The Great and Terrible God

I’m always surprised at what one small scripture can teach you. I love digging into the details and seeing what treasures I can unearth. Nehemiah 1:5 says, “𝑰 𝒑𝒓𝒂𝒚, 𝑳𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝑮𝒐𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏, 𝑶 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒘𝒆𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝑮𝒐𝒅, 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒃𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔.” If you read this scripture in the New King James version, you will see that Nehemiah prayed to the “𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝑮𝒐𝒅.” To make it more relevant to this era, the wording has since been changed to “great and awesome God.” Sometimes I feel we use the word awesome far too much and, so, it has lost much of its meaning. We say, “That’s awesome, dude,” or “What an awesome movie!” Awesome has lost its power.

Nehemiah, on the other hand, prayed to a “𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝑮𝒐𝒅.” The Hebrew word for awesome is ‘yaré,’ meaning terrible, to fear, revere, stand in awe of, and respect. Jesus is not our ‘dude,’ or our ‘buddy.’ No, He is a great and terrible God, an awe-inspiring God, a God with immense power and might! He created everything out of nothing with just one word! If God is simply our buddy, we reduce Him to our level and minimize His incredible and miraculous power.

We need a God that is all powerful, all knowing, and always present—a God whose very existence commands our respect, a God whom we esteem and honor. God is indeed our friend; He is good, His love and grace towards us is bountiful. But He is also commanding, forceful, formidable and mighty. Like Nehemiah, we should always approach our God with a good dose of awe and respect. An element of worship should be the first thing on our lips. We should be in awe that a mighty and terrible God like ours would listen when we pray, would love us where we’re at, and act upon the prayers that we pray.

Revelations 1:14-16 gives us a picture of our Great and Terrible God: “𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒊𝒓 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒐𝒍, 𝒂𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒏𝒐𝒘, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒆; 𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒔, 𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒇 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒇𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒄𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔; 𝑯𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒔, 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒉 𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒑 𝒕𝒘𝒐-𝒆𝒅𝒈𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒕𝒉.”

Eyes like a flame of fire, a voice like crashing waves, and a face that shone with the strength of the sun. That doesn’t sound like a dude or buddy to me! In fact, when John saw Jesus face to face, he fell at His feet as though dead. 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗱, 𝘄𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗱, 𝗮 𝗚𝗼𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁! 💕🦋