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Knowing an Infinite God, part 1

Those who come to a position of faith in God start out by being introduced to Him, but it takes a lifetime (and more) to get to know Him. We learn of Him through the Scriptures, through prayer, and through experience as we journey from Egypt to the Promised Land.

When the Israelites were led out of Egypt, Scripture shows that the people really did not know God very well. Each stop along the way was designed to reveal His nature to them in some particular aspect of His character. Yet it seems that only a few of them learned each lesson. When God gave them tests, as a whole they failed the tests. Yet this was “the church in the wilderness,” a prophetic type of the church today.

On a larger scale, God has revealed His nature to mankind only incrementally, a little here and a little there. For example, He revealed Himself under the name of El Shaddai for the first 2,500 years before revealing Himself as I AM (Exodus 3:14) and as Yahweh (or Jehovah).

In Exodus 6:2, 3 God said to Moses,

² God spoke further to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord [Yahweh], ³ and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty [El Shaddai]; but by My name Lord [Yahweh] I did not make Myself known to them.

Hence, when Moses wrote the book of Genesis, he included the name Yahweh, not because Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob actually knew that name, but because Moses later knew who was speaking to them. So we read in Genesis 17:1,

¹ Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai…

Each name reveals a distinct aspect of God’s nature. The different names are not meant to suggest multiple Gods. As time passed, God revealed ten aspects of Yahweh’s character, such as Yahweh Rapha, the Healer (Exodus 15:26). I did a more complete study of these ten names in my book, The Names of God.

https://godskingdom.org/studies/books/the-names-of-god/

The point is that getting to know God is not simply a matter of having faith in Christ. It is the pursuit of a lifetime, and the biblical precedents show how the majority fails to learn of Him as they make their journey to the Promised Land. One cannot say that the Church knows Him and everyone else does not. The fact is that those of other religions all know God in their own limited ways—such as knowing Him as the Creator.

Knowing the Covenant-Keeping God

Many people know God from the limited revelation of the Old Covenant. Apart from understanding the New Covenant, such people’s knowledge of God is limited. It is only by seeing God with New Covenant eyes that anyone can hope to gain a more complete knowledge of God’s nature and character. But to achieve this, one cannot reject the Mediator of that New Covenant, that is, Jesus Christ.

This does not mean we must reject Moses, of course, for even he often revealed the nature of God with New Covenant principles, such as heart circumcision (Deuteronomy 30:6). Not only Moses but the prophets too spoke of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31) and showed us its distinction from the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant was man’s vow to God (Exodus 19:8); the New Covenant was God’s vow to man (Deuteronomy 29:12, 13).

The Old Covenant put the responsibility upon men to discipline themselves to be obedient to the laws of God (that is, to refrain from sin), but it did not empower men to fulfill their vow. At best, it might change their behavior, but it could not change their hearts. The New Covenant changes the heart as the Spirit of God writes His laws upon their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33).

In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He did not put away the law (Matthew 5:17); He revealed the mind of God and how to extend its meaning beyond one’s actions to include heart matters. So the law against murder, for instance, also included hatred (Matthew 5:21, 22), and adultery also included lust itself (Matthew 5:27, 28).

If one does not live by the New Covenant perspective, he/she does not really know God adequately. Revelation is progressive, and anyone who remains stuck in the Old Covenant will be handicapped in their pursuit of the knowledge of God. This includes Christians who often fail to understand the difference between the two covenants.

Is God Genocidal?

There are some who believe in two Gods—an Old Covenant God and a New Covenant God. They have not found the key to reconcile the two covenants as a progressive revelation; so they simplify matters by creating two distinct Gods, one for the Jews and one for the Christians. Just for the record, I do not hold that view, but some do.

One big apparent discrepancy is that, through Moses, God told the Israelites to kill or drive out the Canaanites, a policy which today is known as genocide and ethnic cleansing. Later, Jesus taught them to love their neighbor and made it clear that their neighbors included foreigners. He set the example by treating Greeks, Romans, Phoenicians, Canaanites, and Syrians with equal dignity and love as He treated His fellow Judeans.

This got Him into a lot of trouble, because it violated the traditions of men that were based on the partial revelation of the Old Covenant. The Apostle Paul, who, after his conversion, journeyed to Mount Sinai in Arabia (Galatians 1:16, 17; 4:25) to learn how to view the law through New Covenant eyes. He did not put away the law (Romans 3:31), but He did put away the Old Covenant (Galatians 4:30).

Incidentally, I have learned that some non-Zionist Jews have a better understanding of the New Covenant than do Christian Zionists. We all have a mixture of the two, each in our own way. Some are farther along in the journey than others. Our journey is about immigrating from the Old Covenant to the New. This is the main thesis of the Book of Hebrews.

https://godskingdom.org/studies/books/hebrews-immigrating-from-the-old-covenant-to-the-new/

In Deuteronomy 7:2 God speaks of the Canaanites and tells Israel,

² and when the Lord your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.

Numbers 33:51, 52 adds this,

⁵¹ Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, “When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ⁵² then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images and demolish all their high places.

God then gives His reasons, which partially reveal His mind, in Numbers 33:55, 56,

⁵⁵ But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides; and they will trouble you in the land in which you live. ⁵⁶ And as I plan to do to them, so I will do to you.

Those who read this with Old Covenant eyes seem to believe that this is decisive and that it provides justification to drive out the Palestinians or kill the people of Gaza. But it is not quite that simple. First of all, God is impartial in His judgments, as verse 56 shows. God was executing judgment upon the Canaanites for their wicked religious practices, and God threatened to do the same to the Israelites if they too became wicked.

In fact, this is precisely what happened. It is why God cast out the Israelites and exiled them to Assyria. (See 2 Kings 17:6-23 for God’s full explanation.). Though Judah was spared for another century on account of its repentance, God raised up the Babylonians to conquer and deport them to Babylon as well. God is impartial in His judgments. He does not tolerate anyone’s sin, even if they claim to be “chosen.”

Noah’s Curse on Canaan

The conquest of Canaan originated with Noah’s curse on his grandson, Canaan, on account of his sin. This incident occurred just a few years after the flood. Genesis 9:24-27 says,

²⁴ When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son [Ham] had done to him. ²⁵ So he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants He shall be to his brothers.” ²⁶ He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his [His?] servant. ²⁷ May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant.”

The nature of the curse itself was NOT to destroy Canaan or his descendants. It was to make Canaan the servant of both Shem and “the Lord, the God of Shem.” This curse put the entire land of Canaan on Cursed Time (cycles of 414 years). Cursed Time is a grace period, or perhaps a probationary period that allows men to repent and thereby return to Blessed Time (490 years). See my book, Secrets of Time, which can be read online free of charge.

https://godskingdom.org/studies/books/secrets-of-time/

If we do the biblical chronology, we discover that Joshua led Israel across the Jordan to bring divine judgment on the Canaanites precisely 2 x 414 years later when their grace period had ended without Canaan’s repentance.

But why did God demand that Israel kill them all or drive them out of the land, when the curse itself was for them to become the servants of Shem (and God!)? Dead men do not make good servants. Why is there a discrepancy?

We will dig deeper in part 2.