An encounter with the greatness of God.
I’m sure that’s not what Moses expected when he woke up that morning. In fact, I’ll bet that day began as any other ordinary day started for Moses. But it’s startling when the extra-ordinary greatness of God interrupts our ordinariness.
The Bible says Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law when he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. It was in this place Moses encountered the living God who spoke to Him from within the burning bush. God called him by name.
“Moses! Moses!”
“Here I am.”
“Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
When we encounter the greatness of God, we are simultaneously struck with His vast holiness and our supreme unholiness. We can scarcely even begin to wrap our minds around the holy nature of our God. He is so pure, so righteous, so transcendent, so “other” than what we know or experience or comprehend. And we are so impure, so unrighteous, so temporal and weak and transient and frail, incapable of even fully knowing ourselves, much less to commune so intimately with another. And yet, in spite of all this, you can’t miss the weight of this encounter. The Holy God of the universe is initiating relationship with man. Creator pursuing the created. In fact, He goes so far as to reveal His name to us.
Think about that for a moment. The sovereign, holy God of all time is the one unnamed entity in the universe. Everything else, every person, every place, literally EVERY THING has been named by another. But the eternal God, completely self-sufficient in His nature, is the one entity who is not named. His nature, His identity, His Name, are eternal. Who can ascribe a name to God that fully envelopes and articulates and encapsulates even a fraction of who He is? No creature is privy to such a role; only God Himself is worthy to bestow any kind of moniker or title to Himself. And beyond that, God, of His own volition, reveals His name to us for all time! His name is YHWH, I AM. His name signifies existence. God is the eternal God with no beginning and no end. His name signifies presence. He is the God present to act in salvation. He is the great and sovereign Lord who was and is and is to come.
When I acknowledge of the vast nature of God’s holiness and the equally vast nature of my unholiness, coupled with the knowledge that in spite of such a discrepancy, He still saw fit to redeem me, not by any merit of my own but only as an expression of His full and complete love for me, I can only think of one word to describe the character of such a God…..
GREAT
we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ
titus 2:13
already & not yet 
I love your blog, Jason!!! It’s like I get to talk to you everytime you write. It’s really weird because it’s always exactly what i need to hear. My problem is not really lack of knowledge or understanding, just that every time something happens, everything that I should know takes a backseat to me freaking out. I’m getting better though, and God is showing me that even if something goes wrong for a little bit, the end result is not that my life is over, because He is God, and I’m not, and handling things is His job, not mine. That’s a good thing, less stress for me, haha.
Our God is Great. This idea of the greatness of God is really difficult to get my head around. The more I think about it, the more I’m overwhelmed with God’s greatness.
I think one of our greatest challenges as Christians is to figure out how our faith is to be lived out in the “everyday” moments. It’s only through daily acknowledging God’s greatness and glory that I’m able to keep things in perspective. Kind of gives new meaning to Romans 12 – “…be trasnformed by the renewing of your minds.” My mind needs renewing more often than I realize.
Wow…my mind sure needs renewing as well. Oh brother, it sure needs renewing. And I think God is working on it.