How Big is Your God?

"In whirlwind and storm is His way, 

and clouds are the dust beneath His feet..."

Nahum 1:3b

My God is pretty big.  In general, "big" is not even close to describing my God.  You know how when you walk, sometimes dust gets kicked up by your feet?  Yeah, that's what the clouds are in comparison to my God.  He's super big.

The book of Nahum is a short and to-the-point kind of prophecy. Not much is known about the actual man, Nahum, but his message was not only clearly laid out in four simple chapters, but it's already fulfilled in the destruction of Nineveh in 612 bc.  Just 150 years after Nineveh repented before the Lord when an acid-washed Jonah unwillingly declared God's pending judgment, we find the little gem.

So why do you like this book, Kristen?  To be honest, (which is really how we all should live our lives), I haven't delved into the depths of the riches of this book, but I did stumble upon it's first chapter and was captivated by its description of God.  So, let's just take a read of it's first 8 verses:

A jealous and avenging God is the Lord;

The Lord is avenging and wrathful.  

The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries,

and He reserves wrath for His enemies.

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,

and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.

In whirlwind and storm is His way,

and clouds are the dust of His feet.

He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;

He dries up all the rivers.

Bashan and Carmel wither;

the blossoms of Lebanon wither.

Mountains quake because of Him and the hills dissolve;

indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence,

the world and all the inhabitants in it.

Who can stand before His indignation?

Who can endure the burning of His anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire

and the rocks are broken up by Him.

The Lord is good, 

a stronghold in the day of trouble,

and He knows those who take refuge in Him.

But with an overflowing flood

He will make a complete end of its site, 

and will pursue His enemies into darkness.

What a description of our God!  It would be a mistake to think that only the words in blue are for the believer.  Yes, I love the words in blue, but the full description is needed to understand the beauty of the blue words.  God is jealous, avenging, slow to anger in the context of waiting to bring judgment, powerful, in control, and no one can stand before Him.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that He is good and He is protection for those who take refuge in Him.

That refuge that we take in Him is pretty important.  Often we look to different saviors, ones that aren't big at all and have no power - who can't stand before God.  In the midst of the storm, even when God is destroying a nation because of their wickedness, God, in His grace, still promises to care for His faithful.  Kind of like that message, don't we?

So here's the question for today:  Not now big is your God but who are you taking refuge in?