יהוה צְבָא֖וֹת – YHWH Tsaboath
Names of God • Sermon • Submitted
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Sermon Title : יהוה צְבָא֖וֹת – YHWH Tsaboath
Occasion : English Sanctuary Service
Location : Paya Lebar Methodist Sanctuary
MPP : Our God is the Supreme God as well as our personal God…
<pray>
Good morning/afternoon,
Today we are going to continue our sermon series on the name of God,
Which was started by Ps Wendy who talked about God being our banner,
Ps Chris who talked about God being our Shepherd,
And Ps Shih Ming who talked about God who sees...
And today we are going to deal with this term over here (יהוה צְבָא֖וֹת) that had been used close to 300 times in the bible...
And perhaps I should warn you that it may become quite technical...
<pause>
But I guess one question remains...
Why should we be interested about the name of God?
Why do we need to be so technical in our understanding of our God?
Is it enough for me to know that God loves me?
All these questions about the name of God lah, the nature of God lah…
Just leave them to those full-time people can already…
Leave it to all those theologians can already…
Leave them to you pastors…
All of you who are professional bible-studiers…
As for us, lay people,
We once a week come here 拜拜 can already…
I even go cell group once in a while 读圣经(read bible) jukob already
And I suppose this is not an uncommon perception…
In my conversations with some people,
the common response when I ask
Aiyah no need to know so much about God lah...
He knows me and after I die, I can go heaven can already...
Well, I beg to differ...
Remember that Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with God...
And I know I sound like a broken record, but I feel that we all need to hear his...
Our God is not a man-made God...
He is the creator of heaven and earth and is a living God...
A God that is not aloft but desires to have a relationship with you...
Wouldn’t you want to know him better?
<pause>
Can you imagine if you just got to know someone and you are romantically interested in the person,
Don’t you want to get to know the person better?
Wouldn’t you want to know what is her favourite food, what she likes to do, where is her favourite place to chill at?
Otherwise, your relationship would be a very limited and shallow relationship...
Can you imagine this scenario where you tell your spouse…
“hi dear, you know our relationship is going to be a very efficient relationship...
Don’t expect me to know what you need or what ok...
Don’t tell me what you like...
Every evening, we shall report back to our home at 1800hrs for dinner which we will take turns to purchase on our way home of which the choice of food is in accordance to the preference of the purchaser and subject not to any negotiation...”
Can you imagine that?
That’s not a marriage relationship... that’s a contract...
That’s a computer protocol!
Isn’t that the same for God?
Many of us treat God the same way...
But that’s not his desire...
God doesn’t desire for us to have a transactional relationship with him...
God wants to have a personal relationship with you...
A relationship that will last for eternity....
And knowing that...
Wouldn’t you want to know what is he like?
Also, he is the one who has such influence in your life, aren’t you interested to know him better?
Also, if you have a shallow understanding of God, if someone ask you what’s the difference between your God and the gods of the other religions, how are you going to answer?
And I had just one example of that when I was in primary school,
One of my Chinese teacher said quite publicly that Christianity is a very new religion that was less than 2000 years old…
I knew that he was wrong but at that point of time, I didn’t have the words and didn’t know how to defend what I believed in…
It was a wasted opportunity for witness…
I hope none of us waste any opportunities like I did so, so many years ago…
Therefore, friends, I think there is much impetus for us to know our God better...
And one way is to study the names of God for His nature is revealed in his name,
and what our image of God is will determine how we react to Him,
and affect the way we look at life,
affect the way we behave and will affect us in the way we react when things go our way...
So, I think that it is crucial for us to understand God’s nature…
And it is by understanding God’s nature and allowing ourselves to model our lives after Him that we as a community of God is able to become a family blessed by God to be a blessing to the community and the nations…
Because you are the very face and presence of God to the community
<pause>
And today, we are going to look into the name יהוה צְבָא֖וֹת
Which I guess is obvious that we are dealing with two words here...
This word over here (יהוה)and this word צְבָא֖וֹת
And if you ask me how to pronounce these two words,
Well this word is easy to pronounce…
Which is tze-bo-ot…
But the first one, well… that’s a lot harder
Because in reality, nobody knows…
Really? How’s that possible?
Well, you see...
This is because at Mt Sinai,
One of the commandments God gave was
“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God”[1]
And the people of Israel took this warning seriously…
so seriously that they did not dare to pronounce the name of God…
So, even if they knew how to pronounce the name of God,
The pronouncement wasn’t passed down…
Then what about our scriptures you ask?
