Names of God: Elohiym

Pastor Laurie DeWitt

	Today if I were to ask of you to tell me about God, the first,
and maybe only, thing that would come to your mind would be that
God is Love.

	Yet which of us is known by only one name, only one trait?  How
many of us really want to be known only by our hair color, or
lack of it, our height, etc.  

	I wonder whether we tend in our minds to make God small enough
to believe that we know all about Him, but big enough to take
care of all of our problems if He wants to.

	I believe that we miss a lot of what the Bible is trying to
tell us about God by our preconceived notions.  

	Why do I say this?  There are at least 7 major different ways
that God is referred to in the Old Testament.  These are God;
Elohiym, (Genesis 1); Lord, (Gen 2, 15:2); Jehovah, (Ps 83:18);
God Almighty, (El Shaddai), Exodus 6:3); Most High God, or El
Elyon (Ps 78:56); Lord, Adonai; Everlasting God, El Olam; and
Lord of Hosts, Jehovah Sabaoth.  

	In most of the translations of the Bible, you will find that
the differences between these names for God carefully follow the
original texts.

	But why did God, through the Holy Spirit, cause the writers of
the Bible to use these different names when referring to God?

	I believe that it is because no one way of knowing God can be
complete for humans.  Just as knowing me only as pastor does not
necessarily tell you what knowing me as a father or husband or
nurse or friend can mean, so knowing God only as Jehovah, or
Elohiym does not tell us the complete story about God.

	Knowing God is like a piece of music that starts with one
lonely instrument.  As new sounds from different instruments
enter the music, it becomes more vibrant, more real, more moving
and understandable, until there is a grand theme that sweeps us
away in its majesty.  

	Yet by the same token, to appreciate the whole symphony, we do
well to listen to the individual themes that various instruments
will carry which make up the glorious whole.  

	Some may ask of the importance of this.  Let me ask you, what
is the purpose of religion?  What is the purpose of worship? 
Are we not here today in this church, in this denomination
because we feel that it gives us a better understanding of God
and His will for us?  

	Psa 45:11   Because He is your Lord, worship Him.

	Psa 29:2  Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name; Worship
the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

	Psa 95:6  Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel
before the LORD our Maker.

	Psa 95:7  For He is our God, And we are the people of His
pasture,

	Rev 15:3  They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and
the song of the Lamb, saying: "Great and marvelous are Your
works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of
the saints!

	Rev 15:4  Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your
name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and
worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested."

	Too often our religion becomes focused upon ourselves to the
detriment of our relationship with God.  We need to realize that
our purpose on this earth is to make God look good, and we need
to seriously consider that.  

	My belief is that as we serve God and glorify His name we find
the fulfillment in us of God's greatest plans for us.

	We know that God has revealed Himself in nature, in His written
word, by personal revelations to many through time, and through
Jesus Christ. You will remember in my first sermon we have just
the symbols of Jesus, the symbols of the ox, the lion, the lamb,
and man.  Like these symbols of Jesus that reveal more of his
character to us, the characteristics of the Godhead are revealed
in His different names. 

	Today we are going to begin our study with the first of God's
names,  (refer them to the paper)  bearing in mind that each of
these names tells us something about God's character, about who
God is.

	This name is the first to be used in the Bible.  It is repeated
in virtually every verse of Genesis 1.  It used over 2555 times
in the Old Testament.  That name is Elohiym.  This name for God
is the only one used in Gen 1-2:3, and Strong's concordance
tells us that it means gods in the ordinary sense, but in the
Bible is specifically used in reference to the supreme God, and
almost always in the plural, yet usually with a singular verb or
adjective.  This is hard to explain in the English, but it shows
up in Hebrew.

	It is significant that the Holy Spirit led Moses as he recorded
the beginnings of this world to include the passage that uses
Elohiym first, for it is the foundational understanding of God.
I believe that this name of God gives us two main understandings
of His nature.

	If we were to translate Genesis 1:1 in a way that showed what
the literal meaning trys to convey it would say "in the
beginning Gods created the heaven and the earth...and the breath
of Gods moved upon the face of the water.  This might be a new
concept to us, but it shouldn't be, for as we move down in the
chapter we find that it goes on to tell us that God says, Let us
make man in our image...

	Then we have the events at the tower of Babel where God makes
the statement that the tower must be destroyed least man becomes
like "one of us."  Have you read the passage in Eccl 12:1 (KJV) 
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth..?  That
literally says remember thy Creators.....  There are more.

	We may have accepted some of this for years without realizing
what it says.  For millennia the Jew has repeated Deu 6:4 "Hear,
O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!"  When they quote
that what they are really saying is "Hear O Israel, Jehovah our
Elohiym (Gods) is one Jehovah."

	So immediately in the beginning of God's revelation of Himself
to His people, He gives the careful observer an indication of
the trinity.  God is Plural.  God is one.  Granted this is not
developed fully until the NT writings but we can clearly see the
thought here in its seed form.

