Why do we refer to God as ‘He’ and not ‘She’? Well, let me say some things very clearly, right from the beginning. The Bible says certain things about God. So, in Numbers 23:19 it says God is not human. In John 4:24 it says that God is spirit. That is, He doesn’t have a material body.
God morphs into human expression so that we can understand Him
Now this God in the Bible is pointing to a certain distinction between Himself and us. Which is that He is creator and we are creature. That means He is not human; He is spirit. That means He is infinite, and we are finite. That means that He has all knowledge and we don’t. We have limited knowledge.
Human Expression Helps Us Relate to God
But if He has to then relate to us, He has to do that through a process of what we call anthropomorphism. That is God morphs into human expression so that we can understand Him. We can relate to Him. So, when the Bible says God has a right hand, it is trying to convey something. It’s not that He actually has a right hand, or that God has a breath. It is trying to convey something. And, when He does this as well, sometimes in anthropomorphism, He actually expresses himself through gender distinction.
The Bible Consistently Uses ‘He’ not ‘She’
So, for instance, in Numbers 11:12, God conceives and God gives birth, that is very female. And God does that in the Bible in other places. But when it refers to God in pronouns, right? All through the Bible, consistently, it does that in male pronouns: ‘He’ or ‘Him’, not ‘She’ or ‘Her’. And I think because the Bible was written by the superintending of the Holy Spirit we need to respect that.
Because the Bible was written by the superintending of the Holy Spirit we need to respect that.
Jesus was a Man
And I will add one more thing to that. For people who will object to this because they say that this was written in a time of patriarchy. Well, remember that when God performed the full anthropomorphism He came as a human being but also as a male in the person of Jesus Christ. And sometimes, we have to just submit to God in reverence and worship, knowing that He is creator and we’re creature. He is all knowing and we are not. And He is all good and we are not.
