HOW DOES GOD REVEAL HIMSELF IN THE OLD TESTAMENT?

God shows himself in the > Old Testament as God, who created the world out of love and remains faithful to men even when they have fallen away from him into sin. [54-64, 70-72]


God makes it possible to experience him in history: With Noah he establishes a covenant to save all living things. He calls Abraham so as to make him "the father of a multitude of nations" (Gen 17:5b) and to bless "all the families of the earth" in him ( Gen 12:3b). the people Israel, sprung from Abraham, becomes his special possession. To Moses he introduces himself by name. His mysterious name > YHWH, usually transcribed Yahweh, means "I AM WHO I AM" (Ex 3:14). He frees Israel from slavery in Egypt, establishes a covenant with them on Sinai, and through Moses gives them the Law. Again and again, God sends prophets to his people to call them to conversion and to the renewal of the covenant. The prophets proclaim that God will establish a new and everlasting covenant, which will to bring about a radical renewal and definitive redemption. This covenant will be open to all human beings.

                              GOD APPROACHES US MEN


Why did God have to show himself in order for us to be able to know what he is like?

Man can know by reason that God exists,but not what God is really like. Yet because  God would very much like to be known, he has revealed himself.[50,68-69]

God did not have to reveal himself to us. But he did it-out of love. Just as in human love one can know something  about the beloved person only if he opens his heart to us, so too we know something about God's inmost thoughts only because the eternal and mysterious God has opened himself to us out of love. From creation on, through the patriarchs and the prophets down to the definite > REVELATION in his Son Jesus Christ, God has spoken again and again to mankind. In Him he has poured out his heart to us and made his inmost being.