Part One: Elohim, Father of Creation.
Series Aim: by expounding on the Names of God in the OT we hope to discover a fresh revelation of Father’s Love for Us.
I have been called many things in my life! As I get older those names changing or are adapted. Some things I have been called are not too flattering. I have been or am known by the following names and titles:
Keith / Keefy-weefy / Son / Dad / Husband / Brother / Poddles / Pastor / Funky Gibbon / Devil Dodger / Academic / Provider / Salesman / Lazy / Entrepreneurial / Trainer / Boss / Mentor.
I could go on. What is interesting about all the things that I have been called is this:
· All those names are what others have chosen to call me – i.e. Keith was not my choice, it was given to me as a baby!
· The names I have been called are fundamentally to do with the level of intimacy that the relationship I had with someone.
For instance, my sons call me dad but a bully would call me Devil Dodger. The more intimate the relationship the more intimate the name used!
In fact to use an intimate name for me when the relationship does not have the correct level on intimacy is inappropriate. One person gets to call me husband, three get to call me dad, many call me Pastor.
But these names are not that expressive of who I am. Someone said to me recently, “You call yourself a Pastor!” They were miffed with me over something. But actually, I never call myself that, others do. And as I thought about it that is mainly true of all the names I have – they are what others call me!
Names in the Bible are very important. They express meanings and have a purpose. So when God reveals His names by what theologians call “God’s self-disclosure” we have to sit up and take notice! Why, because my names are not a proclamation from myself as to who I am, but God’s revealing of Himself is!
We only call him God because He gave us that name! We only call Him Jehovah because He wanted us to understand something of His character, and so on! Some of His names are used to sum up His character by the biblical writers.
If we are to really begin to appreciate who God is then we need to understand what He is trying to tell us through the revelation of His names He uses about Himself!
There is a spiritual significance in the use of these different names. The great and infinite and eternal God has given us these different names to express different aspects of His being and the different relationships He sustains to His creatures (Stone).
However the designation Father is only used in the New Testament – but it is used in the understanding of ALL He is! To grasp Who He is we have to know what the names mean in the Old Testament!
So what names are we going to look at in this series? We are going to focus on the most widely known names of God in the OT:
· Elohim
· Jehovah
· El Shaddai
· Adonai
· Jehovah-jirah
· Jehovah-rophe
· Jehovah-nissi
· Jehovah-M’Kaddesh
· Jehovah-shalom
· Jehovah-Tsidkenu
· Jehovah-rohi
· Jehovah-Shammah
Elohim – Father of Creation
We will begin by looking at Elohim -
1) Creator of the Universe
“In the beginning God....”!
The Hebrew word from which this word God is translated is Elohim. While not the most frequently occurring word for the Deity, it occurs 2,570 times.
Elohim occurs in the first chapter of Genesis thirty-two times. After that, the name Jehovah appears as well as Elohim; and in many places a combination of the two—Jehovah-Elohim.
Elohim is derived from the shorter word El, which means “mighty, strong, prominent.” This word El itself is translated “God” some 250 times and frequently in circumstances that especially indicate the great power of God.
In Deuteronomy 10:17 (KJV) we read that “Jehovah your [Elohim] is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the God (El) who is great, mighty, and dreadful.” It is this word El that is used in that great name Almighty God, the name under which God made great and mighty promises to Abraham and to Jacob (Genesis 17:1; 35:11).
It is also one of the names given to that promised Son and Messiah of Isaiah 9:6–7—Mighty God!
It is the Elohim who by His mighty power creates the vast universe; who says, and it is done; who brings into being what was not; by whose word the worlds were framed so that things that are seen were not made of the things that do appear (Hebrews 11:3).
It is this Elohim with whose Greek equivalent Paul confronts the philosophers on Mars’ Hill saying that He made the world (cosmos) and all things and by this very fact is:
· constituted owner and ruler of heaven and earth;
· whose presence cannot be confined by space;
· whose power doesn’t need man’s help,
· for through His great will and power and action, all things and nations have their very being.
Genesis 1:27: So God [Elohim] created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
It is the might of Elohim that created humankind!
When folks say that we are all created in the image of God they are correct, but as we shall see later in this series, to be a child of God needs more that understanding of the name Elohim! We need to meet Jehovah!
In the name Elohim we see the creative power of the omnipotent God – There is might, strength and power in the name Elohim!
2) Covenant Making Father
To make a covenant implies the power and right to do so, and it establishes the fact of “absolute authority in the Creator and Ruler of the universe.”
When you make a covenant or a contract you do so because you have the right to promise something by your own name because you have the power to perform that which He has promised.
