We
each come to a point in our lives, actually many points in our lives, when we must
decide if we will let our circumstances get us “down.” For some people, death seems
to take them “down.” Others face illness or a diagnosis they didn’t expect, and
that gets them “down.” Possibly losing a job or not getting a promotion will
cause a person to be “down.” For other people, not finding a spouse or being
childless can make a person feel “down.”
A
whole host of things in life confront us and we get to decide how they will
affect us. Notice I said, “We get to decide how they will affect us.” That
doesn’t mean I am immune to feeling trampled by life because of illness, death,
dark thoughts, lack of family or love, or any of thousands of other non-happy
things in life. It means at this place in my life, at least for today, I can say
my situation has not made me feel “down.” For me to admit that is a major step
in my faith journey. Yes, I have been through difficult times without feeling pummeled
before, but they were few. Still, the times of feeling “down” because of
circumstances are becoming farther apart. As I pondered that today, I have come
to conclusions.
God
has been busy teaching me the last year or two that circumstances don’t define Him,
but He defines circumstances. This year, He began teaching me more, and I am
just at the start of this learning experience. God is teaching me about Himself
as He revealed Himself to the people of the Old Testament using the Hebrew word
anoki, meaning “I am.”
Any
of us who has ever read about Moses and the burning bush thinks, “I know this
one!” But maybe you don’t. The I AM God who spoke to Moses does not come from the
Hebrew word anoki, but is significant.
As I’ve said, I have only begun to study where God says anoki and have finished reading through Genesis. Each time God said
anoki in the six instances in Genesis,
He revealed something about Himself, about His nature, how we can relate to Him,
and how He helps us because of that particular characteristic or nature.
To
Abraham in Genesis 15:1, God said, “I am your shield.” He meant He is and would
be Abraham’s King, Protector, and faith. Abraham could draw faith from God, the
Source of faith, and could rely on God to protect and provide for him. He would
also be able to go on the defense or offense in obedience to God because God is
His King and Protector. God gives Abraham his shield to do battle for Him and
to protect him from harm in a defensive battle just as Paul taught in Ephesians
6 with the armor of God.
To
Abimelech in Genesis 20:6, God said, “I know you and I kept you.” God knew
Abimelech, his heart as well as his actions and thoughts. He knew Abimelech
better than Abimelech knew himself. God is all-knowing and all-powerful. He
kept Abimelech from sinning against Him, Abraham, Sarah, and himself even when
he didn’t realize what he had thought to do would be a sin. God is as close as
our next breath and is transcendent knowing the big picture and able to keep
things from happening. He protects us from ourselves and from harm by other
people. Remember, Abimelech told Abraham what God revealed to him and so
Abraham learned, too, that God is all-knowing and the one who is all-powerful
and can keep people from sinning.
To
Isaac in Genesis 26:24, God reiterated His revelation of Himself to Abraham,
Isaac’s father. He reminded Isaac He is with him by saying He is his father’s
God-the King, Protector, source of faith, faithful One, all-knowing, and all-powerful.
He adds to this promise for Isaac what He didn’t tell Abraham. God told Isaac
not to fear. Lack of fear is assumed when God is immanent. Immanence means God
is always with you; He is near. Still, sometimes we people need to hear “do not
fear.” Isaac needed to hear that. The king of the Philistines, because Isaac’s
people and possessions had become large, asked him to leave their land. They
filled in the wells Isaac’s men dug. As Isaac’s people moved on, the herdsmen
of the Philistines kept fighting over the wells Isaac’s people dug so that
Isaac kept having to move on and felt threatened. Then one night, God met with
Isaac and told him, “Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you, and will
multiply your descendants, for the sake of my servant Abraham.” When faced with
enemies or bad situations over and over, sometimes we need to hear God’s
reassurance we need not fear. God is faithful to His promises, and He has it
all under control. He is faithful, loving, protector, keeper, all-knowing, all-powerful,
and the God of Abraham, your father. Who can be afraid when confronted with
this nature of God?
To
Jacob in Genesis 28:15, God reminded him He is immanent, protector, and
faithful. At this point in his life, Jacob was afraid. As the second-born son,
he had just been part of the trickery to steal the birthright of the firstborn
son from his twin brother, Esau. Esau had a fiery temper and Jacob was afraid.
