The most wonderful name that can pass human lips is—GOD. In that one word we express the Source of everything in nature and grace. No wonder it is said that when pious Jews of old copied the Scriptures they cleaned their pens and prayed for clean hearts whilst they wrote that wonderful and awful Name.
We are told most emphatically that God “only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach to; whom no man has seen, not can see: to Whom be honour and power everlasting, Amen.” Here, we are told is One that cannot be approached to nor seen by mortal man. God in His essential Being, lies beyond man’s knowledge by his own power. Well might Zophar cry out, “Canst thou by searching find out God?”
Yet, whilst this is true, and never can be altered, God has taken pains to reveal Himself. The whole reason for creation is that it might be a platform for revelation. For God made man capable of the knowledge of Himself. But man fell, sin brought in distance, and communion with God was lost. Man fell into blindness and darkness.
When, however, our Lord was here upon earth He revealed God. Since His return to heaven we find that revelation recorded for us in the Scriptures, and in the Holy Spirit sent forth lies the power for spiritual discernment of what the Scriptures present. Even in the Old Testament a measure of light comes out in anticipation of the coming of our Lord.
To the Scriptures therefore we go, and may the Spirit of God teach us.
The name of God occurs in the very first verse of the Bible. That being so it is fitting that we should consider that particular name first.
“In, the beginning God*, [plural] created [singular] the heaven [dual] and the earth” (Gen. 1:1).
Why should the name of God be in the plural, not in the singular, referring to one; not in the dual, referring to two; but in the plural, referring to three at the least?
{*Elohim was a word meaning mighty ones, judges, rulers, in ordinary use in the Hebrew language, which the Spirit of God adopted and gave a special significance, even a designation of God. There is no doubt as to this meaning. Genesis 1:1 alone is decisive, for who could be the transcendent creator but the Supreme Being? In its ordinary use elohim is translated once as angels (Ps. 8:5), goddess twice (1 Kings 11:5, 33), gods (not referring to the Supreme Being) two hundred and forty times. Genesis 3:5; Exodus 12:12; Zephaniah 2:11 will give examples chosen at random. One striking instance, Psalm 82:8, “God [Elohim] judges among the gods [elohim]. Elohim is rendered judges four times (Ex. 21:6; 22:8-9).}
India has 33,000,000 gods and vile creatures of the mind, emanations of the bottomless pit, deceits of Satan. But the Bible reveals to us the only true God as one God, supreme and unique. How then is the name of God in the plural? In the light of the New Testament which teaches that there are Father, Son and Holy Spirit yet one God, we see enshrined in the first verse of the Bible the truth of the Trinity—three Persons, but one God. We Christians do not believe in three Gods. There cannot be other than one God, one supreme, eternal Being from Whom everything flows—everything material and spiritual for the blessing and enjoyment of man.
That this is true is evidenced by the fact that the verb “created” in Genesis 1:1, following the word, God [Elohim, plural] is in the singular. Does this not teach that though there are three Persons in the Godhead, there is but one God—the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one?
The singular of Elohim is El—the mighty One. So Elohim means the mighty Ones, yet there is but one mighty One. The three persons are One. Blessed be God.
Now is it not remarkable that in the Old Testament Scriptures Elohim occurs in connection with the Supreme Being over 2,200 times; whilst El (singular) and Elah (singular) occur a little over 300 times—remarkable as we remember how fiercely monotheistic the Jews were and are, as witness how they accused the Lord Jesus of blasphemy because He said He was the Son of God, and thus they said was making Himself equal with God. They sought His death on that score. ‘The Jews answered… We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God” (John 19:7).
It is very evident we cannot comment on all the two thousand two hundred places in which the name of God is in the plural. We would, however, like to draw attention to two passages. Deuteronomy 6:4 says “Hear, O Israel the LORD our God is one LORD.” In the original the names of God read as follows—Jehovah (singular) our God (Elohim, plural) is one Jehovah (singular). Here in this solemn affirmation of the Oneness of the Godhead is the careful preservation of the truth of the Trinity.
The other passage is the clearest in the Old Testament. Isaiah 49:16 says, “Come ye near to Me, hear ye this [revelation]: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning, from the time that it was, there AM I [the assertion of Deity in the clearest way] and now the Lord God, and His Spirit, has sent ME.” Who could send Deity according to this verse but Deity? Who could be sent, and yet not be inferior, but Deity? In time the Holy Spirit was sent, and the Holy Spirit is God, and cannot be inferior. Did our Lord’s taking upon Himself manhood make Him inferior? A thousand times NO. Nay, His stoop was His glory. The lower He went the greater His glory in that connection.
How often the Lord referred to Himself as the Sent One, in agreement with Isaiah 49:16. We quote three or four Scriptures to prove this “As the living Father has sent ME” (John 6:57). “I am from Him; and He has sent Me” (John 7:29). “Neither came I of Myself, but He [God] sent ME” (John 8:42). “This is life eternal that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). “The world may believe that Thou hast sent ME” (John 17:21, 23).
