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.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
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 is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
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| GOD OF THE WHOLE EARTH |
| Isaiah 54:5 For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. |
| I will never forget the day I discovered the Hebrew word for earth. That word alone ignited a change in my thinking that I completely was unprepared for. You see, when the Old Testament prophets used the Hebrew term אֶרֶץ ʼerets, I did not know that it is sometimes translated as land, as in “the promised land”, and sometimes translated as ground or soil, as in the material that makes up the earth, and sometimes translated as earth, referring to the planet we reside on, as it is here in our verse. To make matters worse, (at least for me), the same nebulousness occurs in the New Testament. But that will be for another day, for I want to focus simply on how this impacts the name of our God in this passage. Isaiah is declaring to all who will listen of the restoration of Israel in this passage. He is looking down the corridors of time to a time when barrenness would no longer be associated with Israel. Let’s read the introductory verse to this amazing prophecy of Isaiah. Isaiah 54:1 “Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says the LORD. He speaks of the barren one having more children (meaning greater honor in ancient Israel) than the married one. What in tarnation is Isaiah talking about? Who is the baren one? Who is the desolate one? Who is the married one? I am so confused! Thankfully the apostle Paul provides apostolic teaching in Galatians 4:27, referring to this verse in his discussion of the church in relation to Old Covenant Israel. Galatians 4:27 For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.” Paul continues with his discussion in Galatians, defining those in the New Testament Church, as being the subject of this prophecy. Galatians 4:28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. Thank you Paul, for I was so unsure of where Isaiah was going with this verse, but in New Testament understanding, when Isaiah speaks of “enlarging the place of your tent”, he is speaking of the expansion of the church. If I follow you Paul, when Isaiah speaks of expanding to the right and to the left, he is referring to the impact of the gospel beyond the restricted borders of the nation of Israel. When Isaiah writes of the barren one inheriting the nations, he is describing the influence of God on all nations, the complete unleashing of the truth of God throughout the earth. All of this future honor, replacing the shame of captivity will occur due to the Lord Himself. The gospel of the resurrected Jesus is the message, and the power of the Spirit of God has multiplied the people of God, fulfilling the expansion Isaiah spoke of when he wrote that the “place of your tent” will cover the whole earth. Now I get it! Isaiah saw it, knew it and taught it. Paul saw it, knew it and taught it! He is the God of the whole erets! There is no opportunity for any confusion in the term erets in this verse. Isaiah may have used erets in this verse, but the intended message is that the whole erets will be impacted, the totality of the erets will be reached with the message of God. Yes – He is the God of the whole erets, the God of all of creation, having exploded out of the land (erets) of Israel with the message of His resurrected Son, impacting all and every part of the created erets! Let there not be any mistaken assumption on the readers part that God is some local deity restricted to a small patch of land far, far away from most of us. He is the God of the whole earth! |
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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