The previous talk was about the creation—and how God was at its centre. He created it in its entirety, with astounding order and diversity. He approved of what he had created, it was very good. We also discussed how the God revealed in the Bible is also a relational God—the humans he created were to enjoy a unique and personal relationship with himself. But who is God? What can we learn about God from the Bible?

God in the Dock

Today’s world puts God in the dock. It challenges him to prove himself to our satisfaction—what do we make of God? Often, this is born out of genuine questions. Why does God allow suffering in the world? Why hasn’t he shown himself to be there? Why did he allow my relationship to break up? These are questions which trouble us, and we demand answers from God, if we think He might be there at all. There are Biblical examples of this too, see Job and some Psalms.

But is this all the right way round? It’s clear when we look at Jesus’s life that God has some questions for us too. When He was put on trial before Pilate (see John 18), it is unnerving how he maintains control, and puts the questions right back to Pilate. Is he on the side of truth? (verse 37). Though it was Jesus on trial, he challenged Pilate, and it’s like that with us today. We might well have questions to ask of God, but He has challenges for us too.

Who is this God?

Who is God that He can question us? Christians believe that the Bible is God’s words to men, and it seems natural that we should turn there to see what it says. The most obvious is that God is the creator. Paul puts it in Romans this way—“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, so that men are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20). The wonder of creation, then, hints at the glory of God. According to Paul, whenever we are taken aback by the beauty of the world, it is God’s qualities as a creator that we are amazed at.

If the Bible is clear that we must answer to God, we ask the question, “Why?”. The answer seems to lie in God’s very character. Isaiah was a a prophet in the Old Testament who was called by God to remind the Israelites about who He was. At the time Israel was under threat from foreign nations, and the people continued to ignore God. In chapter six of Isaiah’s book he tells of a vision from God: Isaiah 6:1-4. The central point of this is what the seraphs were saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isaiah 6:3).

Notice what this vision tells us about God. He was seated on a throne, and was so ‘high and exulted’ that the train of his robe was enough to fill the temple. In Hebrew, there was no way to express superlative, except by repetition, and this is what we have here: holy is repeated three times, so holy is God! In this context, holiness is not some kind of frustrating piety, but rather awe-inspiring, even making the room shake! Confronted with this, the first think to occur to Isaiah was his unworthiness (6:5ff), he became aware of his own shortcomings before this awesome God.

But neither is God lukewarm in this holiness. Rather, it burns to the extent that no-one can even see God and live. Habakkuk, an Old Testament prophet, says this: “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” (Habakkuk 1:13).

This God is also a judge. Not a big-wig in an oak-pannelled room, but a holy and just judge from whom it is impossible to escape. And if we think about it, we cannot stand the thought of a world without justice—and this is just what Habakkuk asks here: why have these people gone unpunished? Yet we often shrink from submitting ourselves to the same justice.