Well, if you look at the scriptures in the original text,
you will realise that the Hebrew language don’t have vowels in the alphabet…
they only have consonants…
this, you can see in this chart over here of all the Hebrew alphabets…
So, all the vowels were actually supplied by the readers who are already familiar with the words and context of the document…
So, this is what the original scriptures looked like in the past…
However, in other to maintain the original pronunciation of the biblical text,
A group of Jewish scholars, known as the Masoretes <picture> developed a system of dots and dashes between the 7th and 10th Cenutries[2]
to help us with the pronunciation of the text…
these are the marks you see here in later works <with vocalisation>
and these marks are actually to help non-native Hebrew speakers like us who do not know Hebrew words…
because even in today’s Jewish newspaper, they do not have all those dots and dashes to help them read those words…
they already know those words because it is part of their vocabulary…
but not for the divine name of God…
יהוה
Actually, we do not know very much about this portion of the name of God except for the fact that he did say that this was how he addressed himself...
That is it used uniquely to address God…
This word is used approximately 6,000 times in the Old Testament
And always used to address God and nothing else…
Which in other words mean that whenever you see the letters YHWH,
they refer to our God…
And that the consonants for the term יהוה is YHWH
But as to the meaning?
Nobody actually knows even though there had been some suggestion that it comes from the Hebrew word, הָיָה (hayah) which is the Hebrew verb, “to be” or “is” or “am”
Sounds like an action word right? Ha-yah…
And the theory is that this name of God is saying that he is a self-actualising God and self-sufficient God…
And the supporting verse some scholars quote from is which is as shown here…
God said to Moses, “I am (אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה)[e-he-yeh] who I am (אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה) [e-he-yeh]. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am (אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה) [e-he-yeh] has sent me to you.’
God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord (יהוה), the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.
16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord (יהוה), the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.[3]
Now, it is clear from that God had indeed refer to himself as I am (אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה)[e-he-yeh], and God did reveal Himself as a self-actualising God and self-sufficient God…
But the link between His name as “I am (אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה)[e-he-yeh]” and “יהוה” is not very strong because if the word יהוה to intended to be synonymous with (אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה)[e-he-yeh],
The sentence would more likely be structured as
I am YHWH and I AM who I AM for YHWH is my name…
Furthermore, the root of the word יהוה is הוה (HWH) while the root for the word אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה(e-he-yeh) is היה (HYH) which is different…
So it is likely that they are not of the same word root…
And as to the verses 15 and 16, while it is obvious that they are referring to the same God from the construct of the sentence,
but whether YHWH and (אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה)[e-he-yeh] refers to the same thing remains ambiguous because YHWH may just as well be a separate and independent name of God,
and was just an elaborative clause that the God that is going to be with the Israelites is the same God that had been with them from the beginning…
I’m not saying that YHWH cannot mean I AM,
But it is just that we cannot be definitive about it and especially since there’s only one verse in the entire bible that suggests this
Now the following part took a lot of hard work…
But I’ll like to let you know that the phrase (אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה)[e-he-yeh] is used in the bible 734 times
And in 201 incidences, it was used to describe God or things related to it…
In the other 500 over incidences, it is related to things, or people…
And this is the only verse in all 734 times used that it is used as a noun and this is the only incident it is used as a name for God…
<create table>
And of the other 6,000 times YHWH is used,
There are many other aspects of the nature of God that had been revealed such as the supremacy… as seen in
6 “This is what the Lord (יהוה)says—
Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord (יהוה) Almighty:
I am the first and I am the last;
apart from me there is no God. [4]
This is also evident in – which you learnt last week that God sees and provides,
Ex17.15 – which you learnt 3 weeks ago -> the God who protects and fights for you…
– the God of peace…
Therefore, in summary, we can conclude that YHWH indeed a unique name of God,
But there is no strong evidence on what it means…
Anyway, as an aside,
Whenever see in the Bible, whenever the word LORD is being fully all-caps,
You know that is meant to replace the word YHWH…
The personal name of God
And if the word is in normal sentence caps, lord,
the Hebrew word is אָדוֹן A-don which means someone your superior
like in old English…
For example you call someone Lord Baden Powell…
not because he’s God, but because he was well respected…
So when the Jesus quoted in ,
The two lords here refer to two different entities…
The first one refers to God – YHWH, while the second one refers to Adonai… a superior, which in this case means a king (Kind David)…
: “The LORD (יהוה) says to my lord (אֲדֹנָי)”
And speaking of Adon,
We will come to the pronunciation of the term (YHWH)
There are two prevenient pronunciations that had been put forth…
And one prevenient pronunciation for it is “Jehovah”
But then there is an immediate problem with this…
And that is obvious if you look at the chart over here once again…
You notice that there is no “J” in the Hebrew alphabet…
And this Hebrew alphabet is “yod”,
which should be a “yer” sound, as in “yes”
the rest are pretty straight forward…
ה is the letter “hey” which is “her” as in “hay”
While this letter is “waw” and sounds like “wer” as in “way”…
So how did “yer” here become “Jer”?
