Showing posts with label Jehovah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jehovah. Show all posts

Saturday, February 5, 2022

Jehovah Jireh meaning

Jesus's disciples asked him to teach them to pray (not how to pray but to pray). I don’t know about you, but I often feel prayer is too low a priority in my life. For this reason, I’ve been actively pursuing prayer more often throughout the day and use the Lord’s Prayer as the skeleton on which I hang the meat of my prayers to help me stay focused. 

 


What does hallowed mean?

As a child, I learned that hallowed meant holy. And that is correct, but what does the word holy mean? In Noah Webster's 1829 Dictionary, the definition is: Consecrated to a sacred use, or to religious exercises; treated as sacred; reverenced. Consecrated means separated from common, usual, or ordinary use and sacred use pertains to God or to his worship. When applied to the name of God it signifies being perfectly pure, immaculate, and complete in moral character. Let’s keep that in mind as we look at God’s compound name Jehovah Jireh as a matter of prayer.

 

 



Jehovah Jireh meaning

The meaning of Jehovah Jireh is “The Lord will provide.” We find this name of God used in Genesis 22:14: Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the LORD it will be provided. 


To appreciate this name we need to look into the context of this particular account. God had asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering. At face value, this seems absurd for a host of reasons, but to grasp the deeper implications of what God is teaching us, it’s important to look at the history of Abraham. In Genesis 12, God calls Abram* (before God changed his name to Abraham**) to leave the land of Ur where he lived with his family. He was to travel to the land of Canaan which God promised to give to Abram and his offspring forever. He followed God’s calling and took with him his wife Sari, his nephew Lot, and his father Terah. His father passed away, and Lot and Abram grew wealthy and had enough livestock that they went their separate ways.

 


In Genesis 14, Abram rescued his Lot after he was caught up in a war and taken captive. In chapter 15, God comes to Abram in a vision and says, Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great (v. 1). At this time, Abram addressed the fact that he has no children saying, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir” (v. 2)


God told him that his servant was not going to be his heir, “but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir” (v. 4). Then God took Abram outside and told him to count the stars if he could. “And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (vs. 5-6).


Here’s something that most people don’t realize. When God made this promise, Abram was about 75 years old, and yet he believed God. That's faith! And the heir did not come about immediately. Isaac wasn’t born until 25 years later. 

 


Now, let’s get back to the part where God has asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, in Genesis 22. Abraham headed out early with Isaac. He didn’t drag his feet in obeying God. By this time, Isaac was around 17 years old. As the two of them walked to the mountain, Isaac carried the wood for the sacrifice on his back and Abraham carried the fire. As they walked, Isaac asked where the lamb was for the burnt offering. I can’t imagine how Abraham felt, but he held fast to his faith. He said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son” (v. 8).



 

When they reached the place God had shown him, Abraham built the altar and arranged the wood. Then he bound Isaac. As he readied the knife the Lord called to him from heaven. What a relief that must have been. God told Abraham not to harm his son because, he said, “I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” (v 12). Then Abraham spotted a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. 

 


And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of Jehovah it shall be provided (Genesis 22:14).


 

It is easy in today’s world to take God’s provision for granted. Stop and take a look around you. Today, as you call upon the name of the Lord in faith, praise Jehovah Jireh for his provision for the sacrifice that he offered in your place.

 

"Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" ~ Rom. 24-26


*Abram means exalted father

**Abraham means father of a multitude


Sunday, January 2, 2022

Call upon the name of the LORD in faith

It’s a new year, a new start, and an opportunity to hone our daily habits to become more the people God wants us to be from the inside out. I gave up New Year’s resolutions decades ago because they tend to go by the wayside quite quickly. Instead, I set goals—targets toward progress (that is measurable) in what I hope to accomplish. In my case, one of those goals is to continue my quest to become a person of prayer.

Calling upon Jehovah the "becoming one"

In Lord Teach Us to Pray, we looked at the model prayer Jesus gave to his disciples in Luke 11 when they asked Him to teach them to pray. Not how to pray but to pray. That model reveals that as a child of God, our relationship opens the door to God and all the way back in the book of Genesis we see that people called upon the name of the Lord.

To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord (Gen. 4:26)

If we look at the original Hebrew, this verse reads “And to Seth, also to him there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.”

 


Notice that LORD is all capital letters. In How do we praise the name of God, I talked about how God’s personal or proper name in Hebrew is not pronounceable. It is written as YHWH or JHVH and today articulated as Yahweh or Jehovah. In the Old Testament, it is written in all caps as LORD and rather than being a proper noun it is actually a verb and means “the becoming one ” or “I am.” It is a name by which God reveals his desired relationship with you. He is willing to become to you what your need is (notice I'm not saying want but need). An example of this is found in Proverbs 18:10.

