Letter 6: What is God like?

“Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you” (Isaiah 55:3).

 

“I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins . . . Return to Me, for I have redeemed you” (Isaiah 44:22).

 

“He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young” (Isaiah 40:11).

 

“For thus says the Lord God: ‘Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out . . . I will feed My flock, and I will make them lie down,’ says the Lord God”

(Ezekiel 34:11).

 

600 Years later Jesus said:

 

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing” (Luke 15:3 – 5).

 

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep . . . I am the good shepherd and I know My sheep . . . Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again . . . My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:11 – 17, 27 – 30).

 

You will have realised that my writing is not a theological paper on the doctrine of God. But you will have picked up some ‘vibes’ from the heart of God. And you will also have detected the intrinsic difference between our views of God, and probably also begin to understand or even appreciate my enthusiasm for Him. Of course, in a letter like this one can only touch on minute aspects of the nature of God, and even that all too briefly.