An Intimate And Personal Relationship

"For He said, 'Surely they are My people, Children who will not lie.' So He became their Saviour." (Isaiah 63:8 NKJV)

As the great Jewish theologian Abraham Heschel put it in "The Prophets", "To the prophet, God does not reveal Himself in an abstract absoluteness, but in a personal and intimate relation to the world. He does not simply command and expect obedience; He is also moved and affected by what happens in the world, and reacts accordingly. Events and human actions arouse in Him joy or sorrow, pleasure or wrath... Man's deeds may move Him, affect Him, grieve Him or, on the other hand, gladden and please Him. ...the God of Israel is a God Who loves, a God Who is known to, and concerned with, man. He not only rules the world in the majesty of His might and wisdom, but reacts intimately to the events of history."
More than any other word pictures, God chooses "children" and "lovers" to describe our relationship with Him as being intimate and personal.

- Philip Yancey in "The Bible Jesus Read"