His father, Isaac, told him not to marry a woman from among the Canaanites, but
to return to Paddan-aram, the birth home of his grandfather, Abraham. To get
there, he would likely cross territory in which Esau lived. God calmed Jacob
with a vision of a ladder that reached from the ground to heaven with angels
descending and ascending on it. At the top of the ladder God stood and told
Jacob, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back
to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised
you.” All the lessons Abraham and Isaac taught Jacob and Esau about God and His
nature, God reiterated in this dream. He added another element to His
faithfulness. God’s faithfulness to Abraham and Isaac, and His covenant with
them meant He must provide for the bodily needs of Jacob and Abraham’s other
descendants. Besides protecting, God would feed, clothe, give water, and
provide a wife for him. He would bring him to the land He promised his fathers
before him. God said He would not leave him until He had done what He promised.
This statement was the prelude to God’s statement to the Israelites in
Deuteronomy 3:16 when He told them He would not leave them or forsake them.
With
Genesis 35:11 and 46:3-4, God reminded Jacob He is almighty; nothing can thwart
His plans or purposes. He commanded Jacob to be fruitful and multiply. God
promised from him nations and kings would come. Even though hard times would fall
on them, God could still make a great nation come from Jacob. He said He was immanent
to Jacob and would protect Him and His offspring, provide for them, and would
remain faithful to His covenant to him and his fathers. Even though Jacob and
his descendants would walk through the valley (Egypt), God would surely be with
them. He invested greater immediacy with this latter set of verses to give
Jacob greater courage and conviction to go to a foreign land, walk through an
unknown place, and have faith in Him.
For
each of these men, as for most people of Bible times, continual verbal
retelling of history relayed history from one generation to the next. It was an
oral society, not a literate society. Abraham relayed to Isaac and his descendants
who God is, what He promised to him, and how He intervened in his life. Isaac,
Jacob, and each descendant afterwards carried on this oral tradition. Sometimes
God reminded the next generation who He is with another anoki statement. Sometimes He revealed something new about Himself
to the person to whom He spoke.
Why
does God reveal Himself and His nature to people? Because He wants us to seek
Him with all our hearts and find Him. God wants to have a relationship with us.
He wants to be our faith, Protector, King, Provider, Keeper, Blesser. He wants
us to know Him immanently and to know He is transcendent. God wants us to trust
Him. He wants us to know Him. That’s yada
knowing, experiential knowing so we know Him with our heart, soul, and mind.
God wants us to realize at all times-before, during, and after difficult times-He
is with us, knows us, protects us, strengthens us, loves us, keeps us, blesses
us, and is all-powerful.
God
revealed Himself with the anoki statements,
the “I am” statements, in the Old Testament. He revealed His nature and by
doing that He revealed to our finite minds how we can understand and relate to
Him. More important than these “I am” statements and our holding on to this God
of love, protection, omniscience, and omnipotence, is the God Moses first came
to know. Moses encountered Elohim God the first time in the burning bush and
God commissioned him to go to Egypt to bring His people out of slavery there to
His Promised Land. He asked Elohim, “And who shall I say sent me?” (Exodus
3:13) God told Moses to tell them, “I AM WHO I AM. That is what you are to say
to the Israelites. I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14) This statement by
God of who He is carries more weight than any of the anoki statements. God’s description of Himself includes and goes
beyond all the characteristics He reveals to people. I AM is the One Who was,
is, and always will be. Understand this. I AM is eternal!
With
this understanding that God is before, during, and after time, we gain a new,
fresher, and more accurate perception of our particular situations, our
troubles, the things that make us feel “down.” Keeping our eyes on God
eternal-almighty, all-knowing, faithful, Protector, Provider, Lover of our
souls, King, faith, Blesser, Covenanter, immanent, transcendent, Savior-changes
our perspective. If our God is for us, who can be against us. (Romans 8:31)
Better yet, with our God for us, nothing can beat us. Whether we are sick or
well, rich or poor, smart or not, big or small, old or young, God is the same.
Circumstances do not define God; He defines them. When Elohim is your God,
nothing can defeat you. God already has won the victory. Because of this, you
can face difficult days without being “down.” You are not defeated because God
has won the victory for you.
“Yea
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear NO evil,
for Thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff comfort me. Thou preparest a table for me in the presence
of my enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil my cup runneth over. Surely goodness
and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house
of the Lord forever.”
Psalm 23 is
not a death song. It is a victory song.
Lord, so often I fall prey
to the victim mindset. Forgive me for giving up on myself and You. Forgive me
for mentally allowing my situation to define You. Nothing defines You. Help me to
remember You define my circumstances. Help me not to give up or get “down,” but
to give praise and testimony for You, I AM, what You have done and what You
will do. Help me keep my eyes on You in faith. I am trusting You in my situation
today. Amen.
