What God Has Said—About God: And How That Can Inspire Your Faith and Life

By Lenn Zeller

Who is God? What is God really like? How are we to comprehend and understand an infinite, eternal, all-powerful Being who is the source and the purpose of all that exists? It’s not enough to believe that God exists, we must have an accurate and realistic understanding of God if we are going to relate to Him in a meaningful and personal way. This book is written in an easy, readable style, and seeks to help people to have a correct understanding of the person and character of God, perhaps correcting some of the false views that are prevalent in today’s post-Christian media culture. The book will be of interest to people of faith as they seek to grow in personal understanding and devotion, as well as to seekers who would like to know more about their Creator God. Questions for Consideration or Conversation at the end of each chapter allow for deeper individual reflection, or discussion in a small group setting.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Mar 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781973686163

Lenn Zeller

A pastor for thirty-eight years in the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference, Mr. Zeller took very seriously the timeless truth of God’s Word for life and ministry and sought to faithfully teach it to and share it with others. In addition to serving four churches in three states, Mr. Zeller served on the wider church level as representative for the denomnation in Illinois and later Pennsylvania, and then on the national denominational staff as Director of Conference Care.

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Copyright © 2020 Lenn Zeller.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-8617-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-8618-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-8616-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020902914

WestBow Press rev. date: 2/26/2020

This book is dedicated to the glory of God,

to my friend, Jim, for his constant encouragement and aid,

and with my thanks and love to my wife and partner

in life and ministry, Janeen

T A B L E  O F  C O N T E N T S

Introduction

Chapter 1    I Am Your Shield, Your Very Great Reward

Chapter 2    I Am God Almighty

Chapter 3    I Am the God of Your Father

Chapter 4    I AM WHO I AM

Chapter 5    I Am a Jealous God

Chapter 6    I Am Compassionate

Chapter 7    I Am Good and Glorious

Chapter 8    Gracious, Slow to Anger, Abounding in Love

Chapter 9    I, the LORD Your God, Am Holy

Chapter 10  I, Myself Am He

Chapter 11  The Lord Looks at the Heart

Chapter 12  I Am He Who Will Carry You

Chapter 13  Who Teaches You What is Best For You

Chapter 14  I Am the Lord, Who Exercises Kindness, Justice and Righteousness

Chapter 15  Should You Not Fear Me?

Chapter 16  You Will Find Me

About the Author

INTRODUCTION

W hat are some words you would use to describe yourself? I mean, other than the usual easy and superficial things, like name, age, race, occupation, and place of residence? What are words you would use to describe yourself on a deeper level? Would you say that you are kind and sensitive? Or maybe you would suggest that you’re hard-nosed and irascible. Are you patient or quick-tempered? Some are extroverted and enthusiastic and others shy and introverted. You may be creative and artistic or just plain unimaginative. Are you rather intelligent or not the sharpest pecan in the pie? Do you think of yourself as spontaneous and free-spirited or more deliberate and cautious? Are you generally optimistic and hopeful or pessimistic and gloomy?

A different but crucial issue altogether is whether or not you have a realistic view of yourself, and whether or not the words you would use to describe yourself are accurate. I may think of myself as fun loving and spontaneous and you may see me as quite dull and stodgy. I may think that I have a great sense of humor, and you might say that I haven’t told a decent joke in years! Nevertheless, I think it would be safe to say—and psychologists would probably agree—that we all have some kind of inner perception of ourselves. And central to a healthy psyche is to have a realistic self-perception, and at least somewhat of an accurate self-image. The Bible might call it a sober self-judgment.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. (Romans 12:3)

I may think that I have a voice to rival Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, but in reality be barely able to carry a tune. If I seek to live on the basis of my false self-view, I will be constantly frustrated and disappointed by my lack of success in the music industry. I may even become bitter and depressed. I may think of myself as a person with tremendous leadership abilities, and become thoroughly disgusted when nobody follows. In my church fellowship, I may think I am a great Bible teacher, but others may recognize that I am obtuse, confusing and clouded in my thinking and my sharing. So it matters a great deal whether or not we have a realistic perception of ourselves. Our emotional and psychological health depends upon it!

What matters even more, however, is that we have a realistic and accurate view of God. It has often been said, and rightly so, that what we think about God determines everything else in our lives. And what better way could there be to rightly understand God than to hear and contemplate God’s own words about Himself? My plan in this book is to do a bit of a survey of the scriptures to see what God has said—about God.

Now, it could be rightly said that the entire Bible is about God: who He is, what He has done, is doing and will do, how He created and sustains all that is, how He intervenes in the affairs of humankind to advance and fulfill His purposes, and what He has done to save His people and draw them to Himself. The patriarchs, the prophets and the apostles have told us much about who God is, in all the above ways. And don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe that God was the divine author and inspiration of scripture, so that every word in it is His. In that sense then it’s all about what God has said about Himself.