We see this in the wedding vows – people promise that which is in their power to complete.
We see this in mortgage agreements – people promise to pay that which in their power to do so.
A person cannot covenant or promise that which outside of their power. We should be careful what we promise to do or not do.
It is the same with God – the Elohim – for He promises that which is in His power to do. But we have already discovered that Elohim has the root meaning of Almighty! Is there anything that God has promised that He cannot deliver on?
In Genesis 17 we see a combination of God and Mighty in the Hebrew. In verse 1 we have: “I am God Almighty [El-Shaddai]; walk before me and be blameless”; in verse 7: “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the Generations to come, to be your God [Elohim] and the God [Elohim] of your descendants after you,” that is, to be with them in covenant relationship.
· The Elohim remembers Abraham when He destroys the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and for His covenant’s sake spares Lot (Genesis 19:29).
· Joseph on his deathbed declares to his brethren: “I am about to die. But [Elohim] will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Genesis 50:24).
· 1 Kings 8:23 - "O Lord, God [Elohim] of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below-you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way.” He is the Elohim who keeps covenant and loving-kindness with His servants who walk before Him with all their heart
When the Elohim is makes a covenant with Abraham, and because there is none greater, He swears by Himself, “By myself I have sworn.” (Genesis 17:7).
It is also the Elohim who declares the new covenant which we now live in:
Jeremiah 31:33: "This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God [Elohim], and they will be my people.”
The name Elohim is used in connection with that new covenant, an everlasting covenant that God will one day make with His people Israel when He will put His law and His fear within their hearts.
To Israel in distress comes the word: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your [Elohim]” (Isaiah 40:1). For the eternal God who covenants for and with them and us will keep His covenant.
A chief characteristic of Elohim character is the ability and consistency to be able to make covenants and keep them:
Numbers 23:19: “God [El – singular meaning Almighty] is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should changing his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil?”
3) Character of the Trinity
There is one more aspect in the name Elohim and its use that makes it unique!
Elohim is the plural form of El which means “mighty one”! It is in the plural. It has the usual Hebrew ending for all masculine nouns in the plural. So what?
The same word Elohim is used of false god’s in the OT in the same way we would speak of God and gods. However, when used of the false gods the sentence surrounding it always has plural verbs and adjectives.
When the plural Elohim is used of God, it is always surrounded by singular verbs and adjectives – denoting One God yet plural in existence, the Trinity!
Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth…”
Deuteronomy 9:3: “But be assured today that the LORD [Jehovah] your [Elohim] is the one who goes ahead of your like a devouring fire.”
However, when used of the true God, its plural use means majesty and intimates the trinity.
It is especially used of God’s sovereignty, creative work, mighty work for Israel and in relation to His sovereignty (Isa. 54:5; Jer. 32:27; Gen. 1:1; Isa. 45:18; Deut. 5:23; 8:15; Ps. 68:7).
But there is something else here too, for this idea overlaps the ability of God to keep His promises. One commentator explains it like this:
“Elohim… as a name usually given in the Scriptures to the ever blessed Trinity by which they represent themselves as under the obligation of an oath to perform certain conditions.” (Dr Parkhurst, in Stone).
That’s a bit of a mouthful but basically it means this: God promises within the trinity, the God-head, to perform tasks because God cannot break a promise to Himself!
The Elohim covenanted not only covenanted with the creation but, as the Godhead, within Himself, concerning the creation.
Colossians 1:16 tells us that by Him or in Him were all things created, that is Jesus. But creation is the act of the Elohim. How? Because “In the beginning God…” in the Hebrew is “In the beginning Elohim…."
Then again this one Elohim speaks of Himself as Us:
· Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our imagine”;
· Genesis 3:22, which speaks of man becoming “like one of us.”
· Genesis 11:7 God says: “Let us go down and confuse their language.”
There is blessing and comfort in this great name of God signifying supreme power, sovereignty, and glory on the one hand and on the other hand signifying a covenant relationship that He is ever faithful to keep.
Thus He says to us, “I will be to you a God” (Elohim), and we may say, “My [Elohim], in whom I trust” (Psalm 91:2).
Wrapping it up:
The name Elohim, although conveying some amazing truth, is still God’s name to the creative power of creation. It is not the most intimate names used of God, but most Christians stop there in their understanding of the names of Father God.
We end up with this idea that God is strong, but distant. There is enough in the name Elohim to Get us through life, but there is more of His character that the Bible reveals to us! Understanding that Elohim is Creator, the promise keeper and Trinitarian is the foundation level.
But remember Deuteronomy 33:27: The eternal God [Elohim] is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. A picture if intimacy
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