A Is For Awesome - God Centered Alphabet Blog Series
A is for awesome. That’s right, He is an awesome God!
A is for awesome. That’s right, He is an awesome God!
You no doubt have heard the song, Our God is an Awesome God. Well, that’s because it’s true. He is an awesome God, and His Word is awesome!
In Deuteronomy 7:12, it says,
Yahweh’s Covenant Blessings
12 “Then it will be, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you His covenant and His lovingkindness which He swore to your fathers.
Deuteronomy instructs the people of God to listen to the Lord your God, listen to the judgments, keep and do them. The Lord keeps His covenant. God says, “Look, I’m faithful. I’m going to keep my side.” We’re the ones who don’t keep our side.
This is in verse 13.
13 And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, in the land which He swore to your fathers to give you.
He will love you. He will bless you, multiply you.
He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock in the land which he swore to your fathers to give to you. And we learn from the book of Joshua1 that everything the Lord promised them, he gave to them. The land and everything, this promise is fulfilled.
All the conquest, all the victories, battles, wars, and how the people, you know, maintained their health and maintained all their things. And they didn’t see any of those diseases, judgments, and plagues that were there in Egypt designed to get them out of Egypt. They didn’t have to deal with those things outside of Egypt because the Lord gave them success, good health, and good victory and war.
This is not something that we can take and apply to our world and say, well, well, see, see, it says that, you know, you won’t have any sickness and all those things. Well, we’ve got to handle the word of God consistently, both in interpretation and application. And this was applying to the original audience, to the Israelite people specifically.
Now we can take spiritual application out of this and say, yes, God will bless your family, generally speaking, and your health and your life and things like that if you’re obedient. But there are many times when we will suffer greatly for God. And those that will serve Christ will suffer for Him. We may suffer through trials. We may suffer through certain adverse situations. And it’s all designed for our good, for our growth, and for the glory of God.
It shows how He is an awesome God and that He is faithful in His promises and what He provided. And yes, He did give them the land, but even in Joshua and beyond, as you look through their history, He keeps warning them. He warns, “You’re going into these lands, but don’t mix with them. Don’t intermingle with them. Don’t intermarry with them because you think you could influence them. However, it’s actually they who will influence you. You’re going after other gods.”
And we see this as very true in our day. You know, bad company corrupts good morals.
You’re not going to continue to hang out with that group of sinful people and think you’re going to influence them. If their hearts haven’t been changed, haven’t been raised to life in Christ, there’s no basis to think that they could make that change. They will influence you and influence your decisions.
And so God warns here, in Deuteronomy, (paraphrasing) “You know, I’m going to give you all these people, but He says, your eyes shall not pity them. Don’t serve their gods. That’s a snare.”
Idol worship is always a snare. Our awesome God is to be served supremely. Our awesome God is awesome because He is the only true God. He’s the God we should want to worship. He’s the only God we should want to serve. He’s the only God we should want to know about because He is the only God.
All other gods are idols, figments of man’s imagination. And He says, “It’s a snare. It’s a trap.” Think about it. The greatest sin in our lives comes from these traps. It’s, oh, look how pretty and shiny this is over here. Don’t you want to look at it? Don’t you want to? We have to touch it. We have to use it. We have to consume it, whatever it is.
It’s a snare. It’s a trap. It isn’t what it promises to be!
And then in verse 17, it says,
17 “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them?’
You shall not be afraid of them. You shall well remember what Yahweh, the Lord, your God, did to Pharaoh and all to Egypt. The Lord’s talking about His covenant blessings with Israel. This is what I’ve said I will do to you as part of my covenant. And this is what I expect from you.
He’s already telling them, you need to guard your hearts against idol worship. And you also need to guard your hearts from a lack of faith. And look, it’s easy to pile on Israelites and say, man, these people could not keep their faith. I mean, if the Lord sent plagues to get me out of Egypt, if the Lord parted the Red Sea for me to go through, I don’t think I’d forget that. No, I wouldn’t. Yeah, we’re not so different.
We do it. I can speak for myself. I encounter situations, and my immediate thought is, how am I going to get through this? What am I going to do? I don’t have the money. I don’t have the time. I don’t have the resources. Like, how am I going to get this done? What are you expecting from me? What are you doing to me? When just yesterday, last week, last month, and last year, the Lord comes through and shows you, I’m an awesome God. The temptation is to think that He’s not faithful. No, He’s faithful. It’s us who are not faithful.
God is telling them here in Deuteronomy not to look at them and think, how could I dispossess them? Don’t be afraid of them. Remember what God did.
19 the great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which Yahweh your God brought you out. So shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20 Moreover, Yahweh your God will send the hornet against them until those who remain and hide themselves from you perish.
