Understanding God: He is Agreeable Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I…
Understanding God: He is Agreeable
Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you… So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. – Genesis 12:1,4-5
Another endearing attribute of God that we shall meditate on today is His predilection for agreeing with human dreams and wishes, particularly those that are lofty, audacious and do not conflict with His will, a la the tower of Babel. He is an agreeable God.
There was no indication that God and Terah had any conversation about this journey before he embarked on it. However, his move must have impressed God enough that even after his death, God approached his son, Abraham, and invited him to continue the journey.
This is an eye-revealing insight into the character of God indeed. He knew Terah’s original intention and saw how he fell short of his target by dying enroute the journey in the land of Haran. God also saw how Abraham, the son of Terah, appeared to have settled where he was with no intention of continuing the expedition that his father had started.
One cannot blame Abraham for deciding to settle down in Haran. After all, the audacious 2,000-kilometer journey through rough and rocky terrains was not his own idea in the first place. It was his father who wanted to embark on the journey. He, Abraham, was only being a good son by going along with him.
God knew all this. But more impressive was the fact that God decided to help Abraham to complete the journey rather than just watch him settle down in Haran. So He approached Abraham and called him to proceed on the journey.
This gesture of God tells us that He is agreeable to our ambitions, aspirations and plans. He says ‘Yes’ to our dreams and is not all out to scuttle them as some portray Him to be. He is not a killjoy. Even when we max out and become weary along the way, as we see with Terah, who died on the way and Abraham, who wanted to settle for less, God is willing to step in and help us keep going.
We did not read that either Terah or Abraham prayed to God at any point in their endeavors. But God had become so vested in Terah’s ambitious expedition that He came to Abraham uninvited to discuss the stalled subject of continuing the journey. Some God, isn’t He?
Understanding God: He Incentivizes Obedience Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I…
Understanding God: He Incentivizes Obedience
Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. – Genesis 12:1-4
In continuation of our exploration of God’s personality and character, we shall consider today another of His traits: incentivization. He is a God who incentivizes or offers rewards to facilitate obedience.
Over the years, puritanicals have portrayed God as an ogre and killjoy. This is because they mostly see God from the standpoint of rules and instructions alone, with rewards or punishments only following obedience or disobedience. But God is much more than dos and don’ts. He is dynamic and personal enough to engage humans directly and encourage obedience. That is perhaps why most of His instructions usually have a catch to them, thus enabling His children to make intelligent choices and informed decisions about whether or not to comply.
As we can see from His conversation with Abraham, God did not just ask him to leave or step out. He also dangled promissory notes in Abraham’s face. He made enticing promises to Abraham of what he stood to gain by stepping out of his comfort zone to resume the journey that his father had started but could not complete.
God had read the room and observed Abraham’s willingness to settle rather than proceed. One cannot blame the poor man for not being interested in continuing the journey to Canaan at the advanced age of 75, as it was not his idea in the first place. It was his father, Terah, who embarked on the audacious 2,000-kilometer journey. However, Terah died only after covering halfway of the entire journey, and his son, Abraham, was content to settle at Haran, where they stopped.
God knew that Abraham would need motivation to continue this destiny-defining journey. So He came to him with the following promises:
“I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”- Genesis 12:2-3
Now, who would not want all these? Even though Abraham appeared to be complacent and laidback up to this point, the array of promises that God made him was enough to spark him awake and get him up and doing to continue, not minding his old age. Imagine if God had not promised him anything and only asked him to continue the long, arduous journey; Abraham arguably would not have moved an inch. But by incentivizing His invitation with promises of blessings, greatness and a tantalizing future, God made the decision easy for Abraham to make and his obedience a no-brainer. He Incentivizes and motvates.
Understanding God: He is A Shield and A Rewarder After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I…
Understanding God: He is A Shield and A Rewarder
After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” – Genesis 15:1
The passage above introduces two attributes of God to us: He is a shield and a rewarder. This is particularly remarkable because it was the first time God ever introduced Himself to mankind beyond the eminence of God of heaven. Therefore, in introducing Himself to Abraham, God assured him that He was Abraham’s shield and exceeding great reward.
But why would God present Himself to Abraham as a metaphor of defence and great reward? The answer will only help us to better appreciate God’s dynamic nature. He manifests Himself to humanity in accordance with their individual experiences, circumstances, and situations. He is that flexible.
In the context of this passage, Abraham had just returned from the battle, which he undertook to rescue his nephew, Lot, from the coalition of kings who invaded Sodom and took Lot and his household captive. Thankfully, Abraham was able to mobilize his workers and friends to pursue the enemies and recapture his brother from them. A campaign where he succeeded and came back with great spoil than he might have imagined.
