HE IS JEHOVAH!

 

Thursday, February 10, 2022

 

HE IS JEHOVAH!

 

Gen 2:3-4

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,

 

In the Authorized or King James Version of our Bible the Hebrew word Jehovah is translated "LORD" in capitals to distinguish it from another Hebrew word, Adonai, also translated Lord. The Hebrew word is transliterated Jehovah in the American Standard Version. Jehovah is the name by far the most frequently employed in the Old Testament, occurring 6,823 times. It appears for the first time in Gen 2:4.

(from Names of God, Copyright 1944 by The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago.)

 

DERIVATION AND MEANING OF THE NAME

 

The name Jehovah is derived from the Hebrew verb ‎havah‎, "to be," or "being." This word is almost exactly like the Hebrew verb, ‎chavah‎, "to live," or "life." One can readily see the connection between being and life. Thus, when we read the name Jehovah, or Lord in capital letters, in our Bible we think in terms of being or existence and life, and we must think of Jehovah as the Being who is absolutely self-existent, the One who in Himself possesses essential life, permanent existence.

 

The most noted Jewish commentator of the Middle Ages, Moses Maimonides, said with regard to this name: "All the names of God which occur in Scripture are derived from His works except one, and that is Jehovah; and this is called the plain name, because it teaches plainly and unequivocally of the substance of God."

(From Names of God, Copyright 1944 by The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago.)

 

   

Jehovah: The God of Righteousness and Holiness and Love

 

It is as Jehovah that God places man under moral obligations with a warning of punishment for disobedience. Thou shalt and thou shalt not. How significant in the light of this that when Satan tempts Eve to disobedience, he does not mention the name Jehovah, but only Elohim, nor does Eve mention it in her reply to him. That image of Jehovah-God in which man was created is revealed to us in the New Testament as "righteousness and true holiness" (Eph 4:24).

 

Eph 4:24

24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

 

Lev 19:1-2

19 And the Lord [Jehovah] spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.

 

          While Jehovah is righteousness and holiness, He is also everlasting love (see Jeremiah 31:3). When sin causes us pain, He feels our pain – even the pain of punishment which he inflicts (see Isaiah 63:9). This conflict produced by an equal portion of demand for holiness and sympathetic love creates a dilemma within the complex nature of God. "How can I give thee up O Ephraim ... my heart heaves within me, my repentings, together they are kindled" (Hosea 11:8). So, the love in Jehovah does not forsake fallen man. Jehovah first devises a series of sacrifices to satisfy his demands and facilitate His love. Jesus is the ultimate satisfaction and solution.

 

Rom 3:24-25

24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation [the atoning victim] through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

 

Thank you, Lord Jehovah, for answering your own righteous demands in the person of your Son Jesus. AMEN