God is love, and He wants us to know His glory. To glorify Him in all things in our love for Yeshua is our response to His love for us to live with Him forever. That being so, God created man and woman – male and female – in His image and likeness, to be suitable for Him. He says that it is not good for man to live alone, and in this saying, He is also telling us something about Himself. God ‘has chosen’ to ‘need’ us; otherwise, there is only the lonely and unsatisfying love of ‘self’. Love is seen in its expression towards others. God loves us; we are to love Him; we are to love one another: love both wants and needs someone to love; love needs to love and to be loved. When this love is perfected in the resurrection, and God is all in all in the New Heavens and New Earth, then that which is perfect will be fully realized: life in glory, which God has prepared for those who love Him. (1Cor 15:20-28; 13:10; Col 3:4; Heb 11:8-10, 13-16; Is 64:4; 1Cor 2:9)
God loves us as He loves Himself – the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. We love Him because He first loved us. May we be transformed/converted to love each other as Yeshua has loved us!
God is who He is, and does what He does by virtue of being who He is. Wisdom is inherent in Him, and all that He does is right and good, whether it is to bless or to judge, to save or to send away. He cannot deny Himself.
Therefore, since — in His acting out of who He is — He created and redeemed us in order to share life together eternally, it seems ‘evident’ that He is not ‘sufficiently’ satisfied — humanly speaking, at least – to live only with Himself or among ‘themselves’ (the Trinity; Words are hard to come by in speaking of what is beyond my finite comprehension).
If He never created us, or any other living being, no one would know Him or His love. He would truly be the Unknown God! If He ‘decided’ to cast us all away because we are unsuitable for Him as sinners, then no one would enjoy His love. His joy as a Father and as a Husband — not only as God, but this is our God! — is to have His blood-bought redeemed family dwelling together and loving one another in unity, to do whatever it is that He has ultimately redeemed us for in Messiah/Christ. He speaks of Himself as a Father to Israel, and as her Husband. There is an inheritance, which is to be mutually shared and enjoyed, implied in these relationships. The Bride of the Lamb communicates the same endearing and intimate relationship. Other religions have their “gods”, but there is no close, personal relationship grounded in true love, which only YHVH, who is love, and who defines what true love is, has with His people.
It is not enough for believers to speak only of an “Intelligent Designer”. He has a name, and He has communicated to us – not only through general creation, by which every man is without excuse that there is a great and powerful and all-knowing Creator; but by which alone no one can know Him personally or His Name. (Ps 19:1-6; Rom 1:16-25) But He has particularly communicated through Moses and the Prophets and the Writings, and even more personally through the coming of Messiah, the Son of God (who is Himself YHVH, the Name above all names, the Creator and Redeemer), who has spoken to His people Israel, and through them to the rest of the world, and has made known the name of God the Father, and the triunity of the Godhead. King David writes that YHVH has magnified His Word above all His Name! (Ps 138:2) God is zealous to guard, preserve, and fulfill all that He has spoken and had written for us. This for His holy name’s sake.
YHVH God has staked everything upon His creating and regulating the whole order of the universe and solar system. (The whole of philosophic and scientific explanations to rob Him of His praises and to take away this inconvenient truth are to no avail!) (Jer 32:17; Gen 18:13-14) If He should somehow lose control of His created order – the heavens declare the glory of God! – then He will cast off Israel from being a nation any longer; and He will break His covenants with David and with Levi. Should this ever be, then not only will Israel no longer exist, but neither will any other created thing, or people, or land! YHVH Himself would perish with us, for His Word expresses who He is. But this will never be!; for God Himself has put Himself on the line by His own words! He cannot deny Himself. (Jer 31:35-37; 33:19-26; Rom 9:1-24; 2Tim 2:13 God needs to save all Israel, according to His new covenantal promise to forgive all their iniquity, transgressions, and sins; to give them the Land of Canaan as an everlasting possession; and to make Jerusalem the holy city of righteousness and peace – all this, as a vindication of who He Is! (Dan 9:24; Jer 31:31-34; Heb 8:7-12) The devil wants to deny Him this, but, of course, will fail. Yeshua has defeated him already by His sacrificial death on the cross! Our Lord and Savior did not die a horrible death on the cross for, nor rise from among the dead in power just for some temporary objective.
God is perfect, and this perfection includes His love (He is love!), His holiness (He is holy!), His righteousness, His judgments, His purity, His light (He is light!), His grace and truth. These abstract attributes themselves are made up of other elements to be what they are, and who He Is (He is I AM!). He has made them visible and tangible: godliness manifested in the flesh! The express image of the invisible God!
He did not create us just so that we admire Him from afar, at some imposed “social distance”, which might be so if He only wanted us for “the applause”, or wanted us to simply be His slaves to obey Him. This can be a carnal, worldly, acceptable way of giving honor or glory to someone we respect for who he/she is or for what he/she has done. No, He created us and chose us because of love: loving Himself within the Godhead; expressing that love by creating us to share life forever together with Him in perfect, holy, mutual love – a perfection that we do not at all know now. He is not unknown, but known, and ALL will acknowledge His glory: those who believe — by His grace and mercy — with eternal gratitude and praise and worship; and those, who did not believe and love Him above all, with everlasting weeping and gnashing of teeth. The proof of His love for Himself (and His perfect hatred of all that is in opposition to Him and His holiness) and for those whom He created in His image and likeness is the sacrificial death of His beloved Son, the Messiah Yeshua/Christ Jesus, who takes away the sin of the world, and He will save His people from their/our sins. Praise the LORD for the resurrection!
