Eternity is a long time !

Tuesday 23 March 2021

Eternity is a long time !

"I am the Lord your God, I am the one who brought you out of Egypt, where you were a slave." Exodus 20. 1

Moses has the mission to present to the people the Ten Commandments received on Mount Sinai. He introduces his speech with this declaration : “Thus says the Lord : I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt…” The Jews who read this preamble today consider that there is already the first commandment : “I am the Lord !” By this term, the reader discovers the greatness of this God, His eternity, His immutability (He lasts forever and does not change) and His aceity. Aseity is a technical term which signifies independent existence. If everything and everything is from someone or from any preceding element, God exists by Himself. This is what Paul explains to the philosophers of Athens : “God, who made the world and all that is in it, is Lord of heaven and earth, and He does not dwell in temples. built by men. Neither does He need humans to be concerned with providing Him with anything, for He is the One who gives life and breath and everything in between. From one man He created all peoples and established them over the whole earth” (Acts 17, 24). Eternal is a magnificent, breathtaking, fearful and sublime name, as it expresses divine transcendence in one word. The one who says : “I am the One who is” takes the initiative and affirms His presence which has neither beginning nor end. This is not an abstraction or a philosophical concept, He is a personal God who approaches and makes himself known by becoming “your God”. It involves a new, intimate relationship. In Psalm 144, David launches a beatitude : “Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 144. 15). God is our God by virtue of creation, of His choice, and of the redemption acquired in Jesus. If the Lord declares to be “your God,” can you say that He is yours ? If so, David's bliss reaches you.

Source (His Word for Today)