So now in Genesis 1, verse 2, is mentioned the Spirit of God, whilst in Isaiah 48:16, we get the Sent One, who is clearly the eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Might we not say of the Lord God in that verse we get the Father as sending forth the Son on His glorious mission to earth.
But we must proceed in our enquiry. In Genesis 2 we get eleven times two names of God—The LORD God—coupled together, that is Jehovah Elohim. How interesting this is. The Father is Jehovah. The Son is Jehovah. The Holy Spirit is Jehovah. And yet there is only one Jehovah as we have already seen in Deuteronomy 4:4.
What then is the meaning of Jehovah? It means, HE who IS. The extension of this is found in the Scriptures, “Which is and which was, and which is to come” (Rev. 1:4, 8:4, 8; 16:5). God is—Jehovah past, present and future are terms we mortals must use. But in the past God is, in the present God is, in the future God is—that is there never was a time, in the past, nor in the present, nor in the future, when God will not be, God IS.
It appears from Exodus 6:3 that God did not reveal Himself as Jehovah till the time of Moses. In verse 6 Moses is instructed to tell the children of Israel, “I am the LORD [Jehovah],” and that in covenant blessing. Of course Jehovah was Jehovah before He was revealed as such. And it would appear that Jacob got a faint gleam of the coming revelation in Genesis 28. So Jehovah on the Divine side is the God that is—the ever existent One; on our side as the One, who enters into covenant blessing, with men. What a sure and certain foundation!
Of course it is well known that the Higher Critics aver that there must have been two different authors of Genesis I and 2, because in Genesis 1 the title of God is Elohim; in Genesis 2 Jehovah Elohim. How sensible men could make such a mistake we cannot understand. For instance we might pick up a life of Napoleon the great, and read in one chapter the name Napoleon and in the next chapter his two names Napoleon Buonaparte. What would sensible men think if we asserted that this proved there were two different writers of the book? We can only call the statement made by the Higher Critics foolishness and worse—foolishness as we have seen; worse, for it shows the evil bias of their minds, that they wish to undermine the authority of the Bible, and reduce it to the level of an ordinary book.
We should like to ask these higher critics to explain how an uninspired writer could write the first verse of the Bible—God in the plural; created in the singular—heaven in the dual, referring to the heaven in which the clouds float, the atmospheric heaven, and the vast spaces in which the stars in their myriads move. Who told Moses these things?
We have spoken of the two great names for God. We now append a few names used to designate God in the Old Testament, without much comment, but taken all together they fill out our knowledge of God.
El (singular)—the Mighty One, occurs over two hundred times. Emmanuel is compounded of El—the Mighty One with us.
Elah (singular)—God, an Object of worship occurs ninety times, and only in Ezra and Daniel. In Jeremiah 10:11 the word refers to heathen gods, and in one or two other cases.
Eloah (singular)—God, an Object of worship, occurs in Job forty-one times, elsewhere eleven times and ‘god’ five times as referring to heathen gods, in all fifty-seven times. It marks the One True God in contrast to fake gods.
Jah—God, the ever-existent One, the God of covenant Blessing—a contraction of Jehovah occurs forty-three times, nearly every time between Psalm 78:11 and 150:6.
Adon (singular)—Lord, Sir, Master, occurs two hundred and fifteen times, usually in the ordinary sense as applied to Abraham, Moses, etc., only about thirty times does the word designate God.
Adonai (plural)—Lord as Owner occurs well over three hundred times, and practically in every case the word is the designation of God.
Shaddai—Almighty in containing resources, occurs forty-eight times principally in the book of Job, and is invariably translated the Almighty.
Mashiach—the Anointed, occurs thirty-seven times, twice being translated Messiah. Christ in the New Testament is the equivalent of Messiah in the Old Testament. This is a wonderful name given to the Son in the Godhead, who came to earth to do God’s will.
Other names could be given but the foregoing gives us a wonderful idea of God as revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures and times. God is Almighty, the One to whom we owe allegiance and submission in a far more wonderful way than a wife to her husband or a servant to his master. He is the one sole Object of worship, whether presented to us as God in His essential glory, or as Messiah, the Anointed, God manifest in flesh. He is the One, who never changes, the eternal I AM, and that unchangeable One has put Himself in covenant blessing with men.
May we have greater thoughts of Him, His power and might and majesty, His grace and compassion and tenderness; His faithfulness in blessing and sovereign favour.
Of course men waited for the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who created in Genesis 1:1, the One who took counsel, “Let US make man in Our image, after our likeness,” the One whose life on earth was the light of men, the One who died that wonderful death on the cross, Who rose triumphant from the grave, Conqueror over death and hell, who ascended to God’s right hand in glory, and who shed forth the Holy Spirit, forming the link between ourselves and Himself and the Father. When all this had taken place how wonderful a flood of light illuminated the Old Testament page. What was hinted at in the Old Testament is fully revealed in the New Testament to our blessing and joy.