Brother Paul
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Exodus 20:2
“I Am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out from the house of bondage.“
Now that we have established that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who dealt with Moses, was actually YHVH the Son, and the presence, authority, will, word, and works of the Son, are the presence, authority, will, word, and works of the Father, then we should gain a refreshed insight into how much God realty wants us to have a relationship with the Father, through the Spirit, by the Son. It is only through the Lord’s manifest presence (by grace) that we can know anything of Him, and no man has seen or heard the Father at any time save through the Son. The eternally begotten Son has made Him manifest. It is through and by Him who is the Word of God that we may know God and God can and will commune “with us”! This relational intent is nowhere better described than in the first of all commandments given at the Mountain of God in Midian to the Israelites through the Prophet Moses. In this one commandment, the Lord describes and reveals His personal relatedness in no uncertain terms. Let us take a closer look at how He has expressed this desired intimacy in the wording of this command. We will take it in two parts. First the qualifying introduction to who He is…
As some of you know and have had revealed to you, each Scripture is rich with content and meaning. Not one of them is just some random gibberish laid down by some mere person in an inspirational moment. Meaning and application in the Scriptures is as relative for us today, as it was for the ancient Israelites to whom they were originally given. In fact, in this author’s opinion, in light of the Jesus events, they are even more meaningful! This first of the 10 Commandments is just such a Scripture, holding within itself a field of rich meaning just below the surface, that not only lets us know that He is the one and only God, but also what that means in His relationship “with” His human creation. A brief analysis of the details of this simple, yet profound statement of fact, will tell us much more of who He is, and the role He plays, and is to play, in our personal life, and in our history.
To begin with, notice that God starts His declaration using the personal pronoun “I“. This lets us know right at the outset, that God is a person. Not a human person, but a unique, one of a kind, personal being...He has a mind, a will, emotions, etc.! Therefore, He is not some vague pantheistic “All“, as described by the Hindus, that not only transcends the material realm in its’ Oneness, but is as much the materiality itself. He is not some disinterested Gestalt, merely being a whole greater than the sum of His parts again like unto a human person! Likewise God is not merely some impersonal force emanating various demiurges, producing and enforcing governing laws and guiding principles that mechanistically direct some type of evolutionary process within the continuous flux. He is a personal being. Now if we contrast this personal pronoun with other pronouns in the command, like “your“ and “you“, we discern that this personal God represents Himself as a being someone separate from lesser creatures in one regard, yet relationally involved “with“ His creatures.
In the first two words taken together, “I Am“, we have an allusion to the fact of His Eternal nature, and to the Shem which He shared with His servant Moses, when He appeared in His form as "the Angel of the LORD" from amidst the burning bush! He is a being without beginning, or end! When Moses asked Him, “Whom shall I say has sent me?“ The Angel of the LORD (YHVH manifest) answered and said “Tell them I Am has sent you!“ In the Hebrew, the correct wording says “Tell them, I will be“ has sent you. This refers of course not to some future becoming, or to a continuance after a past beginning, but again, it refers to a beginningless, endless, eternal, ever-presence, that though outside of and before all time, permeates the temporal realm for whatever suits His purpose. He is the ever-present One, the Creator, omnipotent and omniscient. Thus He is! And He is, in relation to us!
Next, He reveals to us that He is “the LORD”, a title given not only to take the place of the unpronounceable Name (YHVH), which is also known also as the Tetragrammaton, but the meaning of the title “the LORD“, also alerts us to the fact that He is Ultimate Sovereign. He is Ultimate Authority, the Absolute Monarch of the Universe, who is to be obeyed, and rarely if ever (let us be thankful for His mercy and grace) questioned. In other words, He is the true King of kings!
