Currently, I am reading a book by John Avery entitled, “The Name Quest: Exploring the Names of God to Grow in Faith and Get to Know HIm Better”. When I am done reading this book, I’ll be putting a review together for John.
On page 136, he makes a comment that was clearly understood by the writer of an illustration involving a young boy who made a boat. He put lots of time and energy into that boat and loved to sail it on the river behind his home. One day however, the line he had strung to the boat broke, and the boat went down the river. Heartbroken, the young boy went home, figuring he’d never see his toy boat again. Time passed and one day he was on an errand to the store when he paused in front of the toy shop! There in the window was the boat he’d made! He ran into the store, identified himself to the clerk as the person who made the boat in the window, but the clerk wouldn’t budge. The boy had to pay for the boat! Well, the boy had no money to pay for his boat, so he began doing odd jobs around town. All summer long he worked, until finally he earned enough money to buy back his boat! But would it still be there? He rushed down to the toy store, peered in the window, and sure enough the boat was still there! He ran into the store, put his money on the counter and walked out with his precious boat. Passersby could hear him talking to his boat as he hugged it on the way home, saying, “You are twice mine!”.
So it is with the Hebrew word for God used in Genesis 14:19,22 – Qoneh, or as it’s been translated into English, Possessor or Creator of Heaven and Earth, depending on which translation you read it in. John points out in his book that Qoneh actually has both meanings, one who has completed a transaction for something and one who creates something. He says,
“The picture is of someone doubly invested in an item that he or she has bought and made.”
John writes, in reference to Christ,
John 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Jesus Christ is the Creator of the Universe, the Lord of Life, the Giver of Salvation, the Risen King and the Heavenly Bridegroom! Every person who has accepted Christ as Saviour and Lord can hear Christ saying, “You are twice mine! I made you, and now I have bought you with my precious Blood! You are twice mine!”
Every time I hear the illustration I began with, and every time I hear Christ saying that, it warms me all up inside. There is a security in knowing that I belong to Christ, that He made me and knows me intimately more than anyone else ever will! The fact He knows me so well means He also knows my faults, my failings, the hidden things as well as the visible things, and yet He still chooses to call me His own! What an amazing God we serve!
