“WHO,” replies the Jew, “is God?”

This is the struggle most people face when they approach the topic of the attributes of God. For most of the Western World, our understanding of life has been shaped by the ancient Greek civilization (during the time of the famous philosophers).

People may not realize it, but since our youth, we have been given “Greek glasses” by which we view the world and interpret information. Most people in the Western world wear these glasses. However, people in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Asia proper usually wear “Eastern glasses”. These glasses are called worldviews; simply – how one views the world around them.

“Is wearing Greek glasses bad?”, one would ask.

It is not ‘bad’ as much as a hurdle when we approach the God of the Bible. Yahweh is a Jewish God, and is portrayed through “Eastern colors” and is expected to be understood through “Eastern glasses”. Most fascinating of all is that God thinks and speaks like an Easterner. However, that’s for another blog post.

What, then, is the difference between these two pairs of glasses? (Now, it must be said, I’m over simplifying worldviews. There are hundreds, if not thousands of unique ways to view the world across the planet, but these two generally and properly summarize the whole). The Greeks focus on what God is, often describing Him categorically, abstractly, and in bullet point form. This results in a, “God is this, or that” conclusion, with words that you will not find in the Bible, even if some of them are true.

Additionally, they usually conclude God’s attributes based on what humanity is. Humans are corporeal (are composed of matter; having a material existence), so God must be ‘incorporeal’ (notice the prefix). Humans do not know everything, so God must know everything, making Him ‘omnipotent’; etc.

When you read the graph below, try and picture the words on the right. What comes to mind?

Study the image below for an example:

Did any image come up? For most of the words, probably nothing come to mind unless a subconscious jump was made (infinite simply refers to the size or the amount of an object, so picturing a being with no end is not true to the strict definition of the word, since infinite is an adjective, not a noun).

This is a major characteristic to the Greek styled glasses.

What about the Hebrew glasses, then?

The Jews saw and understood God very differently. They did not primarily refer to God as “God”, as many do in the West. This is the result of a misconception. Many assume God’s name is “God”, or that is what He desires to be called or referred to. This is not the case (thankfully!). God has a personal name, just like you and I. My name is Joseph (which, ironically, is the English translation of Hebrew’s Yosef); His is Yahweh.

Would it be strange if someone always called you, “human”, instead of “Joe”? One refers to the type of being (mammal) and perhaps, the material make-up (a massive collaboration of cells that is made up almost entirely of water) of the object. The other refers to WHO they are.

When someone thinks of “Joe Meyer”, they subtly imagine my history with them; my interactions in the past and what I represent/stand for. If we do this with each other, why do we do it differently with Yahweh?

Just as when someone thinks of me and may imagine Justin Rizzo’s drummer, someone’s kid, or something goofy I did in my teenage years, the Hebrews did the same with Yahweh. He was not an ambiguous Being in a far detached nebula with an abstract agenda who mysteriously floated around in a “supernatural realm”. Instead, He formed the worlds out of nothing; He is the One who banished Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. He is the One who flooded the whole globe but mercifully saved Noah and his near family. He is the One who brought Israel out of Egypt with His mighty and out-stretch armed of signs and wonders. He is the only God who, likewise, alone is worthy of worship. He is the One who will make known His Name to all humanity in the future, and He is the sovereign ruler over all things. Later on, this same God was incarnated as Jesus (Yeshua).

If the God you worship is not this God, then you do not worship the God of the Bible – the only true God.

Back to the Jewish glasses themselves, the Jews used their surroundings to describe what God is like. Paul said God revealed Himself (partially) through nature (fully in Jesus), so this was not a primitive attempt to describe the unknowable. That is why in Jewish schools, the Rabbi will enter the room and give each student a Torah (first 5 books of the OT) and a dab of honey on a wax sheet of paper. The Rabbi will then say, “Eat the honey – that is what God is like, and never forget it!”

He is right!

What about God being an all consuming fire? The next time you go to a bonfire, think to yourself, “this is what Yahweh is like.” What about His righteousness being likened to the mighty mountains? The next time you go skiing, think to yourself, “This is what God is like”. What about the height of the clouds above the Earth communicating the amount of mercy He has for humanity? When you think about the clouds, think, “This is what God is like.” As you can see, nearly every aspect of nature communicates something about God, only if we would take the time to see it and apply it to our lives.

Compare the below image to the one above:

Do any pictures come to your mind after you were reading through this list? The Jews viewed God for who He is and what He is like, not what He is made up of.

In closing, when we approach this vast topic, let us be mindful of the glasses that we are viewing life through.

Also, the next time we look up at the clouds, let us remind ourselves, “this is what God is like.”