February 20th, 2021 – Very Early Saturday Morning
“He made known His ways to Moses,
His acts to the sons of Israel.” ~Psalm 103:7
Do you realize the significance of this verse? Obviously, every verse of Scripture is significant and is given to us for a specific reason, but stop and think about this one verse for a minute because it helps to give all the others their place…
Before we go any farther on the significance line of thought, let’s break this passage down. “He” and “His” refer to the LORD, as seen in the previous verse in this chapter. The LORD is YHWH, the Self-Existing, the Great I Am, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords; as we have seen before, there is no one who can compare to Him and He created everything and everyone who exists, except Himself (since He is self-existing with no beginning or end). This verse says that He, the LORD, made known His ways to Moses, and that He made known His acts to the sons of Israel.
The idea of making “known” is exactly what it sounds like: To know, to learn to know, to perceive, to perceive and see, find out and discern, be acquainted with, etc. “Ways” is translated from the word that means “way, road, distance, journey, manner” and “of course of life”, “of moral character”, etc.; the word for “acts” can also mean “deeds”. Moses is the humble servant of the LORD who led the children of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land, and the children (or sons) of Israel were the descendants of Jacob, the man who wrestled with God and was permanently disabled (and blessed) because of it. Jacob (and therefore his descendants) was descended from Abraham, the friend of God and recipient of great blessings and promise.
The LORD allowed Moses and the Israelites to find out and be acquainted with His “course of life” and deeds; this is seen in a number of ways: 1. God revealed His character – His holiness, His justice, His mercy, His faithfulness, etc. – in the giving of and content of the Law. 2. God revealed His righteous and awesome deeds through the awful plagues of Egypt, the dividing of the Red Sea, the manna, the quail, the water, the infamous earth-swallowing judgment of the rebels, etc. 3. God also revealed His awesome and creative works through His creation of the universe, complete with time and space, which He revealed to Moses in the book that is known as Genesis. 4. All of this revelation came real time with a really big reality of God’s existence and presence – the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.
Considering this multi-layered revelation of God to man should knock us off our feet! He is not an unknown or obscure God who hides Himself from His people; rather, He is an awesome and wholly other God who has chosen to give His human creations an understanding (even if it is not with the totality of His glory) of His nature and character. We aren’t left with a statue or an idol that defines His shape or figure, and we are not able to concoct a god according to our own fancies. No, the one true God has revealed HIMSELF to us through His creation, through His Word (the Bible), and through Jesus, the Word (or Logos).
This is what makes this verse so significant: God has made Himself known! Every verse of His Word is significant because each one comes from HIM! We have life and hope today because He has given us the opportunity to know Him. Do you know (not just information about) Him? Are you living in such a way as to reflect that knowledge? Is His Spirit living in you and working within you a deeper understanding of His Word and will? What a privilege we have to KNOW the God who has given us our very breath!
Thank You, Father! Help us to apply ourselves to knowing You more and to making You known to the world around us through our love for You and each other and through our words and deeds.