Then, the king of Sodom, whose territory the enemies invaded and ravaged, was so happy that he offered Abraham all the spoils of war that they recovered from the battle. However, Abraham refused to take anything for himself. For him, rescuing his nephew was reward enough. He only insisted that the king of Sodom should allow his three companions who joined him in the war to take whatever they wanted from the proceeds of war. In other words, Abraham forsook his own share of the booty because he did not want the king of Sodom to start bragging later that he was the one who made Abraham.
Perhaps Abraham later regretted his stance, or he was second-guessing himself if he had done the right thing by not helping himself, even to the smallest of treasures from the massive booties they came back with. But his mind was unsettled enough for God to take notice, appear to him, and calm his nerves. And what did He tell him? He assured Abraham that He was his defence (shield). This was to allay whatever fear Abraham might have had about a reprisal attack from the kings he defeated or a potential betrayal from the king of Sodom, who ruled close to him.
By presenting Himself as a shield, God guaranteed protection for Abraham from whatever aggression may be targeted at him, seeing that whoever wanted to harm Abraham would first need to penetrate God before they could get to Abraham.
Secondly, in presenting Himself as “exceeding great reward,” God assured Abraham that the reward for his efforts would not necessarily come from man but would directly be from Himself. By this token, God was telling Abraham not to nurse any regret in relation to the treasures he forfeited, as God would be the one to reward him, and not just in any measure, but in an exceedingly great proportion.
That was how God revealed Himself to Abraham based on his current situation at that time. That was not an isolated event either. Throughout the Bible, God kept manifesting Himself to people based on their individual needs and life events. The good news is that He has not stopped, He still reveals Himself to us in our peculiar contexts to date. You can count on Him to do the same for you as well.
Understanding God: He Honors Parental Decrees Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on…
Understanding God: He Honors Parental Decrees
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.” – Genesis 8:20-21
In continuation of our series on understanding the nature and character of God, another of His personality attributes that we shall focus on today is the fact that He listens to parents, and He honors their decrees over their children, be that good or bad.
History abounds with accounts of parents, male or female, who had engineered the destinies of their children, positively or negatively, through their utterances. There are also a number of examples in the Bible where parents have made certain declarations concerning their children, either in joy, in annoyance, or in pain, and those decrees have come to pass. This is because God has placed the destinies of the children primarily in the mouths of their parents and secondarily in the mouths of prophets, who can either establish a parental blessing or reverse it in cooperation with the parents or as an oracle of God.
For our reference today, we see from the above passage of the Bible how Noah came to live out the destiny decreed concerning him by his father, Lamech, hundreds of years later. We had earlier read about how Lamech made a rather unusual declaration concerning his son, Noah, when he was born.
Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.” – Genesis 5:28-29
Lamech made this statement when he had Noah at the age of 182 years. He then went on to live for another 595 years. Between the years that Lamech died and the year that Noah was called by God, the earth had become even more corrupt, with everyone doing his or her own thing, much to the vexation of God.
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. – Genesis 6:5-8
This passage ends on a rather interesting note because while the whole earth was perverted and displeasing God, there was no indication before this time that Noah was any different from the rest of the world. However, he found grace in the eyes of God. In other words, even though Noah himself might have been sinful and corrupt like the rest of the people, he, in particular, found grace (favor unmerited) from God that distinguished him from everyone else and singled him out for God to walk and work with.
Although, the next verse following this passage describes Noah as a just man, he did not attain his upright nature until he was first a beneficiary of the grace of God. In other words, Noah came to be known as just, perfect, and walking with God only after he had found grace in the eyes of God (Genesis 6:9).
Why was Noah’s case different? Why did he come to be distinguished in an era filled with sinners and perverts? The answer is simple, because his father had made a decree concerning him when he was born that he would be the one to offer comfort to the earth concerning the curse that God had placed on the grounds after the disobedience of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:17-19, Genesis 5:28-29).
Thousands of years after the curse of the ground and six hundred years after his father’s prophetic declaration, Noah indeed fulfilled this destiny by virtue of the force of the spoken word or the influence of a parental decree.
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake. – Genesis 8:20-21
That this scenario played out as it did was a testament to the power of a parental declaration and the important role a parent’s utterances wield in the life and destiny of a child because God listens to them.
Understanding God: God of Accountability Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with…
Understanding God: God of Accountability
Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” – Genesis 9:9-11
Another attribute we can learn from God is that, in addition to learning from His own processes and making amends using insights gained from His evaluation, He also holds Himself accountable to ensure that the process does not fail again. He is a God of accountability.
