The Beginning and the End

How long is a person's life? Moses, in an Old Testament psalm, says that it's 70 years or perhaps 80. Today, in the 21st Century, some people even live well into their nineties. Very few lives exceed a century, from beginning to end.

In contrast, God is eternal. Back in early February, I saw that He's called El Olam, the Eternal God and Atik Yomin, the Ancient of Days. Right at the end of the Bible, in the book of Revelation, He introduces Himself four times as the Alpha and Omega: the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

God has always been and He always will be. He had no beginning and He will have no end. That's why He calls Himself the beginning and end of everything. Most people know that Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. It's like saying, "I am the A and the Z."

Three times He follows it up by adding the words arche and telos. Arche (as in the word archetype) means the original or the beginning of something, while telos (as in telephone, telescope and other words that suggest distance) means the ending. 

Rev 1: 8, Rev 21: 6, Rev 22: 6

And twice He expands it by calling Himself the First and the Last. The Greek word for first is protos (as in prototype) - meaning the first in time, but also meaning the first in rank, the one most worthy of honour. And the Greek word for last is eschatos (as in the word eschatology); it means the last or uttermost both in time and space.  Rev 1: 11, Rev 22: 13

In other words, with these two names God is saying: There is nothing above or beyond me. There was nothing before me and there will be nothing after me. I am the ultimate, infinite God of the universe.

Always doing what is right

The Hebrew word tsedek or sadiq appears more than 200 times in the Old Testament - sometimes describing people and sometimes describing God. It's usually translated righteous - which means living in a right way and making a choice to do what is right. 

While we as human beings can learn to make good choices, only God consistently does what is right, never getting it wrong or making a mistake. Over and over again in the Old Testament, we read, "The Lord is righteous," or, "You, Lord, are righteous."

So, only He deserves the name, Yahweh Tzaddik - the Righteous Lord.
 

The only true and wise God

Two New Testament names of God today, so even though the same truths are found in the Old Testament, the names themselves are in Greek instead of Hebrew. The first is Theos Monos Sophos - the only wise God, and it's found in the well known doxologies at the very end of the letters of Jude and Romans, and at the beginning of one of Paul's letters to Timothy.

Jude 1: 25 - To the only wise God (monos sophos theos) our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.

Romans 16: 27 - To the only wise God (theos monos sophos) be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen.

1 Timothy 1: 17 - Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God (monos sophos theos), be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen

How can we make such a claim - that our God is the only God who is wise? Quite simply, because He is the only true God. No false god can be considered wise.

The apostle John makes it clear, in 1 John 5: 20, that Jesus came to give us understanding, so that we could know and live in fellowship with Theos Alethinos - the True God. In view of the truth that there is only one real God, we realise that Theos Monos Sophos could equally be translated, "the wise, only God." One of the Spanish Bible translations, the RVR60, actually translates it this way: al único y sabio Dios - to the only and wise God.

So, what do we mean when we say that the only true God is wise? James 3: 17 tells us that heavenly wisdom is pure, peace-loving, gentle, considerate, merciful, producing good fruit, sincere, and free of favouritism or hypocrisy. What an example for us to follow.

Lifter of my Head ?

Rum Rosh - Lifter of my head. It seems an unusual name for the God of all the universe.

When do people hang their heads and look downwards? Usually in times of discouragement, sadness or depression; also in times of failure and shame. In the Bible, we see that God is not oblivious or indifferent when we pass through such times. He sees us, amidst billions of others on the planet, and reaches down to lift our head and give us hope.

In Psalm 3:3, when David is fleeing for his life (from those who supported his son, Absalom), he declares, "But You, oh Lord, are a shield around me, my glory and the Lifter of my head." He proclaims similar truths in Psalm 27, and in Psalm 9: 13, he goes as far as to say, "You lifted me up from the gates of death."

Using different Hebrew words, Psalm 146: 8 expresses this truth as a promise: "The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down."

What a mind-blowing reassurance - that the God who sustains the whole universe, the God who knows the names of billions, would pause and reach down to lift my head again in any times when I am physically or emotionally down.

Inspiring Awe...

Many times in in the Old Testament, we find the Hebrew adjective yārē' used with a name of God - like Elohim, Yahweh or El Elyon - to form a new name that describes how breathtaking He is.

