The first four words of the Bible may be the most important. This is not to say that all of the words inspired by the Holy Spirit are any less important. But the opening sentence in the Word of God sets the stage. "In the beginning God…" It does not and can not say anything differently. For if it did then God would be delegated to something less and that He can not be.

 

It is difficult to point to one attribute that is more dominant or preferential when describing the One, True God of the Bible. Certainly from the opening statement of the Bible God's eternality is easily recognized. Although existence before "beginning" is hard to fathom within the realm of human thinking, that does not negate the fact that God is eternal. And the eternalness of God is in both directions of time. Psalm 90:2 reads, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." Since the New Testament supports the Old Testament we read also in I Timothy 1:17, "Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen." And in Revelation 4:8, we cannot ignore the praise to the Thrice Holy God of the Bible, "…Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."

 

Though there are many who chose to deny the very act of creation that does not bring refute to it. Their denial is brought on because to accept creation they would have to accept a Creator-and this is what they ignorantly chose not to do. God exhibited His orderliness in creation. He created the heavens before He created the birds. He created the earth before He created the animals to walk upon it. He created the waters before He created the fish to swim in them. And, He created man before He created his helpmate, woman.

 

Although man is created by God he is given some liberty to do as God wills. Besides our souls, we differ from the other created beings in that we also have a conscious. This was exhibited in the Garden of Eden when God told Adam to not eat "of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden" (Genesis 3:3). We all know the story. Adam, through Eve, disobeyed this one covenant with God and sinned, thus making us all sinners and in need of a Savior.  Because of God's holiness and immutability He cannot turn an eye from sin as if it did not happen. When Adam and Eve broke God's Word and followed evil, they new it (conscious) immediately and tried to hide from the One who created them. Consequences are the reward for breaking God's commandments or covenants.

 

Even as God promised to deliver His chosen people, the Israelites, from bondage, they too would turn their backs on the God who saved them. Yet, through Biblical history nothing done was a surprise to a Sovereign God. The Psalmist writes in Psalm 147:5, "Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite." Again, we see God in His infinite and unrestricted or unlimited existence because of His wisdom and His power. Nothing escapes Him. No one hides from Him. Adam and Eve could not hide from Him in the Garden of Eden and we can not hide from Him in even the darkest of closets.

 

Even though none of God's attributes stand alone there are three that seem especially tied together---His Omnipresence, Omnipotence, and Omniscience. And if there was an "umbrella", all of His attributes are under His total Sovereignty. Throughout the Old Testament, and the New Testament, as well, we find that despite man's predicament, God is in total control. Through His omnipresence he is everywhere. Through His omniscience He knows everything. Through His omnipotence He is all-powerful.

 

Jeremiah the prophet was writing of the evils of his day-drunkenness, adulteries, false teachers and prophets, and general wickedness (not unlike today!). And as he cried to God, God said, "Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord." (Jeremiah 23:23, 24). Here we see God as Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and Omnipotent.

 

Often God's gifts and His blessings are confused. However, it cannot be dismissed that God loves His children as a parents love their own. For example, God delivered many through the desert and out of Egypt that could be considered evil people. There are a lot of people who have true gifts, such as talent, which we know is all of God. I Samuel 2:7 states, "The Lord maketh the poor, and makesth the rich, he bringeth low, and lifteth up." Though God's love for His people may be specific, He does allow the lost to benefit from Him, as well. He sustains their very breath, if He so chooses. And He takes the breath from His children, if He so chooses. All this further validates man's fragility and God's sovereign power in the creation that so many deny. Though we all deserve no favor and, in fact, deserve eternal torment, in God's graciousness He forgives the sinner who has been saved by grace.

 

It is through His graciousness that He shows mercy on some. Sadly, yet justifiably, He has handed justice to others. Although God dealt with people differently through the ages, if one is saved from the torments of hell they are saved by grace. And this grace is only through His Son Jesus Christ. But God continues to show His mercy, or loving kindness, to Israel. We read in Isaiah 63: 7, "I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to the multitude of his lovingkindness." God's lovingkindness and mercy is seemingly attached to His patience. Even today, despite, the political views of the world, the US included, God is patiently and with lovingkindness protecting Israel.

 

Perhaps what we have heard more than any is that God is a God of Love. And, that He is. There is no doubt that God loves the world because it is His creation. But does God love everything in the world? He did not give the wild animals' souls or a conscious so they are not responsible for their actions which are innate by God. Man, on the other hand, is responsible to God. Man is a sinner because he is born a sinner. Genesis 6:5 tells us, "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." But the love of God to some is from eternity past. God has shown His love from Adam to people today. One of the greatest men of the Bible, David, caught in all his own self-destructive sin knew to whom he ultimately sinned against and God in His immutable love forgave David. God who is Holy and Just did not ignore David's sin but He Who is forgiving forgave him.

 

We should not be disillusioned by ourselves thinking that God loves everyone without exception. Psalm 5: 5, 6 reminds us, "The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man." The "workers" are not non-human. They are people in everyday life who have not been washed in the Blood. God is a God of love but God is also a Just God.

 

God has dealt with man in different ways throughout history. But He could have not dealt with man at all if He so chose. God is self-sufficient and not dependent on man or His creation. The nations and people in all their ostentatiousness are but nothing to an all-powerful Triune God. Isaiah writes, "All nations before Him are nothing, and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?" (Isaiah 40:17, 18). He further writes in verses 22,23, "It is he (God) that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity."

 

Regardless of man's ever changing world, God is ever-perfect and unchanging. Malachi 3:7 says, "For I am the Lord, I change not…"

 

God is Sovereign.

Sources: Conversations with my Dad (don't laugh --I have actually read these in sources)
http://www.theopedia.com
King James Bible
Gleanings from the Bible by A. W. Pink