You may wonder why this is so since we are talking about an all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-sufficient God here. Well, while God is Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, and knows the end of all things from their beginning, He pretty much gives the power of agency to His creatures, particularly humans, to manage the proceedings or do things their own way by making choices and decisions or taking steps and actions, that will either ensure their predestination or have it turned out differently, by their own doing or undoing.
This statement will perhaps answer one of the questions that believers, non-believers, scholars, philosophers, scientists, and others have asked across the ages about God’s influence and role in terrestrial outcomes.
The LORD is the God of the beginnings and is the God of endings. But He does not meddle much in the proceedings and the dynamics that ensue between those two ends. Otherwise, we might as well all be puppets controlled by the whims of a puppeteer up there, not the free moral agents that He created us to be.
The truth is we are all creatures of will, with the ability to decide how our outcomes and ends would be through the choices, decisions, and actions we make ourselves.
It was because of this freedom that the human race turned into something else, contrary to the original design of God when He first created them, which thus necessitated the need for a wipeout. Now, having done that with the flood and seeing how the clear-out played out, God felt He could do better next time in His management of the human race:
And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.” – Genesis 8:21
With this declaration, God resolved to correct two decisive actions He had taken before then. First, He was reversing the curse He placed on the earth’s surface after Adam and Eve’s mistake. Second, He was never going to destroy all lives on the earth again in a wholesale fashion as He did during Noah’s time—not with the flood, not at all.
Now, this passage was a product of God thinking to Himself. He made a new resolution about humans and what the new world order would be. But He had not communicated that to anyone yet. However, He needed to commit Himself to this. Therefore, He voiced out His thoughts to Noah and his family:
Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” – Genesis 9:8-9
It gets more interesting because God did not just get Himself accountability partners in Noah and His sons, He also instituted a memento that would help both Him and them to remember His promises:
And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.” – Genesis 9:12-17
This shows us that accountability, as a value, was first exhibited by God. He had to commit Himself to not destroying humanity again, as there was no guarantee that they would live in accordance with His standards since they are free moral agents. Also, this passage shows us that the practice of having accountability partners was first instituted by God when He made a promise He was bound to keep to Noah and his sons.
Lastly, God also created the very first reminder,accountability tool, visual cue,motivational trigger, or commitment device that would make it hard for Him to break His promise to the earthlings. This He did in the rainbow, which He made an everlasting ordinance that would remain even when His initial accountability partners are no more.
Now, isn’t this the classic way we ought to approach accountability?
Another lesson we can learn from God is His disposition to a balancing act. He is not a God of extremes. Even though some who profess to follow Him go to extremes in His name or make extreme claims on His behalf, extreme is not a label that one can pin on God. He balances the acts.
Understanding God: He is Not Moved by Sentiments
Another lesson we can learn from the personality of God is that sentiments do not move Him. Therefore, He cannot be deceived into making a wrong judgment or call, as humans tend to do.
Understanding God: He is A Creator
He is a Creator. This is not to be interpreted loosely, particularly in the light of our contemporary use of the word. God is the ultimate Creator, as He created all things, even the ends of the earth (Isaiah 40:28).
Understanding God: God of the Beginning
There is no better way to begin this journey of exploring the people and entities in the Bible than to start with God. He is not just the beginning but is the origin of all things.
Women in the Bible: A Paragon of Beauty
What made Sarah’s beauty so compelling that kings and nations took notice? Explore the deeper layers of grace, favour, and mystery surrounding one of Scripture’s most unforgettable women — and discover why her story still provokes wonder today.
Men in the Bible: A Man of Ambition and Adventure
Terah may not have reached Canaan, but his courage to start a life-changing journey laid the foundation for Abraham’s destiny. Discover how ambition and bold steps mark a life of significance.
Men in the Bible: An Impetuous and Impudent Man
A revealing glimpse into a man whose choices exposed deeper issues of character, showing how hastiness and entitlement can quietly shape a destiny, and why his story still speaks to us today.
Men in the Bible: A Man with Little Foresight
Sometimes what looks like a smart choice can hide the seed of a mistake. This reflection from Scripture invites us to think again about how foresight — or the lack of it — shapes a man’s story.
Men in the Bible: The First Man to Tithe
Before laws, temples, or traditions, one man honoured God with his substance. Abraham’s tithe was not commanded, demanded, or enforced. It flowed from reverence.
Fathers in the Bible: A Destiny-Shaping Father
What makes a man a truly aware father? Discover how one man’s prophetic foresight shaped his son’s destiny and changed generations forever.
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