In more ancient versions of the Torah Scrolls, like those found in the caves of Qumran, at the Dead Sea, they almost always write out the four letter Name (YHVH), but as time passed, the more pious Jewish teachers and Scribes, substituted the generic Adonai, or else the indicative phrase, “the Name“, or "Ha'Shem" as it is pronounced in Hebrew. Some did this purely out of reverential respect, and others out of fear of mispronunciation. However, even the Psalmists, and the Prophets, occasionally use the shortened name “Yah“, indicating to us the correct pronunciation of at least the first syllable. Please note however that there is a marked difference between the name Yah (or YHVH) and the generic “Adonai“, for Adonai could just as easily be applied to a mere man as well to the LORD. Then of course, there is the distorted transliteration of the European interpreters that we have come to pronounce as “Jehovah“. The name “Jahovah“ was allegedly formed when the translators took the Holy Name (YHVH), and allegedly inserted the consonants from the title Adonai“. This would have been terribly offensive to the sense of reverential awe, holiness, and sanctity that the Pious and Orthodox Jewish people attach to the Name in Y’shua’s day. A more plausible contraction, “Yah-hoveh“, which means “The LORD who is“, perhaps could have been a bit more appropriate as a motivation for adapting Jehovah. In any event, by the time of the later Masoretes, any pronunciation at all was practically forbidden among Rabbinical Jewish congregations, and whenever a Rabbi, or any other person reading the Torah was to come upon the Holy Name, they would instantly substitute by using the words “Ha’Shem“, which again literally means “The Name“. This practice eventually became so common that “Ha’Shem“ now seems almost as if, for some, it is merely an acceptable vernacular, or personal rendition, for the name of God. Of course, like the transliteration “Jehovah”, He has never authorized this as being allowable, thus, it’s current use and application, in this sense, has somewhat degenerated for the one speaking the title.
The LORD’s Name is not “Ha’Shem“, anymore than it is “Jehovah“, though I personally think that God is probably less upset with either approach than some of we humans may think. He apparently allows such things. It seems the sincerity of the reverence one attaches is most important! I say this because the LORD does not judge by outward standards as men do (Hallelujah!)! It is more a matter of the heart than the mouth, for it is written that “out of the wellspring of the heart the mouth speaks”, and again, “as a man thinks in his heart so is he”. For example, to be outwardly pious, and seemingly follow all the right instructions and duties is wonderful, but not if we are smug, arrogant, or prejudiced about it, comparing ourself to others, or merely going through the motions in order to hurry back to our life of sin. The Israelites were rebuked in Isaiah chapter 1 for just such a thing. They were keeping the sabbaths and bringing the appropriate sacrifices, but their hearts were elsewhere, and so the Lord rejected them and their sacrifices. Obviously the outward ritualism, and even the particularly described form is totally meaningless if the heart is not right. Messiah teaches that if we exalt ourselves, God will humble us, but if we humble ourselves, God Himself will exalt us. You see it is a humble and contrite heart that God will not despise. And I have a feeling that even if such a humble one is not letter perfect in all their observance, that by their integrity before the perfect Holiness of God, they are much closer to His heart than the other who performs the rituals by rote. However, that is conjecture, for surely the LORD shall have Mercy on whom He will have Mercy. So, whether or not either name does or does not actually offend God in any way, we cannot know until He tells us. But I do know a few things for sure, and that is, that His love for His children is much greater than our imperfections, even above our love for our own children. His grace is much bigger than all our sin, and His Mercy bigger than all our theologies. His Mercy is so much more merciful than ours could ever be, and His Justice so much more just, and His compassion for and knowledge of our weaknesses bigger than all our propensity to be hardheaded, and self-righteous, and sinful. Praise be to the Lord! Blessed be His Holy Name, now and forever. Amen? Amen!
Now the next word that He uses to identify Himself in this passage, is “Elohim”. Elohim is the plural of “Eloah”, and is the title the Creator has given Himself in Genesis 1:1. The very first words of the very first Book of the Tanach say, “In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the Earth.“ This common title for God, has elicited much debate. Why? Because it is used in this context as referring to a single being, yet, as an actual Hebrew word, it is a plural comprised of masculine and feminine syllables. In one Rabbinical tradition, Moses asks God, referring to this name in relation to the “us“ and “our“ of verse 1:26, in who’s image the first human couple are created, why He has given an excuse to the sectarians to debate, and the Elohim basically tells Him to just write what He has said, in faith, and if anyone is in error as they translate it, so be it! In other words, let this matter be between the Lord and each of them. However, here we have recognition that the one and only God is also a Unity. And is this not also implied in the “Sh’ma“, where it’s said “Hear O’Israel the LORD our God, the LORD is one“ (the word for “one” here being “echad“, lit. “a Unity”)?
So what is the meaning of verses like John 10:34-35 and Psalm 82:6 where this word is applied to humans? The word of faith movement uses these verses to refer to people as little gods. Can this be true? Are certain people little deities?
