Exodus 3:15: “And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this [is] my name for ever, and this [is] my memorial unto all generations.”
Exodus 15:2: “ The LORD [is] my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he [is] my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”
In reading Jewish literature I ran across something that seems to escape the notice of Christian teachers and pastors, but does not escape the notice of the rabbis and sages. Notice the Bible does not say the God Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but the God Elohim of Abraham, the God Elohim of Isaac and the God Elohim of Jacob. Note too it says YHWH Elohim of your fathers, not just Elohim of your fathers. Yet it is just Elohim of Abraham, Elohim of Isaac and Elohim of Jacob. Even more curious in Exodus 15 Moses and the children of Israel speak a song, I mean this is a group of people talking and yet they say, “He is my God.” Grammatically they should say, “He is our God.”
I know what you are thinking, this Chaim Bentorah fellow is really getting desperate for material to keep up with his daily blog. I am never desperate for material, the Bible is a well that will never runs dry and if I were granted another 15 or 20 years on this planet, I could write daily studies for every day of those years and still not even begin to cover a fraction of the material in the Word of God. It is now 10:00 PM, I will get up at 3:30 or 4:00 tomorrow morning and spend another three hours studying the Word of God and still I will rush home from work to continue my study.
But I digress, back to the topic. I was reading in the Talmud where God does not say the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the The God of Jacob because Isaac did not worship and grow to love Abraham’s God but his own God. Jacob did not worship Abraham and Isaac’s God but his own God. Sure he worshipped the God of his fathers, but it was also his own personal God. In Exodus 15:2 the people did not say Our God, but My God. In John 20:28 when Thomas recognized he was standing before the risen Jesus he said, “My Lord and my God.” I know the Gnostics say that Thomas was only making an exclamation like, “Oh, my goodness.” Believe what you like, for my money, I believe Thomas was declaring that Jesus was his God, his own personal God.
I was recently asked what the mission of Chaim Bentorah Ministries was. My reply is that it is our goal that every Christian recognizes God as their own personal God. Too many Christians worship the God of some TV preacher, or the God of their denomination or the God of their pastor, family, friend or anyone else but their own personal God.
I worship God by sitting on my porch and talking with the birds, squirrels rabbits and other creatures. Sounds crazy, no? I did not get this idea of worship for some preacher, teacher or some sermon I heard, nope, nobody that crazy is going to be on TV or stand in a pulpit. I got this form or worship from just God and I. This is something that just came naturally as I began to find and discover God as my God, my own personal God. You want to worship God by sitting on your porch talking with the creation of God, good luck if you are trying to copy me. I worship the same God that everyone else worshipped when I was as a student at Moody and in seminary. I worshipped the same God that the denomination that ordained me worshipped, but I hardly believe that anyone worships God the same way I do. Maybe some do, I don’t know, I don’t care. I will worship God my way, you worship Him your way – everybody happy.
But more important, if you try to copy me and God has created you and hotwired you to worship Him in a way different than I do, then your worship will fall flat. God is an infinite God and if we have six billion people on this planet then I believe God has six billion different ways He can be worshipped. He is a God of variety, the proof of that is to look at His creation. I recently decided to add more fruit to my diet so I went shopping for apples. Glory, I had no idea how many different apples there were and each had a different taste. There are no two people on this planet that are absolutely the same. Scientists now have DNA testing to show the difference between two people, even twins will have a slightly different DNA. There are no two people who have identical finger prints, we all know that from watching TV. If God can create billions of different finger prints, can He not also have billions of different ways for man to relate to Him and worship Him?
There is no way I can explain to you how I worship God with His creation and it would be wrong for me to explain it, if I could. Yes, I could write a book on how I talk to animals about God and they how they tell me about God, but I won’t because if God wants you to worship Him in that way, you will need no instruction from some eccentric, crazy dusty old professor. And if you think me crazy because I worship God outside the box that your denomination or pastor tells you is worship, then crazy I am, but I am harmless.
Gilda Radner in her book, “It Is Always Something.” Told how a family had a pregnant dog that was hit by a car and lost its hind legs. Yet within days that dog learned to walk all over again. The dog would pull herself forward with her two front legs and swing her lower body around to push herself forward. By this method she got around without her hind legs. Her puppies were born, six healthy normal puppies, she cared for them, fed them, weaned them and when they learned to walk, they all walked just like her.
Beware if you copy someone else’s form of worship or relationship with God you will then walk just like them flaws and all and not how God intended you to personally walk with Him.
Much of your work encourages us to spend time with God individually, and to get to know Him for ourselves, and this post is no exception.
I often wonder what would have happened if the woman at the well in John 4 hadn’t invited her fellow villagers to come and meet with Jesus for themselves, and if they hadn’t invited him back to stay for a few days in their village. They would have been limited to learning about him from one person’s uniquely individual encounter with him. Instead they all got to meet Jesus and spend time with him for themselves and say “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves….”
Thank you for encouraging our individuality. I happen to live near beautiful woodland and spend a lot of time walking and talking with my Father there. My friends are very different to me, but how lovely it is when we each share the different facets of God that we see.
RE: My God
I have felt this way for a long time but now is the first time I’ve ever read it in print from an author I respect and admire. Why do I respect and admire Chaim? One main reason is that he worships our Great God in his own way. In my early days of being a “Christian” I was taught that we were basically to subscribe to a cookie cutter form of worshiping Jesus. However, my life didn’t turn out that way. I suffered rejection because I couldn’t fit into the cookie cutter. I gradually morphed into my own way of worship, a very personal one. Now I can lay down and die when it’s my time and do so in peace. Not that I will die, just my body. My real self or spirit will continue to live with Jesus and no doubt continue worshiping Him in my own way. Thanks for this reading. It is a true gift to many of us.