Most Bible versions translate this as Awesome God, but not in the watered down sense that the word is used in certain parts of the world today - where anything from a pizza to a pair of shoes can be described as awesome. The original meaning of awesome was exactly what it sounds like: inspiring awe; giving you a jaw-dropping sense of amazement or reverence.

Older Bibles often translate yārē' as terrible or dreadful - words that have also changed their meaning and are more often used today to describe something really bad.

So what does it actually mean to say that God is awesome?

It means that he is totally worthy of respect and honour - that His splendour and holiness are take-your-breath-away amazing and awe-inspiring. Thesaurus alternatives to awesome are impressive, spectacular, magnificent and formidable. The dictionary defines formidable as, "inspiring fear or respect through being impressively large, powerful or capable."

Yārē' is used around 300 times in the Old Testament and, sure enough, sometimes it refers to when people were really afraid of someone or something; times when God stepped in to say, "Fear not; don't be afraid." But other times the word is used to mean reverence, honour or respect. God's people were regularly urged to "fear the Lord." (See, for example, 1 Samuel 12: 24.) That had nothing to do with fear, but was all about giving God the respect and reverence that He deserves.

Psalm 47: 2 - For the Lord most High is an Awesome God. He is the great King over all the earth.

1 Chron 16: 25 - Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared and honoured above all gods.

God of my life...

Back in early February, I reflected on the name El Hai - the Living God. It was a really big deal for the Old Testament believers to know that their God was alive, and infinitely superior to the idols of surrounding nations. We find El Hai, for example, in Psalm 42 vs 2: "My soul thirsts for God, the Living God."

But just a few verses later, in Psalm 42 vs 8, the writer gives God a different name. He adds the suffix -ai, (which means "my") and the name becomes El Haiyai - the God of my life. "By day, the Lord shows me His lovingkindness; by night His song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life."

This is a subtle but important shift. El Hai is a general truth about God's nature: He is alive. But El Haiyai takes it a step further and is a declaration of a personal, relational connection to God as the source and reason/purpose of our existence. It's a personal confession of allegiance to God and reliance on Him.

As the apostle Paul wrote, centuries later: "For me, living means living for Christ." (Philippians 1: 21)

God will always be El Hai, whether people believe in Him or not. But He only becomes El Haiyai if we make that decision at a deep, personal level.

Comfort when'I don't deserve it

This morning I began by meditating on a name of God that is found in 2 Cor 1: 3. Paul writes that God is the God of all Comfort - Theos pas Paraklesis. He consoles and strengthens us in our trials and difficulties, so that down the road we are also more equipped to offer comfort and support to others.

It's obviously closely linked to Parakletos, which I considered on April 5th. (Click to read.) Jesus Himself said that the Holy Spirit is our Comforter or Helper. But this morning my attention was caught by another name of God in the same verse. 

Paul also calls God Patēr Oiktirmos - the Father of Mercies. That speaks to me that God is compassionate and merciful; He feels our pain and He will comfort us even when our situation and our distress are due to our own failing or sin. He doesn't harden His heart and say, "Well, it's your own fault. You got yourself into this mess," (like perhaps we would be tempted to say when someone has done something foolish or selfish and got themself into a predicament.) He draws us to Him and comforts us anyway.

But God's great mercy and compassion are not an excuse for us to keep doing foolish things; rather, they should spur us on to greater maturity and wisdom. Paul urges the Roman believers, because of God's mercies (oiktirmos) to present their whole lives as living sacrifices and allow Him to transform them completely. (Romans 12: 1 - 2)

His mercies should motivate us to a deeper level of holiness... but His comfort is still there for us when we fail and cause ourselves pain.

My Anchor

Reading through my journals, I see that I've meditated on 85 names of God since I began this journey at the beginning of February. This morning, however, I woke up with an impression of the word Anchor. It's not specifically a name of God, but it does speak to me of the character of Jesus and the stability that He can bring to our lives in stormy times.

In the New Testament letter to the Hebrews, the writer compares Jesus to the high priests of the Old Testament. The priests used to offer animal sacrifices to atone for the sins of the people. Jesus, on the other hand, offered up His own life so that we could be forgiven and have the right to come into God's presence. After developing this idea in Hebrews chapter 4 and 5, the writer turns in chapter 6 to speaking about the certainty and trustworthiness of God's promise. 

It is impossible for God to lie, he says in Hebrews 6:18 - 19. If we believe what He has promised and hold on tight, we will live our lives with hope, and that hope will be like an anchor for our soul. We can be firm and secure, he says, because it's that hope, that anchor, that takes us through the veil and right into God's presence, where Jesus went before us to prepare the way.

