God is watching and waiting. Who will put their heads above the parapet? Who will stand out in the crowd, shouting – via internet or otherwise – the goodness of a Creator God who shaped the universe, spoke into the non-existent atmosphere to create it, descended to earth as a lowly man simply to undo the wrongs of every other man. This was done simply to prove His undying love to a dying world, so that He would have relationship with us?
I will.
My concept of God begins with a Judeo-Christian Father figure who promised to one man that He would make him a father of many nations. That man was Abram. He became Abraham, renamed by the Creator simply because of his faith. He slipped a bit, listening to his wife and having intercourse with her handmaiden because they were to have a son and his wife, Sarai, was too old. That child, Ishmael, gave rise to the Arab nations. But that was not the son God had planned. The son who would follow his father and be a patriarch of a nation after God’s own heart was Isaac, son of old Abraham and his elderly wife Sarah. And Isaac’s son, Jacob, became the third patriarch. His name too was changed to reflect the peoples of God: Israel.
God created man and woman to relate with. He waited centuries for a man who would have the faith for relationship. He waited for three generations that would grow and grow until, at last, a nation could be born. The Hebrews descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but they had no home.
More time passed until Father God saw the man who would lead God’s people: the Hebrews, to the land promised to them through Abraham 500 years before, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land that would one day have territory, but also a name. The land was Canaan, the man to lead them there was Moses.
This Father God loved and nurtured His people, defended them against peril, both physical and human. He poured out his love and reminded them of His promises. He gave them the Promised Land. Yet, they rejected Him, time and again. They still reject Him and yet always there is a remnant of those who love and trust Him. Always there is a remnant. And though the land was given and lost, millennium on, it has been restored again. The Creator of the Universe keeps His promises.
Who is this God? He is the God of Abraham,Isaac and Jacob. He is the God of power and of promises. He has not broken one promise. But He is waiting for people to stand with Him.
Some of the Hebrew descendants had faith. Although many did not, some — such as the Apostles of Jesus — did. And still some believed. And some believe even now in the Jesus of the New Testament.
God is patient. He is also steadfast and contrary to many in the church who say God has redistributed His people, He has not really. He hasn’t replaced but added to…
God’s covenant has never changed. His promises are sure. He has loved Israel, both those who have loved Him and those who have denied Him. He grafted in Gentiles (non-Jews), not as replacements but as additions. Some have loved Him and some have rejected Him, just as with the Jews.
He continues to wait, for the right time, for Messiah to come to the Jews. One of His promises has been a Messiah. The Saviour of the World is Jesus, proclaimed by many Gentiles throughout history. He is one and the same as the Messiah of the Jews, whose Hebrew name is Yeshua.
Yeshua, Jesus, Messiah, Saviour of the World, has come and will come again. God is waiting and watching for the right time.
We guess. We wonder. We wait. But it is faith who will bring Him, and God’s choice of time.
In the meantime, the original branches and the grafted in are meant to combine in One New Man: Jew and Gentile, Believers in Yeshua, Jesus: the Son of Man and the Son of God, worshipping together, joining in one faith in the Father of the Universe, whom Jesus points us to.
Then God will surely call His son to return to the earth, to rule and to reign over all— Believer and unbeliever alike, so that the peace of God is restored at last. And the earth will flow as it was always meant to flow: full of life and love, truth and joy, hope and everlasting reign of justice, goodness and holiness.
This is a picture of our Creator: One God, lover of His creation, longing for relationship and patiently waiting for the fulfilment of His purpose: to create a universe in harmony with itself and in relationship with Him.
This is my concept of God. This is how I connect with God and seek to connect with others of His children. He never stops reaching to me, changing me, teaching me, loving me and growing me into His perfection. And so, I seek to imitate Him and His son, reaching out to others, waiting, longing, hoping for deeper, truer relationship has He has designed us to have, with Him and, I think, with each other.