Names of God: Elohim (S09, E01)

Greetings and welcome to the Faith Chapel podcast. My name is Jason,

and I am the pastor of Faith Chapel.

In the podcast today, we are starting to go through an eight-episode series on the names of God.

In the teaching today, we are going to be learning about the title of God known

as Elohim, which is the title used to announce God in the first verse of the Bible.

Thanks for joining us as we dive into the discussion on how Elohim translates

certain attributes of God.

I'm a firm believer that if you take a look at a relationship that you have

and the name or the title perhaps that you call that person, we can...

Understand just by that context whether or not you have a close relationship with that person or not.

So if you take somebody and you call that somebody Mr.

Smith and that person is somebody that you know but that shows that you don't

have a close enough relationship with that person probably, that you're going

to call them by their first name.

For me, I've been called a lot of different names in my life.

And usually if people are further from me, they usually just refer to me as Parsons.

Like they just call out Parsons and I turn around, I know that they're talking

to me. So this happened in school all the way through college.

And in college, they were so busy studying that Parsons became too long.

And so people started calling me Parso.

So it was just the idea of, all right, I know your last name and I know this

nickname for you. And so this reveals the type of relationship that we have.

Where if you take a look at my family, they would call me Jason.

They would call me by my first name.

And so we also, in that context, my younger sister in particular,

again, she thought my name was too long, so she would shorten it and she would call me Jace.

And so it's this idea that you know by not just the voice, but the name that

you are being called, how close that relationship is.

Yesterday, I had a funny experience where my sister-in-law, she called me Ezra, which is my son's name.

And so for the rest of the day, after she realized she did that,

she called me Ezra Senior.

That's how she would refer to me. And so at least she knows that I am the dad

of Ezra and that, and it shows that connection.

But names have this ability to really help us to know whether or not you call someone mom or mommy.

That helps you to know the kind of relationship that you have with that person.

And I'm convinced that it's the same with God. that we have the ability to know God.

What our relationship is like as we, with the name that we call on God.

And so over the next several weeks that will take us through Easter,

we're going to be studying different names of God in scripture to,

first and foremost, help us to have a better knowledge of who God is.

And then secondly, to give us at different stages in our lives.

If we need a different name to call upon God, then we will have those in our

banks so that we can be as close and as intimate to God as possible.

And we're going to start today with the first announcement of God in Scripture,

which is found in Genesis chapter one, verse one, where it says,

in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

And then the name there, God is a Hebrew. It comes from a Hebrew word called

Elohim, Elohim, E-L-O-H-I-M, Elohim.

And Elohim has a very specific meaning because it's a very Jewish word.

There is no other Semitic language that has this word in it.

And it denotes two things right off the bat.

The first thing it denotes is that it is a plural majestic.

That means it's always and constantly in a plural form.

So in English, we just add an

S to make things plural, but the Hebrew language Elohim is a plural word.

And so it just means a multitude or many.

And so as you can probably assume, Elohim has more than a just God name meaning

because it is a plural word.

And so people are called Elohim on the earth. People who have power,

people who are ruling over other people are announced as an Elohim.

Angels and demons, they are also given this title. They are given this name

Elohim to denote that they do have a substantial amount of power over our present world.

But God is described as Elohim. And every time the one true God is mentioned

as Elohim, there is something very interesting that happens throughout Scripture.

And that is that the pronouns that are used after it and the verbs are all in the singular form.

So we would say in English, he runs to the store.

But if we change it from he to they, it would say they run to the store.

He runs, they run.

And so for the singular form, we have a very specific verb tense that we use with that.

And the same way in the Hebrew. But every time it is mentioned of God as Elohim,

as God's name or God's title, it's always in the singular, whether it's a pronoun or a verb.

And so that helps us to denote that the Hebrew authors are really ascribing worth to God here.

He is what they call a plural majestic, that he is just so big and so immense,

so vast that they don't have the right human words to describe him.

And so they put this plural word there to help them to describe just how great God is.

And so that's the first thing that you need to know about the word Elohim is

that it is not just mentioned of God, but there are many people who are called Elohim.

But the second thing is that when God is mentioned as Elohim,

it is denoting how great he is by using singular verbs or singular pronouns to go along with him.

And so that just lays some of the framework that we need to be able to

really digest what this title of God is so that we can know more about him and

be drawn closer and closer to him.

So we're going to be in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 10.