The Greek word here is elpis, which means hope, faith or expectation. The writer is saying that our faith is an anchor that stops us from being cast adrift in the storms of life. 

Just a few pages later in our Bible, another writer, James, shows us what it looks like if we don't have faith and we drift through life without that anchor, he says that we will be tossed around like the waves of the sea. James uses the Greek word diakrinō, translated in most Bibles as to doubt or to waver... but if we look up diakrinō in a Greek dictionary, we discover that it also means to oppose or disagree with what God has said. If we don't take God at His word, we'll be at the mercy of stormy seas, with no anchor to keep us safe and "grounded."

There's a difference between doubt and unbelief. It's not wrong to have doubts, but it's how we respond to them that matters. When John the Baptist was thrown in prison, he began to have doubts about his faith in Jesus. (See Matt 11: 2 - 3 or Luke 7: 19 - 20) But he didn't wallow in those doubts, he didn't tell himself, "Here I am in prison and Jesus doesn't care; he's not doing anything to help me. Probably he's not even the Messiah." Instead, he took his doubts directly to Jesus and asked for help. From his prison cell, he sent messengers to Jesus, asking, "Are you really the Messiah or should we be expecting someone else?"

If you know the story, Jesus didn't criticise him or judge him for his doubts. Instead, He pointed him to the truth. He reminded the messengers of what the scriptures said about the Messiah and pointed out how those promises were being fulfilled - in the preaching of the gospel, the healing of the sick and the raising of the dead.

Doubt is not sin if we take our doubt to Jesus and choose to believe what He says. But when we believe our doubts rather than believing Jesus, that's unbelief, and unbelief is a sin. It's saying that we are right and God is wrong. And, as the writer to the Hebrews says, we only have that anchor for our soul if we hold on to the fact that God never lies and His word is completely trustworthy.

So although Anchor is not a biblical name of God, I couldn't help thinking today that Jesus is in fact an anchor for us. He's the strong, firm, unshakeable One that gives us security and stops us from being shipwrecked in life's storms. We may still feel tossed around, but we know that our anchor will always hold firm.

God, the Communicator

I've always had a passion for words. As a 3-year old, I begged to be taught to read so that I could devour books for myself instead of needing to ask people to read me a story. And I think I've been reading ever since. I was not a child who played with dolls; every Christmas and birthday, I presented my parents with my wish list of book titles that I'd like for my collection. Just a few years ago, a friend gave me this T-shirt in the photo. It says, "Easily distracted by dogs and books." 

So, when I read that one of Jesus' names is Logos - the Word, it speaks to me of Someone who is a Communicator, Someone who speaks to us, Someone who wants to share His heart with us. Words have creative power, and the main thrust of John chapter one is that the Word was there in the very beginning - creating the entire universe and all it contains. Jesus, the Word, is eternal, divine and creative. His words still have creative power today: birthing vision, healing and restoring hope, opening a door to new worlds and experiences. I have access to reading His written Word, but I also have the privilege of knowing the living Word, the One who also communicates in all kinds of other ways too.

But for the ancient Greeks, the people who gave us the language the New Testament is written in, Logos had an even richer meaning. In Greek philosophy, logos was understood to mean divine wisdom or ultimate understanding. When the original Greek audience read that Jesus was Logos, they would have understood that He was the source of ultimate wisdom and truth.

Judge of all the Earth

This name is closely linked to yesterday's.  The Hebrew word mishpat (or mishphat), meaning justice or judgement, is from the same root as shaphat, meaning judge. The God of Justice is also the Judge... and not just a judge in one earthly courtroom, but the Judge of everyone who has ever lived on the face of the earth.

The phrase appears in Genesis 18 when Abraham is praying for Sodom. It's  a wicked and immoral city that deserves to be destroyed, but relatives of Abraham's live there and so he asks God to have mercy. He proclaims that God, the Judge of all the earth, will make the right decision and do the right thing.

