How Does God Reveal Himself?

Reading through the Old Testament can be quite daunting. There are so many different names, repetitions, and a slew of weird concepts that we do not understand in the modern day. Many Christians like to avoid the Old Testament, because it's "just history" or "too hard", but the reason for this is because we read it without a purpose other than just to read. One question helps us overcome this fear of the Old Testament, and if we read it with this question in mind, it will change how we treat the Old Testament: How does God reveal Himself? He reveals Himself in many ways, and in the Old Testament, we are able to see how those who came before learned about who God is through His actions and commandments. Below is about one verse per book, summarizing how God reveals Himself in the Old Testament, and that book specifically, so that we can change our outlook from "just history" to "God's revelation."

Genesis

God Reveals Himself through His creation, His handiwork, carefully created in Genesis

Now, in Genesis, God never says, "I reveal Myself to them" but instead he creates an artwork of the universe, placing inside His personality, His "signature", just as an artist would. Creation holds the mysteries of God, and they "proclaim the works of His hands." We can see evidence of this in other places, like Psalm 19:1.

Exodus

God reveals Himself through His mercy, though providing justice when needed.

If you ask a regular person, they may say that God is more loving in the New Testament, and he is all about being a judge in the Old. But here, in Exodus, we see Israel know and understand that God does in fact judge, but he also provides, he is merciful, loving, and by knowing this, and seeing this, we can also know how to properly show these, as well.

Leviticus

God reveals Himself through His holiness, giving us a standard to be like Him: better.

Leviticus has been the dread of the Old Testament for far too long, because us Christians are unwilling to see the beauty in God's law. The Jews understand this. By reading the laws, we see how difficult it is for us to be "holy" and what God requires in order for sins to be forgiven. God is good, and allows forgiveness, and gives Israel these laws, but HE sets the standard.

Numbers

God reveals Himself through His judgement, and His desire for evil to be punished.

We can speak of God's mercy day and night, but what is the purpose of mercy, if he does not judge properly? Mercy is meaningless without judgement. God sets the standard, and we refuse to meet that standard of goodness and holiness, so God judges us properly. Mercy is not being punished when we deserve it, and since God establishes what is right and what is wrong, he can also decide what we are forgiven for, and what we are punished for. God is a good judge and a righteous judge.

Deuteronomy

God reveals Himself through our obedience: we will know God if we obey and seek him.

As Israel is going into the promised land, Moses reminds them to obey God and remember what happens when they do, and when they don't. God gave us commands to follow so that we may be like Him, and be righteous. Not for prosperity's sake, not for boasting's sake, but for the sake of our souls. If we obey God, we will find righteousness, and desire to learn more about Him and who He is.

Judges

God reveals Himself through His patience with us, and His desire for us to repent.

The time of Judges is a time of uncertainty and confusion. This is because Israel rebelled against God, repented, and followed God, repeatedly. We act in this same way constantly. We sin, repent, and come back to God, but we do not stop there. We repeat this cycle over and over again, so why would God allow this? Because He is always patient, and desires us to be with Him as His children. We are His creation, and He loves us dearly, so He gives us many opportunities to return to him.

Joshua

God reveals Himself through keeping His promises and His desire to be our only desire.

God is always faithful. Joshua is not the only book that speaks on this. But the book of Joshua doesn't just talk about His faithfulness, it displays it. In the past, God made the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that their descendants will be as numerous as the starts. He kept that. He promised that Israel will take over the promised land. He kept that. But God also wants us to desire Him and Him alone. If we do not desire and worship Him, He will not promise prosperity or happiness, but the opposite. God lets Israel know that He desires good for them, but destruction will come if they follow their own desires. He kept that.

1 Samuel

God reveals Himself as the one true King that we should put our faith in, and not any man.

God was the King of Israel. He made the laws, he allotted the land, He protected them, and He provided for them. But they rebelled and did not act in His ways, and so they asked for a human, earthly king to rule over them. God was not enough for them, and so they chose a king who also rebelled against God. Then, David was chosen for his desire after God's own heart, but even he made mistakes and struggled to follow God's Word. Humans make mistakes, and we have a sinful nature, but God is perfect, just, and righteous. An unchanging God should be the only thing we put our hope in.

Ruth

God reveals Himself through the process of redemption: that He will pay the price and accept us.

What is a redeemer? What is the point? A family redeemer pays the price and essentially buys back a family into their inheritance. Maybe this family sold themselves away, or fell away, and a redeemer comes to save them. Christ is our redeemer, who paid the price for us to be brought back into the kingdom of God, our inheritance as his children. Without redemption, we are fully separated from God. Without redemption, we have no hope. But Christ is our family redeemer who gives us hope, who gives us life.

2 Samuel

God reveals himself through David, God's sinful anointed, who sought after God and repented of his sins.

God chose a king, and He wanted a king after His own heart. But what does that mean? God never said He wanted a sinless king to rule Israel; that would later be Jesus Christ. Instead, a king after God's heart looks like David. God wants us to be humble enough to face our wrongdoing, and repent of it. He praised God, loved God, and sought a true relationship with Him, despite his mistakes. Because of this, god blesses David, and establishes him as a legend among Israel for thousands of years. David became known as a great leader, and great worshiper of God. But remember, he is not a good model of a follower of God because of his sinful actions, but because of his desire for God.

