My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
Our next set of names (#4 through #22) are considered His compound names, which typically uses His primary name and attaches a specific descriptor to it. These are the names that originally got me chasing this topic, and now it has developed into a much bigger study than the original intent, but I digress, for I have already mentioned this!
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly was a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
| 17 |
| JEHOVAH SABAOTH (THE LORD OF HOSTS) |
| 1 Samuel 1:3 Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the LORD. |
| The LORD of Hosts. Jehovah Sabaoth. At first glance, I associated this name with the sabbath, but this is not correct. This name has nothing to do with rest, for the term sabaoth refers to armies! No, this description, this name of God defines Him as One who commands the armies of heaven and earth. The verse above includes the first occurrence of this name of God in the Word. But not the last. The prophets refer to God as the LORD of Hosts over 200 times in the Old Testament. Prior to Samuel’s arrival on the scene for the Israeli people, the nation was likely experiencing a sense of inadequacy, where all the neighboring nations had armies that were stronger than the little fledgling nation of Israel. In writing this as a history for the nation, Samuel may have recorded this name in order to bolster the faith of those in the nation. Of course the Lord has always been a warrior God, and for the men of Israel, this translated into dominance over other men, peoples and nations. This requirement of dominance over others was for two purposes. The primary purpose I suppose many would guess at, but let us first consider the secondary purpose of the nation of Israel to exist, which required physical battles. The nation, per God’s intent, was to be a blessing to the nations. Remember Gods promise to Abraham? This intent was not fully realized in the nation itself, for the nation fell into idolatry and sin. Sadly, the goal of blessing the nations by the nation of Israel was not fully realized. So let us consider the primary purpose of the establishment of the nation. To establish the nation of Israel would provide a focused environment for prophecy to be displayed. And the focus of this prophecy? The Messiah of all of creation of course! Yes – the purpose of the nation was to produce the Messiah, the Savior for all. And for that nation to be used of God in protecting the physical lineage of the Messiah. But once the Messiah arrived, the motivation of the LORD of hosts became clear, in that our warrior God’s actions were not to accomplish physical dominance, but to shed grace and mercy fueled by His never ending love to all who would look to Him. When we speak of the Lord of Hosts today, we should not imagine a god who revels in bloodshed, death and destruction. This was never His overarching intent, and as we see in the Messiah, not of His character. His armies have fought to preserve the lineage of the Messiah, so that the Messiah could come and display the greater power, the power of love for His enemies. The LORD of hosts is the warrior God who is fighting for our souls, as opposed to against our physical “enemies”. He is our LORD of Hosts, and we are blessed to be led by Him in a triumph of victory through sacrifice, humility, peace and love. Praise His name |
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
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