Simple Truth
Everett Sinclair // UGA Student & Watty Intern
Growing up in the church, I have heard many titles for God, many “simple” truths stated hundreds of times, and many stories about God moving in peoples’ lives. And while I see this as a huge blessing, in many ways these truths never sunk in. I never truly understood what I was hearing or what I was supposed to be learning. So, when I sat down to write for this post, wanting to write about a cool metaphor or theme I’ve been tracing through the Bible, something didn’t feel right. And when I actually started to write, all I could think about were some of these so-called “simple” truths that have taken me so long to even begin to understand. And after thinking about it more, I think it’s quite possible that I’m not the only one to miss out on some of these awesome truths and facts of the faith.
God. Who is He? Why have I capitalized pronouns referring to Him for as long as I can remember? Why does He have so many names? I recently found an answer to a lot of these sorts of questions in Exodus 34:
Then the Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him; and he called out his own name, Yahweh. The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out,
“Yahweh! The Lord!
The God of compassion and mercy!
I am slow to anger
and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.
I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.
But I do not excuse the guilty.
I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren;
the entire family is affected—
even children in the third and fourth generations.”Moses immediately threw himself to the ground and worshiped.
My first observation was “Wow! God stood WITH Moses and proclaimed His name to him. That’s cool. Also, Moses’ first reaction was to throw himself to the ground and worship. How often, in my 20 years of life, have I been in such awe of God that I threw myself to the ground and worshipped Him?
On further study, I dove into God’s description of Himself. He commands Moses to teach the people to refer to Him at the burning bush as “I am who I am” which can also be translated as “Who I am, I will be.” Then, He gives Moses the name “Yahweh”, meaning something like “He is who He is” or “Who He is, He will be”, basically so it doesn’t sound like Moses is just referring to himself when he addresses the people. When the people thought about the One who saved them from bondage in Egypt, they thought of Yahweh and this description of who Yahweh is.
Who Yahweh is - The God of compassion and mercy, slow to anger, filled with unfailing love and faithfulness, lavishing unfailing love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin, but not excusing the guilty - Yahweh will be. This reminds me of Hebrews 13:8 which says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” The point is, God’s character does not change, He is always who He is. All these beautiful and sometimes scary aspects of God’s character never change. Who He is, He will forever be.
However, for fear of using Yahweh’s name in vain and to preserve a reverence and fear of Him, the Israelites began calling and referring to Him by other names, other titles. Some of these titles include Lord, God, Refuge, Creator, Lord of Hosts, and there are so many more. Over a hundred titles and over two hundred variations of them, according to Google. I began to think about how I refer to Yahweh in conversation with friends, in prayer, when I journal, etc. I almost always referred to Him as Lord.
Consequently, I was missing out on so many aspects of His character. I viewed my relationship to Yahweh as a soldier kneeling before a King, his Lord, in submission, humbly waiting for commands to obey. And this is not bad, by itself. But, when I was reading in John 15, Jesus spoke to his disciples about how he no longer calls them servants, but calls them friends, my mind was blown. Jesus, God, my creator, is my friend.
This spurred a search into all the names and titles for my Lord. Specifically, “Father” stood out. I have no idea how many times I have said the Lord’s Prayer and addressed God as “Father” throughout my life. But this time, it sunk in. The same God who causes the foundations of the earth to shake, whose voice sounds like rolling thunder, who controls entire armies as he pleases, who splits the sea in two, this same God is my friend, is my father, my Wonderful Counselor. I can talk with, cry in front of, and call out to the God of the entire universe. How crazy is that! This same God, according to Exodus 34 and countless other passages throughout the Bible, loves me. He sees my sin, my screw ups, my horrible imperfections, and He forgives me. He is slow to anger, despite my continual rejection of His commands and my repeated sin. And He sent His only son to die a horrible death FOR ME, to not just forgive my sin, but wipe it away so God doesn’t even see it anymore. So many of these so-called “simple” truths finally sunk in and made sense. It clicked. God is good. Praise Him!
However, the enemy is at work. He is real, and as Carlos put it on Sunday, he is alert and waiting for opportunities to attack us. In John 10:10, Jesus teaches that the enemy comes to “steal, kill, and destroy.” This thief will do anything and everything in his power to steal our joy, kill our relationship with our Father, and destroy the hope we have in His promises and in His Son. This deceiver, the father of lies, is actively working to prevent us from believing that God is who He says He is.
There is a reason Exodus 34:6-8 is the most commonly referred to passage of scripture in the rest of the Bible. We must constantly remind ourselves of who our God, Yahweh, is, what He has done, and what He will do. He has already defeated the dragon, our enemy, and saved us from his power. There is a reason the prophets time and time again remind the nation of Israel of who their God was and what He has already done for them, who He is, He will be. But still, they doubted, and still, we doubt. The enemy attacks when we are weak. It’s not fair, but it’s how it is.
Side note: I hope that makes you as angry as it makes me, that it spurs you on to fight in prayer, and that it refuels your love and gratitude towards God for who He is and what He has done. The enemy led me to doubt God’s character and blinded me from truly understanding the depth of what He had done for me to the point that even after hearing it hundreds, if not thousands, of times, I didn’t understand, and struggled to accept.
So, to wrap up, I encourage you to do three things in your next quiet time, prayer time, TAG time, whatever you call it.
Remember who God is and what He has done. Remember in your life, in the lives of others around you, and the lives of people in the Bible. Make a list that you can turn back to whenever you have doubts, because everyone has them sometimes.
Sit and wrestle with specific words Yahweh uses to describe Himself, specific titles people have used to refer to Him, and the so called “simple truths” you may have heard a hundred times. Don’t be like me using words and titles for years without ever stopping to really think about what they mean. Listen to “Great I Am” by Jared Anderson and “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” by Chris Rice.
And lastly, be thankful. This might be random or unrelated to the rest of what I wrote, but that doesn’t matter. Carlos taught on thanksgiving as a part of his last two sermons and how they combat various sin struggles and maybe that’s simple or obvious for you, but it’s powerful. Being thankful for what you have combats greed and jealousy. Being thankful for who God is and what He has done combats anxiety. Being thankful for how God has worked in your life and how He has blessed you combats pride. Being thankful is helping me finally begin to understand so many things, and I’m sure it can help you too.
Everett is a finance and real estate major at UGA. He is a Watty intern, doing administrative and behind the scenes work around campus. He also leads the Jackson tribe! He is always ready to make a new friend and talk to them about our God. He is passionate about sharing the gospel and coming up with creative ways to build community!
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