Deuteronomy 10 · chapter mention

And Deuteronomy is a, it means repeated law. That's what it means in the Hebrew,

because Moses spins the whole book of Deuteronomy rehashing things that have already happened.

So for 40 years, God has led Israel through the wilderness.

He's led them out of Egypt. He's got them through the Red Sea.

He's met with them at Mount Sinai and given them the Ten Commandments and the

603 other commandments.

And he's led them on journeys all throughout this area.

And so for 40 years, they are wandering out there.

And so by the time the 40 years is over, Moses is repeating everything that

they have done, everything that they have experienced and everything that God

is or has done to them and has taught them.

And so this is, we're in the midst of that in Deuteronomy chapter 10.

Deuteronomy 10 · chapter mention

We're in the midst of this because Moses is no longer going to be with the children of Israel.

He's going to go at the end of the book of Deuteronomy up on Mount Nebo and pass away.

And then Joshua is going to come and get the people into the promised land.

So that's why he's repeating it.

It's the end of his life. It's his last speech to the people of Israel.

And so we're going to be starting in verse 12 of chapter 10.

But before we get into it, let me pray. Lord God Almighty.

I pray for your word to be a lamp into our feet and a light into our path.

I pray that you will illumine every step that we need to take.

And I pray, Father, that your spirit will be here, giving our ears to hear that

one thing that we need to hear so that we are being drawn closer to you.

Jesus, I pray for this in your name. Amen.

Okay, so on the screen or in your Bibles, when I read the word Elohim,

it's going to be in place of the word God.

Now, there's two places in this section of scripture where God is not translated as from Elohim.

It's translated from the word El, which is a shortened form of the singular God title.

And so I will not be reading it as Elohim there because that's not what it is.

But here we go. Starting in chapter 10, verse 12 of the book of Deuteronomy.

And now Israel, what does the Lord your Elohim require of you?

He requires only that you fear the Lord your Elohim and live in a way that pleases

him and love him and serve him with all of your heart and soul.

And you must always obey the Lord's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good.

And so we read here two instances of the word Elohim.

Elohim is used first and foremost that he requires only that you fear the Lord your Elohim.

Now, this is a very bizarre idea for us.

When we think about fear, we think about like our knees are knocking.

I, at least when I'm nervous or scared, my voice starts to shake.

I get a whole lot of physiological reactions in my body that denotes that I

have fear in me. My heart race starts to increase, etc.

But I don't think that's what they're talking about here.

There is a sense of just complete and absolute awe and reverence of God here.

There is this sense that God is so big and so strong, but there is a sense that

we also understand how different God is from us in this.

And this is the context, I think, in Isaiah chapter 6, where Isaiah is up in the throne room of God.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

And he sees the scene. He can't see God's face, but he sees the train of God's

robe filling the entire temple room.

He sees a couple of angels who are flying around shouting at him, holy, holy, holy.

And they, these angels, don't even feel worthy enough to gaze upon God.

So two of their wings are covering their eyes so they don't see him.

Isaiah sees this and he's like, woe is me.

Another English translation of that is I'm as good as being a dead man. I'm a dead man.

And then he goes on to say, because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among

people of unclean lips and I'm casting my eyes upon the Lord Almighty.

He says, I'm in your presence and I don't deserve to be here.

I can see right now how rebellious I am, how sinful I am.

I tell lies with my mouth and I'm corrupted by people around me who also tell

lies and I don't deserve to be in your presence.

You can see this all. You can see this reverence that he has for him. And you can see.

This sense of, you are so much bigger than I have even possibly imagined.

And therefore, I am trembling because of how great you are.

And in the same sense, I believe Jesus says in the New Testament,

why in the world are you fearing those who can just kill your body?

I mean, that's all they can do to you. Don't you know there's more to life than that?

Why don't you fear the one who can not only take your life, but also send your soul to hell.

That's who you should fear. That's who you should revere.

That's how great our God is.

And so part of the aspect of the meaning of Elohim, some scholars argue,

is the fact that the root of the word Elohim comes from fear.

Comes from this reverence, comes from this awe.

And that is so beautiful.

I think a really good illustration of this comes to us from The Chronicles of

Narnia, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.

In the scene that I'm going to be reading from, we have the three of the four

children that have made their way into Narnia.

And the three of them are talking to Mr. and Mrs. Beaver in their hut.

They're looking for their brother who has been taken by the White Witch.

And so the Beaver tells them that they have to go and visit Aslan.

