice.

Even the scripture as the complete and infallible Word of God offers limited insight into the mind and thinking of God simply by virtue of human words being used to describe an inhuman God.

Make no mistake about it that God is not human by any stretch of the imagination because the goes beyond human.

God is expansive beyond our ability to understand simply because he is God.

We often call him a healer but the reality is that God is just as much the one who allowed you to be sick as he is the one who healed you.

We often call him a deliver but the reality is that God allowed you to fall into your trap just as much as God freed you.

Eric B and Rakim released a song in 1997 entitled, “The Mystery.”

And so people have looked everywhere for God but where he may be found.

Habakkuk 3:3-19

In this text, we see that Habukkuk has just finished an exchange with God and is currently offering a psalm of praise to God in response to his answer.

Habukkuk, the prophet, is talking to God about the persecution of his people at the hands of the Babylonians and he is seeking their freedom from them that they may return to the days of old.

However, God makes it clear his intention to punish the israelites. But it is not the punishment that really gets me but its Habukkuk’s attitude.

We do not talk about it enough, I’m afraid but I want us to know and come to understand WHO IS GOD?

We can get so obsessive over God’s giving to us we never stop to consider who he really is.

We say he is I AM and he is I AM THAT I AM.

We shout because God said I AM BREAD. I AM WATER. I AM LIFE. I AM A HEALER. I AM… I AM… I AM. And indeed God is all of these things but we miss the true meaning because I AM THAT I AM.

IF HE IS BREAD WHEN I AM HUNGRY THEN HE STILL IS. But If I starve… he still is I AM.