But I got curious about what God had to say about Himself when He spoke a bit more directly to His people about Himself. So I spent some time reading passages in the Bible in which God Himself has told us who He is, either directly in spoken words, or through visions and prophetic words relayed through His prophets. I have often heard sermons (and even preached some) on the I Am statements of Jesus. These are the I Am statements from God the Father.

If we try to take them in a somewhat chronological order, the first time I could find that God actually spoke to someone to directly tell them something about Himself, was in Genesis 15. This is not necessarily the first time God spoke to humans, but it is the first time He made some kind of plain and direct statement about Himself. There are others. Let’s take a look.

CHAPTER 1

"I Am Your Shield, Your

Very Great Reward"

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward. But Abram said, O Sovereign Lord, what can You give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir. Then the word of the Lord came to him: This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir. He took him outside and said, Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them. Then He said to him, So shall your offspring be. Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness." (Genesis 15:1-6)

T he text begins After this— (Genesis 15:1) After what, we might ask? If you were to read Genesis 14, you would see that Abram and his nephew, Lot, were living in the land of Canaan, where God had led them, and minding their own business. But war broke out, with two alliances of kings in that region going to battle, and Lot found himself right in the middle of it all. Lot and his family ended up being taken captive, carried off as innocent victims of this sectional battle between competing kingdoms.

Abram heard about it, mustered his trained warriors and went off in hot pursuit, catching up with the invaders at Hobah, north of Damascus, and rescuing Lot and his people. After this—after these things—the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision (Genesis 15:1). So this first divine and self-descriptive statement was a vision. It was not a nighttime dream while asleep, Abram would fall into a deep sleep later (Genesis 15:12). Nor was this a verbal, face-to-face conversation with God—but a vision. Still, it was the Lord personally and directly speaking to Abram, essentially saying, Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward. Here are our first two divine descriptions of God from God.

When the excitement over the victorious rescue operation settled down, it would not have been surprising at all for Abram to worry that his new enemies would counterattack. So God graciously intervened to reduce and even eliminate his fear.¹ I am your shield, God said. The Hebrew word was magen, also found as meginnah.²

It was sometimes called a buckler, and was carried by a warrior for defense, at least until guns came along and made it irrelevant. Shields or bucklers varied in size and construction: some were made of wood covered with hides, others were metal, often bronze; some, mostly for decoration, were pure gold. Shields were an essential part of a warrior’s armory and provided a great deal of protection against the weapons of the enemy.³

In this case, however, God was clearly not speaking in a literal sense. He wasn’t saying that He would jump in and take the arrow for Abram, so to speak; like a Secret Service agent is prepared to take a bullet for the President of the United States. Sometimes shield was used in a more figurative sense, to speak of something or someone who was a defender, guardian, or protector. God was telling Abram not to worry. He would be Abram’s defender. He would be Abram’s protection, as He is ours.

As David prayed in Psalm 3:

O Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, God will not deliver him. But You are a shield around me, O Lord; You bestow glory on me and lift up my head. (Psalm 3:2–3)

And in Psalm 27:

The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid? When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident. (Psalm 27:1–3)

God is our shield. He is the stronghold of our lives. Whom shall we fear? Think about how many times God has protected you. My wife, Janeen, and I have been protected countless times on the roadways from what could have been serious accidents. Some were such close calls that to this day I still don’t know how we escaped serious collision and injury. I was guarded from much more serious health consequences when I suffered a heart attack, and a few years later a stroke, as Janeen was cared for during her bout with cancer. We have been shielded from harm to our ministry or our integrity in spite of personal attacks of disgruntled parishioners, and even the attacks of the Enemy of our souls.

How has God protected you? Has He saved you from the ravages of illness and disease? Has He blessed you with travel mercies on the road? Has He protected you from financial ruin? And how many—perhaps countless times—has God protected us from things of which we weren’t even aware, and kept away potential dangers that we never even knew were possible? I am your shield, God said. And so He is.

I am your very great reward, God had also said to Abram (Genesis 15:1). Here the Hebrew word is śāḵār, referring to the wages of a servant or a soldier for work done in faithfulness.⁴ In the second chapter of Ruth, Boaz prayed for the Lord to reward Ruth for all she had done for her mother-in-law:

May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. (Ruth 2:12)

In 1 Samuel 24, when David spared King Saul’s life in the desert of En Gedi, even though Saul was there hunting David down to take his life, Saul said:

The Lord delivered me into your hands, but you did not kill me. When a man finds his enemy, does he let him get away unharmed? May the Lord reward you well for the way you treated me today. (1 Samuel 24:18–19)

In both instances the reward was something the person had in some sense earned or deserved for their upright and righteous behavior. And in some versions of the Bible, this phrase in Genesis 15:1 is translated as Your reward will be very great, implying that God was planning to