How God Reveals Himself

Psalm 8:1-4, Job 38:1-7,33-37

The word "revelation" means revealing, God has revealed himself.    Something that you wouldn't have found out by your own methods, that is what revelation means.  The doctrine of revelation is the doctrine that tells us that God reveals himself.   This revelation of God is absolutely essential for without God revealing himself to us we would never come to know him.  Man by his own abilities can never find out God.  By our own mind or intellect, we could never know or discover God because God is not subject to our tests and our methods.  God does not put himself under our microscope to be investigated.  He is not an object to be inspected by great men, he is above and beyond us.   By nature an object to be inspected must be lower than the one inspecting it.  That is why you can inspect an ant but the ant can't inspect you.   Without God revealing himself to us in two main ways, we would be completely in the dark about God.  But Praise the Lord, he has condescended to reveal himself to humanity.   It is general revelation and special revelation.  Let us not forget that for God to reveal himself is needed  Isaiah 40:28 "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding."  Man cannot come to understand God without revelation.  Job was asked in Job 11:7 "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfections?"  No.  Humans are completely shut in to what God reveals.  Everything we know about God we know because he has revealed it to us.

General Revelation:  God reveals himself generally, in a general way to everybody, to all mankind.  Externally and internally.  External revelation is this:  God has seen fit to leave his fingerprints upon the creation, like we do if we are making something of wood or metal.  The creation of the world, the planets, God has left his fingerprints in the creation.  The detail and complexity of the universe is amazing.  So complicated, man could not make a leaf because these things call for a designer.  God tells us that from the creation, the outward creation,  people can see that there is a God.  This is external revelation. Psalm 8:3-4 "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?....."   When the psalmist studied the sun and the moon, it made him think naturally about God, when, not if.  It is taken for granted that God's people would be interested in his creation.  The heavens declare the glory of God, the earth shows his handiwork.  There is a creator, there is a designer.  There is no human being that has any excuse for not believing in God.  Romans 1:20 "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.."  Created beings fully and clearly see and understand that there is a God, and so they are without excuse. 

Internal revelation: man has built in religion, he is God conscious by nature, God has placed eternity in the heart of man.  Everybody knows that there is a God.   But it's not enough to lead us to a saving knowledge of the true God, because even man with his intellectual capacity cannot find the true God.  They need special revelation.  When Paul was preaching on Mar's hill (Acts 17:19-31) he spoke of the unknown God, the true God.  Human knowledge admits that there is a God, but true knowledge of God, has to be specially revealed.    

Bible Women: Jael - Judges 4

Jael - Judges Chapter 4

Judges Chapter 4 is a very  unusual chapter in the Bible, in that God used women to bring victory to Israel. It is violent, but it is important in that it shows that the LORD's commands must be obeyed or consequences will follow.  In this chapter it is a woman, Deborah who has the position of authority in that she judged Israel,  V4 "and Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.  And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment." which is truly in opposition to God's natural order in Genesis 3:16 where ".......thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee".  Chapter 4 is the chapter in which Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite appears briefly, but importantly.

Chapter 4 begins "And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD...".  So we know that at this time, Israel was not walking with the LORD God.  We are told in V2-3 that "the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera.......and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel".  This is very important, because the oppression by Sisera caused Israel to cry unto the LORD.

And isn't this the way with us?  When we grow cold of heart and try to do things by our own strength, instead of following the Lord and desiring to be led by His will in our lives, do  not trials and temptations come upon us which are designed to bring us back to Him?  James 4:6-10 "But he giveth more grace.  Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.  Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.  Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.  Be afflicted, and mourn and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up."

In Verse 6 Deborah calls upon Barak, the son of Abinoam to follow the LORD's commands in going to battle against Sisera,"and she sent and called Barak...and said unto him, Hath not the LORD God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward mount Tabor.".. and in V7 Deborah says "I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand."  But in V8 Barak dishonours himself by refusing to go alone, "And Barak said unto her, if thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go", this even knowing that the LORD had commanded him to go and promised him the victory.  And so in V9 Deborah tells him "I will surely go with thee, notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman....". This then is the reason for what is to come, a man of Israel has disobeyed the command of the LORD, but the LORD will have His victory,  and this by the hand of a woman.