YHWH is God

Something that I realized after we completed the study of the book of Joel is this: When Agnes (who was leading the study) got each of us to list down what we could learn about God’s attributes and character through this minor prophet, we could just list down so many of them. All of them represented different aspects of God. But what was interesting was that many of these attributes couldn’t match very well. We cannot classify and merge them to form a whole without some ‘contradictions’. In Joel, we see a God who is merciful and relents from sending harm, yet does not hold back from destroying the wicked. We see a God who is generous in pouring out His blessings, but who also marches onward in the destruction of nations. We see a God of love, a God of justice; and we also see a God who shows favoritism towards the Jews. We see a God who can be gentle at times, but scary at other times. Why? How? We don’t know. Yet, this is the God Whom we worship; a God that cannot be pinned down, classified, and studied like an insect; a God that is wild and free beyond our imaginations; a God who astounds and surprises; a God that we cannot fully grasp in our finite wisdom; a God that refuses to come under our control, to fit into our neat formulas, to allow us to put into a box; a God who is so much greater than we think He is; a God who is so much greater than the words that we use to describe Him. This is our God. This is the God Whom we worship. Indeed, ‘Joel’ is a very fitting name, not just for the prophet who carried God’s message, but for the whole book: YHWH is God…