I know this sounds a little off; I mean, of course I accept God for who he is. What else can I do? He is the Lord of lords and King of kings, and the Almighty. Who else would I think he is?

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God tells us who he is throughout the Bible, specifically in the Tanakh (the “Jewish Bible”). In the New Covenant writings, we do not hear a lot of who God is, but mostly of who Yeshua is, and in many Christian religions (and, believe me, there are enough of them!) they consider Yeshua, the Messiah, and God, the Father, to be one and the same entity.

But we ain’t goin’ there, Homies!

The reasoning behind why I am asking if you accept God for who he is comes from the many times I have been exposed to people who tell me what God wants, and why he wants that, but their belief is so far from what God says in the Bible that I have to wonder if we are talking about the same God.

I have heard people tell me that God is a compassionate, forgiving, and loving father, all of which is true, but they say that just before they tell me he will forgive their sins, without any mention of repentance or confession. They believe that just because God loves them as they are, and they believe in Yeshua (whatever that is supposed to mean) that they will be forgiven of any sins they commit. They do not understand, or more likely, refuse to accept, that even though God loves them, he is also holy and keeps his word, so if you sin, continue to sin, do not confess or repent of your sins, his love will not save you from damnation.

I believe the proof of God’s love is found in one place more than any other- that is in the book of the prophet Ezekiel, specifically Ezekiel 18:23, where God says:

Do I take any pleasure at all in having the wicked person die?” asks Adonai Elohim. “Wouldn’t I prefer that he turn from his ways and live?

God is saying that not only is he willing to forgive the sinner, but he greatly desires to forgive us!

But wait a minute! That doesn’t say it all, because before this he says something that sounds very different, and that is Ezekiel 18: 20-24 where he first tells us:

“The person who sins is the one that will die — a son is not to bear his father’s guilt with him, nor is the father to bear his son’s guilt with him; but the righteousness of the righteous will be his own, and the wickedness of the wicked will be his own. However, if the wicked person repents of all the sins he committed, keeps my laws and does what is lawful and right; then he will certainly live, he will not die. None of the transgressions he has committed will be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done, he will live. On the other hand, when the righteous person turns away from his righteousness and commits wickedness by acting in accordance with all the disgusting practices that the wicked person does, will he live? None of the righteous deeds he has done will be remembered; for the trespasses and sins he has committed, he will die.“

So, here is God telling us who he is: he wants to forgive his children, whom he loves, but he is also God and will punish the sinner, meaning those who sin without confessing and repenting of their sin.

There are other ways people, even those who profess to worship God, do not accept who he is by rejecting his Holy Days, making excuses for rejecting his laws of kashrut (Kosher), and still expecting that he wil be OK with all that because his son told us we could.

How can anyone think that the son of God, the one he sent, would teach to reject what his father said to do?

Maybe because some believe Yeshua to be God, they make the excuse that he changed his mind after he was resurrected, by himself, even though he was dead, which God can’t be, which …. HUH? The more I follow that line of thinking, the less sense it makes.

That’s another one we ain’t touching today with a 10-foot pole!

There are other examples of how people pigeon-hole or compartmentalize God by convincing themselves that what they really want to do is OK with God. That is why, as I started this message, I asked if YOU really accept God for who he is?

If you are still not sure what I mean, then ask God, yourself, to show you who he is. Read the Torah- I think when you have a good understanding of what God wants us to do, then you will see that he is telling us who he is- he Lord, a holy and perfect spiritual entity who is also very emotional, loving his creation totally but because he is holy, he wants us to be holy, as well, because if we aren’t we cannot ever commune with him. He is in a sort of Catch-22 that he, himself, created when he gave us Free Will, which is a two-sided sword: free will allows us to choose to be righteous so we can live forever in God’s presence, and it also allows us to reject God and condemn ourselves to eternal damnation. And no matter which we choose, God has to stand aside and allow us to do what we will because he is holy and 1000% trustworthy, which means he will forgive us as he said he will- when we do what we have to do receive that forgiveness.

And for the same reason he will forgive us, he will punish us when we do not do as he said we should.

That seems to me to be the one thing most people do not accept about God.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!