Yahweh Mekeddeshem - I am the LORD who makes you holy (Exodus 31:13)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon July 19, 2009

Today, I would like to explore with you another way God made himself known in the Old Testament, namely, Yahweh Mekeddeshem, which means, “I am the LORD who makes you holy, sets you apart as holy, or sanctifies you.”

Ephesians 1:4, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. 1 Peter 1:16, “Be holy, because I am holy.” God’s purpose for you and me is that we become like him in his holiness. What we are going to learn today is that becoming holy and blameless in God’s sight happens when you and I remind ourselves of God’s grace giving character and when we demonstrate God’s grace to others.

The particular passage which includes Yahweh Mekeddeshem that I would like to draw your attention is Exodus 31:12-17. Please, turn your Bible to Exodus 31:12-17 and let’s stand together for God’s word.

• Ways to be reminded of God’s grace giving character.

What is stated in this text is how the practice of the Sabbath resulted in knowing God as grace giving God, Yahweh Mekeddeshem, “I am the LORD who makes you holy.” Yahweh Mekeddeshem is grace giving God because it is his grace that allows us to be holy.

For God to be Yahweh Mekeddeshem, the One who makes you and me holy, he would have to be holy God. Consider these verses: Leviticus 11:44-45, “be holy, because I am holy… I am the LORD who brought you out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.” Leviticus 19:2, “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” When God who is holy calls you and me to relationship with him, he calls us to become like him in his holiness.

God who is holy is completely free from the moral imperfections, impurity and frailties. Unlike you and me, no flaws can be found in him; he never gets tired of being good; never fails to be good and perfect. He is sinless. God who is holy is also completely faithful to his own promises again unlike us who can be unreliable as faulty bows when it comes to keeping our promises.[i] Psalm 105:42 speaks to his holy character of his promises, “For he remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham.” Exodus 15:11 speaks of holy God as one who redeems, who saves, “Who among the gods like you, O LORD? Who is like you-majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?”

God who is holy has the quality of otherness about him; because he is transcendent beyond our ordinary limits of moral imperfections and sins, to sin ridden, imperfect, unreliable people holy God is utterly unapproachable. According to Colossians 1:21, human condition is such that of being alienated from God and being his enemies in minds because of evil behavior (Colossians 1:21). You may see a blatant and hostile attitude towards God, or you may see the attitude that treats God as irrelevant; “God doesn’t matter to me,” some might say and live accordingly. God who declares, “I am holy” will not be reduced to irrelevancy. God who declares, “I am holy” will not tolerate those who rebel against him. There will be a day when holy God will judge the attitudes, the lifestyle, and the deeds of those who insist God as irrelevant to them, those who continue to oppose God and refuse to yield to him.

So, when this holy God declares, Yahweh Mekeddeshem, “I am the LORD who makes you holy,” this is God’s message of his grace giving character. Your best of best shots at shunning evil, moral imperfections and failures, temptations, your most sincere intent to be good and holy will never measure up to God’s standard of holiness, his goodness. Your best of best effort and striving will not get you anywhere but restless and fruitless life. Holiness for Christians as it was for the Israelites is something that cannot be conceived outside of God’s intervention. It is God’s grace of making you holy that enables your effort and striving to bear lasting fruit.

To help the people of Israel know this grace giving God, God gave them the Sabbath; the Sabbath practice was a way to be reminded of God’s grace, the One who makes his people holy. So, let’s consider how the Sabbath was a way of God reminding his grace.

The verbal form of the Sabbath means to cease, to pause. What were they to stop, to cease? They were to stop doing things that sustained them. Consider when God gave manna when the Israelites lived in the desert. On the sixth day, God gave them a double portion of manna so that next day on the Sabbath they wouldn’t have to work to collect manna (Exodus 16:22-26). This law of stop working after six days and resting on the seventh day was so important that non-compliance was dealt with death penalty (Exodus 31:14). God called the Sabbath a sign, which allowed the Israelites to remember important things about God; their week in and week out of stop working and resting on the Sabbaths was designed so that the Israelites would grasp God’s grace giving character.

In Exodus 20, you will find the Sabbath as one of the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:11, you read the connection between the Sabbath and God’s creation account of creating for six days and resting on the seventh day from the work of creating. So, the weekly practice of the Sabbaths was designed as a sign that would point them to God as their Creator.

In Deuteronomy 5, you also find the Sabbath listed as one of the Ten Commandments. But, here the emphasis that comes after the Sabbath is the call to remember their former condition as slaves in Egypt and how it was Yahweh who brought them out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

In their weekly practice of resting by pausing from working, they were reminded God was the Creator who provided for them and that it was God who delivered them out of bondage. It wasn’t their labor, but it was the grace of the Creator who provided for them and the grace of the Redeemer who delivered them. So, the Sabbath was designed as a sign to point the Israelites to the grace giving Creator, Redeemer.

Jesus said in Matthew 12:8, “… the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath.” The way it works for Christians now is not by observing the Sabbath as the Israelites did, but by finding ourselves in the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus Christ.

He said in Matthew 11:28-29, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

It is only in Jesus Christ, you and I can become holy, be set apart for God. Yahweh Mekeddeshem, “I am the LORD who makes you holy,” Yahweh calls you and me to rally around Jesus, to come under him, to find ourselves in him, for through Christ’s blood, his death and resurrection, we can become holy.

How you spend the sacred time with Jesus will determined if you will grow in holiness. For some of you, the struggle is overworking.  You need to learn to take time to rest in Jesus Christ.  But, many of you, the struggle is not so much about overworking, but taking wrong kind of rest. In your spare time, if your goal is simply to vege out in front of TV, mindlessly surfing on your computer, this wouldn't fit the kind of rest Jesus envisions for you. 

For the Israelites, the Sabbath keeping was a sign that pointed them to God's grace giving character.  What kind of rest would point you to God's grace?  Are you taking such rest on ongoing base? 

• Ways to love others through demonstrating God’s grace to others:

When you read carefully Exodus 21:10 and Deuteronomy 5:14, you will find a comprehensive list of who were to remember the Sabbath. “On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.” It was for the whole people, whole creation that were to pause from work of labor and to rest in God, the Creator, the Redeemer. So, through the practice of the Sabbaths, the Israelites were called to love people and love creation. Loving people meant tangibly allowing others to stop working and experience God’s grace.

The principle of the Sabbath extended not weekly, but on every seventh year as well.

Exodus 23:10-11… Consider the Sabbath year. God promised to bless on the sixth year, to produce enough for three years that can last until the harvest of the eighth year. So, they were told to give the land a Sabbath of rest (Leviticus 25:4); During this Sabbath year of rest, then the poor would be able to eat from the land at the Sabbath rest. Consider Deut 15:1-3… the Sabbatical year for canceling debts… “At the end of every seventh years you must cancel debts.”