Psalm 9: 7 - 8 proclaims exactly the same thing: God has prepared His throne for judgement (mishpat) and He will judge (shaphat) the peoples of the world with righteousness. And Isaiah adds that our Judge is also our Lawgiver and our King; the One who will save us. (Isaiah 33: 22)

The understanding of God as a just Judge appears more than 150 times in the Bible. Peter writes in one of his letters that God will judge both the living and the dead: that everyone one day will have to give an account of themselves to that righteous Judge. (1 Peter 4: 5) The writer to the Hebrews confirms that all men will live and die only once... and then there will be a judgement. (Hebrews 9: 27)

The psalmists trusted in the justice of God's judgement. There are many instances of their praying, "Judge me, Lord," or asking God to judge the enemies who oppressed them. Judgement is not something to fear when you are confident that the Judge of all the Earth will always do the right thing.

God of Justice - He avenges and vindicates

It's part of our earthly experience that, "Life isn't fair." Bad and unjust things sometime happen to us. People sometimes hurt us, slander us or accuse us falsely. What should we do about that?

The Bible is very clear that God is a God of Justice - Elohim Mishpat. In fact, one of His Old Testament names is El Neqamah - the God who avenges or vindicates me. He's not an "avenger" in a petty, payback way, but rather in the sense of righting wrongs, redressing the balance and, where necessary, judging wicked peoples like the Philistines or the Babylonians.

So, probably the most important thing for us to apply to our own lives is that we should never seek revenge on those who have hurt, betrayed or ill-treated us, because only God knows their hearts and He is perfectly just. We should leave things in God's hands, as it says in Psalm 94: 1 or in Romans 12: 17 - 19.

A closely related understanding is that God is a God who vindicates us. Although mishpat is often translated "judgement" in older Bible versions, many versions from the past eighty years use the word vindicate. Vindicate comes from the Latin verb vindicare, meaning to set free, to protect or to avenge. God sets the record straight when our reputation has been damaged, when we've been slandered or falsely accused. It may not happen immediately, but God will be faithful to do it at the right time.

Vindication is promised several times in the Old Testament (in Psalm 24: 5, Psalm 37: 6, and Isaiah 62: 1 - 2, for example) but perhaps the best known is the promise in Isaiah 54: 17. "No weapon formed against you will prosper, and every tongue that accuses you will be silenced. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and this is their vindication from me, declares the Lord." Here too, the understanding is that we shouldn't rush to defend our own reputation, but can leave our vindication in God's hands.

The God who judges, avenges, vindicates and brings justice is not just an Old Testament concept; we find it also in the New Testament, for example in the parable that Jesus told about an unjust earthly judge. (Luke 18: 7 - 8) 

As Abraham proclaimed back in Genesis 18: 25, the Judge (shaphat) of all the earth will always do what is right and just (mishpat).

What is glory, anyway?

The phrase, "glory of God," appears more than 200 times in the Bible, giving rise to these two or more names of God: El Kavod, El Hakkavod, El Kevod - they all mean God of Glory (as in Psalm 29: 3, where it says that the voice of the God of Glory thunders over the waters.) Then, in the last few verses of Psalm 24, God is referred to four times as Melek Kavod - the King of Glory, the Lord, strong and mighty.

Gloria a Dios (Glory to God) is an oft-heard exclamation here in Spain, especially in church circles when you share some piece of good news with another believer. But what are we talking about? What do we actually mean when we speak of God's glory.

A quick search in an English dictionary turns up some of the same meanings that a Hebrew dictionary assigns to kavod (or kāḇôḏ) and that a Greek dictionary assigns to doxa, and I reflected on some of them this morning.

One of the meanings of glory is magnificence, splendour or impressiveness. If something or someone is "glorious," we're speaking of incredible beauty and brilliance - the kind that take your breath away and cause you just to stand in awe - like Isaiah's vision of God in the temple (Isaiah 6: 1 - 5); the time that Moses was unable to enter the tent because God's glory was so overwhelming (Exodus 40: 34 - 35), or when the cloud of God's glorious presence made it impossible for the priests to keep standing and performing their duties (2 Kings 8: 10 - 11). Sometimes when we speak of God's glory, we're referring to His majesty and splendour.

Another dictionary meaning of glory is renown, fame or prestige. Sometimes when we speak of God's glory, we're talking about His reputation: who He is and what He has done. I've always been fascinated by the account in Exodus 33: 18 - 19, where Moses asks God, "Show me your glory - kāḇôḏ," and God replies

by revealing his character to Moses: His goodness, graciousness and mercy. Those are the things He is famous for, the things that make up His reputation. When Jesus said to Martha, "If you believe, you will see the glory (Greek doxa) of God," He wasn't speaking about brilliant light, He was referring to God's miraculous power that was about to be displayed in the raising of Lazarus.

