Jehovah-Bara

Behold Your God 

“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. Isaiah 40:25

How do you reach people who are not merely drifting away from God, but sprinting in the opposite direction?

The prophet Isaiah loved his country and he loved God. Due to their love affair with idolatry, the Israelites were running from God. Isaiah delivered message after message pleading with his countrymen to repent, to turn back to God, but they refused to heed his warnings, year after year after year.

In chapter 40 of his book, the prophet delivered an impassioned plea, lifting up the singular, unparalleled nature of the one true God. First, he devoted a number of verses to God’s power as displayed in creation. God measures the “waters in the hollow of his hand [and] with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens” (v. 12). “He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in” (v. 22). He “brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name” (v. 26).

The name Isaiah used for this omnipotent God is Jehovah-Bara, LORD Creator (v. 28). God never grows weary; every facet of creation is maintained by His almighty hand. Every breath. Every flower. Every snowflake.

But that isn’t the most awesome aspect of Jehovah-Bara. He also “tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young” (v. 11). The almighty Creator stoops to earth to give “strength to the weary and increase the power of the weak” (v. 29).

As incongruous as they may seem, these two attributes of God are two of the most important things we need to understand about him. He is our maker; therefore he deserves our allegiance. Without him, there would be no life. He is also the gentlest caregiver imaginable. He doesn’t crush the weak; he carries them. He doesn’t take advantage of our weariness; he gives us His strength.

Our culture needs us to paint this portrait of God as surely as Isaiah’s culture needed him to paint it. How well are we proclaiming the truth that God is both Creator and Caregiver?

DIG DEEPER

Read Isaiah 40:9-31. According to verse 27, what had Israel been complaining about? How does Isaiah’s description of God refute that complaint?

Read Genesis 1. Everything Jehovah-Bara creates is “good.” How can that truth influence the way we look at ourselves and other people?

Once, when David was meditating on God, the Creator, he wrote Psalm 8. What does he celebrate about his creator in that psalm? What are you celebrating about your creator today?

Denise K. Loock

This devotion is part of a series on divine names. To read the introduction to the series, go to Dig into Names of God.