Living Before God Our Father
Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. NKJV
Last lesson we finished on the subject of “holiness.” Because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” Our heavenly Father is the only Holy, righteous, and eternal judge who is God, the Creator of All. We cannot comprehend the full Glory of God, the full and complete nature of God. There are no words for the description of God that can completely describe our heavenly Father. Elohim, the almighty creator, Adonai or LORD, El-Shaddai, the all-sufficient one Yahweh, the redeeming LORD, There are many other names that describe our Heavenly Father.
It would be helpful for each of us to study the “names of God” in order to become more knowledgeable of the many-faceted aspects of the Eternal One. In this study, we will take time to consider the Redemptive Name of our God. His redemptive Name is Yahweh in Hebrew and Jehovah in English. The Jews so feared God that they quit writing His Name and dropping the vowels and only wrote the consonants (YHWH). Translators added the vowels and gave us Yahweh in Hebrew and Jehovah in English (JHVH).
This is known as the “TETRAGRAMMATON.” The Hebrew name of God is transliterated in four letters: YHWH or JHVH and articulated as “Yahweh” or “Jehovah.”
Yahweh means, The Lord who redeems. This Name is used in the Old Testament about 7,000 times. The New Testament name is Yahushua or, in English, Jesus. Matthew 1:21, “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (NKJV).
Elohim, another name of God, contains the meaning of God as the all-powerful, self-existent God. In our lesson today, we will look at the redemptive Name of God in the English rendition of Jehovah. We will consider “eight” of the compound names of Jehovah. We begin with Jehovah-Jireh.
Naturally, these compound names owe something of their significance to the Name Jehovah. In His Name Jehovah, there is contained the meaning of revelation, the God of moral and spiritual attributes—of righteousness, holiness, love, and therefore of redemption, the God who stands in covenant relation to Israel in contrast to Elohim, the general Name of God regarding all the nations. CHRIST JESUS IS JEHOVAH REVEALED IN HUMAN FORM OR INCARNET. That incarnation is in every one that is born of the Holy Spirit.
Most of these compound names of God arise from some historical incident and portray Jehovah in some aspect of His character as meeting human needs.
JEHOVAH-JIREH
The Name Jehovah-jireh is one of several names compounded with Jehovah. Briefly, let us recall the happenings which occasioned its use. On the way to sacrifice, Isaac cannot contain his curiosity about the lamb for the burnt offering. “Behold the fire and wood”; he said, “but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” (Gen 22:7). Abraham’s answer to this question is that God will provide Himself a lamb. “I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you” (v. 5). It is only at the last moment when Isaac lies bound upon the altar, and any such hope he may have entertained is gone. The knife in Abraham’s upraised hand is about to descend, that the voice of the angel of Jehovah arrests and stays his hand, and Abraham looks about and sees a ram caught in a thicket by its horns, which he offers up instead of his son. Then in verse 14, we read in the Authorized Version of our Bible: “And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord [Jehovah] it shall be seen.” In the American Standard Version of our Bible, however, instead of “it shall be seen,” it reads “it shall be provided.” Still another rendering of this important word is “he shall be seen.” Thus, “in the mount of Jehovah, he shall be seen or provided.” (The New Testament that Mount is Calvary). Nothing stopped Jesus from dying for the sins of the world!
As the Jehovah of righteousness and holiness, love and redemption, having prevision of man’s sin, fall, and need, He makes provision for that need. For provision, after all, is merely a compound of two Latin words meaning “to see beforehand.” And we may learn from a dictionary that provide is simply the verb and prevision the noun of seeing beforehand. Thus to God prevision is necessarily followed by a provision, for He certainly will provide for that need which His foreseeing shows Him to exist. With Him, prevision and provision are one and the same thing. All this is certainly expressed in the term Jehovah-jireh; and it is correct to translate this Name of God Jehovah jireh, “God will provide.”
