Is God An Emotional Being?
In the earlier years of my Christian life, I had not considered that God might be an emotional being. I know it sounds crazy, because I knew he was real, that he saved me, and that I had a relationship with him. But I did not think of him as having feelings and emotions. Because my own emotions were shut down, I was unable to relate to him as an emotional being. As I look back at that time, I think I had projected my own emotional brokenness onto my view of God.
Truth be told, God does have feelings and emotions, just like you and me. He experiences compassion, jealousy, anger, love, and calls us friends. Have we considered that God might express his feelings to those made in his image who also have feelings?
God likes people; in fact, he loves us. He wants a whole family of people from every nation, tongue, and tribe. He is so committed to his human family that he is patiently working out his plan over thousands of years. There are those who would have you believe that God in the Old Testament is a cold, uncaring, unfeeling thug – but nothing could be further from the truth.
From the beginning, the plan was for the Creator and his family to live together in creation. This family would care for the garden, raise children, interact with the Creator and his heavenly court. In other words, humans would build a society that was very natural and earthy but intimately integrated with the supernatural world of heaven.
His Heart Breaks
Tragically, three major events occurred in the early pages of Genesis that exacted a heavy toll on Yahweh’s plan. As a result, humanity was left in a condition of brokenness and loss of innocence, Satan became the “god” of this world, and we became his subjects. Wickedness, violence, and sexual perversion exploded, which was later followed by pride, arrogance, mystery religions, and a communal rebellion against the Creator. If these outcomes sound familiar, they are the results of the garden temptation, events leading up to the great flood, and the tower of Babel. Humanity had become willing accomplices in our own destruction. In the years leading up to the flood, the pain became unbearable.
The LORD observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the LORD was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. Gen. 6:5-6 (NLT)
For many years, I did not connect the events in Genesis 1–11 with the call of Abraham. But when the Lord allowed me to understand these events, the story of redemption (beginning with Abraham) became much deeper, richer, and personal. It became human – filled with pain, suffering, hope, calling, purpose, and human value.
God’s Big Story
Against this background of the first eleven chapters of Genesis, God called a man out of Ur, that great ancient Mesopotamian city. The original garden vision must be restored, but how? This is where we pick up the storyline with our study of Abraham. God chose a man and his wife to begin restoring what had been lost over the last 1900 years. This is the beginning of “God’s big story” being worked out through human agency in the Old and New Testaments.
Throughout the scriptures, the Creator foreshadows this mysterious plan through a series of interwoven, ever-expanding types, shadows, stories, promises, covenants, and prophetic revelations. It is a story of war and peace, mystery and revelation, slavery and deliverance, kings and peasants, and so much more. It is a story for the past, the present, and the future. My desire is to reconsider these foundational stories to understand how they might connect to the New Testament and our lives today.
Conclusion
What you are about to read will provide a glimpse into this mysterious plan. There are twists and turns, but the outworking of the plan is truly marvelous. As we begin to understand this story, we also come to understand who he is, his heart toward us, how he thinks, and how he operates in the world. But the best part is discovering who we are: the person I used to be, who I am today, and the person I am becoming. As we give ourselves to the process, engaging deeply with the Lord and his story, his Spirit in us does a transformative work.
As we’re beginning this series, I’d like to share two favorite scriptures.
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:29 (ESV)
And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” Mathew 13:52 (ESV)
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