“Him, Who?” Part 3

There is a very important application to the concept that we have been discussing in this series.  Over the past few weeks, we have seen how God is identified in Scripture by the ways in which He has worked and provided for His people.  In this series, we have focused, and will continue to do so, particularly on the statements that include the formula of "Him (God, the LORD), who…"  It would be a worthwhile exercise, and indeed has been to some degree exhausted, to list all of the names used for God in Scripture.  What makes this exercise unique, as I mentioned last week, is that it results in the ability to apply this formula to our worship and to our prayers.  We can worship the God who has healed our loved one from cancer, and we can pray to the God who has proven His ability to provide for our financial needs.  The important application, then, is to fill in some of the blanks we find in our liturgy (song texts, prayers, transition statements, Scripture readings, etc.).  These blanks come in the form of the pronoun, "He," as in, "And He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own."  So, as we study in Scripture who He is and what we call Him, we can fill that name into the blank.



This week's example comes from Genesis 15:7.  This case is a bit unusual, because it is God speaking.  He refers to Himself thusly: "I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess."  What God is doing is using this title to give comfort to Abraham, reminding him of the work the LORD has done up to this point.  He is the god who pulled Abraham away from his paganism among the Mesopotamians, causing him to be one of God's people.  Abraham's life shows evidence that it has been set apart; God has called him away from his home, without even telling him where he is to go.  He makes an important promise to Abraham, which is doubted given his bleak circumstances.  God is restoring hope and faith in Abraham by reminding him of who God is and what He has done.  In the same way, we, who are bought with the blood of Christ, who are the "called out ones" (the exact translation of the New Testament Greek word for church), are reminded when we sing, "Awake, my soul, and sing/ Of Him who died for thee/ And hail Him as thy matchless King/ Thro' all eternity," that we have been called to faith, and God has proven Himself to be faithful.

-Mark Whitaker,  Minister of Music and Worship, Interim Minister of Students