He's the king. He's going to know what to do.

And so we pick up in this scene.

The Mr. Beaver says, Aslan is a lion, the lion, the great lion.

Oh, said Susan, I'd thought he was a man. Is he quite safe?

I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.

That you will, dearie, and no mistake, said Mrs. Beaver.

If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking,

they're either braver than most or else just silly.

Then he isn't safe, said Lucy. Safe, said Mr. Beaver.

Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe.

But he's good. He's the king, I tell you.

And the idea there is that a lion has so much power.

Just one swipe from the lion's paw and we're as good as dead.

Not to mention the strength of his jaw, not to mention the roar that a lion can produce.

It's remarkable, the strength of the lion.

And Mr. Beaver correctly says, yes, this is a great beast, but you can't deny how good he is.

One last illustration about this. I think the sun is a really good illustration,

because the sun is very powerful.

In fact, the sun's rays hitting the earth's surface for one hour will power

every electronical device on this planet for a year.

One hour of the sun's rays hitting this planet equates to as much power as we as human beings need to.

Have battery power in our cell phones, to run our TVs and our dishwashers and

our stoves for everyone on this planet for a whole year. Man, that is powerful.

And the sun is also good. We don't have life without the sun.

We don't have oxygen because the trees don't exist. We don't have food for our

animals because grass doesn't exist.

We don't have life, period.

The sun is what helps us to have life. It is good for us.

But we've learned over the years that it's not good for us to go out in the

sun for hours at a time without sun protection, without some sort of sunscreen lotion.

We know how dangerous it is to be out there basking in the sun for hour after hour after hour.

So we wear sunglasses. So we put on hats. So we put on sunscreen.

Because it is just this ball of energy that is so powerful.

And the same is true of God.

God is just so powerful that Isaiah cries out to me, out to him.

I'm as good as dead because you are just this ball of energy, this ball of power.

And my eyes have seen you and I don't deserve to be up here.

But what's awesome about that story is that God sends an angel to take a burning

coal from the altar, and the angel presses it against Isaiah's lips.

And he says, you're all right now. Your sins are forgiven. They're taken away.

And then in the next scene, God says, whom shall I send? Who will go for us?

And Isaiah raises his hand and says, here I am.

Send me. when we experience the awesome power of God,

when we understand truly who he is and how

radical his love is for us, that he would take away our sins,

we humble ourselves before him and we say, you are so great,

I'll do anything you ask me to do.

That's what Elohim means, that God is so powerful that we have this reverent awe and fear for him,

but not because we're feared for our own safety, not because we fear for our

own lives, but because he's just so much greater than we are,

and we desperately want to be in his presence.

We desperately want to be there, and we'll do anything to serve him because of his greatness.

This fear is one aspect of Elohim, and it gets fleshed out a little bit more in the next verses.

Look, Moses says, the highest heavens and the earth and everything in it all

belong to the Lord, your Elohim.

Yet the Lord chose your ancestors as the objects of his love.

And he chose you, their descendants above all other nations,

as is evident today. Therefore, change your hearts and stop being stubborn.

And he evokes the name of Elohim here.

And he says, he is the creator of everything. He is the creator of it all.

And he chose you and your ancestors before you to be this nation,

this beacon of light to the world.

Can you see the goodness, the greatness of God here?

That he is choosing people in order to bestow his goodness so the whole world

can know how awesome his power is, how great he is.

And therefore, the last verse here says, change your hearts.

If you're reading any other English version, it's probably going to say something

drastically different.

It's probably going to say, circumcise the foreskin of your hearts,

which is a pretty crazy thing to say in our language.

But what it's talking about is there's this callousness around our hearts that

can form around our hearts and he's using a parallel with circumcision which is a covenant,

which is a sign of the covenant that God has with the people of Israel,

and he's saying if you want to be a covenant person with God it's not just an

outward sign that you are for God it's an inward transformation that needs to happen.

And so in the greatness of God, we need to come under his authority.

We need to say yes to him like Isaiah does because of how great he is,

because he is our Elohim.

God is so beyond our comprehension that later in the book of Isaiah,

God declares to Isaiah, your ways are not my ways.

Your thoughts are not my thoughts. As far as the earth is from the sky,

that's how far your thoughts are from my thoughts and my ways are from your ways.

And so we surrender ourselves humbly before him and we raise our hands when

he asks us to do something and we say, here I am, send me.

