The _____ Of God

In this week’s reading the phrase “_insert things here_ of God” occurred in two conspicuous places. 

This construction was first found when Moses was on the “mountain of God” when God appeared to him in the burning bush. (3:1) This struck me as a bit odd since nothing had yet happened on this mountain. The same description is used4:27 when Aaron meets Moses there. But the meaning of this seems fully revealed in Ex. 24:13, when Moses and Joshua went up on the “mountain of God” to receive the Law. 

And also the term “staff of God” occurs in our reading (Ex. 4:20) and will occur once more (Ex. 17:9). Of course we know a lot more about this staff than just these two verses since Moses staff mentioned 19 times in Exodus. With it he turned the water of the Nile to blood (7:15-20), summoned the frogs (8:5) and gnats (8:16), brought the thunder and hail (9:23),  the locust (10:13), parted the Red Sea (Ex. 14:16), and finally was raised to give victory of the Amalekites (17:9). 

When I looked into “_insert things here_ of God” I found that this construction occurs over 850 in the Bible. It always denotes a thing especially dedicated to, or belonging to God. It is very thought provoking to consider the things belonging to or dedicated to God:

House of God, 78

Man of God, 73

Kingdom of God, 65

Word of God, 47

Son of God, 43

Ark of God, 33

Spirit of God, 24

Will of God, 23

Grace of God, 20

Wrath of God, 12

Love of God, 11

Children of God, 10

Gospel of God, 8

Church of God, 8

Fear of God, 7

Angels of God, 7

Throne of God, 6

Salvation of God, 3