Pretty radical stuff, right? God has no interest in raising up generations that are self-absorbed and have no interest in demonstrating God's grace to others.  Jesus said the first and the greatest commandment is to Love the Lord God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind. And the second is to love our neighbor as ourselves. One's confession of love to Jesus without following his command to love others is not genuine and downright unchristian. Faith without deeds is dead faith.  Faith must be expressed in good deeds.  So, as we seek to be immersed in God's grace to make us holy, we must seek tangible ways to bless others, to demonstrate God's unearned grace to them. 

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[i] New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis: Volume 3. 882. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1997.

יְהוָה נִסִּי - Yahweh Nissi… The Lord is my Banner! Exodus 17:8-16

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon July 12, 2009

Let me start off by drawing your attention to the words of apostle Peter from 1 Peter 5:6-9. Here he speaks about the spiritual reality, namely the hostile existence of the devil and how we as Christians ought to respond in the light of it. He says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…”

There are times when this seems much more of obvious reality than other times. Whether you acknowledge it, or refuse to believe it, or forget to remember it, the spiritual battle is reality. The great problem for so many Christians and non-believers alike today is that they are oblivious to the reality of the spiritual battle. Christians are oblivious to God’s call upon them to resist the enemy, to stand firm in the faith! They think that apostle Paul’s call in Ephesians 6 to put on the armor of God, to pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests, to be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints, is a call for some extraordinarily spiritual Christians. No, to put on armor of God, to pray always, to pray for all the saints, to pray for each other are not just for the select few super Christians. These are mandate to all for all of us in the light of the spiritual reality.

My prayer today is that God would shake us out of spiritual malaise, laziness, naivety, naked vulnerability, that he would awaken us to desperation, urgency and dependence on him. So, it is fitting that I speak to you today about God’s name by Moses, Yahweh Nissi, “The LORD is my Banner!” Before delving into understanding what it means to k now God as Yahweh Nissi, I want you to first consider where this name is found in the Bible and see the spiritual reality.

1. How do you know when you are vulnerable to attack?

Last week, I talked to you about how Yahweh tests us, not because we he doesn’t know us, but to reveal to us our true character, the condition of our hearts. Only after three days since they witnessed God’s deliverance from Egypt, when they arrived at a place called Desert of Shur, they began to grumble against Moses and God because they could not find drinkable water, but only bitter, pungent water. It says in Exodus 15:25, this was no accident, but God’s design to test them to reveal them their own character, their hearts. God turned the bitter water to drinkable and quenched their thirst.

And, in Exodus 16, traveling further south of Sinai Peninsula, we see the Israelites again grumbling. There they complained, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death” (Exodus 16:3). Again, by raining down bread from heaven and giving them specific instructions as to how they were gather manna for themselves, it says in Exodus 16:4, “In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.”

And, in Exodus 17:1-7, what you find is further south of Sinai Peninsula at Rephidim, we see the Israelites blatantly quarreling with Moses and demanding water since they found absolutely no water this time at Rephidim. Moses questioned them, “Why do you put the LORD to the test?” (Exodus 17:2). Instead of trusting God Yahweh Yireh to provide for them as he rained them the bread from heaven, as turned the bitter water to drinkable, instead they digressed and became cynical and skeptical questioning if the LORD was even among them (Exodus 17:7), if the LORD even cared.

In the midst trials and difficulties, their true character was revealed. And, it wasn’t pretty. This is the nature of the spiritual battle. The presence and the power of God was abundantly clear and unmistakably demonstrated, yet, here they were doubting if God was even among them and rejecting him. Forgetting who God was, what he had done, and what he promise, they digressed further becoming discontent, complaining and grumbling and distrusting God’s presence and ultimately rejecting God.

Now enter Exodus 17:8, in the state of forgetting, becoming discontent, complaining, grumbling, and rejecting God, we read, “The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.” The Amalekites who lived in the desert, south of Canaan around Kadesh were the descendants of Amalek, the son of Eliphaz, Easu’s eldest boy (Genesis 36:12). In other words, the Amalekites were the cousins of the Israelites. If the Amalekites believed God’s plan to bless all nations through Abraham including Amalek as he said in Genesis 12:3, there should have been no reason for them to feel threatened by the Israelites. But, instead of believing in the promise made to Abraham, the Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. It is instructive to read Deuteronomy 25:17-19 which explains how they went about attacking the Israelites. It shows that they went after the Israelites who were lagging behind, meaning those who were vulnerable. Numbers 24:20 tells us that they were first among the nations to attack Israel.

As in 1 Peter 5:6-9 which tells us that the devil our enemy prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, here we see the Amalekites prowling to devour the weak and the vulnerable. Here is how you know if you are nagging behind, if you are weak and vulnerable to attack? You know it when complaining and grumbling defines your heart instead of thankful gratitude; you know it when you feel numb to the presence and the work of God, when you forget God. You lag behind if your character is in shamble, if your heart is divided when God tests you.

2. What do you do when you are attacked, when your character and heart fails?

When the Amalekites came and attack those who were lagging behind, those who were weak and vulnerable, we see two responses. On the ground, Moses charged Joshua to lead the way to fight the Amalekites. And, Moses went on top of the hill and stood there with the staff of God in his hands and he held it up high. Joshua going out with the chosen men to fight the Amalekites is s no brainer. But, what’s with Moses going up to the top of the hill and holding up his hands and how it determined the outcome of the battle?

“The staff of God [Elohim]” symbolized the Yahweh’s powerful presences. A staff in Moses’ hand, which God turned into a snake and back to a staff (Exodus 4:2-4), which Moses struck the water of Nile and turned it to blood (Exodus 7:16-17) and a staff of Aaron which Yahweh turned into a snake and when challenged by the Egyptians who turned their staffs into snakes, the staff of Aaron swallowed up theirs, there on the top of the hill, the staff of God represented the power and the presence of Yahweh.

Exodus 9:22-23 when Yahweh told Moses to stretch out his hand toward the sky so that hail would fall all over Egypt, Moses responded by stretching out his staff toward the sky; Exodus 10:12-13 when Yahweh told Moses to stretch out his hand over Egypt so that locust would swarm over the land, Moses responded by stretching out his staff over Egypt; Exodus 14:16 when Yahweh told Moses to raise his staff and stretch out his hand over the seas to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on the cry ground, Moses again obeyed. Moses’ held up hands along with the staff of God was the symbol of the power of Yahweh and the conductor of his power upon the fighting men of Israel. It presented Yahweh as the Banner over them, their lead in the battle.

And, here is the key phrase from Exodus 17:11, “As long as”! “As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.” “As long as” speaks to long journey of perseverance, faithfulness and obedience.

As long as Moses had his hands held up high, the fighting men on the ground was winning. The outcome of the battle was sorely dependant on whether Moses’ hands were held up high or lower, not on the strength of the sword of the fighting men.

Moses’ staff, his hands raised up symbolized the Banner, Yahweh’s abiding and powerful presence that energized the fighting men on the ground and enabled them to overcome the enemy that prowled like a lion to devour.