But we have a response in it.

We've got to change our hearts. We've got to allow the Holy Spirit in,

convicting us, moving us in the direction that God wants us to move in.

But there's still one more aspect of this, of Elohim.

Let's pick it up in verse 17. For the Lord, your Elohim, Moses continues,

is Elohim of Elohim and Lord of lords.

He is the great God, and that's the word El, the mighty and awesome God,

again the word El, who shows no partiality and cannot be bribed.

He ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. He shows love to the foreigners

living among you and gives them food and clothing. So you too must show love to foreigners.

For you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.

And so Moses is saying, all right, this is how great God is.

This is how powerful he is.

He takes care of those who can't take care of themselves.

And he's really asking us as his followers to do the same thing.

If someone needs a handout, if someone needs help, whether they've had a tragedy

that occurred to them physically or their house burns down or whatever it is,

we are to be there helping those people.

And God is somebody who is so generous and kind and loving that he does this for him, for them.

He works through his people who have the circumcised heart to go out there and

reach them for his kingdom's purposes and for his glory.

Lastly, we read this, starting in verse 20. You must fear the Lord your Elohim

and worship him and cling to him.

Your oath must be in his name alone. He alone is your Elohim,

the only one who is worthy of your praise, the one who has done these mighty

miracles that you have seen with your own eyes.

When your ancestors went down into Egypt, there were only 70 of them,

But now the Lord, your Elohim, has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

And so we get this aspect of how powerful God is. God makes a covenant promise to Abraham.

Abraham is 100 years old when he receives his first, his child,

the child of the promise. It's a miraculous work of God.

And then Isaac, Isaac, his son, then has two sons, Jacob and Esau.

And then God chooses Jacob to be the honorer of this covenant.

And then Jacob's 12 sons become all the nation of Israel.

And he says, don't you see how there were 70 people in your family that came

down to Egypt when Joseph was storing the grain?

Can't you see and understand how God has multiplied you through that famine?

How God has multiplied you for the 430 years that you were in Egypt.

And now you stand at the precipice of the promised land, what God has promised

to you and your ancestors before you.

It is yours for the taking.

This is what God does. And it shows the strength and the power that God has,

which is the last aspect to Elohim.

Just the massive amount of biceps that God has.

Just the ability for him to take Abraham as a 99-year-old man and Sarah as an

89-year-old woman and honor his promise to Abraham.

And then the idea that they were continually multiplying through hundreds of

years, even during severe oppression when Pharaoh said, throw every newborn

male into the Nile River.

They were flourishing because of God's strength.

And so when you come to a place where you need to fall on God's strength,

or you need to know how great God is to the point that we cry out like Isaiah, woe is me.

Elohim is the name to call it.

Elohim is his name.

And so I just want to encourage you to remember how strong God is,

to remember how capable he is, to remember how great he is to the point where

we can fall on our knees, where we should fall on our knees and give him thanks and praise,

confessing our brokenness and our rebellion against him and surrendering it all to him.

That is one part of the God we serve.

And he is so faithful that he is the strong one and the only one,

according to Jesus, that we should fear in reverent awe of him.

Realizing the separation of our, for how good we are or how good we think we

are compared to really who this great God is.

Let me pray. Lord God Almighty, we come before you today.

And we come in the season of Lent as we are preparing our hearts and our minds for it.

And Father, I pray that our brokenness will be confessed by us to you.

And I pray, Father, that our brokenness will be turned from.

Because we look upon you and we see your greatness.

We look upon you and we see the promises that you've made and the strength that

you have by fulfilling all of the promises.

And so, Father, I just pray that we humble ourselves before you.

And I pray that we will surrender more and more of ourselves to you,

knowing you as our Elohim, the Elohim of Elohims, the greatest of the great.

So far beyond measure.

Jesus, in this season and in this time, come.

Challenge us, convict us, and soften the hardnesses in our hearts so that we receive.

Thank you again for joining us in the discussion about the title of God, Elohim, in Scripture.

Elohim can be translated as the strong one.

God is the one who keeps his promises no matter how impossible the situation

is, and he is the one we should fear in reverent awe because he sends us to

our final, eternal destinations.

Our God is the strong one.

If you would like more information about Faith Chapel and its ministries please

visit the website gofaithchapel.org Next week we continue the series on the

different names and titles of God in the Bible,

Each of these descriptors shows us something about who God is Join us as we

look at the name Yahweh Have a great week.