The Answer to the Question, ‘Who is God?’

Extinction threatened more than just the dinosaurs. Also in dire jeopardy was the answer to the question, 'Who is God?' (Hosea 4:6). Since Eden, our understanding of God had faded with the passage of time. God had become a stranger to us (John 10:5) (Psalm 69:8) (Exodus 2:22). “And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers” (John 10:5). "Men have forgotten God" Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn complained (1983 Templeton Address). The entrance into the mind of God was forgotten. The way was lost (John 14:6). "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). However, in one place, the answer to the question, 'Who is God?', survived extinction. It clung to life among a small, wandering tribe of desert nomads known as the Jews. God had stashed the answer with them for safekeeping. They were its guardians. God had appointed them as the trustees of our understanding of God in the Valley of Tears. They were the pilot light that kept the flame of understanding burning for God's future use (Isaiah 11:1). In the fullness of time, Jesus came to turn the pilot light into an inferno of understanding (Isaiah 11:9) (Habakkuk 2:14). "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing" (Luke 12:49)! GOD DECIDED TO RESURRECT OUR UNDERSTANDING OF GOD FROM THE DEAD AND SHARE IT WITH ALL OF THE CHILDREN OF ADAM AND EVE (Isaiah 11:9) (Habakkuk 2:14).

'Who are you, Jesus? Identify yourself! Friend or foe?' In answer to the evil that we did to him, Jesus gave us a token of his friendship. The token he gave us of his friendship was gentle (1 Kings 19:11-13) forgiveness (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34). Through his bloody wounds, Jesus poured the sweet syrup of forgiveness into the Valley of Tears to dilute its toxicity in the same way that sugar cubes dilute the bitterness of a cup of bad coffee. Dilution is God’s solution to the problem of evil.

Jesus put the knowledge of God into a package. It wasn’t a package of words. The package was a demonstration in which Jesus battled the monster of the Crucifixion. In the battle that took place in the backside of the desert (Exodus 3:1-3) in the boondocks of space and time, Jesus drew the sharp sword of sweet forgiveness from his scabbard of prodigious love to slay the monster. Forgiveness killed the monster dead (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Luke 23:34 ) (Acts 10:43) (Matthew 6:12) (Matthew 18:21-35 (Luke 7:47) (Matthew 5:45).

Our job is to propagate the package that holds the prodigious love of God from the point and place of its obscure origin, across time and space, to the children of Adam and Eve here and now. Then we get out of the way so God can go to work.