JEHOVAH-ROPHE
The Name Jehovah-rophe means Jehovah heals. It is the second of the compound names of Jehovah. The Name Jehovah-jireh arose out of the incident of Jehovah’s provision of a substitute in place of Isaac whom He had commanded Abraham to sacrifice upon the altar. We learned that it stands for Jehovah’s great provision for man’s redemption in the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who was the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world, and who was offered upon the very spot where Abraham had predicted—”In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen”—that is, Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, the scene of Calvary.
For this Name of God, Jehovah-rophe, arises from one of Israel’s earliest experiences in the wilderness as told in Ex 15:22-26. Indeed it was their first experience after the crossing of the Red Sea and the singing of the great song of triumph. But the same chapter which records Israel’s triumphant song also records the first murmurings of discontent and bitterness. In Ex 15:22. They forgot the might and mercy of the God who had so marvelously delivered them. In their anxiety and anger, they murmured against Moses in the bitter complaint. Then in verse 23: “And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah” (which means bitter). We can imagine their feelings of relief and joy as they first came in sight of this well, but what angry disillusionment when they find the waters bitter-an aggravation and a mockery of their thirst. They were maddened by this setback to their hope and expectation. What were they to do? Were they and their children to die there of thirst? Then God showed Moses a particular tree, which, when cast into the waters, turned them from bitterness to sweetness so that the people drank. They were refreshed and strengthened and heartened for the journey ahead. Their murmuring was turned to praise as their confidence in Jehovah and His servant Moses was renewed. The Jehovah who heals in the Old Testament is the Jesus who heals in the New.
JEHOVAH-NISSI
And Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi [Jehovah, my banner]” (Ex 17:15). Only a few weeks had elapsed from the time the children of Israel left Marah, the place of bitter waters, till they reached Rephidim, the scene of Jehovah’s revelation of Himself to them as Jehovah-nissi, Jehovah my banner. At Marah, we will recall, in healing the bitter waters of that place, He had revealed Himself as Jehovah-rophe, Jehovah who heals, the one who alone has the remedy for the sins of mankind, the balm for the sorrows and sufferings of His people; who has sweetened the bitter waters of human misery and death through Christ, the Tree of life and the sweet and living waters.
The children of Israel had gone from Marah to Elim, the place of refreshing and rest (Ex 15:27). From there, they journeyed to the wilderness of Sin (Ex 16) where they murmured against Moses because there was no food and where they longed for the fleshpots of Egypt. There, Jehovah appeared in the cloud of glory and began to feed them with the wilderness manna. Then they came to Rephidim where there was no water (Ex 17). At Marah the waters were bitter. Here there was no water at all, ”And the people thirsted there for water.” Hunger is difficult and discouraging enough to bear, but the sufferings and torments of thirst are unbearable. Their murmurings and threatening against Moses were actually a tempting of Jehovah. They doubted God. They had forgotten the marvelous passage of the Red Sea and the drowning of Pharaoh and his hosts; forgotten, the miraculous healing of Marah’s waters! Ignoring the coming down of the manna from heaven, they questioned God’s goodness and even His presence. They questioned, “Is the Lord among us, or not?” And there from the rock in Mt. Horeb, that rock which Paul tells us was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4), Jehovah caused waters to spring forth to quench the multitude’s thirst.
Then came the experience which occasioned Jehovah’s revelation of Himself to His people as Jehovah-nissi. Israel discovered that perhaps there were worse enemies than even hunger and thirst. They now learned that their pathway was to be contested and barred by implacable human foes. For “then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Ex 17:8).
JEHOVAH-M’KADDESH
The Name Jehovah-M’Kaddesh is found in Lev 20:8. It means Jehovah who sanctifies. “Sanctify yourselves, therefore, and be ye holy: for I am Jehovah your God…. I am Jehovah which sanctifies you” (Lev 20:7,8). Its appearance in the Book of Leviticus is most appropriate. The order in which this Name appears in the revelation of the Name Jehovah, and the particular point of the people’s experience when it was revealed are most striking and suggestive. The order in which all these names appear shows purpose and progression and is evidently designed to meet the people’s developing spiritual life and needs.
To be continued next week.
(from Names of God, Copyright 1944 by The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago.)