Riverside Community Church

YHWH Nigelah (Nigh^ Gee Lah) God who reveals

Q  What is God like?  No really, what is God like? You’ll note that I didn’t say ‘what is God like to you’. I’m not looking for a subjective personal interpretation of what is God like. I want certainty in the answer to what is God like.

(illus)

I was performing a wedding ceremony in Saskatoon Saskatchewan and one of the members of that Mennonite congregation told me that he didn’t believe a loving God would send people to hell.

        What was God like to that man? Is that true about God?

        -that was his personal subjective thought of what God was like

 

You may think God is like _____ which may not be true or it may be just partially true.

        I may think God wants to bless every believer financially, but is that totally true for every believer?  Nay, Nay.

Q What is God like? Really like, truly like. Can I know what God is like?

(illus)

In Rachael Evans children’s book ‘What is God like’ she writes

God is like a shepherd, God is like a star, God is like a gardener, God is like the wind. God is a comforter and support.

 

I asked Google -Google -what is God like?

 

People who believe in a biblical God generally say God is all-loving, all-knowing and judging. Overall, an image of an omnipotent and omniscient God is more commonly held by people who believe in a biblical description of God than by those who say they believe in some other kind of higher power or spiritual force.

 

The question -what is God like- is very, very difficult because we are trying to know and explain the infinite, God exists beyond our understanding of time and space.

 

Well then, can I know this God and what God is truly like? Yes, Yes.

        -that’s exactly why we are studying the names of YHWH, to know God better, deeper and more intimately.

So far we have looked at

My God my King     Eli Ma^la key              

My Saviour            YHWH Ya^ sha

My Strength          YHWH O^zee

My peace               YHWH Shalom

My rock                 YHWH Tzur

My redeemer         YHWH Go^ a lee

God who reveals     YHWH Nigh^gee lah

 

Here is the caveat, the proviso the condition for today.

 

Everything you know about God that is true has been revealed to you.

 

-ultimately it is God who reveals Himself to you, what God is and what God is like, even what God thinks. It is YHWH Nigelah. God who reveals.

 

God who reveals will reveal Himself through His written Word, the Bible

        -this is the grandest book to read, to study and to memorize in the pursuit of knowing God

God will reveal Himself through other people, another Christian may share how God helped them and God’s Spirit may impress upon your own heart that God wants to be your helper too. My prayer is always that God would speak to you through these messages each week. That God would reveal more of Himself to you. Knowing God more through others.

 

God will even reveal Himself through your own experience -has God ever comforted you in sorrow, or supplied a need of yours. You see and sense God’s kindness to you -that is experiencing God, knowing God

 

It is by His Word and Spirit that God reveals to you.

 

But God has revealed certain things to everyone, these universal revelations is as plain as the nose on your face.

 

Romans 1:

19 since what may be known about God is plain to them (everyone), because God has made it plain to them (God has revealed it). 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made (creation), so that people are without excuse.

        Eternal power revealed by the creation God made

               -how many stars are there? Right!

        Divine nature, divine not evil, revealed by our conscience

               -we know what’s right or wrong and we know we know

-so everybody you see, you meet, has these thoughts of creation and conscience. God has written eternity into the hearts of people.

-most people fight YHWH Nigh^ gee lah, the God who reveals and God even sears the conscience of some (removes the revelation of conscience) and gives them up to the evil they desire.

But God has revealed …

Psalm 98:2

The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness (His divine nature) to the nations.

 

 

YHWH Nigh^ gee lah, God who reveals, wants to reveal more and more of Himself to you, God wants that deep and intimate relationship with you to grow and flourish. Never doubt God’s desire for you to know Him.

 

All through Scripture people are experiencing God showing up, God revealing Himself to them, here are a few:

 

1 Samuel 3:21 NIV

21 The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word.

 

Young’s literal translation

And Jehovah addeth (multiple times) to appear in Shiloh, for Jehovah (YHWH) hath been revealed unto Samuel, in Shiloh, by the word of Jehovah.

-God spoke (revealed Himself) to Samuel as a child and now at Shiloh YHWH keeps revealing Himself and gives messages (words) to the Prophet Samuel to speak.

 

Amos 4:13

He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the Lord God Almighty is his name. (YHWH se^va oat -Jehovah of Hosts)

 

God even reveals some of His thoughts to us.

1 Corinthians 2:10

… God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

 

 

Isaiah 43:12

I have revealed and saved and proclaimed— I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God.

 

-one of the greatest revelations of God in the OT occurred in the Exodus, God revealed His strong arm in the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. Through all this display God revealed that He saw their suffering and that God cared for them, -that’s a revelation for sure

-that whole story of the Exodus reveals God’s omnipotence, His faithfulness to fulfill His covenant to Abraham (promised land), God’s holiness is revealed in the law given to Moses, God’s redemptive power is revealed in the 1st Passover in Egypt.

 

Ezekiel 20:5

and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On the day I chose Israel, I swore with uplifted hand to the descendants of Jacob and revealed myself to them in Egypt. With uplifted hand I said to them, “I am the Lord your God.”

 

Daniel 2:47     The King is shocked to find out YHWH can reveal

The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”

 

The Bible gives us glimpses of God, in scriptural scenes and stories, in parables and proverbs, in commands and promises. We can spiritually see what God is like. God is constantly revealing to us what He is like.

 

Moses wanted to see God, all of God, God knew Moses couldn’t handle that so God put Moses in a cave (in the cleft of a rock -tzur), God puts His hand up to obstruct Moses vision and God passes by the cave. Moses can only see part of God’s back.

 

Q     What is God like?

YHWH (Ya^ way) The God who is, who exists, who lives and who can be known. And God can be known by you, personally, intimately and more deeply. His names tell you what God is like. Keep growing in your knowledge of God. God will reveal more and more of Himself to you as you grow.

 

 

 

Kodosh, Kodosh, Kodosh El Shaddai

(Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God almighty)

Jehovah Rapha, Jireh and Mekkadishhem

(Jehovah heals, provides and sanctifies)

Kodosh, Kodosh, Kodosh El Shaddai

(Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God almighty)

El Hakaavod and El Elyon

(God of glory and God most high)

 

The God who reveals YHWH Nigh^ gee lah

January 29, 2023