Moses knew this. So, we see in Exodus 17:12, Moses trying really hard to keep the Banner up high, to bless Joshua and his fighting men on the ground with the power and the presence of Yahweh, but Moses couldn’t overcome the physical fatigue and his arm muscles cramping with burning pain.

This is when Aaron and Hur stepped in. Exodus 17:12, they got a stone and put it under Moses so he could sit on it. And, “Aaron and Hur held his hands up- one on one side, one on the other- so that his hands remained steady till sunset.” Exodus 17:13 says that because Moses’ hands were held up high steady until sunset, “Joshua overcame the Amalekites army with the sword.”

As the phrase, “As long as” speaks to remaining faithful and persevering, “remained steady” in verse 12 speaks to faithfulness, steadfastness and patience under severe trials.[1] As long as, they remained steady by raising up the Banner of Yahweh high, as long as they let the fighting troop know who was in charge of the battle and who was fighting for them, as long as the Israelites rallied around the Banner of Yahweh, they were victorious.

So, we see Moses in Exodus 17:15 making this confession, Yahweh Nissi, “The LORD is my Banner.” As Walter Kaiser says, “There was no such thing as a “holy war” in the OT, but there were “wars of Yahweh.””[2] Yahweh Nissi, “The LORD is my Banner,” means the battle belongs to the LORD; not only is he in charge, it is he who fights the battle and determines the outcome. And those who rally to the Banner, Yahweh, fight his battle. So, the Banner of Yahweh defines their identity and orients them to who they are, and gives them courage, hope, strength and the ultimately victory.[3]

So, what do you do when you are attack? What do you do when you notice the noise of grumbles, complaining, and distrusting in your heart? What do you do when you see your character failing? You declare, Yahweh Nissi, “The LORD is my Banner,” and you look to him and you rally around him, you recognize that you are fighting the LORD’s battle, and he is fighting for you.

Isaiah 11:10 reads, “In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious…” The Root of Jesse is a Messianic phrase that points to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, he stands as the Banner for the peoples, for the nations to rally to him and there they will find rest, security, and hope.

Another passage, namely Numbers 21 also foreshadows the Messiah as the Banner. It’s an account of the Israelites en route to the Promised Land. Along the way, they grew impatient… they spoke against God and against Moses and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food [manna]!” Yahweh responded by sending venomous snakes that bit and killed many of the Israelites. People came to Moses and confessed their sin against Yahweh and against Moses and pleaded for Yahweh to take away the snakes. To this Yahweh told Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” Here, the word, “pole” is the same Hebrew word, “nes” used for “banner” in other places.

Jesus quoted this account in talking to Nicodemus to speak of his death on the cross, “so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). It was grotesque to look upon the bronze serpent but utterly necessary to live and to the Jews the crucifixion was a sign of curse, repugnant to behold, but again utterly necessary for eternal life. So, the Banner of the snake raised up is a picture of Jesus Christ cursed, who became sin for us as He hung on that awful tree.[4]

What do you do when you are attacked? You declare Yahweh Nissis, “The LORD is my Banner.” You rally to Jesus Christ and behold the cross where he died, you rally to Jesus Christ who died and was raised from the dead. He is your Banner over you!

Application

• Pray… Practically speaking, what was Moses doing while he had his hands lifted up high with the help from Aaron and Hur until sunset? Philip Graham Ryken thinks that while Joshua fought with sword, Moses fought with prayer[5] And, I quote, “In our prayer we acknowledge our absolute dependence on God to conquer the enemies of our faith.”[6] What do you do when you are under attack, when you notice the noises of grumbling, complaining, and distrusting in your heart? You declare Yahweh Nissis, “The LORD is my Banner,” and turn to Jesus in prayer.
• Understand and remember the battle belongs to Yahweh… Exodus 17:14, we see Yahweh’s command to write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it…” Joshua was on the ground with sword fighting the Amalekites and didn’t have grasp on what took place on the top of the hill. Understanding it is God’s battle you fight, understanding God is in charge of the battle, of you, and actively remembering this fact Yahweh Nissi, “The LORD is my Banner” … this is the key to be victorious and not become a victim to the enemy that prowls to destroy.
• Confess you have no strength apart from God’s strength… Confess you have no strength apart from strength in the Lord as it says in Ephesians 6:10-11. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”
• Rally around the Banner of the cross… Remember that your rally point is the Banner of the cross. Colossians 2:13-15 says, “When You were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” It is there at the cross, you know the power of death, the power of the enemy, the power of the sinful flesh was nailed to the cross, there at the cross, you know the resurrection followed. And, when you rally around the cross and behold the Banner of Christ, you will be able to sing victoriously as in Revelation 19:2, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servant.” And, Revelation 19:6, the roar of a great multitude in heaven will be heard, “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.”

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[1] Kaiser, Jr., Walter C. “Exodus Note 17:12” In The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume 2. 410. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1990.

[2] Kaiser, Jr., Walter C. “4. The war with Amalek (17:8-16)” In The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume 2. 409. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1990.

[3] Philip Graham Ryken, Exodus, Crossway, 2005, p. 466.

[4] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen and H. Wayne House, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1999), Nu 21:7-9.

[5] Phlip Graham Ryken, Exodus, Crossway, 2005, p. 462.

[6] Ibid., p. 463.

CMC Life Group: Yahweh Yireh, the LORD will provide!

Read Genesis 22:1-19

Genesis 22	Read the verses below and write down your own observation on how they relate to the Genesis account.
Genesis 22:6… the wood… placed… on his son Isaac…	John 19:17
Genesis 22:9…Isaac’s silent trust in Abraham and ultimately in Yahweh	Isaiah 53:7 Isaiah 53:10 1 Peter 1:19-20
Genesis 22:10… Abraham didn’t hold back his son Isaac from God.	Hebrews 11:17-19 Romans 8:31-32

• Yahweh Yireh tests you… Why did God test Abraham?
• Worship your Provider, Yahweh Yireh… Abraham to his servants in Genesis 22:5, “We will worship and then we will come back to you.” In Genesis 22:10, you see Abraham drawing the knife to slay his son, not withholding Isaac from God. How does Abraham’s response to God’s command reflect the heart of worship?
• Trust your Provider, Yahweh Yireh… How did Abraham trust Yahweh Yireh? How did Isaac trust Yahweh?

Share & Apply…

• Share how Yahweh Yireh has tested you or is testing you to reveal your heart and what you are made of?
• Worship is matter of priority. How are you worshiping Yahweh Yireh, your Provider?
• Reflecting Hebrews 11:1, “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see,” what does it mean for you to trust Yahweh Yireh, your Provider?
• Pray for each other that worship and faith in Yahweh Yireh is restored and revived.