In Isaiah 43:10, the Lord Himself tells us that there was no God formed before Him, and there will be no gods formed after Him. So therefore these passages cannot be referring to men or women as being in any way equal to, or empowered like, the eternal deity. YHVH alone is the God “and there is none else”. So then, what can this usage of the term “gods” mean in the Scriptures?
Again, the Hebrew word in question is “elohim”. This word, though it is used for the Creator in Genesis, is not an actual name or word that only describes the one and only God (like YHVH). In ancient Semetic languages, even Canaanite dialects, elohim is somewhat of a generic title, similar in application to the word Adonai in the Aramaic/Hebrew, which can be applied as well to a husband by a wife, or to a noble by his servants.
In the Canaanite pantheon of god’s there were many El’s. Abraham called the Lord our God, El-Shaddai, or God Almighty to indicate He was the most powerful God, and El-Elyon to refer to His being the Most High God, the only true God, and sole Creator of the Universe. “Elohim”, as it is used for God, is in itself the plural of the title “Eloah” considered to be a legitimate name for God (in Arabic, this is Allah), indicating, as we Christians would understand it, the tri-unity of persons of this one and only God, or the one God in three persons, but for others, like the Jewish people, it refers to a plurality of His majesties or attributes. For yet others, it represents a plethora of god-like beings, including angels, of whom YHVH is supreme Sovereign, therefore in Job, even the angels are called beni-Elohim, or sons of God.
The root of the word contains the idea of strength, authority, or power to effect, and therefore was always used as well to refer to people who held offices that were instituted by, or empowered by the Lord (YHVH). Therefore Kings, Princes, Judges, Priests, Prophets, Magistrates, etc., who it was assumed received their authority from the one and only God, were also referred to as “elohim”. You can learn more about this aspect of the term from most good Commentaries or Bible Dictionaries (See either Matthew Henry’s, Adam Clarke’s, or even Jameison, Fausset, and Brown’s Bible Commentary, and good low priced Bible Dictionary is Smith’s Bible Dictionary, Jove Publications Inc., N.Y., 1977).
In John 10:34-35 there are a number of issues. First off ancient Israel had been anticipating the Messiah of Daniel 9 (the son of man) who would be “cut off” as predicted in Isaiah 53:8. Why? Because the 69 weeks of years (483 years from the final decree to go back and rebuild Jerusalem, see Halley’s Bible Handbook, Zondervan Publishing, 1965, pg. 349) was coming to a close.
From one or two centuries before Jesus birth, we hear this anticipation in the words of the Zadokites of Qumran's Dead Sea Scrolls. For example, Scroll 4Q21 prophetically predicts:
“As for the wonders…when He, that is Messiah comes, then He will heal the sick, resurrect the dead, and to the poor announce glad tidings“ (the Good News). (parentheses mine)
Scroll 4Q246 directly refers to Messiah as the “Son of God“ and “Son of the Most High“ an entire century before Jesus claimed these titles for Himself.
In the Testament of Simeon, a pseudopigraphic work reflecting early pre-Christian traditions in Israel, from at least a century before Jesus birth the writer declares:
“Then the Mighty One of Israel (Isaiah 9:6)* shall glorify Shem. For the Lord God shall appear on Earth and Himself save men…God has taken a body, and eaten with men, and saved men, …be not lifted up against these two, for from them shall arise unto you the Salvation (Yeshuah) of God. For the Lord shall raise up, as it were…a High Priest, and…a King, God and man, and He shall save the Gentiles, and the people of Israel.“ (Parentheses mine)
All these signs and symbols are only consistent with the person and activities of one man, in all of human history, and that is Jesus of Natzaret who gave His life to the tormentors on our behalf (Isaiah 53).
Therefore, the Rabbi’s knew that the true Messiah would be a worker full of wonders (Isaiah 9:6), healing the sick, raising the dead, preaching the good news to the poor. He would be called the Son of God (Psalm 2; Proverbs 30:4) as well as the Son of Man (Daniel 9). They knew He would be an eternal being (Isaiah 9:6; Micah 5:2). But was our Y’shua/Jesus that one? Many had come claiming to be Messiah (Acts 5:34-42), but only He proved His claims through His wonderous works! So also in John’s reference, Jesus points to His works, because these were the Scriptural and historical testimony to such a claim that no other human could boast.