Notice verse 19: great trials that your eyes saw. You saw all these signs and wonders. You’ve seen the mighty hand of God work. You’ve seen the awesome outstretched arm by which the Lord brought you out. And the Lord’s going to do this to all the people whom you are currently afraid of. Notice how God’s faithfulness is never in doubt.
God’s faithfulness is never in question. God always does exactly what He purposes to do. Now, sometimes His purpose is allowing us to go through trials and suffering for kingdom building, for sanctification, for His glory.
Sometimes God chooses us to suffer through a period or through something. Some people have lives that are just full of suffering. And then we find out how much glory God gets and how they suffer well for the kingdom. Because remember, ultimately, our ultimate promise is that we will have no sin and no pain and no tears and no issues in eternal life, in the next life, when we are in heaven with God and with Jesus.
In this life, we’re not promised perfect health. We’re not promised these things. That’s why one of the tests you can use to know if somebody’s taking this as an application is when they say, “Pray for your health. Claim your blessing! You will never be sick!” All of this is just nonsense.
Well, obviously, interpretations done consistently with the right context and application will let you know that’s not right. But I always say, and I teach this a lot, your interpretation of Scripture will match reality. God has created this universe; He’s created this world, and He’s created everything to work within a certain reality, certain physical laws, certain things like that.
So, think about it. If this prosperity gospel were true, and you could never get sick, never be hungry, never have trials, never have a hard time in your life, and that was as true as they claim it is, then why are there sick Christians?
Why are there suffering Christians?
Why are there Christians who have hard times?
Why are there Christians like myself who have major depressive disorder and OCD?
Why are there Christians who have autism?
Why are there Christians who have broken legs or missing legs or maybe cancer or whatever it is?
Why? Well, reality tells us these things happen.
Reality tells us these things are not only possible but very likely to happen to many of us. I don’t see Christians walking around exempt from these things. You don’t have a whole swath of people in this world who never get sick. Like, what’s different about those folks? Oh, they’re Christians? Hey, sign me up for that. No, reality tells us that’s not true.
Does God heal? Yes, when he chooses. Does God sometimes supernaturally heal us more quickly from things than we otherwise would? Does God give us bodies that heal themselves with the immune system and all those things? Yes.
Does it take time to heal? Yes. Does God do things in doctors’ offices and in surgery rooms that completely baffle people for his glory? Yes. Is that normative? No, because if miracles happened like that all the time, they wouldn’t be miraculous. It’d be normative. That’s the whole point. God chooses when he wants to do these things for his glory.
And sometimes that means you’ve got to have good and evil, bad and good, trials, good times, mountains, valleys, and everything in between. You’ve got to have suffering to have that overcoming. You can’t overcome anything if there’s nothing to overcome.
We see this throughout the book of Joshua. Conquest, victory after victory, and he’s having to remind them all the time, yeah, that’s what I told you I was going to do.
How many times have we seen God work in our lives? We’ve seen him bring us out of so many things. We’ve seen him use tough times, trials, and sufferings to teach us things about ourselves and about him.
Then, if something new or a recurring thing comes our way again? What do we do?
I know what I am tempted to do. Ask, “Do I really have to deal with this again?” Now, I will admit, the older I get, I’m doing better with this. I think I can confidently and righteously say that I am doing better in this area.
As things come, I’m learning to say, “Hey, you know what? This is unfortunate. This is certainly not what I would have signed up for, but we’ll be okay. Everything will work itself out. We’ll make it through it. If we need money, it’ll be there. If we need resources, they’ll be there because we have seen God, the awesome God, work and demonstrate himself to be faithful and awesome time after time after time after time after time.”
Even when I haven’t been faithful, even when we as Christians have not been faithful, even when I failed him through sin, not trusting or having enough faith, chasing some shiny idol, he’s still faithful time after time after time after time. Why?
Notice verse 21, it says,
21 You shall not dread them, for Yahweh your God is in your midst, a great and fearsome God.
God is sovereign over all things. Every single moment in time that occurs has been sovereignly cared for and predestined by God. Nothing that occurs in time surprises God. He never learns anything from what happens in time. No, it’s not him sitting there robotically pulling strings.
We freely make those choices within our creaturely will. God has true, free, autonomous will. We have a will, based on our nature, whether a slave of sin or a slave of righteousness; we freely make our choices.
It’s all in his sovereign plan and his redemptive history being carried out. And so when he tells you, you shall not dread them. He’s saying, “They’re not sovereign. I am.”
They’re not God. I’m God. I’m the awesome God, not these people you’re afraid of, not that thing at work that troubles you, not those sinful people you have to deal with, not your own sin that may be in front of you, or whatever your circumstance.
