That I Might KNOW Him, Part 2

"And they that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee: for Thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee." 

Psalm 9:10

Let's continue our study on knowing His name!

Notice what this verse is saying:
Only those who know His name (character, ways) will be able to put their trust in Him.

Notice what it doesn't say:
All who call themselves a Christian will put their trust in Him. Or, all who know about His name will put their trust in Him. 

Can I just know that His name is Jesus or Savior or El Shaddai and be able to put my trust in Him?

Can you trust me because you know my name is Amy? Or because my last name is Ferree?

Well, if you know my Dad's character, then you probably can safely assume I'm a little bit like him. That's what we do, right?

"She's a Smith and those Smiths are GOOD people...."

But how can you know that *I* am trustworthy? Simply by knowing my legal name?

Of course not.

We had to teach this concept to our kids at an early age because of the "We don't spend the night with people we don't know" argument. They immediately began to reason with us: "But you know them! Their names are X & Y and they go to our church!"

And our response was always - "Yes, but we don't truly KNOW them. We've not spent enough time with them one on one to see if they have good character or not...especially behind closed doors. Those are things you can only learn over time spent in their presence."

My point is - there are levels to knowing one another. The deeper the level of intimacy (time spent in each other's presence and depth of revelation of self to each other), the deeper knowledge we have of one another.

So, it's not enough to know His name, is it? We have to know what's behind the name.... we have to spend time in His presence, experiencing who He truly IS.

The children of Israel got a crash course in just who God is during the time of the Ten Plagues in Egypt:

God sends Moses to request a sabbatical to hold a feast in His name (Exodus 5:1) and, interestingly enough, Pharaoh's first response is—Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. 

For approximately 400 years, the Lord had been mostly silent as His people lived in and eventually became slaves in Egypt. So, not only did Pharaoh not know who this God was, but neither did His own people, the children of Abraham. So, the Lord God begins to correct that situation by showing just who He is. 

For every false god worshiped in Egypt, the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob declared Himself openly as God over that so called god...

Hapi, Egyptian god of the Nile: Aaron touches the Nile with the rod and it instantly turns to blood, killing all the fish and causing it to stink. Of course, Pharaoh's magicians were able to partially duplicate this act... but the Nile stayed blood for 7 days, proving Moses' God was superior to Hapi.

Heket, Egyptian goddess of fertility, with the head of a frog: Once again Aaron uses the "rod of God" and brings a plague of frogs upon Egypt and, once again, Pharaoh's magicians are able to copy the plague... but they cannot end it. Only Moses & Aaron's God can end the plague, showing that only their god is the God of Gods!

One by one, El Shaddai, God Almighty,  the most powerful, deadly force that exists anywhere, ever, shows Himself as God over all of Egypt's gods and reveals who He is to Pharaoh, Egypt, the Hebrews, and even the world, present and future. (For more detailed info on each plague/Egyptian god, read this excellent article.)

This is so important because, not too many days in the future, the Hebrew children will be released to go worship their God and begin to face new obstacles—the Red Sea in front of them and Pharaoh behind them; bitter water, no water, no food, old food, Moses missing for 80 days... and one by one they will ignore all that God revealed of Himself and choose instead to complain, murmur, and try to handle it their own way.

See—even when you've seen who He is, if He's revealed Himself to you and you now know what He can do...you still have to choose to believe Him, or receive Him. 

It's what you do with the knowledge of who He is that matters most!

The gospel of John says it this way: But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name...

For all that God revealed to the Israelites in Egypt through the ten plagues, they did not use that knowledge, or allow it to change the way they responded to new crisis. 

Just 3 days into the wilderness, within the same chapter as the song & dance celebrating the overthrow of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea, the people come to water that was bitter and undrinkable and, instead of looking at one another and remembering, 

Hey, remember just a few weeks ago how Jehovah showed He's God over water by turning it into blood for 7 days? or how He showed Himself as the God of water again just 3 days ago by parting the Red Sea? I wonder if He'd fix this bitter water for us?! 

Nope. Instead they murmured against Moses saying, Now what will we drink?!

God, of course, fixes it anyway at the pleading of Moses... but the Hebrews failed a huge test and would continue to do so by refusing to remember all God had shown Himself to be until, in Numbers 14, God finally has enough when the 10 spies come back with a bad report...

Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it... Numbers 14:22,23

The 10 spies saw the same 10 plagues and chose 10 times to ignore what God had revealed of Himself—that He is trustworthy—and instead incited the people to doubt and unbelief. And God was FED UP.

Not only did those 10 spies die instantly with a plague, but an entire generation would wander in circles in the wilderness until they died off, never seeing the Promised Land.... all because they refused to take what they knew about God and let it change how they responded to each new problem.

They never learned to trust the God they knew.

By the way, the number 10 is significant in the Bible, representing a completeness or fullness.

10 plagues show God's complete judgement.
10 commandments show God's complete moral law.
10 temptations by the Hebrews show their complete unbelief and rebellion.
10 miracles in the wilderness show God's complete ability to take care of His own.

For each crisis they walked upon in the wilderness (10, by God's count in Numbers 14), He had already given them 10 reasons to trust Him. And, maybe they weren't counting, but God sure was!

How has God shown Himself strong in your life, naming Himself over and over as the God who sees, understands, cares, loves, and saves?

When we look back over our life and begin to name those times, those monumental moments He made Himself real to us, we learn just who He is. 

He is faithful.
He is trustworthy. 
He is a waymaker
He is my healer.

Take a few minutes to look back and remember who He has been to you. Thank Him, then ask Him to help you use that knowledge to deal with the situations lying in front of you today.

He's waiting to be invited into your problem!

Be blessed!

Amy

Today's soundtrack: Lauren Daigle's - Remember