The whole concept of who God is can never be fully grasped, as He is beyond our full knowing. However, Ratzinger proposes three ways for us to consider who God is. He claims that God is a personal god, a powerful god, and a god of promise. He first lays out the idea of a personal god saying, “the personal and person-centered God, who is to be thought of and found on the place of I and You, not primarily in holy places” (124). I think the stories from Exodus reflect this, because, although there are places where God makes himself present, like the burning bush, God is seen most often through Moses and His chosen people Israel.
God is also powerful, because, as Ratzinger explains, His power is not just present in some places, at sometimes, but instead is always present and “embraces in itself all power and stands above all individual powers” (124). This can also be seen in the stories of Exodus, as virtually all the chapters from Ex 7-14 are accounts of God displaying his power over the Egyptians. Repeatedly, God shows that His power is greater than anything the Egyptians could come up with, as he not only destroys their lands but kills their people as well.
Lastly, God can be seen as a god of promise. Ratzinger says, “He directs man’s attention to the coming events toward which his history marches, to a meaning and goal that have a final validity; he is regarded as the God of hope in the future” (124). This view of God as a god of promise is also once again seen in the account of Exodus. God repeatedly promises that He will lead His people out of Israel and lead them to an abundant land. Through these promises God shows that He is not just a powerful force of creation, but One who has a plan for His people, and all of humanity, and will lead them to the fulfillment of these promsies.
I also agree that to fully understand the depths of God’s identity is nearly impossible to the human brain capacity, but we can do our best to use his clues throughout the Bible to give Him attributes. Through his unwavering power and repeated promises and covenants, we see God’s true identity as our Savior and Redeemer.
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I think you did a good job of taking the different perspectives on who God is and relating it to the chapters in Exodus that we read. I only wonder if even these three perspectives are limiting our understanding, and even attempting to answer this question is limiting our understanding.
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I love the way you summarized Ratzinger’s description of God. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize our personal limitation in understanding the nature of God, who in his infinite nature is beyond anything we can understand. Although the clues throughout the bible are an important source of information, trying to summarize God in three aspects might be counterproductive.
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