Analysis of God in the Hebrew Bible
Introduction
God`s character has been studied over and over by different people trying to get a hint of who God is. Analyzing who God is may take years for one to fully understand God`s nature. It is my intent to bring out God`s character as analyzed in the Hebrew bible. How God shows himself in different ways in comparison to human nature. There are many characteristics of God that are brought out in the Hebrew bible. The bible describes God as the creator, destroyer, forgiver, forger of covenants and many more.
Given the centrality of God`s character in the bible and the claim of the divine ability to shape events, some readers fail to understand why the bible delays to give out the character of God till the conclusion. This is because most people, both believers and non-believers are brought to the biblical preconceived notion about God. The most important thing is to understand God`s character as all powerful. In Isaiah 43:12-17 God explains his powerful nature through what he did in rescuing the children of Israel.
As one begins to read the bible, God`s character starts to be portrayed in the first chapter of the bible. His powerful nature is brought out in the creation story. This starts to reveal to us the nature of God not only in the stories presented in the Hebrew bible but also in the real events like the creation story. In the creation story God`s nature is portrayed beyond human understanding for his powerful words just mentioning words and things that came to be (genesis 1:3).
In Hebrew God is portrayed as solitary and unitary, and thus he does not have relationship with other gods but with the people he created. Thus lead to the beginning of Judaism which was monotheism, which is the belief in one God who is concerned in action of humankind whom he created. God`s calling Abraham to leave his former religion was one of the things that promoted Judaism religion. The promises he made to Abraham during his covenant to make him a great nation showed Jews the love he had for them.
In Hebrew bible Judaism was marked by the sign that God gave to Abraham in his covenant. All Jews are to be circumcised as a sign to differentiate them from all other people. This made the Jews to have a feeling of a special identity as the chosen people of God. Abraham`s encounter with God when he was offering sacrifice brings out another event where God is involved in making decision where he told Abraham and all his household male to be circumcised and all those who followed that lineage.
By calling this one individual Abraham, Jews believed that God was setting in motion a series of acts of grace and judgment which would fashion a special people for him. This is marked by the fact that Jews look Abraham as the father of the faithful thus they had an assurance of entering the promised land which God promised Abraham during their covenant where God told Abraham that he will be a father of nations. This helped in the growth of Judaism.
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Judaism is marked by worship of one God that is Jews are monotheist. This is seen when God was giving Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. In the first commandment he commanded the people to have no other God but him and to worship him alone (Exodus 20:2-4). The Ten Commandments given to Moses at Mount Sinai acted as a constitution throughout the whole forty years journey in the wilderness. Those who never followed them were casted out and they were regarded as rebels. In the wilderness the Israelites eliminating some communities which lived there by killing them and settling in their land and this promoted the growth of Judaism.
Looking at Jerusalem one may view it as the capital city of Israel, but according the Jews, the city of Jerusalem is one place which was regarded as their heart. This was a place that was highly respected as the Jews went to pray at Jerusalem as they offer their sacrifices to God until the time the city was destructed by the Babylonians. During King David`s reign he freed Jerusalem from the Jebusites. The Temple of Jerusalem was constructed after people’s demand for a place of prayer. The Temple rose at a high rate as the Jews went there for their religious classes.
Human nature has been a topic of debate since the first critical thinkers and for good reason. Life is overtly subjective and it is easy to demonstrate an individual’s uncanny knack at stumbling from the righteous path mislead by temptation. In Genesis chapter six through eight there is an incident described where God decided to destroy the Earth including men and everything that he created.
During that time the sons of God decided to have affairs unto daughters of men and they bore children with them which was wickedness before the eyes of God thus God decided to punish the whole Earth. Then God spoke to Noah and told him to build an ark becuase God was going to destroy the whole Earth with water. The ark was to rescue Noah and his family for God saw Noah as the only righteous man amongst other people.