The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe (Proverbs 18:10).

Jehovah the strong tower

In this case, “the becoming one” becomes a strong tower we can run into to be safe. Here the word for safe means, "to be high, be inaccessibly high" or out of reach. Life throws all kinds of things our way. Just look at what we’ve lived through since Covid 19 entered the world. Even in a world filled with anxiety and fear, Jehovah (Yahweh) becomes everything we might possibly need. It doesn't mean we won't get Covid or that none of our loved one will get Covid. Understandably, that is what most of us want. What we need to understand is that even if we get Covid or even die of Covid, that our souls are out of reach of Covid. Believers are "safe." God becomes what we need.


In future posts we will look at some of the compound names of God such as:

  • Jehovah Jireh (The Lord Will Provide)
  • Jehovah Nissi (The Lord My Banner)
  • Jehovah-Raah (The Lord My Shepherd)
  • Joehvah Rophe (The Lord Who Heals)
  • Jehovah Sabaoth (The Lord of Hosts) The Lord of Powers
  • Jehovah Shalom (The Lord Is Peace)
  • Jehovah Shammah (The Lord Is There)
  • Jehovah Tsidkenu (The Lord Our Righteousness)
  • Jehovah Mekoddishkem (The Lord Who Sanctifies You) The Lord Who Makes Holy

As I call upon the LORD, in faith, I believe he is my righteousness, that He is the Lord who sanctifies me, and the Lord who will provide as I ask him to grow me into a person of prayer.

Happy New Year. Be blessed.

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Saturday, December 11, 2021

How do we praise the name of God?

 

What does it mean to praise the name of the LORD? Part of prayer is praise but how exactly do we do that? I don’t want it to just be empty lip service. I want it to be the real deal. When Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, in Luke 11:1, he gave them a model prayer. Not to pray those exact words over and over, but to learn to pray by using it as a template. Not just how to pray, but to actually pray.

In my post, Lord, teach us to pray (Part 1), we looked at the importance of the use of the word “Father” in that model prayer and how it shows the need for a relationship with God before we can pray. We also looked at how when we pray “our Father,” that father is not God’s name. It is one of his titles. The word “hallowed” in the model prayer shows that we are to set His name apart as holy and worthy of devotion. But what name are we praising?

 

God's personal name 

God’s personal name in Hebrew is not pronounceable. It has no vowels. You’ll see it referred to as the Tetragrammaton, and in the Old Testament, you’ll see it written in all caps as LORD. When it comes to praising God, His name is much more than unpronounceable. First of all, His name is a verb. That means it describes an action, state, or occurrence. Keep that in mind as you pray.

 

God’s name YHWH or JHVH (today articulated as Yahweh or Jehovah) is the Hebrew name revealed to Moses in the book of Exodus at the burning bush. It means “the becoming one” or “I am.” It is a name by which God reveals his desired relationship with you. He is willing to become to you what your need is. Throughout Scripture, God reveals Himself to us through His names. The meanings behind His names teach us more about who God is to us. For instance, his name, El Shaddai, means Lord God Almighty. He is the All-Sufficient One, our Lord God With this deeper understanding, it becomes more natural to praise God.

 


List of the names of God and their meanings

Use this list of the names of God to practice praising Him.

  • Adonai (Lord, Master)
  • Elohim (God) God, Judge, Creator
  • El Olam (The Everlasting God) The God of Eternity, The God of the Universe, The God of Ancient Days
  • El Shaddai (Lord God Almighty) All-Sufficient One, Lord God
  • El Elyon (The Most High God)
  • Jehovah Jireh (The Lord Will Provide)
  • Jehovah Nissi (The Lord My Banner) The Lord My Miracle
  • Jehovah-Raah (The Lord My Shepherd)
  • Jehovah Rophe (Rapha) (The Lord Who Heals)
  • Jehovah Sabaoth (The Lord of Hosts) The Lord of Powers
  • Jehovah Shalom (The Lord Is Peace)
  • Jehovah Shammah (The Lord Is There)
  • Jehovah Tsidkenu (The Lord Our Righteousness)
  • Jehovah Mekoddishkem (The Lord Who Sanctifies You)
  • El Qanna (Jealous God) Zealous
  • Yahweh (Lord, Jehovah)

You can use this list to praise the Lord for who He is becoming in your life as you grow into the person He wants you to be. As the Lord leads, I’ll post more about these names and their meanings individually in the future along with Scripture references.

Photo credits: Sapphire Dream Photography

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The Inheritance by Donna Sundblad

Written within the allegorical tradition of classics like Pilgrim's Progress, The Inheritance offers a symbolic fantasy adventure with a Christian message. Ideal discussion starter for youth groups, homeschoolers, and families.