Monday, June 15, 2009

Life Application on Adonai Yahweh, the Sovereign LORD

Read Ezekiel 37:1-14.

As it is with the personal name of God, Yahweh, you won’t come across Adonai in English Bible translations. Adonai is translated in English Bible as “the Lord,” and Yahweh is translated as “the LORD.” The difference is Adonai with capital “L” with lowercases “ord” while Yahweh is translated with all capitalized “LORD.” However, when Adonai and Yahweh occur together (some 213 times in Ezekiel), instead of translating it as “the Lord the LORD,” English translations seek to differentiate for clarity. So, you will find in NIV, Adonai Yahweh is translated as “The Sovereign LORD.”

This helps us know that Adonai translated as “the Lord” and “Sovereign” speaks to the reality of God as One who has authority to reign over his creation, his people, namely us.

Brueggemann in his book Hopeful Imagination said,

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.[i]

  • Can you think of ways that you may have presumed upon, trivialized, taken for granted, mocked Adonai, dishonored the Lord?
  • Read Ezekiel 33:31-32… there is direct correlation between knowing God as Adonai, the Lord and how we hear and respond to his word. You can hear Adonai when you read his word or hear sermons. When you hear because you’ve read Adonai’s word or have heard sermons, then you have opportunities to put God’s word into practice. Share how you are doing with this.
  • Read Ezekiel 37:4-5… What is the crucial step to receiving breath that gives life for dry bones in this passage? What are you doing about it to ensure that you hear God’s word?

Commit to hear from Adonai and put his word into practice…

Ezekiel ends with the vision of the new city in the future and the name of the city will be known as “THE LORD IS THERE” (Ezekiel 48:35).

Imagine when people observe your life, they realize with you “THE LORD IS THERE.” Imagine people seeing the reality of Adonai, the Lord, in how you think, how you speak, how you react in good times and bad times, how you made decisions, how you relate, how you do your life. This will happen when you commit to hear from Adonai and put his word into practice.

Make a concrete plan on how you intend to get to know Adonai by reading his word and putting it into practice.


[i] Walter Brueggemann, Hopeful imagination: prophetic voices in exile, Fortress Press, 1986, p. 53-54.

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