The Dlvine Manifestation of God BY Anna2468 The Divine Manifestation of God After reading the Book of Genesis, it isn’t surprising that many believe that the God of heaven and earth is nothing but capricious. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word capricious as “changing often and quickly; especially: often changing suddenly in mood or behavior, not logical or reasonable: based on an idea, desire, etc. , that is not possible to predict”. From the beginning to the end, Genesis does nothing but to support the assumption that every one of the characters suffered by the hands of a capricious god.
However, further examination proves Just the opposite- that God is reasonable, Just, loving while not predictable, He can predict and prevent. Through these stories show that all things, both good and bad, are used to manifest the goodness of God and are all apart of his plan to strengthen and build His relationship with man. The fall of Adam and Eve is probably one of the most famous capricious acts ever told in the Bible. Scholars and theologians have long since been puzzled by the fact that God, all-knowing and all-powerful, knew that Adam and Eve would sin yet He created them anyways.
He knew that they would fall yet he bravely said, “Let us create man in our image”. To make matters worse, God not only created man but He also placed the forbidden tree right in their presence knowing full well that they would choose what the tree had to offer over what He had to offer. Yet, He didn’t coerce or persuade them to choose Him, He simply sat back and allowed them to choose. This is one of the reasons why God created man even though He knew that they would sin. Everything that God creates is used to manifest His glory and His attributes. Creating man was no different.
You see, God created man so that they could serve and worship Him but He only wants them to do so willingly in both spirit and in truth. He wants our love unconditionally, not out of fear or coercion. He wants us to freely love Him as much as He loves us. True loves comes from love freely given and that is the kind of love that He expects of us. When God created man, He did so with the intention of developing a friendship based on trust, love and obedience. If He had stepped in and prevented Adam and Eve from sinning, it would have negated His whole relationship with man and man’s relationship with Him.
The primary reason, however, that the fall of man could not have been the result of a capricious God, is the simple fact that when man sinned, God stepped in to take full responsibility by issuing the plan of salvation that no one but Him knew about. You see, God had a divine intervention planned because He knew that mankind would need Him to save them from their sins. Although God was disappointed, He didn’t let his disappointment stop Him from doing what it is that He knew He had to do.
Through the atonement of our sins, we are fully able to witness God in all His ajesty for through His plan of redemption we are able to see a Just, loving, merciful, and all-powerful God. We are able to understand Just how much God loves us, so much so that He was willing and did sacrifice His only Son for the redemption and the salvation of a set of people who only reject Him over and over again. Just as He reminder that no matter how messed up we are or how badly we have sinned, God, merciful and Just, will always step in and save us despite how undeserving we are.
All we have to so is freely and wholeheartedly accept His grace and forgiveness because it is through Him and Him only that we are saved. Like Adam and Eve, Joseph also suffered by the hands of a seeming capricious god. He was the most beloved. He went form being one who was served to one who served. He went from being placed on a pedestal to one placed in the lowest of places-prison. Once free, he was now imprisoned. It seemed as of every time something good happened to Joseph, bad would come in ten-folds brutally knocking him down.
However, God did not forget Joseph while he was in prison. Even there He blessed Joseph, allowing him to find favor in the Jail keeper’s sight thus allowing him to be in charge of all the prisoners. Although Joseph was a little bit of a braggart when he was with his brothers enlightening them of how great God has promised that he would become, he was deeply humbled y his trying circumstances. What is admirable Joesph is that through it all, he remained faithful to God. When Potipher’s wife wanted to seduce him, he ran away telling her that He dared not go against God.
When interpreting the dreams of the bread maker, wine bearer and Pharaoh, he didn’t take credit for himself, but instead, gave all the glory and the praise to God, the creator of all things. One can honestly believe that this was all apart of God’s plan. You see, God needed someone faithful enough to introduce Him to the heathens of the world. He needed someone who would be able to use his personal struggles and trials as testimonies to the goodness of God. He needed someone one to show the less spiritual inhabitants of the earth that God is faithful and Just to those who love Him and keep His commandments.
He needed someone to save His people in a spiritual sense. The only person who could have done this was Joseph, for he had the spirit, the heart and the gumption. Not only did God need someone to save His people spiritually by showing what aving a personal and faithful relationship with Him can do but he need someone who would save them physically. Joesph was Just the right person. You see, Joseph had already possessed the leadership qualities that God need in one who would represent Him.
He was loyal, steadfast, diligent, focused, and one who could handle himself in any given situation. Many of these qualities Joseph learned from sealing with his brothers because he was used to being the one who was the overseer of all that his father had because although he was the youngest at the time, he was the most responsible. God, being omniscient, knew that a famine way for Egypt. He knew that someone would have to step in order to save the people of Egypt and its surrounding countries from starvation and death. That chosen person was Joseph.
Joseph’s efficiency made him second in command to Pharaoh; he was greater than Potipher, the man who once ruled over him. He was able to save the lives of men, women and children both far and near. Through Joseph, the people of Egypt and various countries were able to see the glory of God. They were able to understand who He was and who He is, a God who loves His people unconditionally despite them having turned their backs on Him. Through Joseph, God was once again lifted up, onored, glorified and magnified in a time where it seemed that all had forgotten man and faith in God was restored.
In conclusion, it is fair to say that God is never capricious. A a matter of fact, He is the complete opposite-one who is merciful and loving beyond all measures. It is must be said that throughout all the events the charter of God is manifested through man which is one of the reasons why God created us in the first place. Not only that but the relationship between God and man was developed and strengthened. Through it all, man was able to develop a deep understanding of who God is and what He they meant to Him.