A third meaning of glory is honour, reverence or respect. These are also common meanings of both kāḇôḏ and doxa, and by the time we get to the New Testament, we find that doxa has the additional meanings of praise or worship.  So, giving glory to the God of Glory doesn't make Him any more glorious than He already is, but it's is all about respecting and honouring Him, as well as giving Him the praise and worship that He deserves.

God of knowledge, Revealer of secrets

Social media is a fascinating object lesson in how confident people can be, despite being completely wrong. Whether it's politics, grammar, health or current affairs, our news feeds are full of examples of people arrogantly asserting their ignorance and even wrongly correcting others.

One of Job's companions is an ancient example of this. In Job 36 vs 4, a young person called Elihu announces, "Be assured that my words are not false. I am a man of perfect knowledge." Oh, the arrogance of youth! And, as Job's other three friends proved, the arrogance of old age can be just as bad! But hopefully as we grow older, we do realise that many people know more than we do, and we recognise that only God has perfect knowledge.

A woman called Hannah warns about this unteachable attitude in 1 Samuel 2: 3 - "Stop acting so proud and speaking so arrogantly," she sings, "Because God is a God of Knowledge - El Deah, and He will judge your actions."

The Bible is clear that God is all-knowing; if I were studying attributes instead of names, the word would be Omniscient. He knows our words before we even speak them out, our actions and the motives behind them; He even knows our unspoken thoughts.

Proverbs 2: 6 says that knowledge, wisdom and understanding all come from the Lord. Romans 11: 33 speaks of the unsearchable depths of God's knowledge and wisdom.

The rather mind-blowing thing is that God is willing to teach us and share some of His knowledge with us. He gives us wisdom and understanding in situations that would normally be beyond us, and He imparts knowledge of how to live life well.

Sometimes He even goes a step further and reveals secrets to us. When Daniel is interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's dream, he twice calls God El Shamayim Gelah Raz - God in Heaven, the Revealer of Mysteries. (Daniel 2: 28-29) Later in the chapter (vs 47), Nebuchadnezzar himself declares, "Surely your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings and the Revealer of Mysteries - Gelah Raz."

 
The Hebrew word rāz can mean either mysteries (things that are hard to understand) or secrets (things that are unknown to most people), yet God  often chooses to reveal them to His people. And He doesn't only reveal things to special people who interpret dreams - like Daniel or Joseph. He wants to confide in trustworthy people who honour and respect Him, Psalm 25:14 says that, "The Lord confides His secrets to those who fear Him."

In Deuteronomy 29:29, we read that the secret things belong to the Lord (and we don't need to worry or be concerned about them), but the things He has chosen to reveal are ours and it's our responsibility to obey them. 

This understanding of God sharing His secrets or mysteries with us is not just an Old Testament idea. It's carried into the New Testament, where the Greek word is mystērion. Jesus says several times in the Gospels that the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven have been revealed to us. Paul speaks 20 times in his letters about the mysteries that have been revealed to us. (See, for example, Romans 16: 25 or Ephesians 6: 19, which refer to the Revealer of secrets and the "mystery" of the Gospel.)

Today's names of God reveal His infinite knowledge - El Deah - the God of Knowledge - but also the incredible privilege we have in being those He chooses to reveal His secrets too. He is still Gelah Raz, the Revealer of Mysteries today.

Father and Mother who gave us birth

Yesterday during morning worship, we sang a song about God being a good Father. Leo commented that, because we have the same Father, that makes us brothers and sisters, and my Mexican friend, Tony, quipped, "From another mother." 

But the names of God I was considering yesterday and today tell a slightly different story. In Deuteronomy 32: 18, Moses is rebuking the people for forgetting and abandoning God. He says, "You deserted the Rock who fathered you - Tsur Yâlad; you forgot the God who gave you birth - El Hûl."

If you look up yâlad in a Hebrew dictionary, it literally means to father. All those begats and begottens in the Old Testament lists of family trees; those are yâlad. It describes the role of the man whose sperm provoked a new life.

If you look up hûl in the dictionary, there are a surprising variety of meanings. While the primary meaning is to carry or to give birth to someone, it carries the secondary meanings of to writhe in agony, to suffer torture, and even to twist or dance - a rather graphic picture of the labour pains a woman suffers when giving birth to a child.