Yahweh Yireh, the LORD Will Provide, Genesis 22:1-19

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon, July 5 2009

During my college years, my summer job was painting. I remember having a conversation with one of the painters about Christianity. He not as a believer had real doubts about the Bible. And, I remember him citing the story of the binding of Isaac when Abraham was tested by God in Genesis 22. He was adamant in his belief that God of the Bible is cruel to order Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. And, he couldn’t believe in God who he saw as cruel and unjust. My goodness that was over twenty years ago.  I don’t remember what I told him as a young Christian. But, I am sure I tried to answer him the best I could.

The name of God, Yahweh Yireh, or popularly known as Jehovah Jirah, that I would like to introduce to you this morning comes from Genesis 22. Yahweh Yireh means the LORD will provide. The personal I AM, who was, who is and who will be, who is personally grieved by our sins, who redeems us from our sins, this Yahweh is God who provides. This morning my prayer is that you encounter Yahweh Yireh and walk in confidence in him that the LORD will provide!

1. Yahweh Yireh tests you.

During my family time in Michigan, I met Brian Hommel who was a former professional baseball player and has been the chaplain for the Arizona Diamonbacks. He gave me a little book he wrote, ‘dropping the fig leaves.’ In defining his struggle in his own life, he wrote, “It is human nature to want the greatest amount of happiness with the least amount of pain.”[1] This is twisted sin nature of self-serving that only knows “My life for my life.” When we try to know God as the Provider through the eyes of self-serving, “My life for my life” attitude, we inevitably reduce God to the one who exists to make us happy; our self-serving selfish attitude seeks to domesticate God to our likes and wants.

But, Yahweh, the Great I AM, who was, who is, and who will be, the LORD has never allowed and will never allow his creation to usurp his authority as the Creator, the LORD, the Master, the Owner, the King.

So, what we see in Genesis 22:1 is God, Elohim, testing Abraham. Do you know that God tests to reveal what we are made of? He doesn’t test us because he doesn’t know us, for he knows us better that we know ourselves. He tests us in order to show us what we are made of. Are we the kind of people who are willing to love God with all our hearts, minds and souls? When God tests us, what would be revealed as most important to us? When God tests us, are we going to be revealed as people who simply trust God because he is beneficial to us, or we trust him with our lives?

Now, we as readers know what’s going on since the narrator tells us what’s going on here, namely that Abraham is being tested in this chapter. But, Abraham didn’t know any of this. Job was put through the fire of test and just like Abraham, he didn’t know what was going on either. So, imagine the shock when Abraham heard from God, “Take you son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love.” Do you notice how this is getting more personal for Abraham? “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains.” Ouch! Can you feel the pain Abraham must felt here?

This is Abraham who waited for 25 some years for Isaac to be given to him. In the previous chapter, there was this great joy of seeing beginning of the fulfillment of God’s promise to make Abraham a great nation with his offspring as numerous as stars.

But, when Isaac was old enough to wean off probably two or three, things got ugly in Abraham’s household. Sarah saw Ishmael mocking and she would have none of it. She demanded of Abraham. “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac,” Genesis 21:10. 21:11 says that the matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. But, soon he found that God’s was on Sarah’s side on this. God came to Abraham. God addressed first Abraham’s distress and told him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant.” And, he told him why he should listen to whatever Sarah told him, it was because it is through Isaac that his offspring would be reckoned. And, God gave Abraham hope for his son Ishmael for he had a plan for Ishmael, to make him into a nation. So, in Genesis 21:14, we see him sending away his firstborn son Ishmael and Hagar. Here, although in distress Abraham submitted to God’s will for Ishmael.

This is the backdrop of when God came to test Abraham in Genesis 22. He’d been through a lot, but God wasn’t done with Abraham, more testing was required. God was going after Abraham’s heart, you will see.

A commentator writes that God’s command to Abraham in Hebrew has the sense of unusual gentleness. So, the nuance in Hebrew would be something like, “Please, take your son.” God understood the difficulty of the test and he spoke to Abraham with gentleness.^[2]

Genesis 22:1... "Sometime later God tested Abraham..." This would be the answer to the doubt of the painter I mentioned earlier.

In later revelation, God clearly forbad in Leviticus 18:21 the Israelites from sacrificing of any of their children as offering to Molech for this would have profaned his name. He repeats this command in Deuteronomy 18:10 and 12, “Let no one be found among you who sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire,” for “Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD.” One thing that you can count on God is he is consistent. So, we must understand Genesis 22, the binding of Isaac as in God testing to reveal what was most important to Abraham as well as for his son Isaac. God’s purpose of testing was to confirm what he knew of Abraham and Isaac; his intention was never to sacrifice a child. No doubt this command to sacrifice Isaac consumed Abraham, but for God the command was only an instrument of his testing. [3] God is not cruel as my painter friend understood him."

God also tested later time during the wilderness. After three days into from escaping Egypt, when they arrived in the desert and found only bitter water they couldn’t drink, people began to grumble against God. There, he turned the bitter water into sweet and drinkable. Exodus 15:25 says, “there he tested them.” Victor P. Hamilton says, “Will the Israelites take freedom with all the insecurities that freedom brings, or will they take incarceration and the guarantee of regular meals? That is the test,” says in his commentary. God tests to reveal what we are made of, what is most important to us, whether we will treasure him over all others.[4] Are we going to be lorded over by gifts from God or by Yahweh Yireh, the Provider, the gift Giver?

Consider God’s testing. “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering” Genesis 22:2. Ouch! The burnt offering, Hebrew in ola, is translated as holokautoma in the New Testament where we get holocaust.[5] The burnt offerings of animals were to be completely burned except for the hide on the altar (Leviticus 1). I remind you that Isaac was the very fulfillment of God’s own promise to make Abraham into a great nation, to bestow him great blessing, to make his offspring numerous as stars. God was asking Abraham, “Abraham, will you give up your son whom I gave to you?

2. Worship your Provider, Yahweh Yireh

Please, look down to Genesis 22:5 to how Abraham responded to his two servants, “We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Abraham did not understand that God was putting him through a test, but what he understood was that obedience was a matter of worship. I think Abraham understood that the demand upon him from God went straight to the matter of priority. What made Abraham truly happy, was it because God promised and fulfilled his promise and gave him a son? Was he happy because of the gift he possessed or was he happy because of the gift Giver?

Worship is matter of priority. What does it mean to love God with all our heart, all our mind, all our strength, all our soul? What does it mean to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, as our spiritual act of worship? Abraham understood this that worship is matter of priority. It is no worship to love gifts more than the Giver of gifts. So, Abraham, without understanding that God’s purpose was to test his heart, not the actual act of child sacrifice, Abraham understood that God was more important than his son, his only son, whom he loved. This is worship to love the Giver of gifts more than gifts he gives.

3. Trust your Provider, Yahweh Yireh

Going back to his response to his servants, “We will worship and then we will come back to you.” We as in himself and Isaac will worship and then we as again himself and Isaac will come back to you. Hebrews 11:17-19 interprets for us clearly what was going through Abraham’s mind. It says, “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who received the promises was about to sacrifice his on and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.”

