Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon, June 14 2009
Elohim the Creator God, El-Shaddai God Almighty of all-sufficiency, El-Roi God who sees, Yahweh the personal and ineffable name of holy God who exits, who is pained by our sins, who redeems us from our sins through his sacrifice ultimately his Son Jesus Christ… Each name captures certain aspects of God’s attributes and lets us know little bit more about who God is. Today, I would like to introduce to you another name God is known in the Bible, Adonai which means “the Lord.” In the Old Testament of our English Bibles, it is translated as “the Lord,” with capital “L” followed with lowercase “ord.”
1. Knowing God Adonai Yahweh, the Sovereign Lord
I was quite overwhelmed to say the least to study the names that our God is known in the Bible. I had a particularly hard time narrowing down the vast scope of what the name Adonai represents in the Bible. If you recall, the personal name Yahweh was considered ineffable by the Jews meaning that in fear of misusing his name, Yahweh was not to be pronounced. So, Jews has substituted Adonai whenever they came across the personal name Yahweh in the Old Testament, which happens to be more than 6800 times. Whenever you read the capital letter “L” followed with small capital “ORD” in English Bibles, it is translators’ attempt to reflect this tradition of substituting Adonai with Yahweh.
According to TDOT, there are 499 actual occurrences of Adonai in the O. T., which as I mentioned spelled with “L” capitalized and “ord” in lowercases. Further, among these, Adonai occurs alone 134 times and with Yahweh 315 times, mostly in the order of Adonai Yahweh with only five times in the order of Yahweh Adonai.[1] And, I learned that of these some 213 times Adonai Yahweh occur together in the book of Ezekiel. So, after overcoming my initial feeling of being overwhelmed, I’ve narrowed down the study of God’s name Adonai to the book of Ezekiel. I mention these details about the occurrence of Adonai not so that you remember how often Adonai occurs in the Bible, literally or as in substituted pronunciation for Yahweh, but to help you understand how prominently God is known as the Lord in the Bible and the implication for us.
Andrew Jukes says it best,
In nothing more therefore than in the confession or denial of this name do we see the radical contrast between the Church and the world. The Church is church because it acknowledges relationship: the world is world because in practice it denies it. The great mark of the elect is that they "know the LORD," while the world yet knows Him not, and acts as far as may be in independence of Him. The world's way is to do as it likes, think as it likes, speak as it likes, without regard to any higher will above it.[2]
What is going to set you and me as Christians apart from the rest of the world is that you and I know God as Adonai, the Lord, and we depend on him, think, speak and act as he likes with full regard to his will for us.
2. Adonai Yahweh, the Sovereign Lord will not be mocked.
As I mentioned I discovered that Adonai occurs some 213 times next to Yahweh as in Adonai Yahweh in the book of Ezekiel. In NIV, Adonai Yahweh is translated as Sovereign Lord. In other places, Adonai is translated as the Lord with capital “L” with lowercases “ord,” and Yahweh with capital “LORD.” And, instead of translating Adonai Yahweh as the Lord LORD, the decision was made to use the meaning, “Sovereign” in place of the Lord to translate Adonai for clarification.[3]
So, when you read Ezekiel, you will come across this phrase in varying shapes repeating, “this is what the Sovereign LORD says.” When God communicates to his people, he wants us to know that he is Adonai, the Lord, the Sovereign One. God by declaring to us Adonai Yahweh, the Sovereign Lord, he wants us to acknowledge his intense majesty and his greatness along with the deep awareness of us belonging to him. So, you find David declaring in Psalm 57:9-10, “I will praise you, O Lord [Adonai], among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies."[4]
In the book of Ezekiel, a division is clearly observed before the exile and after the exile. Before the exile, what you see is Ezekiel, as a priest zealously, tirelessly, fearlessly delivering tough message of warnings to Judah what was going to take place if they were to persist in mocking Adonai Yahweh, the Sovereign Lord. In those days, in the entrance to the north gate of the inner court of the temple stood the idol and it is said that this provoked God to jealousy (Ezekiel 8:3) and that the utterly detestable things the house of Israel was doing would drive Adonai Yahweh far from his sanctuary (Ezekiel 8:6). Brueggemann writes,
“The key to Ezekiel’s proclamation of God is this: God will not be mocked. God will not be presumed upon, trivialized, taken for granted, or drawn too close. God takes being God with utmost seriousness… God refuses to stay where God is not honored.”[5]
So, we read in Ezekiel 9:3, “Now the glory of the God of Israel went up from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple.…” and later Ezekiel 10:18, “Then the glory of the LORD departed from over the threshold of the temple…”
Before, we can fully understand God as God of grace, we must understand and know and speak to God who is Adonai, the Lord, Sovereign One who cannot be reduced and boxed, mocked into our convenience. The Adonai, the Sovereign One would not be treated like 7-Eleven stop, not a person of all-authority, but like a place that exits sorely for our convenience. The Adonai, the Sovereign One would not be treated like an abandoned warehouse with nobody in it.
The book of Ezekiel ends with the great vision of the new city of Jerusalem. Ezekiel 48:35 says, “the name of the city from that time on will be: THE LORD [Yawheh] IS THERE.” The Adonai the Sovereign One with his eyes ranges throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him (1 Chronicles 16:9). When people see us, when people see our friends, our family, our church, will they say, “THE LORD IS THERE”? Do people see the glory of the Adonai dwelling when they observe you and me? If we mock Adonai by treating him like 7-eleven stop or an abandoned warehouse, if we give ourselves to idolatry that is in Brueggemann’s words when “belief is assigned to unworthy and unworkable objects,” that is when we make “attempts, misguided attempts, to secure” our lives with anything other than the Adonai, can we say, “THE LORD IS THERE” with us?
