Knowing God is like carefully examining a diamond, polishing it so that we can peer into it, and then looking at it from all sides and through its many facets, enjoying its colors, being delighted by its sparkles, and learning to appreciate it fully. But God is not a beautiful but lifeless diamond, He is the Living God. I have learned that as I learn his names and meditate on them, I come to know him more intimately; I begin to trust him more fully; and find my heart drawn ever more passionately to do his will here on earth as it is in heaven. So I invite you to undertake a journey with me to explore God by means of his names.
The word "God" is a generic noun used to designate a divinity. It is not a name or title. The Judeo-Christian God has really only one name -- Yahweh or Jehovah. He has several titles…and beyond the titles, many metaphors and descriptors that help us to know Him. Here is how Webster describes it:
Name -- "A word or phrase that constitutes the distinctive designation of a person or thing."
Title -- "An appellation of dignity, honor, distinction, or preeminence attached to a person or family by virtue of rank, office, precedent, privilege, attainment, or lands." Such as; "Reverend” or "Doctor.” (One of God’s titles might be "King of kings," that is, king over all other kings that there might be.)
Metaphor -- "A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them." For example, (God is referred to as our “Rock” or our “Hiding Place.”)
Descriptor -- "Something (as a word or characteristic feature) that serves to describe or identify." Many metaphors of God could also be called descriptors. In English we have what we call an adjectival phrase, a noun together with an adjective modifying it…such as "Merciful God." However, I will try to stick to names or titles.
1. God Most High (.El .Elyon), the Exalted God
We’ll begin our study of the names and titles of God with Abraham, the Father of Faith, to whom God revealed himself. Abraham would have known the generic name for God (.ēl or the plural .ĕlōhīm). But perhaps the earliest specific name by which Abraham worshipped the true God was as the “Most High God” (.El .Elyon).
The place to begin Abraham’s understanding of God is with his family. Abraham’s ancestors were idolaters and polytheists (worshippers of many gods). Joshua reminds the people, "Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods" (Joshua 24:2). Jacob’s wife Rachel, who probably grew up with Terah’s religion, stole her father’s "house-hold gods" read about it in - (Genesis 31:32-35; 35:2-4). Sumerian culture in southern Mesopotamia had seven gods in its pantheon. Nanna, the moon-god, was the main deity of the Sumerian city of Ur in Lower Mesopotamia and of Haran, where Abraham had migrated with his family.
Abraham’s faith grew as God revealed himself. By the time we meet him in Genesis 12 he is a worshipper of one God. He began with the basic word for God, the generic Canaanite name for the cosmic deity, ’El. Of course God calls himself (Jehovah, I AM THAT I AM) to Moses in Chapter 3. But, for now, let’s consider the other ways in which Abraham began to know God.
Abraham’s monotheism contrasts sharply with the polytheism of his forebears. He believed God to be the Lord of the cosmos (Genesis 14:22; 24:3), supreme judge of mankind (15:14;18:25), controller of nature (18:14; 19:24; 20:17), highly exalted (14:22), and eternal (21:33). Whenever God spoke to him, he obeyed immediately in faith. His relationship with God was personal rather than formal. However, Abraham and the other patriarchs practiced various forms of worship, including building altars, offering sacrifices, calling on the name of the LORD, circumcision, prayer, making vows, and tithing -- as well as planting trees and setting up monuments…all ways of worshipping ‘El the one God.
.El and .Elohim are found in the Old Testament in three main forms: .ēl, as well as .ĕlōah, and the plural .ĕlōhīm. Together they appear 2,600 times in the Old Testament compared to Yahweh, which appears 6,828 times. The basic meaning of the root word seems to be "strong," having to do with "power." .El, then, is the strong and powerful One. Most often in the Old Testament, however, .ēl appears in its plural form .ĕlōhīm, usually reserved for the Israelites God. Christians tend see in this plural term .ĕlōhīm a testimony to the plurality of persons in the godhead, which is revealed more fully in the New Testament. Most celebrated, perhaps are verses where the pronouns referring to God are in the first person plural: "Then God (.ĕlōhīm – plural ) said, ’Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” (Gen. 1:26)
God revealed himself to Abraham as that Supreme King, God Most High. Thus Abraham no longer worshipped other gods but the Most High God only. The Ten Commandments require: "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). Later God of course reveals full-blown monotheism, that these other so-called gods are not gods at all and have no power and that the LORD is the one and only God:
• "You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other." (Deuteronomy 4:35, cf. verse 39)
• "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one." (Deuteronomy 6:4)
* "See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me." (Deuteronomy 32:39)
• "Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD -- that you alone are the Most High over all the earth." (Psalm 83:18)
• "This is what the LORD says-- Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God." (Isaiah 44:6)
• "So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one." (1 Corinthians 8:4)
The term "Most High" is found a number of places in both the Old and New Testaments, especially in the poetic books. Most often the phrase "Most High" stands alone as the title of God. Here are a few other well-known passages you may recognize, where the title occurs:
* "You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty...." (Psalm 91:1)
* “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David ...”
* “The angel said to her, ’The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God’" (Luke 1:32, 35).
* "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways...." (Zechariah’s prophecy in Luke 1:76)
* “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; (Luke 6:35)
As we worship God, we ought never forget his supremacy and the fact that He is El’Elyon ( Most High ) The strutting kings, princes, and politicians of this earth are mere men. Satan is not God’s equal, but merely a created and rebellious angel. There is no god or demon that can begin to match our God. He is over all. And he is exalted! He is the Most High God! ‘El-‘Elyon!
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