God in condescending grace has been pleased to reveal Himself to His creature in different ways, and on different occasions, and sometimes to the most unlikely people. When Hagar, the Egyptian maid of Sarai, Abraham’s wife, fled from her mistress, “the angel of the Lord found her,” and told her to return to her mistress and be subject to her, but he also made known to her that she would have a son who was to be called Ishmael, for God had heard her, and that He would multiply her seed exceedingly. Then “she called the Name of Jehovah who spoke to her, Thou art the God who reveals Himself, for she said, Also here have I seen after He has revealed Himself” (Gen. 16:13). In Judges 13 the Lord revealed Himself to Manoah and his wife, and when asked by Manoah about His Name He answered, “Why askest thou thus after my Name, seeing it is secret? (or Wonderful)” (verse 18).
The Almighty God
Although the Lord has spoken to Abram, and called him to leave Ur of the Chaldees, and to get to the land He would show him (Gen. 12:1), it was not until he had entered the land that we read of the Lord appearing to Abram (verse 7). Then after some time, when Abram was ninety years old, “the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect” (Gen. 17:1). After Lot had separated from Abram, the Lord had promised him all the land that he saw, and promised to make his seed as the dust of the earth (Gen. 13:14–17); and after the patriarch had refused to take anything from the king of Sodom, God made His covenant with him, giving him for an inheritance the land from “the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates” (Gen. 15).
In Genesis 17 it is not only that promises are given, but God reveals Himself to Abram as the Almighty, and in renewing the covenant changes the name of the patriarch to Abraham, “a father of many nations.” As the Almighty, God promised to be a God to Abraham and to his seed after him (verse 7), giving the covenant of circumcision, and the name to Isaac, the son who would be born to him, and promising to establish His covenant with him. The Name of the Almighty was the assurance to Abraham that all God had promised would assuredly be fulfilled. Isaac blessed Jacob in the Name of the Almighty (Gen. 28:3), and when God changed the name of Jacob to Israel, “God said unto him, I am Almighty God…the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it” (Gen. 35:9–12). Jacob uses the Name of the Almighty in Genesis 43:14; 48:3 and 49:25, as knowing the omnipotent power of Him who had blessed him in spite of all his failures.
I Am Jehovah
When the Lord appeared to Moses at the burning bush, and Moses asked what he would say to the children of Israel when they asked concerning God, “What is His Name?” then the Lord said unto Moses, “I AM THAT I AM: and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM has sent me unto you” (Ex. 3:13-14). Israel’s God is the self-existing God, who ever is and never changes, and who has undertaken the deliverance and blessing of the people He has chosen for Himself.
Then the Lord adds, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me unto you. This is my Name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations” (verse 15). The great I AM was to be known to Israel as JEHOVAH, the God of their fathers, the One who had called Abraham and given him the promises, which He had renewed to Isaac and Jacob. This was the Name of relationship that God was taking with Israel, a Name that implied the unchangeableness of His character, the One who would certainly perform all that He undertook to do in grace for His people.
Moses returned to the Lord after visiting Pharaoh, and spoke to Him of the evil done by Pharaoh to Israel. The Lord assured His servant that in spite of the hardness of Pharaoh, His people would be driven out of Egypt by Pharaoh, then added, “I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the Name of God almighty, but by my Name JEHOVAH was I not known to them” (Ex. 6:1–3). God had not been in relationship with the patriarchs as Jehovah, but it was the Name by which He was to be known in relationship with Israel.
In Christianity we know God as Father, revealed in the Son while here below. It was the Name by which He spoke of the relationship with His Father on high, and the Name that He declared in a new way as having come out of death, and taking His place on high, the Name that saints of God now use as having the Spirit of sonship, and as in association with the Son before the Father (John 20:17; Rom. 8:15). How blessed is our portion today as answering to the will of God in the path of separation from the world, for to such as walk in holiness and separation God has said, “I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:17-18).
We know God as Almighty, the Omnipotent, able to support and help His people at all times, and we can know God in Jesus as Jehovah, the One who is faithful to accomplish all He has undertaken to do for us, and as Father, the One who has a special care for those in His own family, who are indwelt by His Spirit, and associated with His own Son. There are many special Names combined with Jehovah in the Old Testament such as Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide (Gen. 22:14), and Jehovah-nissi, the Lord my banner (Ex. 17:15); and all are made good to us in the Name of Jesus, Jehovah the Saviour.
Messiah Called Christ
The rich grace of God towards sinners was manifested in His Son in this world, and how blessedly this is seen as Jesus sits at Sychar’s well speaking to the lonely woman. Wearied with His journey, the Son of God sat down, and said to the woman, “Give me to drink” (John 4:7). Not knowing who it was that spoke to her, and wondering that a Jew should addresses her, the woman replied, “‘How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?” Little did she know of Him, who in human guise, had come to bring to the Jew, and to all who would receive it, the wondrous grace of God.