	In His name we find the beginning of the mystery of the
Trinity. 

	But this is just the beginning of the understanding of Elohiym.
 It is derived from a Hebrew word which means to swear, as in
make a promise.  In this respect Elhoiym refers to one who
stands in a covenant relationship which is ratified by an oath. 
One old lexicon explains Elohiym as "a name usually given in the
OT to the Trinity, which represent themselves as under the
obligation of an oath.  

	We are told that those who have by baptism given to God a
pledge of their faith in Christ, and their death to the old life
of sin, have entered into covenant relation with God. The three
powers of the Godhead, the  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are
pledged to be their strength and their efficiency in their new
life in Christ Jesus. (Australasian) Union Conference Record
10-07-07

	Let's examine some examples of the covenant relationship of
Elohim with mankind.

	First I think of Noah. Genesis 6:13,18 "And Elohim said unto
Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me...But with you I
will establish my covenant..... Genesis 9:9,17.  

	"And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and
with your descendants after you,

	Gen 9:17  And Elohim said to Noah, "This is the sign of the
covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that
is on the earth."

	With Abram:  Gen 17:1- 8   When Abram was ninety-nine years
old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty
God; walk before Me and be blameless.  "And I will make My
covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly."
 Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: 
"As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a
father of many nations.  "No longer shall your name be called
Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a
father of many nations. "I will make you exceedingly fruitful;
and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 
"And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your
descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting
covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. 
"Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in
which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an
everlasting possession; and I will be their God."

	As a result of these we later read that Elohim remembered Noah,
Elohim remembered Abraham, Elohim remembered Rachel.

	We find understanding of the God of the Covenant in His words
to Isaac and  Jacob.  Joseph, Moses, and David rejoiced in the
God of the Covenant.  Look at  Psa 111:5  He has given food to
those who fear Him; He will ever be mindful of His covenant. 

	Psa 89:28  My mercy I will keep for him forever, And My
covenant shall stand firm with him.

	Psa 43:5  Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you
disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.

	It is the same for all of us.  The fact that God is Elohim,
that is, the one who keeps the covenant, is the foundation of
our hope in every extremity.  God is our refuge and strength, he
is our God and our father's God, and he has said that he will
never leave us or forsake us.

	He is God of Gods, Lord of Lords.  He executes justice for the
fatherless and the widow.  He is a father to the fatherless, a
judge of the widows (review judge in context of OT), the
faithful creator who cannot fail His creatures.  

	Paul tells us that the plan of Salvation, this plan to uphold
the covenant, was from before the foundations of the Earth.  The
name Elohim tells us that God in His fullness, in the
expansiveness of the Trinity, worked together to engineer the
salvation of fallen mankind.  This was not just an agreement
with mankind, but with Himself.

	As we look more at the covenant relationship aspect of Elohim,
we find that the covenant is not just between God and man, but
actually among the Trinity themselves.  

	At some point it was agreed that member of the Godhead that we
know as Jesus would be the one to redeem the humanity if it
fell.  Christ covenanted with the Godhead to redeem humanity
from the power of Satan, at the price of His own life.  [Isa.
53:10, 11] gives us the condition of this covenant. "Yet it
pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath  put Him to grief: when
thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His
seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the travail of His
soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My
righteous Servant justify many; for He shall bear their
iniquities"	

	So we find that not only is Elohim the God of the covenant, He
is also the one who will keep that covenant with His own power.

	Heb 6:13  For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He
could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,

	Exo 32:13  "Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants,
to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, 'I will
multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this
land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they
shall inherit it forever.'"

	Reviewing, we find that, in the name Elohiym, God is revealed
as plural.  More importantly, I believe, we find that Elohiym is
the revelation of the God of the Covenant relationship.  The
personal God, who has pledged Himself to our salvation.  

	The story is told about a nine year old boy who went with his
parents to Europe one summer. Part of their tour was visiting
the great old cathedrals.  As he would visit cathedral after
cathedral he saw the massive stained glass portraits of the
disciples and of other saints. He was quite impressed as he
stood in these great empty halls looking through the beautiful
stained glass windows.  

   	When he came back he was asked by his Sunday School teacher
to share the thing about the great churches of Europe that he
like the most, and what his definition of a saint was.  

	He thought for a moment and he said, "I loved the sense of
awesomeness and the hugeness of who God must be."

	"And what is a saint?"  And as his mind went back to those
massive beautiful stained glass windows, he said, "A saint is a
man the light shines through."  

	Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may
see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in
heaven." (Matt. 5:16) 

	We need to know God, Elohym, the God of Covenant not just in
head knowledge, but also from our hearts,  And when that
happens, people will be drawn to the glory of God in us. 

	How are you going to respond to Elohiym?