The Great, the Mighty, the Terrible God

KJV actually does a more interesting translation of Neh 9.32 then the ESV does. KJV translates it: Now therefore our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy. On the other hand, the ESV renders it: Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love.

Which is better terrible God or awesome God? The translated Hebrew word is "to fear." It means "to be in fear of," "to shudder at," "to be awed by," "to overawe, or alarm." It is difficult to get an exact correlation from Hebrew to English because we are not supposed to fear God as we would fear danger, for instance. On the other hand if we were to translate it "to reverence" God, I think that is not strong enough, and awesome God is a nice try from the ESV, but I don't think that is strong enough either. Thus the difficulties of biblical translation.

This is the very reason that C. S. Lewis so brilliantly captures the character of God by using a lion in the Narnia Chronicles. The lion is kind and gentle (most of the time) to Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan. When he needs to be the lion is absolutely fear-inducing. He is strong. He is terrible. This sort of gets at the truth of "awesome God" or "terrible God" here in Nehemiah. The minute we start thinking of God as a kindly, old grandfather, is the minute we start to go astray.

As Lucy points out to Mr. Timnus, "He is not a tame lion."

Mr. Timnus responds, "No, but he is good."

Just so.

A Politically Incorrect God

I'm reading in Isaiah 34, today. The language and imagery is, shall we say, a little difficult for the modern ear to take: “For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction. The LORD has a sword; it is sated with blood; it is gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.” (Is 34:5–6 ESV). Do you see what I mean?

God seems not in the least concerned about appearing politically correct, nor for our approbation of his actions. I like this, even though I do not understand it. If we understood everything about God and could pass judgment on all his actions, then we would have a genie for a God. I do not want a genie for a God. I want God to be God, and for him to be God, there will be times when I do not understand his actions, or his words. This is one of those times.

I am happy to worship a God whom I do not fully understand, because the alternative is to either a. create a God in my own image who is politically correct, or b. live in a world with no meaning, not ultimate foundation for morality, and no ultimate purpose. I do not want to live in that world, and do not believe we are in that kind of world.

As Mr. Tumnus said to Lucy in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe: "He (Aslan) is not a tame lion, but he is good."

Who Says This Stuff?!?

Thinking about John 8.23ff this morning. You are from below. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. Who says this kind of thing? It's absolutely breathtaking. Once again Christ forces us to take him on his own terms or to take nothing. He was not and never claimed to be a good, moral teacher. He claimed to be different. Unique. From above. We take him as that or nothing.

C. S. Lewis captures the import of Christ's words better than anyone I've ever read: A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Praise Bubbling Forth

Into Psalm 147.1 this morning. For the people of the Lord it is good to sing praises to our God. The Psalmist does not say why it is good because he does not need to; the point is self-explanatory. He just says that giving praises is fitting and pleasant. We give praise to God because we cannot help ourselves, God created us to praise and so out it comes much like a fountain that is constantly overflowing.

C. S. Lewis gets the point correct - I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.

God's (Apparent) Absence in Difficulty

I am pondering Ps 88.14 this morning and the fact that it is often in our deepest difficulties that God appears to be no where in sight. I am reminded of C. S. Lewis' comment in A Grief Observed:

“Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him…you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become.”

John Calvin points out that this kind of question is proof that the writer has not given up on God, that: The Psalmist does not proudly enter into debate with God, but mournfully desires some remedy to his calamities.

I agree with Calvin's thinking on this passage, although it does not make the experience any easier. In all of the tests and trials of a believer, this is probably the most difficult, persevering when God is silent.