When God tested Abraham, when God confronted his heart and mind for his allegiance, his love, his delight, his trust, he could only reconcile the fact God was demanding back the gift of his son Isaac God gave to him only through his belief in God’s power to raise the dead.

Already in Genesis, thousands of years before Jesus Christ, Abraham held on to faith of being sure of what he hoped for and being certain of what he could not see. He trusted Yahweh Yireh, the LORD will provide!

And, this is exactly what he believed and how he answered his son Isaac when Isaac asked him, “The fire and wood are here… but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” He answered Isaac, “God [Elohim] himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Abraham trusted in Yahweh Yireh, the LORD will provide!

Now, let’s look at Isaac. Back to Genesis 22:6, it says, “Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac.” This image foreshadowed of what was to take place on the Golgotha in John 19:17 where Jesus carried the cross.

Isaac was young, but strong enough to carry the wood for the burnt offering. Genesis 22:9, we see Abraham binding (the aquedah) his son Isaac and laying him on the altar. And, there Abraham drew his knife to slay his son. What you don’t see is Isaac trying to fight the rope and escape the certain death at the hands of his own father. [6] Again, it wasn’t because Isaac was weak and unable to fight off, but Father like son, as Abraham trusted in Yahweh Yireh, Isaac too trusted in Abraham, and ultimately Yahweh Yireh. That’s what you see here.

And, what’s significant is that Isaac’s obedient silence is captured in Isaiah 53:7. It speaks of the suffering servant, Jesus Christ… “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”

Isaiah 53:10 says, “it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering.” And, 1 Peter 1:19-20, “but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.” The difference is that Isaac was redeemed and was not killed while the ram Yahweh Yireh provided was killed and was offered as the burnt offering.

In Abraham’s determination to carry out sacrifice his child which was stopped by God foreshadowed Yahweh Yireh who didn’t hold back his One and only Son, Jesus Christ. Romans 8:31-32, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

4. Conclusion

Here is how it works. Yahweh Yireh wants to give himself, his One and only Son Jesus Christ to you and me. And, the only way to accept God Son into our lives is through worship and trust. Philippians 4:19, "But my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." 

God is testing you to see if you love him more than all the gifts he gives? God is testing you to see if you know him, Yahweh Yireh, the Great Provider, who demands everything from you, your life, your possession, all that you treasure, in return Yahweh Yireh gives you Jesus Christ.

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[1] Brian S. Hommel, A Search for Authenticity: dropping the fig leaves. Movement Publishing: Chandler, Arizona, 2008, p. 17.

^[2] Gordon J. Wenham, vol. 2, Word Biblical Commentary : Genesis 16-50, electronic ed., Logos Library System; Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 113.

[3] Sailhamer, John H. “4. The binding of Isaac (22:1-14)” In The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume 2. 167. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1990.

[4] Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Wm. B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1995. p. 101.

[5] Ibid., p. 103.

[6] Ibid.. p. 110.

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.

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

Adonai Yahweh, the Sovereign Lord, Ezekiel 37

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…

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[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.

Life application on El Roi, God who sees

One of the things that set apart David from Saul was that David inquired of the LORD [Yahweh] because he wanted to follow God’s will for him (c.f. 1 Samuel 23:4, 30:8, 2 Samuel 2:1, 5:19, 5:23). In this way David was a man after God’s heart (1 Samuel 13:14) who waited for God to make things clear for him before he acted because he valued God’s opinion over his own or anyone else’s opinion.

We get into spiritual problems when we take shortcuts thinking that El Roi, God who sees us, is too slow to act and we or other people are smarter to know what to do with our own lives now than El Roi, God who sees. Has Instant gratification, demand for results and productivity, and pride blinded us to the virtue of waiting on El Roi, God who sees?

Taking shortcuts in spiritual journey is antithesis to the journey Jesus wants us to be on, through the small gate and on the narrow road that leads to life, that only a few find it (Matthew 7:14). The consequence of taking shortcuts in spiritual journey is that we become fools who cannot see El Roi God who sees us, who notices us and cares for us.

Read Genesis 16 and …

Consider the two stories, one of Abram and Sarai, the other of Hagar.

• Describe Abram and Sarai’s sins in this passage.
• How did their sins prevent them from seeing God, El Roi, God who sees?

In contrast, Hagar was able to see El Roi, God who sees at work in her life.

• What sets Hagar apart from the attitude of Abram and Sarai?
• What insight do you have about God in the way he interacted with Hagar?

Personalize

• What does it look like for you to take shortcuts impatiently instead of waiting on El-Roi, God who sees?
• Share your experience of meeting El Roi as Hagar did.
• What does it mean for you that God is El Roi, God who sees?

Pray

• Ask God to instill in you the patient obedience of Christ instead of taking shortcuts godlessly.
• Ask God to experience more of him as El Roi, God who sees, who searches you and knows you, who knows you when you sit and when you rises, who discerns your going out and your lying down, who is familiar with all your ways (Psalm 139:1-3).

El Roi, God who sees (Genesis 16)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon, June 7 2009

Genesis 16:13, "She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me."

When I read the Bible and consider people like Enoch who walked with God, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, the prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Judges like Deborah, queen Esther, or Ruth, the psalmists like Asaph and even David, or Paul and the other apostles, when I consider these great people of faith and how they had experienced God breaking into their lives with power, deliverance, blessing, and purpose in life, I feel kind of insignificantly small. By seeing them, hearing them, responding to them, acting on behalf of them, God has personally stepped into each of their lives and allowed them to walk in his light, his salvation. God blessed and protected them; he made his face shine upon them, was gracious to them, turned his face toward them, gave them peace and bless them (Numbers 6:24-27). In the Bible story line, these are all big characters and God saw them through in their lives.

I know that I am not insignificant to God. I know that. But, there are times when I feel small. Do you ever feel this way about yourself, small, invisible, and unnoticed? After all, in the grand scheme of human history, likelihood of any of us making into the top 100 list of anything in the world is quite remote. Surely, wouldn’t God pay closer attention to the big name Christians like Billy Graham, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, Nancy Demoss, Beth Moore…

The truth is our God has commanded, “Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike,” (Deuteronomy 1:17), “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great but judge your neighbor fairly,’ (Leviticus 19:15), “My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism” (James 2:1). And, Deuteronomy 10:17-18 says this about God, “For the LORD [Yahweh] your God [Elohim] is God [Elohim] of gods and Lord [Adonai] of lords, the great God [El], mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.”

Psalm 94:8-9 says, "Take heed, you senseless ones among the people; you fools, when will you become wise? Does he who implanted the ear not hear?  Does he who formed the eye not see?" The LORD [Yahweh] knows the thoughts of man; he knows that they are futile.” Psalmist likens fools, the wicked as senseless ones who see not with their eyes and hear not with their ears, unlike the LORD [Yahweh] who sees and hears us, who knows us.

