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.