He Is

“I will be like the dew to Israel;

    he shall blossom like the lily;

    he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon;

his shoots shall spread out;

    his beauty shall be like the olive,

    and his fragrance like Lebanon.

They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow;

    they shall flourish like the grain;

they shall blossom like the vine;

their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. . . .

It is I who answer and look after you.

I am like an evergreen cypress;

from me comes your fruit.”

Hosea 14:5-8

Who do you need the Lord to be? To lonely Hagar, far from her home culture of Egypt, alone in the wilderness he revealed himself as El Roi, the God who Sees (Gen. 16:13). To the Israelites who would go into exile for their sin, the Lord revealed himself as the Lord Our Righteousness (Jer. 23:6).

His Name fits our need, for he is the infinite, creative, dynamic, source of all Creator who has placed us in covenant with him. Covenant! He is committed to us (Gen. 15, he walked through).

Dew--the daily refreshing that life in the wilderness was so dependent on.

The One Who Gives Blossom--beauty, life-giving, fruit. He is not a God who ultimately only allows us to scrape through. Even in Paul’s persecution, he speaks of abounding comfort (2 Cor. 1:5).

The God Who Roots--foundation, firm. With the psalmist we can sing, “I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.”

The God Who Spreads--the God who is reclaiming the world, every square corner of creation (to paraphrase Abraham Kuyper), the God who gives influence, opportunity for his name’s sake. Oh, the Lord whose heart is so for the prodigal we are praying for, the wandering, the lost and “through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere” (2 Cor. 2:14).

Shadow--the protector from the heat, the intimate shelter, who puts his hand over us (Psalm 121; Ps. 91:1).

The Answerer, Look-After--the One who has all power, the Author and Finisher, the Redeemer and Glorifier, he answers. He and no other. Of his people he sings “A pleasant vineyard, sing of it! I the LORD, am its keeper; every moment I water it. . . I keep it night and day” (Isaiah 27:4-5). Every moment! He hears, he responds.

Evergreen--never wearying, never tiring, always life-giving, always fresh. And to us he gives, he places this new life in us of his own life, his own strength (Isaiah 40:31).

Fruit-Bearer--he, he alone gives fruit. To one who has been bedridden, there is a sweet, sweet joy in giving back to the Lord what he has given in a daily effort. The God who shares that, that intimate joy of mutual giving. From him, from him comes our fruit.

Who do you need him to be? He will be, HE IS, I AM WHO I AM, I WILL BE WHO YOU NEED ME TO BE.