Rabbi Schneider - God, The Most Sensitive Being

TOPICS: To Know Him by Name Season 3

Yahweh revealed Himself to Moshe or Moses as I Am Who I Am, and Yahweh is my memorial name forever. So when you think about this concept of God being I Am Who I Am, I want you to consider the fact that this carries with it the idea that He's always moving. If He's alive. I Am Who I Am is alive. He's present. He's always here, past, present, future, which means He's always moving.

Now, in connection to this thought, I want you to consider a climactic episode that's recorded for us in the Word of God when Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 6, encounters the Lord. Isaiah begins by telling us it was during Uzziah's reign that this happened. And Isaiah encounters Yahweh. And when he does, Isaiah said, he fell on his face like a dead man. And Isaiah said, "I saw Him, and there were angels around Him that did not see crying out day and night, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty". Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And Isaiah said they did not stop crying out holy, holy, holy day and night.

Now consider that in Revelation John had the same experience where he encountered the Lord. He saw the same thing, the angels around the Lord's throne that did not cease crying out day and night, holy, holy, holy. Why did the angels not stop crying out "holy"? Why did it not become static? In other words, why did it not become just mere mechanics? Why was it alive? Why did it not become mechanical? And the reason is, beloved friends, is because every time the angels cried out holy, they called it out because they just got hit with a new wave of the power and glory of the Creator. It wasn't mechanical. It was each time they cried it out, they were being hit by a new wave of the glory of God, and they got their breath taken away.

And each time it happened, "holy", they couldn't stop saying it day and night forever because Yahweh is always alive and moving and always new, and He always has more and more and more and more. He just keeps on coming. He is I Am Who I Am. And that's who He is to you and I. The more we build our relationship with Him, the more we're going to be getting hit with new revelation, new presence, new power, a deeper relationship. It's never going to end. Your relationship will never become stale. I know that there's times in our life that we feel stale. I realize that. We all do at times. But the fact is we're going from one degree of glory to the next degree of glory because over a length of time, we're being transformed, even though at any given moment you may feel alive or you might feel not so alive.

That's just in the second. But over the stretch of time, in the long run, you're going to continue to be affected and remade, transformed as new revelation of the glory of Yahweh come into your life. And when we meet Him face to face, it's going to be... I mean, I couldn't even try to describe it. Eye has not seen and ear has not heard, never has it entered into the heart of man the things that Yahweh has prepared for those that love Him. So this is exciting stuff. I mean, this is joy. This is what Jesus said, "My joy I give to you, not as the world gives".

You're in relationship with the everlasting God. In His presence are treasures forevermore. You're going to continue to be hit with new... what's the word? With new emanations of His glory, of Jesus, of His Son, of everything that He is, all His glorious attributes, His beauty, His divinity. I mean, I could go on and on and on. I feel like I'm just being repetitious. You get it. That's who our God is. He's alive. He is I am. And you're never going to get bored in heaven. You will never be bored, even for the smallest iota of a second, because you're going to be in His presence and you're going to be being hit with the same waves that Isaiah got hit with and that John got hit with in Revelation. You're going to be hit with His power over and over. And every time it's going to be a new wave, a bigger wave, and a more glorious wave. So He is, beloved, I Am Who I Am. That is who Yahweh is.

Now to review, let me say, the Father that chose you, according to the book of Ephesians chapter 1... let me just actually state for you Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1 begins in this way. Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ who chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love. Listen again. Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ? It's no one else but Yahweh. It's none other than Yahweh. Yahweh shows you. You have been brought into covenant relationship with Yahweh, which is His memorial name forever, through your relationship with Yeshua HaMashiach, with Jesus your Messiah.

And as I said earlier, we're going to continue to look at all the ways that Yahweh revealed Himself as Yahweh Tsidkenu, Yahweh Nissi, Yahweh M'kaddesh, and it goes on to the Hebrew people. And every time He revealed Himself in another one of the things that He does for His covenant people, you could know that because you're in relationship with Him through the Lord Jesus, the same things that He promised in the Torah are for you today. So with that said now, I want to move on to help us gain a deeper sensitivity to this person. Remember, Yahweh is a person. Lord is a title. God is a title. But Yahweh is a person.

This is why the Lord said in the book of Exodus 6, "God spoke further to Moses and said to him, 'I Am Yahweh". Now your Bible translates it capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, but the Hebrew actually there is Yud Hei Vav-Hei. I am Yahweh. "God spoke further to Moses and said to him, 'I am Yahweh, and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty.'" That's El Shaddai that we covered earlier. So God said, "I appear to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, as El Shaddai". But the text continues. The Lord is speaking here. He says, "But by My name, Yahweh, I did not make myself known to them".

So Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew God as the creator. They knew Him as God Almighty, but they didn't know His personal name. So this revelation that is discovered first at the burning bush is now fresh for you and I today. We are in relationship not just with a God, but with a person. God who is a person. And so Yahweh reveals to us elements of His personality. We can get to know Yahweh and be more sensitive to Him by discovering what Yahweh said about Himself and what the Hebrew scriptures reveal to us about the sensitivity of Yahweh, our Maker.