In fact, if you keep reading through the Old Testament, yâlad is used for women and well as for men. When it refers to a man, it's translated, "begat" or "fathered." When it refers to a woman, it's translated, "bore" or "gave birth to." When Isaiah prophesied, "Unto us a child is born," or, "A virgin will conceive and bear a son," (Isaiah 9: 6 and 7: 14), the word used is yâlad.

In just one sentence, Moses is reminding the people that God has been both a Father and a Mother to them. He has cared for them from the very beginning, and yet they have abandoned Him.

Hûl is sometimes also translated as "formed" or "created" - the sense of God forming the child within the mother's womb. And although it's not the word used by the psalmist in Psalm 139, the psalm reminds us that not only was God with us even before our birth, He already had dreams and plans for our lives, if we later chose to embrace them. In every way, He is the God who gave us birth.

 

Counsel for the Defence

This Greek name is closely linked to yesterday's names of Mediator and Intercessor. The primary meaning of Paraklētos is Advocate or Lawyer, our counsel for the defence. 1 John 2: 1 says that, "If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father - Jesus Christ, the righteous One." Jesus defends us, not by arguing that we're innocent, but by proving that He has already paid the price for our sin and guilt.

But Paraklētos has broader meanings too; it can mean an assistant or helper, or it can also mean someone who comforts and consoles, who gives us strength. So when it appears four more times in the New Testament, also written by John when he is reporting what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit, translators over the years have drawn on these broader meanings of, Helper, Comforter and Counsellor.

In John 14: 16 and John 16: 17, the meaning is obviously that of a Helper to be with us always, to give us help, support and strength. Jesus rose to life on the day we now know as Easter Sunday, but He didn't stay on earth for long after that. It was important for Him to go away again so that an ever-present Helper, not limited by the restraints of a human body, could give us support and assistance.

But in John 14: 26 and John 15: 26, the meaning is obviously more that of a Counsellor or Teacher. He will teach us everything we need: He will testify of Jesus and remind us of what Jesus said.

So, whether we're being accused by the enemy or whether we're just needing wisdom for life's decisions, Easter Sunday reminds us that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are both our Paraklētos.

Intercessor and Mediator

Have you ever said to someone, "I'll be praying for you," and then you pretty much forgot and hardly prayed for them at all?

Thankfully, Jesus is not like that. The Bible tells us (in Hebrews 7: 25) that He is not only our Saviour, He is also our Intercessor. He is able to save us completely, because He not only died for us, He rose again and now lives forever to pray for us - to intercede on our behalf with the Father.

The Greek word is Entunchano. When Paul writes to the Romans, telling them about how the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness, He says (in Romans 8: 26-27) that the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us: when we don't even know how we should pray, the Spirit prays for us in accordance with God's will. And just a few verses later (in Rom 8: 34) we read that it's not only the Spirit who's praying for us. Christ who died and who's now sitting right next to the Father, is also interceding on our behalf.

A similar idea is picked up in 1 Tim 2: 5 where we read that Jesus is also a Mediator - Mesitēs. When we've messed up, He's right there, helping us to make things right with the Father again. (Galatians 3: 20 clarifies that this is different from a typical mediator who steps in between two parties. God is One, and so He's the injured party at the same time as Himself being the Mediator.) What amazing grace!

 

Loads of blessings from loads of burdens

Today I discovered a name of God that appears only once in the Bible. El Mosha'ah means the God who saves or the God of my Salvation, so it seemed an appropriate name to reflect on during this Good Friday. It appears in Psalm 68 vs 20, which says: "Our God is a God who saves. The Sovereign Lord rescues us from death."

The more usual name for the God who saves is El Yeshua, and I already meditated on that name in February. (See the posts on 13th February - Click here to read.) It's the name that appears in the previous verse. Psalm 68 vs 19 says: "Praise be to the Lord, to God our Saviour, who daily loads us with blessings."

He LOADS us with blessings. Not just one or two blessings, but LOADS of them: provision of food, family, friends, home, all the material blessings that we might need, together with salvation, love, joy, peace, hope...

My heart was touched by the image of myself, or any believer, loaded down with blessings - all because Jesus Himself carried the heavy load of the cross.

But as I looked at different Bible translations, I discovered something strange. Some versions, like the RSV or NIV, say, "Praise be to God our Saviour, who daily bears our burdens."

What? That's completely different. One translation has the believer, loaded with blessings, while the other translation has the Lord, loaded with burdens.

