Part II Doctrine
II. GOD THE ALL-POWERFUL
Exodus 19:10—18; Isaiah 40:21—31; .43:11; Psalm 115;
Mark 7:31—37; Hebrews 12:18—29
Long before the people of the Old Testament had developed a fully articulated doctrine of creation such as we find in Genesis 1, they had ample experience of the overwhelming power of the God whom they served. Indeed one of the commonest Hebrew words for God (El) seems
to be derived from a verb which means simply "to be powerful." From the beginning of her religious history this thought of tremendous,
terrifying power was a central element in Israel’s consciousness of God.
This is very clear in the story of God’s revelation of Himself to Moses when the Covenant of Law was established at Sinai (Exod. 19:10—18).
As with so many of these Old Testament stories, one must of course understand that the passage is less a literal description of an historical event than a record of the profound impression which the event made upon those who experienced it. The deliverance from Egypt, and the covenant which followed it, were the two basic experiences upon which Israel’s faith was built. Through both of them the nation had come to know a God whose power was infinitely greater than the insipid gods of the heathen and utterly beyond the comprehension of feeble man. Many stirring passages of the Old Testament bear witness to the continuing centrality of this sense of the power of Cod. In the theological language of later time one might speak of it as a "doctrine of divine
omnipotence," but (perhaps fortunately) the men of the Bible had no such abstract terms to use. They used, instead, vivid concrete language drawn from the violent forces of nature. In the present passage the sense of God’s power is expressed in terms taken from two of the most awe- inspiring phenomena of the physical world—a thunderstorm (v. i6) and a volcanic eruption (i8). Although the poetry comes from a different thought-world than our own, it still has the capacity to arouse in men’s minds a profound feeling for the majesty of the power of God.
In much later times the same thought would be expressed in less violent, though no less effective, terms. The Second Isaiah, who is often called the theologian of the Old Testament, was the first to give unambiguous expression to the thought of the absolute uniqueness—in being and power—of the God of Israel (see, for example, Isa. 43:1 i). It seemed clear to the prophet, surveying the long history of his people, that the God who had known, judged and saved them must be the only God who exists at all, the creator of all things and the sovereign possessor of all the powers of the universe. God reigns, he says, in tranquil majesty over His creation, fashioning and directing it (Isa. 40:21—31). Kings have no power except what God gives them (vv. 23—24). The stars, which the Babylonians thought to be gods themselves, are only servants of God, created to do His will (26). From this passage we get the impression that God’s power is not primarily destructive, but creative and beneficent.
Most encouraging of all, God gives His power to those who love and fear Him (27—31). Weak, helpless man is not so helpless after all.
Those who "wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint."
One of the hymns of ancient Israel (Ps. 1:15) expresses in the language of popular devotion this thought of the unique and absolute power of God, and the consequent sense of dependence and gratitude which
should fill the hearts of His worshipers. Incidentally, the psalm comes as close as the Old Testament ever does to putting the doctrine of God’s omnipotence in terms of a simple formula: ". . . our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased" (v. 3).
When we turn to the New Testament we find there was little need by that time to dwell on the thought of God’s power, since this had already been so firmly established in the Old Testament as part of the basic faith of Israel. But it is important to notice that one of the things which most impressed the contemporaries of Jesus was that he himself was able to manifest this divine power among human beings as no other had ever done. His deeds of healing were particularly striking, and men must often have said, as it is reported in Mark 7:31—37: "He hath done all things well; he maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak."
We shall not understand either the Old or the New Testament unless we see first of all how the consciousness of God’s power permeates them both. Without this primary sense of power, God’s other qualities, His love and mercy and even His righteousness, are likely to seem merely forms of weakness. The God of Israel, who is also the God of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, is worthy of our worship because in the first place, He is the sole creator of all that is and the absolute possessor of all power, whether in the world of nature or human society.
A rather curious passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews (12:18—29) compares Israel’s experience of God at Sinai with the Christian’s experience of God in Christ. We are perhaps inclined to think that they are utterly different, but the author of the epistle sees them as similar and parallel. The passage is worth reading if only to correct the sometimes too-sentimental view of our relationship to Christ. As in Exodus, the emphasis here is on the reverence and awe with which man must always approach the Omnipotent God—at Bethlehem and
Golgotha as well as on Sinai.