The answer of Jesus not only answered her question, though she would not perceive this, but introduced into the conversation truth that was infinitely precious. She did not know God as One who was giving; she did not know the glory of the Person who was sitting near her, else she would have asked of Him the infinite blessing that He alone could give to the children of men. Jesus knew the desire of that poor heart, and drew from her the response that gave Him pleasure. At first she connected the thought of living water with Jacob’s well, then asked if He was greater than Jacob, but Jesus told her that the water He gave would be in the one who received it “a well of water springing up into eternal life.”
Not able to apprehend the deep meaning of that which Jesus spoke of, the woman yet desired to have what would make her independent of Sychar’s well. The Son of God, in the perfection of His ways, touched her conscience by recalling to her the life she had led, and in doing so disclosed that He was the Searcher of hearts. Twice she had called Jesus Sir, now she says, “Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet,” and then speaks of worship. How wonderful that there is no rebuke from Jesus, nothing more said of her past life, but rather the amazing revelation of the Father seeking worship “in spirit and in truth.” In the Son, the Father was seeking worship, and from such hearts as those of this poor lonely sinner. In grace, God would provide all that was necessary to produce from such hearts the worship He desired.
Although seeking satisfaction in present things, the heart of the poor sinner was not unacquainted with divine things, and she, with others knew that Messiah was coming, and when He came He would teach them all things. Her hopes then were centred on a coming Messiah though outside the pale of Israel. How great then must have been her surprise to hear Jesus say, “I that speak unto thee am He.” And how great was the joy of the Son of God at finding a heart ready to listen to the wondrous tidings He brought of the Father, and to receive them so readily. What a contrast to those in Israel who had refused Him!
The Son of God
As the mission on earth of the Son of God was reaching towards the close, Jesus said, as His attention was called to the blind man of Jerusalem, “I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night comes, when no man can work” (John 9:1–4). On this blind man we see the Son of God working the work of God in not only giving him natural sight, which he never had before, but also in opening the eyes of his heart to know who had come into the world as the Sent One of the Father. The incarnation of the Son, like the mud on the eyes of the blind man, had increased the state of darkness of those who had refused the Sent One of the Father, but the reception of the word of the Son ensured cleansing and brought spiritual sight.
The work of the Son of God in the heart of the blind man comes into evidence as the Pharisees endeavour to discredit Jesus, their blind and deadly opposition but serving to show the character of Christ’s work. If he only knew Him as “a man called Jesus,” the opposition brings out the testimony that “He is a prophet” (verse 17), and that the blind man had become His disciple (verse 28). How simple and unanswerable was the reasoning that Jesus was the only One from the beginning of the world Who had opened the eyes of one born blind, and therefore must be of God. The simple disciple who was the workmanship of God’s Son had become a teacher in his simple confession of Jesus (verses 30–34).
Jesus had already been rejected, and now His work is rejected for the blind man is cast out of the synagogue. Found by Jesus, the Lord says to the erstwhile blind man, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” and on asking, “Who is He Lord,” the Lord replies, “Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talks with thee.” How wonderful that it was to this poor man, who had been born blind, that Jesus revealed Himself as the Son of God. Such is the wondrous grace of God. It was from such as the woman of Sychar, and the blind man of Jerusalem that worshippers were secured for the Father and the Son. Knowing who the Son of God is, the believer worships Him (verse 38).
I Am Jesus
It was while the Lord Jesus was on earth that He made Himself known to a poor lonely, sinful woman as the Christ, and to an erstwhile blind beggar as the Son of God. How great the grace, and how wondrous the wisdom of the Lord’s ways in choosing such to have these revelations of Himself. The same divine grace and wisdom are seen in the Lord’s revelation of Himself from heaven to Saul of Tarsus. Who would have thought that the Lord would have shown such mercy and grace to the arch-persecutor of the church, yea who, in persecuting His own was persecuting the Lord Himself? Yet so it was, and Paul himself gives us the reason for this abundant mercy, that in him, the chief of sinners, “Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting” (1 Tim. 1:12–16).
All the while that Saul was ravaging the church the Lord had His eye upon him, yea, long before, even when in his mother’s womb (Gal. 1:15-16). The Lord knew what He would be able to do with Saul, to change him from being an ardent persecutor of Himself into the most able and devoted follower, minister of His Gospel and minister of the church. The light in which He revealed Himself to Paul gave Paul the theme of his Gospel (2 Cor. 4:6), and the voice of the Lord that made known that the church was part of Himself (Acts 9:4-6), gave to Paul the substance of His ministry as minister of the assembly.
R. 27.1.70