So we're going to begin today to dive deeper into a scripture in the book of Bereshit (Genesis) 6:6, where even though the patriarchs and Adam and Eve did not know Him by name, the scripture refers to Yahweh by name there. And what the scripture reveals to us in the book of Shemot or Exodus 6 is that Yahweh was grieved, get that word now, Yahweh was grieved when He made man and saw that man was continually doing evil. This is why the earth was destroyed with the flood. Yahweh looked down upon the world and it was corrupt.

And everything that was proceeding from mankind that He had made in His own image had become corrupted through Satan and the fall that took place when Adam and Eve ate in the garden. And everything that Yahweh saw when He looked at mankind grieved Him, it hurt Him, it pierced Him. To grieve somebody means to sadden them. So we read that Yahweh, a person, our God, get it now, can be grieved. Closely related to this concept is that Yahweh, can be hurt. I know we talked about being grieved but there's even another level to this. Our God can be hurt.

I remember I was doing my devotional not long ago and I read, I'm going to read it for you in a second, Ezekiel 6:9 where the Lord said, "How I have been hurt"! speaking of Himself. And it just like pierced my heart that I could hurt God, that I could hurt my God. Let me read it for you and then we'll talk about it a bit. The Lord is speaking to Israel, they've been driven into the nations, they've been taken captive, and the Lord said, "They will remember how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts..." "I have been hurt," God said. I mean, a lot of times we don't get that, right? We just think about all-powerful God. We think He's so big that He could never be hurt. But the Lord said, You're going to remember all the evil you did to me and how I was hurt by it.

"I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which they turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, and for all their abominations". I think it's important that we pause and take this in. Because sometimes we don't walk sensitively in our conduct before the Lord, even in controlling our thoughts and speech before the Lord, because we really don't appreciate, my beloved friends, brothers and sisters, that you and I can somehow hurt God. We can hurt Yahweh.

You see, God made us in His own image because He wanted someone to be in a love relationship with. And He gave us our own will so we could choose to love Him. The Lord is looking for somebody to love Him. That's why the book of Revelation culminates in Revelation 19 with the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. What's a marriage? Two people coming together on their own free will and choosing to love one another, to have a contract to love each other for the rest of their lives. Well, our relationship with Jesus culminates in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Yeshua and the Father coming into relationship with us and finalizing it at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb where each one, each party, God and us, have covenanted to love each other with everything we have forever and ever for all of eternity.

Now let's think about this. We're talking about how we have the power to hurt God. How is it that you and I we don't consider ourselves as powerful enough to hurt an all-powerful God? But we don't sometimes have revelation of the fact that our all-powerful God has so humbled Himself that He's put Himself in a posture in His relationship with us where we can either hurt Him or bring Him joy. You see, God's all-powerful and He has decided voluntarily to be vulnerable in His exposure, in His relationship, in His making Himself vulnerable to us, so that if we choose to love Him... it brings Him great joy. That's why we read in the Scripture that all the angels in heaven rejoice when even one sinner repents.

We see Jesus full of joy in the Scriptures, but conversely, God has also humbled Himself in such a way that he allows Himself to be affected by us. And when we choose, when you and I who is made in His own image in hopes that we'll love Him, in hopes that we'll put Him first, in hopes that we'll honor Him, when you and I that have been given this power by our Maker to do that, to love Him back, when we disappoint Him by going after idols and voluntarily living in the lust of our flesh, in sensuality and in sin, when we go that direction of idolatry, it literally grieves and hurts God.

I want you to know, I want you to get this loud and clear, my friend. You have the power to hurt God. And don't ever forget that. He's not so big that He can't be hurt by you. He is so big, He's all-powerful, He can do anything He wants to do. But He is also the most sensitive being in all of creation. He feels you. You can bring Him pleasure, or you can bring Him pain. And we should walk in our lives with that cognizance. We should be aware of that.

When I read that during my quiet time, when I read Ezekiel 6:9, and just that one phrase in that verse "they hurt me," it pierced my heart. I realized, God, it's not just about me, it's not just about how I feel today, it's about You. I love You, Father God, I said. I love You. I don't want to hurt You. Forgive me for forgetting about that, that I have the power to hurt You. And forgive me for just looking to You to answer my prayers without realizing the responsibility that I have to love You back.

And so, my dear, beloved brothers and sisters, will you take this to heart with me? Love is delicate. Jesus is sensitive. You know, the Holy Spirit manifested as a dove. Doves are very fluttery. I mean, they will land in an area that's safe, but when there's turmoil, those doves will fly away. And that's the way God's Spirit is in our lives, beloved. We have to cultivate love and be sensitive to Him and be careful how we walk so that His dove and love can rest fully on our lives.