God may not necessarily correct it, remove it, or heal you from it. Whether it’s a medical diagnosis that God has chosen not to heal, or a mental health issue, as I do. Whatever it is that God has given you, he has sovereignly and purposefully given you exactly what he wants you to have.
The whole Christian cliché that God will never give you more than you can handle is Baloney! Baloney on all accounts! Many times I’ve had more than I could handle, and it was only by the grace, mercy, power, and strength of God that I made it through it.
Sometimes the overcoming in life that we love to sing about is that you just barely, barely make it through. You are just barely getting across the finish line. Crawling, scraping, and just barely getting across. Sometimes, we cross it in victory with full strength and full stride.
The whole point of all of it, no matter what it is you face, no matter what is in your day, no matter what is in your week, no matter what’s in your life, no matter what it is, you shall not dread it, or them, or your own sin, or Satan, or whoever. Don’t dread it!
Don’t fear it! Why? For Yahweh, your God, the one that you bow the knee to, the one you obey, the one who has saved you, your God is in your midst. He is a great and fearsome God, as the Legacy Standard Bible translates it. You could also translate this “awesome God”; hence, the A is for awesome. The awesome God, the magnificent God, beyond comprehension, beyond human language to fully describe, the awesome, the fearsome, the great and awesome God.
We’re to fear God. We’re to have a reverent fear and disposition of worship and bowing down of ourselves to the one who is the great, fearsome, and awesome God.
22 And Yahweh your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, lest the wild beasts become too numerous for you. 23 But Yahweh your God will give them over before you and will throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed. 24 And He will give their kings into your hand so that you will make their name perish from under heaven; no man will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them. 25 The graven images of their gods you are to burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it, for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God. 26 And you shall not bring an abomination into your house and become devoted to destruction like it; you shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.
One of the things you see in the New Testament and a lot in the Old Testament is this repeated call to abhor idolatry, detest idols, detest that which God says is an abomination to Him. He is God. He is the fearful and awesome God.
And anything that takes away from His glory is an abomination, is to be detested. It says here, don’t bring an abomination into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. In many cases, we’d be dealing with literal idols. These pagan peoples would have actual physical, literal idols they’d worship.
And so He says the graven images of their gods, burn them with fire, destroy them, get rid of them. Why? You’ll end up coveting it, and it’ll be a snare for you, taking you away from Me. It’ll take you away from your God. It’s an abomination. You don’t need to bring it into your home. You need to detest it, abhor it. It’s devoted to destruction.
And sin and idols will do the same to you. It will consume you. It will take you down the path to destruction every time. One of my dear brothers and fellow preachers, Pastor Jim Kreeger, says often, “Men, all of you are only one or two bad decisions away from completely ruining your life.” He’s right.
Think about it. You bring that idol into your home, start devoting yourself to it, and one day, you’ll wake up, and your life’s gonna be destroyed. Everything you know is gonna be done. You’re gonna be consumed by it.
Why?
Because you took something that had to be created, like wood from a tree, to make this physical idol. The idol may be a spiritual one like a job, career, or money, and you have attached reverence to that idol in the place of the Lord, who says, “You shall not dread them, for the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.”
He’s awesome, and He’s the only awesome God. It is an actual act of cosmic treason to replace Him with anything or anyone else. We shouldn’t do that. No other God can make the claims that this God does: the claim that I’m gonna give you victory. I’m gonna do all these things for you, and you’re gonna love me, and I’m gonna love you and provide for you.
The biggest takeaway from this is in verse 21: “The Lord your God, Yahweh your God, is in your midst.” It means He’s with you. He’s in there with you through all of it. He doesn’t just leave you to figure it out.
He doesn’t just leave you to try plans A, B, C, and D to see what sticks. Sometimes in our sin we may feel abandoned. I know David certainly felt that way many times when he’d fall into sin. You see that in his psalms. He says, “Lord, where have you gone? It’s like I feel abandoned here!”
That’s not true. God says, “I’m in your midst. I’m with you.”
He’s always with us. He will never leave us or forsake us. He’s with us.
Now, if you’re in sin, He’s going to be with you to get you to repent of it, and He may have to let consequences come and chastise you to get you to realize the folly of your ways, but He’s always with you.
He’s awesome because that’s who He is. He’s the great, fearsome, awesome God. And we need to be rightly related to Him through repentance and faith. We need to obey Him.
A is for Awesome!
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43 So Yahweh gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it. 44 And Yahweh gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; Yahweh gave all their enemies into their hand. 45 Not one promise of the good promises which Yahweh had promised to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:43-45 LSB)