If there were ever doubts in your heart if God sees you, if God notices you, I would like you to come away from today’s message that God sees you, God notices you even when you don’t feel like he does see you and notice you. Listen to these passages that talk about Yahweh who sees.

• Proverbs 15:3, "The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good." 
• Hebrews 4:13, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.  Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."
• 2 Chronicles 16:9, "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him..."
• Exodus 3:7, "The LORD said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.  I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.'"

1. When long spiritual journey towards obedience gets diverted by your sinful shortcuts…

Last week, we touched on the story of Abraham and Sarah in learning God’s name, El-Shaddai, God Almighty of all-sufficiency from Genesis 17 and briefly touched on chapter 16. Today, I would like us to revisit and consider the story that is unfolded in Genesis 16.

My goal in life is to foremost be the one who would finish the long spiritual journey blamelessly and purely in obedience to Christ’s mercy and grace; yes there will be shortcomings and sins along the way, but as a forgiven sinner, I want the trajectory of my spiritual journey to be that of constantly being purified, sanctified in upward curve in growing obedience and affection for God. I want to lead my wife, my children to the same goal. I want to lead you to this long spiritual journey toward obedience.

The problem happens when you and I get diverted from this long spiritual journey toward obedience by shortcuts we take. That’s what happened to Abram and Sarai in Genesis 16. In chapter 15, Abram had an amazing experience; God came to reaffirm his covenantal promise to Abram by a vision and physical demonstration. Genesis 15:12 says, “As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep…” and it says in 15:17, "When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoke firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.  On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram..." You would think that this would have cemented Abram’s long spiritual journey with firm faith in God’s all-sufficiency.

But, what we see in chapter 16 is Abram and Sarai being distracted and diverted from their long spiritual journey toward obedience by their choice to take sinful shortcut. You know the story from last week how Sarai urged Abram to take the shortcut by having a child through her Egyptian maidservant, Hagar. Hughes suggests that Sarai's intervention and Abraham's agreeing to her, their shortcut may have delayed God’s promise for them for 13 years.[1]

Who is the principal person to be blamed for taking this sinful shortcut? According to Genesis 16:5, Sarai seemed to think that Abram was to be blamed; she said, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering… May the LORD judge between you and me.” Of course the whole truth is that Sarai needed to take responsibility for her own failure. But, speaking of the principal responsibility, Sarai was right in that it was Abram’s responsibility to lead his wife towards blameless and purity. Speaking of families, I am directly responsible for the wellbeing of my wife and my children. We men must learn to take the attitude of Moses’ successor, Joshua’s attitude in Joshua 14:15, “… as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD [Yahweh].”

Kent Hughes says that shortcuts do not promote God's purpose.[2] He also calls Genesis 16 as "the first marital triangle in biblical history."[3] Shortcuts have consequences. Taking shortcut meant to treat Hagar as merely an object, a possession with no choice for self-determination as a maidservant. Taking shortcut meant having a child not of promise, but of their own making. Taking shortcut meant delayed fulfillment. Taking shortcut meant the lasting consequence that is still felt even today; evidenced by the conflicts in the Middle East between Muslims who are the descendants of Ishmael, a child of the shortcut and the Jews who are the descendants of Isaac, a promised child.

I want you to notice that there is no mention of God breaking into the scene where Abram and Sarai took their shortcut in bearing a child through Hagar. Sarai mentioned God in 16:2, but it only showed how her perception of God was all wrong. God didn’t break into the scene until later time with Hagar. God didn’t show up when Abram and Sarai were taking the sinful shortcut. When we allow our long spiritual journey towards finishing the race be diverted by taking shortcuts, we don’t see God at work. We become fools who cannot see and who cannot hear! If we don’t see God working in our life, if we don’t think God sees us or notices us, we must consider that it might be because we’ve been taking sinful shortcuts away from the path of long spiritual journey with God.

Long spiritual journey towards obedience involves daily remembering who God is, what he has done, what he is doing in your life today and what he will do through Bible reading and prayer. If you are not reading God’s word daily, if you are not talking to him daily, throughout each day, it is unlikely that you would remember your Elohim, your Creator, your Yahweh, the holy and relational Redeemer, El-Shaddai, God Almighty of all-sufficiency and El-Roi, God who sees you. You don’t read God’s word and you don’t talk or listen to him, then you become a senseless fool who forget God who sees you. When you in your senselessness forget God who sees you, you will take shortcuts. When you take shortcuts and divert yourself from the long spiritual journey, you will reap painful consequences as Abram and Sarai did. Nobody can force you to read God’s word, to talk and listen to God. It is your responsibility to seek God’s dwelling, his presence by reading his word, talking and listening to him daily.

2. El Roi God who sees

As I have mentioned to you already God’s presence was conspicuously absent when Abram and Sarai took the shortcut. But, I want you to notice how God broke his silence and showed up for Hagar.

A Slave: Metropolitan Museum of Art 2009-1998 B.CE. Painted Wood, 44 1/8 inches tall, Tomb of Mekutra, Thebes Dorman 1987:28.

The Chief Steward and Chancellor Meketrê, or Mehenkwetrê, was buried at Thebes, in the hillside to the south of the mortuary temple of Mtuhotep II.

Wooden statues of the slaves who worked his estate were recovered from his tomb. Hagar, who was the Egyptian slave of Sarah, may have resembled this slave of Meketre.[4]

Yes, it is true that Hagar massed up by letting her pride get in the way when she despised Sarai as we see in Sarai’s words in Genesis 16:4. In the ancient culture, having children, especially having sons was a mark of success for wives. And, for this Sarai was deemed a failure.[5] Having conceived Abram’s child while her master Sarai wasn’t able to, instead of remaining humble, in pride, she looked down on Sarai. And, Sarai knew it and it roused angry jealousy.

Yes, it is true that Hagar became proud. But, it is also true that Sarai mistreated Hagar. Sarai needed to own up to her part in creating the massy martial triangle. In her anger, jealousy, harshness, Sarai went about to make Hagar life miserable. The problem wasn’t Hagar really. The problem was Sarai herself along with Abram taking the shortcut. The problem was her unconfessed sin which manifested in jealousy and anger.

What did Abram do? Genesis 16:6, “Do with her whatever you think best.” If I paraphrase it, I could imagine Abram saying something like, “Well, I don’t know! I don’t really care what you do with her. You deal with her since you told me to have a baby with her!” Ouch, here is Abram again taking the back seat instead of taking responsibility to lead his family!

Anyway, dejected, pushed out and unloved, Hagar saw no other way out then to flee. That’s what we do when we don’t have God in the picture. When conflicts arise, when you and I don’t have the ongoing close connection with God, the last thing we will try to do is to become peacemaker; without God, we either attack like Sarai did or we take off, avoid like Hagar did.

