The God of Names and Numbers

As we enter a new practicum season, I’m reminded, refreshed in our wonderful tools.  I sat in Day 1 of practicum reviewing our five core habits and inquiring of the Lord what he would have me share during the following day’s devotional. The answer didn’t come until 1:30am when my body awakened, my mind suddenly alert and flooded with revelations of God’s heart through the 5 core habits and mathematics.

 Naming is one of God’s core values.  Beginning with genesis 1 – He called the light “day” and the darkness “night”. Adam’s first tasks were naming the animals and then also his wife, Eve.  Later in Genesis, God speaks the calling and true potential or purpose over Abraham, Sarah, Jacob/Israel by changing their names.  He includes genealogies and discusses names and their meanings all throughout Scripture.  In Job 38, God addresses Job directly amid his justifiable pity party and reveals His power and omniscience by naming the constellations.  In Job 39 He names multiple animals, in ch 40 discusses the Behemoth and in 41 dedicates a full chapter to the Leviathon and naming his attributes. Yet, in the midst of millions of names, he knows and cares about your name.  Psalm 147:4 states that God numbers the stars and calls them out by NAME.

                He ATTENDS to the details of our lives.  In Matthew 6:25-26 Jesus illustrates God’s attentiveness by expressing His care and thoughtfulness towards the lilies of the field and sparrows and HOW MUCH MORE – YOU! Ps 139 – before you lived one day, all your days were numbered, written out, known by God.  In Genesis 16:13 Hagar - wandering in the desert with her son, broken, at the end of herself, waiting to see her son die as her own strength ebbed away – encounters God.  She called that place Beer-Laha-Roi because she had seen the GOD who SEES her.  Throughout Luke 21 Jesus comforts and reveals the GOD-who-sees, who goes after the ONE, with relentless affection and pursuit.

In Malachai 3:16 all of Heaven stops to attend to the CONVERSATION of those who fear God and meditate on His name, and a book of Memoria/ remembrance is written.  Think of that!  There are moments in our conversations that God wants to commit to the MEMORIES of Heaven.  Amazing!  In Job 38, God gives Job a creation history lesson, bringing to remembrance how He called out the heavenly bodies and elements and laws of nature.  Jesus was tempted in Matthew 4, and coming out of His fast, the Devil met Him, enticing Him to give ground, but every temptation Jesus met with Scripture He had committed to memory – showing us the importance of memorization in defeating the Enemy.  Again in Luke 24:13, Jesus demonstrated this principle by taking two disciples all through the Old Testament, revealing Himself through Scriptures, unveiling the whole plan written through history.

This is not a far-off God, distant like the stars, but a God who left the glory of heaven and EXPRESSED Himself by stooping low not just to walk with the broken but to be the Broken One that the pieces of His broken flesh and the very flow of His blood would become life to the nations, to you and I.  Romans 5:8 puts it this way: “But God demonstrated/expressed His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  Hebrews 4:14-16 states that we have a great High Pries – Jesus – who can sympathize with out weakness because He was emptied in every way as we are yet was without sin.  Therefore, we can come to Him boldly, confident that we will find help!

Finally, Psalm 139 declares that before we lived on day, the STORIES of our lives were written out by Him.  Jesus, the greatest STORYTELLER made all the love and mercy of the Father’s heart manifest with His stories in Luke 15.  There was the woman searching for her lost coin, a shepherd leaving the 99 in the safety of the pen to search after the 1 lost sheep, and the father rejoicing and forgiving his returning prodigal son, showing that yes, He loves the world but He cares about numbers, he pursues the ONE- you and me. 

  Seeing both the multitude and the 1, God created Math to reveal Himself – not just cold, hard facts but the beauty of His engagement with us.

He knows every factor and equation that has led us to this point.

He has added up every sacrifice and knows the sum of them.

He has divided a portion to me in His Sovereignty and that portion includes rest.

He has multiplied an abundance of mercy and grace toward us and knows the multitude of our joys and pains, struggles and victories, needs and desires.

He has subtracted our sins and failures, removing them as far as the East is from the West and NO LONGER COUNTS them against us!

He knows the volume of all our tears and has counted them to the furthest exponent.

Not a fraction of our lives has escaped His notice.

He knows when we’re giving 110% and when we feel like we don’t have 1% left to give.

Praise the God of mathematics!