
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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| Greatness of Your Majesty |
| Exodus 15:7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble. |
| Majesty. An old word used by old fogies. I suppose it is coming back into fashion with some of these new praise songs I hear at church and the radio, but for some, if I were to ask them the meaning, I am afraid they may not connect. Majesty is a term that relates to royalty. Surely the British may understand the term a bit better than others. But to think it only relates to royalty may be missing the mark. To speak of majesty in the Old Testament speaks of excellence. As a matter of fact, some literal translations actually use the term “excellence” in place of majesty in this verse. Exodus 15:7 NASB20 – “And in the greatness of Your excellence You overthrow those who rise up against You; You send out Your burning anger , [and] it consumes them like chaff. Exodus 15:7 Youngs Literal Translation – And in the abundance of Thine excellency Thou throwest down Thy withstanders, Thou sendest forth Thy wrath — It consumeth them as stubble. Now I don’t know about some of my readers, but when I was in grade school, to get an “excellent” on a book report, school assignment or graded paper implied a perfect score. Not a 90%. That was “very good”. Even a 99% was only a very very good! No, to attain an “excellent”, it was embedded in this little boys mind that only perfection was excellent. And for that I am grateful, for I think this is an accurate depiction of Moses estimate of the God he served. But let’s consider for a moment a little context, remember this is Moses’ song of triumph, a song of triumph over the worlds greatest super power, by a rag tag group of slaves, and an old man that used to be loyal. A super power that an upstart group of slaves took down. Let’s also remember that the Pharoah was considered majestic, excellent, of great royal blood, and his nation supported him in this estimation. His army was the greatest, just like he was, and yet these slaves with an old man as a leader, not only escaped thier clutches, but completely decimated the army that was after them. Oh my, but what a mistake I have made. It wasn’t the slaves, or that old man that led them, but the God of Israel who performed all these actions against this superpower. And note also that when Moses describes God’s method of taking down the Egyptians, he doesn’t use terms that describe God as breaking a sweat, or that He was exhausted from taking the Egyptians down. (After all, they were a super power!) No, the verse speaks of God sending out His fury. His burning anger. Note that which God sent out is an emotion! An emotion. Did it include lightning, as if fire from the skies? Did it include horrific wind storms, or massive earthquakes? None were noted. We do see the Red Sea falling in on the super power armies, but that may be termed simply the removal of a restraint on the waters. After all, it wasn’t meant for everybody, only those slaves and that old man. If the superpower armies decided to enter an unsafe situation, that is on them. So again, what is inferred when we hear that God sent his fury, his burning anger. An emotion? I think Moses is making a point. God’s excellencies are such that it only requires the unleashing of an emotion to decimate a world superpower. That is the excellency of God, and Moses only adds the superlative of the Greatness of Your Excellency to magnify the God He serves. Moses, as an old man, sure knew how to speak of our God! |
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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