Next, when He references Psalm 82, referring to the religious leaders of Israel, it is because God had given authority to Israel’s Shepherds and Watchers to keep, teach, and enforce His word, and because of this, He calls them “elohim”. Jesus reminds them that the word of God cannot be in error, so why do they have a problem with such a miracle worker referring to Himself as this Messiah who would precede the politically victorious Scion of David (who are actually the same one, Zechariah 12:10)? As far as the common persons were concerned, the religious leadership were as God to them, in the sense that they at least appeared to carry His authority, acting in His name, and being able to judge them. However this Scripture in Psalms still indicates God’s ultimate authority and presence within the congregation.
Because God appointed them and empowered them over others, by their office and authority, they fall within the ecclesiastical sphere of “elohim”, but they are not God Himself, or the eternal Deity any more than the Judges were of yesteryear. The Son of Man, Son of God, the eternal Word (Memra/Logos), however, is the Deity, and thus has the authority to execute judgment, forgive sins, accept worship, and even give life, because He is in truth, the very Creator and Lord. They all knew that their traditions all agreed that “the Word” was God personified (pre-Christian traditions later used in paraphrasing the Scriptures, see Targum Jonathan ben-Uzziel, or Targum Onkelos, etc.,)!
So even though by the new birth (John 3:3-8; Acts 2:38) we become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), we are not gods. We are elohim, by nature of the fact that God, through Messiah, the Word, has empowered us, and given us power and authority to act in His name, but we are not little gods, in that we are now somehow divine, or superior to, or in a position to rule over others (1 Peter 5:3), we are human beings who have been gifted eternal life by grace, because He loves us (John 3:16; Titus 3:3-8). In fact the one thing I can say about genuine Christians is that they know they are not better than anybody else just forgiven. Please check this out further for your own edification, and I hope this has helped. Peace be unto you!
Now put together the first four words, when He says “I Am the LORD your God“, He is making reference to being the God of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom He was known to be El-Shaddai, the Almighty God, the covenant keeping God of Noah, Enoch, Seth, and Adam, i.e, the Creator of all.
But then He goes on to add something more revealing. He defines Himself as the one “who brought you out of the land of Egypt“. From this we see that this YHVH is a God not only of certain individuals, but is in fact, the God of all, and that He is intimately involved in the historical affairs of entire nations. We see He can, and in at least in some instances does, effect nations in such a way. Thus, He sometimes influences the politics of the entire world, and has the power, willingness, and whim, to do so according to His own good pleasure and plan. His ways being higher than our ways, His thoughts being higher than our thoughts, we cannot always see the purpose behind His sovereign choice! In the process of this one historical intervention during the Exodus period, YHVH-Elohim enlightens mankind to many themes of the as yet future Messianic significance indicative of His redemptive purposes. The entire Holy Calendar implemented at Passover, speaks of the future Messiah, and God‘s plan for His people. The Passover salvation and deliverance, the Bread and the Wine, the turning from your bondage and sin, and the passing through the waters that brings us into a new life of faith and obedience, and a renewed relationship by the blood of the Lamb, all point forward to the time when the coming one will be sent. All point in shadow to the substance that is in the death, burial, resurrection, and final victorious return of the Son of God, as the Son of Man, ha’Moschiach (Jesus the Messiah), and so it is with Trumpets, Tabernacles, First Fruits, Shavuot (Pentacost), and so on.
Finally, He “brought them out of the house of bondage”! He alone is the LORD who delivers the faithful! He alone is the true Savior. The LORD of Hosts alone can defeat our spiritual, as well as our physical enemies. He is our shield, and our buckler, yeah, even our high tower. Our sure help in times of trouble! He has rescued us from His wrath and indignation, and from the grave, and even from ourselves, and kept us from being cast into gehenna. But the most important of these is that “in Messiah”, the Sovereign Lord has rescued us from His own legally required wrath that comes by way of the curse of the Law, for we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and there is no one who does the right thing all the time, no not one. The Law was clear since the beginning, the soul that sins it shall die! Yes beloved, the just payment due for sin is death, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin! But let all praise be to the LORD, for He has provided "Himself" a Lamb for the offering. Again I say hallelujah…so put your trust in Him today. As King David declared, "take refuge in the Son, lest His anger be kindled against you" (Psalm 2). Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Amen
Brother Paul
Posts: 235 | From: Cambridge, MA | Registered: Dec 2009
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