3. When you reject Adonai Yahweh, the Sovereign LORD’s call to repent…
Before we can understand God’s presence, his abiding grace, we must pay attention to the Adonai Yahweh, the Sovereign LORD, who calls us to repent and the consequence of rejecting his call.
- Ezekiel 14:6, “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord [Adonai Yahweh] says: Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices!’”
- Ezekiel 18:30-32, “Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign LORD [Adonai Yahweh]. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses: then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declare the Sovereign LORD [Adonai Yahweh]. Repent and live!”
But, the sad thing was Ezekiel, the priest turned to prophet, his passionate, zealous, and tough warning from Adonai Yahweh, the Sovereign LORD fell to the deaf ears of the Israelites. The warning from Adonai Yahweh through the mouth of Ezekiel became the tragic reality. Ezekiel 33:21, a report had reached Ezekiel, “The city has fallen!”
The city of Jerusalem once a dwelling place of Adonai Yahweh, since his glory, his presence departed the temple, the city, remained only as an empty shell of the past glory, only to be shattered in death. Here is why the city fell according to Adonai.
Ezekiel 33:31-32, “My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and places an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice.”
Essentially, the report that “The city has fallen!” transports us to some 600 years in to the future to the Friday when Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross where all rejection of Adonai Yahweh’s call and pretense and fake devotion will face judgment of death. Our sins, our rebellion, our pretence take us back to the Friday when Jesus was crucified. There he died our death. There he was striped and pierced for our punishment.
4. When Adonai Yahweh, the Sovereign LORD breathes life in you…
When there seemed to be no more hope, out of ashes, out of the stench and terror of death, the new prophetic vision and voice of hope came from Adonai the Sovereign Lord to Ezekiel for the exiles.
Ezekiel 37:1-3, In the middle of a valley… full of bones… bones that were dry, was the voice from Adonai, “can these bones live?” Ezekiel answered,
“O Sovereign LORD [Adonai Yahweh], you alone know.” To this Adonai told Ezekiel to prophesy, “Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD [Yahweh]! … I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD [Yahweh]” (Ezekiel 37:5-6).
When the vision became reality, Adonai interpreted the vision for Ezekiel. People were saying in the utter destruction of their city that their bones were derived up and hope was gone; they were cut off (Ezekiel 37:11). Another word, they were as good as dead. The death on the Friday Jesus died was heavy that sinks one’s soul to hell. Adonai Yahweh the Sovereign LORD’s word came to the hopelessly crushed, sinking, and dead souls,
“O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them. I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people will know that I am the LORD [Yahweh], when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD [Yahweh] have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD [Yahweh]” (Ezekiel 37:12-14).
On that fateful Friday, Philippians 2:9-11tell us ,
"God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Adonai Yahweh, the Sovereign LORD, we see the face of God when we look upon the cross where Jesus Christ who died. But death could not hold him back as dry bones could not remain dead dry. In Jesus Christ, Yehoshua, we see Yahweh who saves. In Jesus Christ, we experience the breath of the Holy Spirit resurrecting us from death. In Jesus Christ, Lord, we now experience Adonai, the Lord, to whom we must bow our knees and confess to the glory of God the Father..
5. Conclusion
Here are the summaries of what we learn from the fact that God is Adonai Yahweh, the Sovereign LORD.
- Knowing God as the Sovereign LORD, Adonai Yahweh sets us apart from the world
- Adonai Yahweh will not be mocked.
- When we reject Adonai Yahweh’s call to repent…
- When Adonai Yahweh breathes in you…
[1] TDOT, Volume 1, p. 63.
[2] Andrew Jukes, p. 113-114
[3] It combines the word for “sovereign” with God’s actual name, combining a sense of privilege and nearness in knowledge of God’s name with a sense of awesomeness because the name itself suggests something of the unpredictable enigma of the active presence of Yahweh (James D. G. Dunn, Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible, Wm. B. Eerdmans. 2003. 624).
[4] Adonai is correctly described as the name of personal communication between the believer and God. In such communication the worshiper acknowledged God's intense majesty and greatness and also the sense of belonging to this God. Adonai, coming from human lips, expressed honor for God and humble submission on the part of the believing person. Adonai, thus, is the name that expresses faith, assurance, security, ready service, and thanksgiving (Ps 16:2; Psalm 57:9-10) (Tyndale Bible Dictionary, 2001, p. 542); Adonai is often accompanied by expression like "Sebaoth," which further emphasize in particular the excelling majesty of this Lord of all and stress is in this way (Isaiah 3:15, 10:24), (TDOT, p. 70); Amos, Isaiah, Ezekiel... their preaching emphasizes the majestic exalation of their God, use Adonai in conjuction with such expressions depiciting his omnipotence more often than other propehets. (TDOT, p 70); Adonai Yahweh... Adonai emphasizes God's sovereignty; Yahweh emphasizes His eternal existence and character as the God of covenant, history, and ethics (King James Version Study Bible).
[5] Walter Brueggemann, Hopeful imagination: prophetic voices in exile, Fortress Press, 1986, p. 53-54.
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