Pregnant, driven out in misery, nothing to look forward to, she wandered in the desert near a spring. I wonder what Hagar was thinking as she wandered away. I don’t know, but I am sure she felt crushed, broken and lost, trying to make sense of what was happening to her life and to her child. And, this is precisely when according to Genesis 16:7-8, “The angel of the LORD found Hagar.” And, there he spoke to her, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” To this she replied, “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.” Hagar was then told to go back to Sarai and to submit to her.

Do you see what’s going on here? God showed up through his angel to brokenhearted Hagar. Psalm 34:18 says, "The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." True to his word, it wasn’t Hagar who found God, it was God who found her and spoke into her life. She felt like nothing, unloved, noticed… and here was God speaking through his angel, “You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD [Yahweh] has heard of your misery.” Ishmael means God hears. Every time she or anyone called her son, Ishmael, she now could remember how God who sees met her. She was not unnoticed, unloved, uncared. God saw her; he noticed her. God saw her in the desert by the spring. God heard of her misery. And, God showed up and he spoke into her life for healing. And, he laid out a path to restore her by revealing himself to her as God who sees, God takes notices people like Hagar who feel unnoticed, forgotten and abandoned, who feels invisible, small and insignificant with broken hearts.

Perhaps, you think that it is strange that God would have her go back to Sarai who mistreated her. But, do you remember what I said about why she was fleeing the conflict? Without ongoing intimate connection with God, we have no resource within us to become peacemakers. Hagar ran out of steam without God. Now, having met God, instead of continuing on the path of pride, bitterness, depression, she now could choose the path of humility, restoration, and hope.

1 Peter 2:18-20 says, "Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh... if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God." What we see here is God who is more interested in developing Christ-like character in us then having the problem go away. God who sees us is God who will see us become like Christ. God knows that the best way to develop long suffering, Christ-like humility is not the path that leads us away from conflicts, but staying in conflicts and to become humble peacemakers with his help. Barnhouse writes, “If we seek to change our circumstances, we will jump from the frying pan into the fire. We must be triumphant exactly where we are. It is not a change of climate we need, but a change of heart. The flesh wants to run away, but God wants to demonstrate His power exactly where we have known our greatest challenge.”[6]

Genesis 16:13 tells us that she gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her, “You are God who sees me,” El-Roi, God who sees! And, the well where she met the angel of the LORD was called as Beer-lahai-roi meaning the well of the Living One who sees me.

Genesis 16:15 tells us that Hagar returned as was told. And, we see that Abram gave the name Ishmael. Hagar returned and told Abram her testimony of meeting Yahweh, El-Roi, God who saw her and who told her to return and submit to Sarai. Abram recognized that indeed her encounter was a genuine meeting with God, so he named his son as given to Hagar by the angel of the LORD, Ishmael, God who hears.

3. Conclusion

Here is what I want you to remember today.

• Read and pray everyday to remember El-Roi, God who sees you. Without daily reminder of God through reading of his word and communing with him, you will forget God is El-Roi, God who sees you. When you forget El-Roi, you will take shortcuts while relying on your own self-sufficiency instead of relying on God Almighty, El-Shaddai, your God of all-sufficiency. When you take shortcuts instead of waking in the long spiritual journey towards obedience and trust in Christ, you will face consequences as Abram and Sarai did. Yes, when you turn, God will be there for you, but you will still have to deal with the consequences of having taken shortcuts as Abram and Sarai did.
• God is far more interested in developing Christ-like character in you then to have your problems go away. When you are caught in conflicts, trials, difficulties, understand that El-Roi notices you, he cares for you, he sees you. God who sees you will come and work in you so that you will know joy in Jesus Christ regardless of circumstances you may find yourself.

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[1] R. Ken Hughes, Genesis: Beginning and Blessing. Good News Publishers, 2004. p. 243.

[2] Ibid., p. 243.

[3] Ibid., p. 237.

[4] Don C. Benjamin, The Old Testament Story; An Introduction, Fortress Press, 2004.

[5] Ibid., p. 238.

[6] Donald Grey Barnhouse, Genesis: A Devotional Exposition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984

El-Shaddai (God Almighty of all-sufficiency)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon, May 31 2009

Genesis 17:1, “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD [Yahweh] appeared to him and said, ‘I am God Almighty [El-Shaddai]; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.’”

All-sufficiency… Today, I want to introduce to you another new name of God from the Old Testament.  El-Shaddai captures God's attribute of all-sufficiency. Elohim the Creator God and Yahweh the relational and holy redeeming God is God Almighty, El-Shaddai who is all-sufficient God.

1. El-Shaddai: Only all-powerful God can be all-sufficient God.

Let me start off by showing you a clip from Bruce Almighty featuring Jim Carry and Steve Carell.  It is about Bruce getting back at Evan after being endued with divine power.

God who is not all-powerful cannot be all-sufficient. In God’s name El-Shaddai, we see God as all-powerful. El-Shaddai is a Hebrew compound word formed by El and Shaddai. El is even more generic word than Elohim and it means God with power and strength occurring about 228 times in the Old Testament.

Here are some examples that show El as mighty God in his power and strength. Psalm 77:14, “You are the God [El] who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.” Psalm 68:35, “You are awesome, O God [Elohim] in your sanctuary; the God [El] of Israel gives power and strength to his people.” Psalm 18:2, 30, 32, 47, “my God [El] is my rock, in whom I take refuge… As for God [El], his way is perfect… It is God [El] who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect… He is the God, [El] who avenges me, who subdues nations under me, who saves me from my enemies.”

As El-Shaddai, God is powerful in his might. This attribute of power is well reflected in the translations of El-Shaddai in English Bibles as God Almighty. We might assume that El-Shaddai, God Almighty must be able to do anything and everything. But, the truth is El-Shaddai doesn’t do anything and everything that would not reflect who he is. For example, Can God lie? Titus 1:2 says, “God, who does not lie,” and Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that he should lie…” Andrew Juke says, “Almightiness is the power to carry out the will of a Divine nature… He must be able to carry out His own will and purpose to the uttermost.”[2] Another word, in whatever God does he is always true to who he is. He doesn’t act inconsistently to his attributes. El-Shaddai, God Almighty, is always powerful to carry out his purpose according to his will and his character to completion. 

Elisabeth Elliot wrote in Shadow of the Almighty about Jim Elliot who was killed by Auca Indians in Ecuador along with his four other missionary buddies. The title comes from Psalm 91 which invites readers to consider God’s protection for his people. Specifically, the book’s title comes from Psalm 91:1, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty [Shaddai].” The psalm further spells out how God protects his people against fowler’s snare, the deadly pestilence, the terror of night, the arrow, the plague… Psalm 91:10-11, “no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angles concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” Psalm 91:13, “You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.”