I discovered that the Hebrew is ambiguous. Older Bible versions translate it as, "He loads us with benefits/blessings/good things," while some of the more recent translators believe that, "He bears our burdens," is the more accurate translation.

On this Good Friday, when we remember the suffering and death of Jesus, El Yeshua, El Mosha'ah, the God of our Salvation, I couldn't help realising that both are true. Because He carried the weight of my sin, selfishness and guilt, I can live in the blessings of forgiveness, freedom and friendship with God. He truly is the God who saves.

My Safe Place and my Rescuer

Just three weeks ago, I meditated on different names of God that are about safety and protection: My Refuge and my Shield

My Shield for the battle, and my Hiding Place when things get too much for me.

(You can click the links to read those posts.)

Today's names of God are similar in meaning and are found in some of the same psalms. Matsud or Metzudah means Fortress - a place we can flee to when we need protection. In Psalm 31: 2 - 3, David proclaims, "You are a Rock of refuge for me, a strong Fortress where I will be safe."

But God is not just a "passive" Protector, waiting for us to run to Him. Sometimes, when we can't get ourselves out of situations or when our opponents are too strong for us, He steps in and actively rescues us from our enemies. Yahweh Pālat means Rescuer or Deliverer. It's often found in the very same psalms as those other names about protection

Psalm 144: 2 - You are my Loving God and my Fortress (Matsud), my High Tower and my Deliverer (Pālat); my Shield and the One in whom I trust."

(The photos, by the way, are of Antequera, here in southern Spain.)

 

Abba - Dad

This name of God is known to many of us; we're probably most familiar with it in Aramaic: אבא - Abba, Father.

The Hebrew word for father is very similar - אב (av or ab) - and in the Old Testament it's used only a few times to refer to God as our Father - usually when speaking of Him as our Creator and Protector. Isaiah in particular writes, "You, Lord are our Father," (Is 63: 16 and 64: 8) and Moses was the first to say it in Deut 32: 6. David says that God has a father's compassion and forgiveness towards His children. (Psalm 103: 12 - 13)

Solomon writes, in Proverbs 3: 12, that the Lord corrects those He loves, just as a father corrects a child he is pleased with. We tend to hold the stereotype that parents correct when they are displeased with us, but the proverb specifically says He corrects those He is pleased with; some translations even say a father corrects a child he delights in.

It's a really weak analogy, but I think I experienced this yesterday when I was teaching my dog a trick and filming it for our YouTube channel. The trick involved picking up rubbish and putting it into a pedal bin. Maiki got so enthusiastic that she kept leaping onto the pedal with both paws instead of just pressing the pedal with one paw. So I had to keep correcting her - not because I was annoyed with her, but because I was thrilled at how clever and how eager she was. Likewise, God corrects us because He sees our hearts, is pleased with us, and wants to help us do things better.

It's in the New Testament, though, that Jesus really models and unpacks for us what it means to know God as a caring, loving Dad. He taught that our heavenly Father:

• knows our needs and provides for us (Matt 6: 32 - 33)
• rewards us for our actions and attitudes (Matt 6: 1, 4, 6)
• forgives us (Matt 6: 14)
• gives good gifts (Matt 7: 11)
• gives us revelation so we can know Him (Matt 11: 26)
• answers prayer (Matt 18: 19) 
• is merciful (Luke 6: 36)
• seeks true worshippers (John 4: 23)
• loves us (John 14: 23, John 16: 27)
• sends us the Holy Spirit (John 14: 26)

When Philip asked Jesus, "Show us the Father," Jesus replied, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. I am in the Father and He is in me. The Father and I are one." (John 14: 8 - 11)

Of course, the New Testament is written in Greek, so many of those verses use the Greek Pater.  But Jesus was an Aramaic speaker, so He was probably using the name Abba. When we read of His heartfelt prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, Mark specifically tells us that Jesus prayed, "Abba, Father." Seemingly, Abba (אבא) was a more familiar form of Ab (אב) - more like Dad or Daddy.)

So, that's the name that Paul picks up when writing to the Romans and Galatians about our being adopted into God's family and given the Spirit that enables us to cry, Abba, Father. (Rom 8: 15, Gal 4: 6)

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews reminds the early believers that God still guides and disciplines the children that He loves - exactly as Solomon had already explained in the Proverbs. 

(Heb 12: 5 - 7)

So, in this name we see a God who loves us, cares for us and provides us; who gives us good gifts and who corrects us so that we can become more like Him and be the very best version of ourselves.