1 Kings

God reveals Himself through His faithfulness and patience, even through our rebellion.

We rebel every time we sin. it is active defiance of God, especially if we want to call ourselves Christians. Even though we sin against Him, we are not destroyed right away. So why? Because God is gracious, merciful, and faithful. God made promises to Israel, even after the split with Judah. Both nations are His people, and even though judgement will come, he provides for them in many ways. He sends multiple prophets, like Elijah, to warn them of their rebellion and encourage them to return to God. He gives us many chances to come to Him, because He is a loving and faithful God. He hates to see us suffer and be judged, and wants us to seek and know Him.

2 Kings

God reveals Himself through the consequences of our lack of repentance.

Sin brings evil into the world. We bring evil into the world. Pain, suffering, and death are all because we sin. This sin corrupts God's creation, but God is merciful and allows us to repent from this sin. Sometimes we don't and He allows us to face the consequences of sin. God doesn't always have to bring judgement, but our own sin will punish us. In the case of Manasseh, he sinned, and led an entire nation into sin. Because of this, Judah had to learn the consequences of idol worship: destruction. Soon Babylon comes to overtake Judah and Jerusalem, bringing an end to the monarchy. Sometimes our unrepentance affects us, and sometimes it affects everyone else as well.

1 Chronicles

God reveals Himself through his blessings, and all good things come from Him.

All of creation is God's, and it is His control. God created all the good things in the world, including the things we cannot see, like strength, happiness, and love. Many people believe that strength and power come from the person, but that is not true. Strength and power come from God. He can give it, and take it away. These are all blessings, things God controls. We cannot give ourselves our own blessings, we cannot work towards them. The only thing we can do is ask God to bless us with these good things, and trust in Him.

2 Chronicles

God reveals Himself through the examples of great and terrible leaders.

Yes, God reveals Himself in many ways through our leaders. Maybe there is a great leader who does good, leading as a good example. This leader pushes us to be faithful to God, and leads by example, and is not hypocritical. If this leader existed in our churches, workplaces, or countries, then we would have no doubt that God established them. But, the thing is, God establishes the bad leaders too. Sometimes to teach us lessons and sometimes He allows us to fall into our own sin. Our sin as a group, or world, will produce bad, even evil leaders, but ultimately, God allows them to rise to power. This shows that all leaders are put in place by God's will. Sometimes they will glorify God through their goodness, but others will fall short and lead their people into ruin.

Ezra

God reveals Himself through salvation from our slavery and our sin.

God is our salvation. This is a theme we can find time and time again in Scripture. We can be saved from earthy troubles and tribulation. This is what Ezra discusses after the exile. God saved them from Assyria, Babylon, and eventually, Persia. He sent Persia and saved Israel through a secular nation. God promised He would let them return, and here He fulfills his promises of salvation. God also saves us from the slavery of sin. In the New Testament this is even more clear, but God is more than willing to bring salvation to us and free us from our sin. He wants to redeem us, and have us as a part of His kingdom. In the end, it is all about grace. God's grace is what saves us. Not anyone else, and certainly not ourselves.

Nehemiah

God reveals Himself through revival.

Revival is an overlooked and often misunderstood aspect of our faith. To revive something is to bring it from death to life. We know that God has conquered death and revives us from our walking death in sin, which is what baptism represents. However, when we speak of revival, we speak of spiritual revival, not physical. In Nehemiah, the remnant of Israel returned to their land, and there was a time of spiritual revival. They were dispersed because of their sin against God, and desired to return to Him, and not just their land. Even though most of us are not of Israel, we can also return to God through revival. He can open our hearts, follow in His ways, and love God. But in order to do this, we must repent, acknowledge our sin, and seek God.

Esther

God reveals Himself through His will, whether or not we know it.

God's will will be done. It does not matter if we want to be a part of it or not. it will be done. We have the opportunity to be a part of His plans, and be fully dedicated to Him. Sometimes, God will even use unwilling people to be a part of the plan. In Esther, Esther plays an important part in saving her people, the Israelites. Mordecai see the opportunity and knows that God has this plan for Esther. God's will is still in place, and we all have the opportunity to be a willing part, and to see His will unfold. Or, we can ignore God's plans and let others witness the glory of God.

Job

God reveals Himself through His almighty power and vast knowledge.

It can be very difficult not to blame God. If He is all powerful, why does evil exist? If He is all powerful, then why am I not saved from my suffering. Job may have struggled with these questions for a very long time. But in truth, we have evil and flawed hearts. We can forget that God has ultimate wisdom, grace, and love. He is righteous and just, but also forgiving. We have imperfect perceptions of these things, believing we know what justice, love and righteousness is, but failing to meet God's standard. We lose sight of it all, and forget that evil exists in the world. We can't see everything, know everything, and even understand everything. But God does. He knows and He sees. We can ask god questions, and hope to have the answers revealed to us, but we cannot blame God, and fight against God. We must trust in Him.