Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day. (Psalm 25:4-5)
In Hebrew, God is sometimes referred to as Ein Sof — “There is no end” — in order to describe the One who is indescribable. It is a nod toward the fact that mankind, equipped with only limited understanding of the world we live in, is entirely incapable of explaining the One who has no beginning and no end, hence the term Ein Sof. So let us consider how He might explain Himself to us, seeing that He is desperate to have a meaningful relationship with His people. He had told Moses, “No man shall see Me, and live” (Exodus 33:20) and so how is He to make Himself known to those who are unable to see Him? David gives us the answer when he said, “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths.”
God is merciful and, consequently, He teaches us to be merciful; He is good and teaches us to do good. God is holy which is why He instructs us to be holy and then defines what holy is by teaching us how we are to interact with Him and our fellowman. In short, by learning and applying His instructions to our lives, we learn of His attributes and characteristics; we know Him in a more intimate way when we walk in the path He has ordained for us.
At this point at least, it is not important that we are able to explain God by His appearance as much as what is revealed through His Word — as Moses explained to Israel: “The Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; you only heard a voice” (Deuteronomy 4:12). That being said, the Almighty saw fit to become flesh and dwell among us so that we might better understand Him through the Living Word. As it is written, “We beheld His glory … full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Yeshua said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) but He didn’t mean in regard to similitude. He made it clear that the works He performed were evidence that the Father had sent Him to manifest the Father to His people (John 5:36). So we conclude that it isn’t as important to know what Messiah looked like as it is to act on what He said. “If you love me — if you want to truly know me — keep my commandments.” As He teaches us, and as we do what He has instructed us, we come to know Him in a more intimate way.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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