Do You Know the God You Worship? - part 1

We have no idea Who God is.

None whatsoever.

The more I'm learning lately, the more convinced of this I'm becoming. This isn't to say that the characters He has revealed to us while we grow in Him are wrong. More to say that who we conceive Him to be falls flat. Flatter than taking a running leap to jump across the Grand Canyon. We are more likely to make it over that great ravine in a single bound than we are to understand God.

We can't.

We just can't.

And this is the God we worship. How does that make you feel?

Let's for a moment pretend that we know more than we think we do. There are two men who actually stood before His throne (out-of-body experience or physically present - I doubt even they could say for sure) and lived to tell.

Man number one: John. Here's what he saw:

There before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. . . . From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. -Revelation 4:2-3, 5

You know what? I don't think even John himself knew how to describe what he was seeing. You see, God is so eternal and holy and perfect and beyond us that human words cannot describe Him. We are fallen creatures; sin clouds our view of the eternal. To see complete holiness and perfection is to see a realm in another dimension, above and beyond man.

But we're pretending here. God's appearance was that of jasper and carnelian.

What in blazes are those?

Gemstones. Take a look:

Jasper on the left (unpolished), carnelian on the right. Kinda pretty, huh? But how do you translate that into an image of God? You can't really say that God looks like a rock. Besides, He's a Being. No human or any other form. He just is. So if you can take the appearance of those physical stones and create an accurate image of the Perfect Being (the One Who created those stones, by the way), then you might have yourself an image of God. But my guess is that you're still no where even close to accurate.

A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne.

Did you know rainbows make full circles? Usually we only see half. Not the best visuals, but...

+ = surrounding the throne of God?

Do you see why John would have so much trouble finding words to describe what he saw?

From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder.

I don't even know how to touch that one, other than to point out Exodus 19. The LORD descended on a mountain before the Israelites, and there was thunder, lightning, and what sounded like a loud trumpet blast. Apparently part of the presence of God involves what we know how to describe only as a great thunderstorm (minus the rain).

This was John's experience...but only in part. I left out the 24 elders and the 4 creatures covered in eyes who continually cry out praises to the One on the throne. Check out Revelation 4 and try to picture yourself witnessing these sights. Does that change your image of the God you worship?

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Next post: Isaiah's firsthand experience of the throne room of the great I Am.

Inspiration for this post from Crazy Love by Frances Chan.