G1. Believing in God. [Make a Comment]
We are to believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
This precept is derived from His Word (blessed be He):
Key Scriptures
Exodus 20:2
(Maimonides RP1; Meir MP1; Chinuch C25)
I am ADONAI your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the
abode of slavery.
Psalm 9:11(10)
Those who know your name put their trust in you, for you have not abandoned
those who seek you, ADONAI.
John 14:1
(1) Don't let yourselves be disturbed. Trust in God and trust in me.
(CJB)
(2) Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
(NKJ)
Supportive Scriptures
Exodus 4:4-5
Then ADONAI said to Moshe, "Put your hand out and take it by the tail." He
reached out with his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his
hand. "This is so that they will believe that ADONAI, the God of their
fathers, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz'chak and the God of
Ya'akov, has appeared to you!"
Jeremiah 31:32-33(33-34)
For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Isra'el after
those days," says ADONAI: "I will put my Torah within them and write it on
their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer
will any of them teach his fellow community member or his brother,
'Know ADONAI'; for all will know me, from the least of them to the
greatest; because I will forgive their wickednesses and remember their sins
no more."
2 Chronicles 20:20
(1) The next morning, they rose early and went out into the T'koa
Desert. As they left, Y'hoshafat stood and said, "Listen to me,
Y'hudah and you inhabitants of Yerushalayim! Trust in ADONAI your God,
and you will be safe. Trust in his prophets, and you will succeed." (CJB)
(2) So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of
Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Hear me, O Judah
and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you
shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper." (NKJ)
John 3:14-18
(1) Just as Moshe lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of
Man be lifted up; so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only and unique Son, so that
everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life, instead of being utterly
destroyed. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world,
but rather so that through him, the world might be saved. Those who trust
in him are not judged; those who do not trust have been judged already, in
that they have not trusted in the one who is God's only and unique Son.
(CJB)
(2) And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but
have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but
that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not
condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has
not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (NKJ)
John 5:24
(1) Yes, indeed! I tell you that whoever hears what I am saying and trusts
the One who sent me has eternal life- that is, he will not come up for
judgment but has already crossed over from death to life! (CJB)
(2) Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him
who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has
passed from death into life. (NKJ)
John 6:47
(1) Yes, indeed! I tell you, whoever trusts has eternal life: (CJB)
(2) Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting
life. (NKJ)
John 11:25-27
(1) Yeshua said to her, "I AM the Resurrection and the Life! Whoever puts
his trust in me will live, even if he dies; and everyone living and trusting
in me will never die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I
believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the
world." (CJB)
(2) Yeshua said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes
in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in
Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I
believe that You are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the
world." (NKJ)
Hebrews 11:6
And without trusting, it is impossible to be well pleasing to God, because
whoever approaches him must trust that he does exist and that he becomes a
Rewarder to those who seek him out.
(See in context, Hebrews 11:1-40)
Commentary
Belief in the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob is not only belief in His existence, but in the fact that He is the God who brought us out of Egypt and is our only God (Exodus 20:2). Also, Scripture teaches that believing in God is connected to trusting God, since one cannot trust in whom one does not believe. In order to emphasize the equivalence of belief and trust, several of the above Scriptures are rendered in two reputable translations - the NKJ that speaks of belief, and the CJB that speaks of trust in their handling the same Scriptures.
Classical Commentators
Maimonides, Meir, and HaChinuch concur that Exodus 20:2 is a Scripture that, by implication, commands that we believe in God. The rationale for this is God's own statement that He is our God, and the supreme means of our having been brought out of the slavery of Egypt. To believe, therefore, that God is God, one has to trust His Word that He is whom He says He is, thereby illustrating the inseparability of belief and trust. Meir makes another cogent point by stating that belief in God is the foundation of Jewish faith, and anyone who does not believe in God has no place among the Jewish people.
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