Jehovah said: “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.” “And I will make you exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come out of you” (Gen 17:4, 6). “Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him” (Gen 18:18).

I

All that which God said to Abraham was a covenant that God established with Abraham, and a promise made by God to Abraham. This promise was an established fact, as well as an accomplished fact, and these facts were gradually fulfilled in God’s thoughts according to God’s plan. For God to say such words does not mean that He has an arrogant disposition, for God is able to achieve such things. He has this power and authority, and is fully capable of achieving these acts, and their accomplishment is entirely within the range of His ability.

II

These words are a revelation and expression of God’s true disposition, a perfect revelation and manifestation of the essence and authority of God, and there is nothing more appropriate and suitable as proof of the Creator’s identity. The manner, tone, and wording of such utterances are precisely the mark of the Creator’s identity, and correspond perfectly to the expression of God’s own identity; in them there is no pretense, no impurity; they are, completely and utterly, the perfect demonstration of the essence and authority of the Creator. As for the created beings, they possess neither this authority, nor this essence, much less do they possess the power given by God.

III

If man manifests such behavior, then it would most certainly be the fulmination of his corrupt disposition, and at the root of this would be the meddling impact of man’s arrogance and wild ambition, and the exposure of the malicious intentions of none other than devils and Satan, who wish to mislead people and entice them to betray God. God would say that you wish to usurp His place and that you wish to impersonate and replace Him. When you imitate the tone of God’s utterances, your intention is to replace God’s place in people’s hearts, to appropriate the mankind that rightfully belongs to God. This is Satan, pure and simple; these are the actions of the descendants of the archangel, intolerable to Heaven!

from The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique I