"But the angel of the LORD said to [Manoah], 'Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful (or incomprehensible)?"
Jacob, as he wrestled with God, asked his name, but all God said was "Why is it that you ask my name?" Moses, as he wrestled with the idea of delivering the children of Israel out of Egypt, asked, "Who shall I say sent me?", and what he got was, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you." When Manoah wrestled with the promise of a son (Samson), he said, "What is your name so that when your words come to pass, we may honor you," but the response he got was "Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful (incomprehensible)?" Why such reticence to give His name when, in fact, the scripture gives many names for God? Could it be, as A.W. Tozer said, that "Left to ourselves we tend immediately to reduce God to manageable terms," (The Knowledge of the Holy, p16). And the truth of the matter is, we have, these days, reduced God to the common and the casual. We have made Him altogether like ourselves and we have lost any fear of Him. Not so with the writers of scripture. In their hearts and minds, God was so fully Other that they feared to even write the name we have as "Jehovah". They held God in such awe and reverence that they they felt they dared not "restrict" nor "reduce" this God to human letters. Though this was taken to unnecessary extremes, we get an understanding of how far removed we are from this great sense of the "Incomprehensible". We address Him as if we understand Him, and as if, in some measure, we even control Him. We have effectively reduced Him to nothing more than the ridiculousness of our own feelings, rising out of either sentimentalism or surprise, with phrases such as "dear God" or "O my God". Nothing would do us more good than to enter into the world of the Old Testament, staying there for a long time, until our minds and hearts are overwhelmed with the sense of God beyond the shallowness of our own imagination. Tozer says, "If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand," (Ibid). His names are many because no one name can describe Him. But even with many names, He remains "Incomprehensible" because no name can fathom the depth, height, width and length of God. And here's the wonder of it all: He wants you and me to know Him and He gives Himself to that end. He doesn't play hide-and-seek. Paul, speaking to the Athenians about their altar "to an unknown God," encourages them to seek this One because "He is not far from each one of us," (Acts 17:29). Though He has given eternity to those who seek Him, it would do us well to begin now what will be the obsession of eternity--to know Him!
"Where do I begin?" Good question! Stay in the Word of God. Soak in the Word of God. Search in the Word of God. And with that, I encourage you to read A.W. Tozer's book, The Knowledge of the Holy, as well as Nathan Stone's book, Names of God. Blessings!
Jacob, as he wrestled with God, asked his name, but all God said was "Why is it that you ask my name?" Moses, as he wrestled with the idea of delivering the children of Israel out of Egypt, asked, "Who shall I say sent me?", and what he got was, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you." When Manoah wrestled with the promise of a son (Samson), he said, "What is your name so that when your words come to pass, we may honor you," but the response he got was "Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful (incomprehensible)?" Why such reticence to give His name when, in fact, the scripture gives many names for God? Could it be, as A.W. Tozer said, that "Left to ourselves we tend immediately to reduce God to manageable terms," (The Knowledge of the Holy, p16). And the truth of the matter is, we have, these days, reduced God to the common and the casual. We have made Him altogether like ourselves and we have lost any fear of Him. Not so with the writers of scripture. In their hearts and minds, God was so fully Other that they feared to even write the name we have as "Jehovah". They held God in such awe and reverence that they they felt they dared not "restrict" nor "reduce" this God to human letters. Though this was taken to unnecessary extremes, we get an understanding of how far removed we are from this great sense of the "Incomprehensible". We address Him as if we understand Him, and as if, in some measure, we even control Him. We have effectively reduced Him to nothing more than the ridiculousness of our own feelings, rising out of either sentimentalism or surprise, with phrases such as "dear God" or "O my God". Nothing would do us more good than to enter into the world of the Old Testament, staying there for a long time, until our minds and hearts are overwhelmed with the sense of God beyond the shallowness of our own imagination. Tozer says, "If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand," (Ibid). His names are many because no one name can describe Him. But even with many names, He remains "Incomprehensible" because no name can fathom the depth, height, width and length of God. And here's the wonder of it all: He wants you and me to know Him and He gives Himself to that end. He doesn't play hide-and-seek. Paul, speaking to the Athenians about their altar "to an unknown God," encourages them to seek this One because "He is not far from each one of us," (Acts 17:29). Though He has given eternity to those who seek Him, it would do us well to begin now what will be the obsession of eternity--to know Him!
"Where do I begin?" Good question! Stay in the Word of God. Soak in the Word of God. Search in the Word of God. And with that, I encourage you to read A.W. Tozer's book, The Knowledge of the Holy, as well as Nathan Stone's book, Names of God. Blessings!
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