A couple of examples that we have in the Bible about God’s “need” for us are the nation of Israel (as already mentioned above), and the true Vine. God’s vindication of His sovereign right and will to elect/choose a particular people even before they ever were a people, and a particular land which this chosen people would one day inherit as an everlasting possession in peace and security, and a particular city – Jerusalem — that would be His capital for His earthly Throne and Kingdom – all this connected with the nation of Israel (the Jewish people in their own land granted to them in covenantal promise to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob) – is dependent upon His fulfilling these promises in His righteousness – every jot and tittle of the Law and the Prophets. YHVH God did not need Abraham and Sarah to fulfill His prophetic promise according to their own understanding and good intentions after so many years of waiting, and their “life” running out. Israel’s present unbelief does not nullify the promises of YHVH. (Rom 3:1-4) He preserves a holy remnant, until all Israel is saved. God does not need every Jew or Israeli in order to fulfill His Word and plan; yet, He offers His salvation to all. (God does not need every believer to obey Him, but He calls all of us to sacrifice ourselves for Him.) God needs Israel and Jerusalem to be a praise to His holy name in the Earth, for His glory, among the Gentiles and among the heavenly hosts.
In Ezek 36, the LORD says to Israel that despite our unrighteousness, He will bring us back to the Land of Israel. He did not wait for Israel’s repentance (He would still be waiting!), as the Torah demands (Lev 26:40-45). He saves sinners, and His nation, by grace through faith, not by the works of the Law. He has His covenant to keep and He will deal with His people here in the Land, for His holy name’s sake. Israel, and believers in Jesus/Yeshua, are his witnesses, and we are called to pray with faith that these things be fulfilled.
A grape vine was created to produce grapes. A vine that does not produce grapes, and good grapes at that, is not fulfilling its reason for being. The good grapes bring ‘glory’ to the vine. The vine needs the branches from which hang the clusters of the grapes. No branches, no grapes — good or bad.
Jesus says of Himself that He is the true vine. (Israel is also a vine, and is the vineyard of the LORD. Is 5) Jesus/Yeshua, the true representation of the Israeli Jew, is the Vine, and the believers in Him are the branches. (Jn 15:1-8) Those who abide in Him will produce good fruit, even much good fruit. “Blessed are You, O LORD our God, who creates the fruit of the vine!” By this His Father – and our Father – is glorified!
We are needed to both give and to bring glory to our Father in Heaven and to the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel and Jerusalem have been chosen to be, and to bring, glory to YHVH God, and He will rejoice over her as a bridegroom over the bride. (Is 44:21-24; 62:1-7)
Therefore, God “needs” us to demonstrate who He is. (He is not “needy”!) He had “no other choice”. If there were, we may not ever be having this discussion and chewing-of-the-cud in awesome wonder. If it were only a matter of choice, and He would have been sufficiently satisfied with only all Creation’s awe of Him, then we would not have been created in His image and likeness, nor be conformed to the image of His Son through our new birth by the Holy Spirit. We would not then be suited as the Bride of the Lamb.
We too often disconnect the pattern that is of God and in God from the truth that He created us in His image and likeness. He has made so much of life a parable that demonstrates who He Is and what He is like by how He has instructed us to live and think and breathe. Nothing we as created beings think or say or do will perfectly match the wonders of Him who created us, but we can know Him better by seeing and believing the form of the pattern and words which we learn from Him through the Scriptures, and from the wonders of the works of His hands and the worlds that He spoke into being.
Did God choose us because there was something good about us? No! We are all sinners whom He forgives and saves and justifies through faith by grace and mercies in His love. Does God need us to fulfill His purposes? Yes, and no. He has a plan, and He will accomplish it right on His time schedule! Yet our lives are purposeful, because He has called us to participate with Him and to cooperate with Him to carry out His perfect plan of redemption. What an honor! What love!
Mordecai told Queen Esther that she was in a unique destiny situation and dilemma: she could choose to do what she was probably put there for, or else God would do it through another person or from another Place, but she would die if content to save only herself. (Est 4:13-17; Mt 16:24-28) When Elijah the Prophet challenged the false prophets of Baal, he completely drenched with water the wood, the stones, the altar, the sacrifice, and called upon YHVH to show the He alone is GOD. The LORD sent fire to consume it all, despite being drenched. Does God need us to accomplish anything for Him?! Yet He used Elijah, whose faith was living, to let YHVH demonstrate that He is the true God.
Yeshua’s/Jesus’ death on the cross for our redemption was foreordained before the Creation. It occurred in history at a “set time”. Jesus did not nail Himself to the cross, nor did He pierce Himself. Those things were done by people, and these things were in fulfillment of prophetic Scriptures written long before. So, no, God does not need any one of us to fulfill His plan and purpose: there was opposition everywhere to our Savior actually being crucified that Passover; yet none of that prevented God in His absolute sovereignty from zealously seeing to it that the deed was done as foreordained. Yet, yes, God needed people to carry out the crucifixion, the necessary sacrifice required for God to righteously forgive sinners and to justify those who confess the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and believe with their heart that God raised Him from the dead.
God wants us, and He needs us. God needs us, and He wants us. Yeshua/Jesus the Bridegroom chose us. Our Father and our Savior loves us. All things are HIS, and He desires to share it all with us in the fullness of joy! Amazing love, how can it be!
Looking forward to that eternal day, while trying to faithfully do the work the Lord Yeshua the Messiah has given me to be doing until He comes.
“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
For who has known the mind of YHVH?
Or who has become His counselor?
Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?”
For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.” (Rom 11:33-36)
“And the Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whosoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” (Rev 22:17)