Now consider the five young missionaries who were speared to death in the hands of Auca Indians. Doesn’t it seem to betray God’s promise from Psalm 91 to protect his people from physical harms? Was God Almighty, El-Shaddai, not powerful enough to protect these five young men from being killed? John Piper notes in his sermon that Elisabeth Elliot “called her book Shadow of the Almighty from Psalm 91:1 because she was utterly convinced that the refuge of the people of God is not a refuge from suffering and death but a refuge from final and ultimate defeat.”[3]

When we take a long view of life, God’s ultimate goal is to present each of us to himself as pure and blameless overcomers who are molded into the image of Christ. El-Shaddai is powerful to carry out his purpose in spite of all our temporary setbacks, difficulties, trials even seemingly untimely death like Jim Elliot and his four friends.

Satan told Jesus in Matthew 4:6, “If you are the Son of God… throw yourself down. For it is written.” He then quoted from the same Psalm 91, specifically he quoted from Psalm 91:12, “He will command his angels concerning you… they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” (Matthew 4:6, c.f. Luke 4:10-11). To this Jesus answered, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the LORD your God to the test.’” I like what VanGemeren has to say about this. He says that he who knows and trusts in the power of God and God’s protection walks securely while acting responsibly. So, testing God by subjecting themselves to harms and troubles to see how far God would go to protect them is no sign of faith.[4] To test God like this is to view El-Shaddai, God Almighty as nothing more than an insurance against accident rather than truly all-powerful God.

2. El-Shaddai who is all powerful is all-sufficient God.

As the word El helps us understand El-Shaddai is all powerful God, Shaddai helps us understand El-Shaddai is God Almighty who is all-sufficient God.

God told Moses in Exodus 6:3, “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty [El-Shaddai], but by my name the LORD [Yahweh] I did not make myself known to them.” In the generations belonging to patriarchs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they knew of God as El-Shaddai. So going back to Genesis 17:1 where God’s name, El-Shaddai first appears 17:1 we see “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD [Yahweh] appeared to him and said, ‘I am God Almighty [El-Shaddai]; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.’” Later God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, from “exalted father” to “father of many nations.” So, we read in Genesis 17:5-7, “No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 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 and the God of your descendants after you.”

El-Shaddai who promised Abraham to increase his numbers, to make him father of many nations, and to make him very fruitful is God Almighty, is all-powerful God who is all-sufficient to bless Abraham abundantly.

When you read the rest of Genesis, you can see this promise for El-Shaddai’s abundant blessing passing down through the generations after Abraham to Isaac, to Jacob, and even to Joseph.

Genesis 28:3-4, in Isaac’s blessing for Jacob, “May God Almighty [El-Shaddai] bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham…”

In Genesis 48:3-4, when Jacob was ill and wanted to bless his sons, he retold his son Joseph of what El-Shaddai, God of all sufficiency promised him, “God Almighty [El-Shaddai] appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and will increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.”

In Genesis 49:25, we see Jacob blessing Joseph, “your father’s God [El], who helps you… the Almighty [Shaddai] who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breast and womb.” El, God who is mighty to help you is, Shaddai, who blesses with abundant blessings for he is all-sufficient God.

El-Shaddai, is all-sufficient God who seeks to bless you abundantly. Do you know El-Shaddai?

3. To know El-Shaddai, God of all sufficiency, you must give up your self-sufficiency.

Consider Genesis 17:1 again. Yahweh revealed himself to Abraham and told him, “I am God Almighty [El-Shaddai]; walk before me and be blameless.” To understand this verse we need to consider the context of God revealing himself as, “I am God Almighty [El-Shaddai] and commanding Abraham, “walk before me and be blameless.” Nathan Stone says, “Abraham’s faith had been marred by the fleshly and self-sufficient expedient to which he had resorted. The mighty all-sufficient One demands and deserves our complete faith-a wholehearted faith.”[5]

God first appeared to Abram in Genesis 12:1 where God told Abram to leave his country, his people, his father’s household to the land which he was going to show him. And, in Genesis 12:2, we see God making the promise to make Aram into a great nation, to bless him, to bless all peoples through him. And, we see in Genesis 12:4, “Abram left, as Yahweh had told him.” So, early on, we see Abram walking in faith.

But, as time went on, his faith was tested. When he got to Egypt, he was fearful of what might happen to his wife Sarai. So, he told her to lie to the Egyptians by saying she was his sister. Abram did this because he didn’t fully understand El-Shaddai was all-sufficient God, powerful to protect him and his wife. Abram took the matter into his own hand rather than trusting El-Shaddai, all-sufficient God. When we take matters into our own hands, we don’t make things better, we make them worse. Pharaoh thinking that Sarai was available took her into his palace to make her own. God intervened by inflicting serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household and Sarai was protected, untouched (Genesis 12:10-20).

How about the time when Sarai told Abram in Genesis 16:2, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I cam build a family through her.” And, Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So, there was Ishmael born to Abram not by Sarai, but by her Egyptian maidservant Hagar. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagan born him Ishmael (Genesis 16:16). Over ten years has passed since El-Shaddai promised Abram would become a great nation. And, El-Shaddai’s promise wasn’t fully realized yet in their lives. They kept their faith in El-Shaddai’s promise to them. But, as time went on without immediate fulfillment, their faith in all-sufficient El-Shaddai was tested. We see how much their faith had wavered when we consider Sarai who assumed that El-Shaddai kept her from having children. What’s not written explicitly we can understand implicitly that Sarai and Abram didn’t trust in El-Shaddai as truly all-sufficient God to fulfill his promise to bless them with a child.

What was El-Shaddai doing in Abram and Sarai’s life? He waited until when all seemed to have failed. This is precisely when God revealed himself to Abram as El Shaddai in order to perfect him in his weakness.[6] It is precisely when things were dark and hope was fading that God intervened to change Abram and Sarai’s names. When we are weak and have little to go on, it might be a blessing in disguise for we may experience El-Shaddai as Abraham and Sarah did.

Andrew Juke said, “Thus His Almightiness comes to us in what appears to be our helplessness. The less of self, the more of God.[7] Nathan Stone agrees, “to experience God’s sufficiency one must realize one’s own insufficiency. To experience God’s fullness one must empty self… The less empty of self we are, the less of blessing God can pour into us; the more of pride and self-sufficiency, the less fruit we can bear.”[8]

4. Conclusion

Has God renamed you as he did with Abram and Sarai, to chang them to Abraham and Sarah because now they finally understood El-Shaddai is all sufficient and all powerful to fulfill his promise to bless them?

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[1] http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:R6h3hAJK2oYJ:www.ccel.org/ccel/smith_hw/comfort.XVII.html+all+sufficiency+God+illustration&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

[2] Andrew Jukes, The Names of God. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1889, p. 63-64.

[3] http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/BySeries/1/454_My_Name_Is_God_Almighty/

[4] VanGemeren, Willem A. “IV. Forms of Protection (91:11-13)” In The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume 5. 601. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1991.

[5] http://ldolphin.org/nathanstone/

[6] Andrew Jukes, The Names of God, London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1889, p. 62

[7] Ibid., p. 72.

[8] http://ldolphin.org/nathanstone/