Well, the problem is that in Greek,
the “yer” sound comes from the letter “ι” iota…
and if you remember, in the first century, Rome was in charge of the Palestinian area, during which Greek was widely used but Latin was the language of the upper class…
and the “yer” sound in Latin was represented by the letter “j” when used as a consonant…
so when the English translations came about,
the translators did not understand this and retained the “jer” sound rather than a “yer” sound…
so now you know that the original pronunciation this name of God is not Jehovah but Yehovah…
So if you had been singing happily “Jehovah Jireh… my provider… his grace is sufficient for me…”
Now you know that it is a later development…
then what about the vowels?
How did they get there?
Well, they actually supplied the vowels from two words associated with God…
Adonay which looks like this אֲדֹנָי which I mentioned earlier means lord,
So if you add the vowels from Adonay (which is A, O and A) to YHWH,
You get Yahowah…
and from just now, you know how Y was written as J in Latin and how W sometimes gets pronounced as V,
That’s how YaHoWaH becomes JaHoVah…
And this form is understood to be introduced either in the 12th or 16th Century…[5]
Regardless whether it’s 12th or 16th Century, it is a fairly recent development…
Then, what about YahWeh?
Well, that’s based on attempts of linguistic reconstruction by noting how certain consonants are tied to certain vowels,
as well as reference to God’s name in Greek by
Clement of Alexandria in the 3rd Century,
Theodoret in the 4th Century
As well as Aramaic letters that were found in Egypt in 400 BC…
But all these are non-conclusive…
Another theory to how YaHWeH was obtained was based on the burning bush incident whereby the verb “I AM” as mentioned above was (אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה)[eh-weh],
So, by putting the vowels into YHWH
You get YeHWeH, basically adding a Y in front…
and the first vowel was changed to an A to take care of grammatical issues, you get
YahWeh…
This is a very attractive argument, but you can not be completely sure…
So what does this leave us?
Since we don’t know the real meaning of YHWH and we don’t even know how to pronounce YHWH?
So, why did I send so much time developing this part?
Church, the point that I am trying to get at after all these talk is to bring home the message that we should never forget that our God is a God who is far above us,
Is so infinitely superior to us…
And what we know of Him is really by the grace and revelation that our God had decided to bestow upon us…
How frequent we reduce God to something that we can study and know more of and with the little knowledge that we acquired,
Sometimes we feel as if we are hence able to manipulate and control God…
But the truth is that our God is not a God that we can put in a petri dish and think we can find out all about Him…
We don’t even know how to pronounce His name properly!
Friends, I do hope and pray that even as we do this series on God’s name,
We do not go away from this series thinking that…
Wah… I know something my other Christian neighbours don’t know and with that my prayers become more powerful because I know how to say Jehovah Jireh – my provider, Jehovah Rapha – my healer, Jehovah Shalom– my peace-giver…
As if it is some sort of magic incantation…
Now don’t get me wrong…
Continue to pray for healing, providence and peace
That’s acceptable and very necessary,
But never think that it is because of your knowledge or your chanting of special words that allow healing, providence and peace to happen…
God is the one that allows healing, providence and peace to happen…
Never take away the glory from God…
Never turn the object of praise from God to something else…
It is not us that makes things happen…
It is God that makes things happen…
Our survey of God’s names these few weeks is not to make us need God less…
On the contrary, it is to know the nature of God and know how much we need God in our lives…
And I hope that through this series we come to a greater realization that whatever we know of God is indeed by the grace of God and His decision to reveal that of Himself to us…
No Da-vinci code my friends… But a Davidic code…
For he had used people in history such as David to reveal Himself to us…
He used nature to reveal Himself to us…
And no amount of prying will reveal anything else about God to us than what He wants to reveal to us…
Never let your knowledge of God puff you up…
So the first point this morning is that:
1. Come to Him in humility because YHWH alone decide what He reveals to us
1. Come to Him in humility because YHWH alone decide what He reveals to us
So, always come before God in humility (and never let knowledge puff us up)…
Well church, this sermon seems quite depressing right?
We don’t know how to pronounce God’s name -YHWH…
We don’t really know what it means…
We know that we only know so little of God…
So depressing right?
Well church… don’t be too sad… lift up your spirits…
It’s just like the Gospel… there is the reality, but there is a greater reality…
And let me tell you the good news…
While it is true that God would only reveal to us what He decides to reveal to us…
But He had revealed much about Himself to us…
And you don’t have to get the name of God correct for him to hear you…
<change tone>
You know, my grandma was a very sweet lady and I love her very much…
But one thing about her…
She could never get my name right…
She always called me “alec”
But you know what?
That never stopped me from knowing that she was calling me…
I would never fail to respond to her…
Well don’t try this with me now, because it’s been a long time since she has called me that…
She’s with the Lord now…
But the point is…
She didn’t have to get my name completely right for me to know she was calling me
Likewise…
You don’t have to get the name of God completely right for her to hear you…
And also, it’s ok for us to adapt words into our local context…
Just like we always “go-stunt” when we want to reverse our vehicles right?
It’s actually from the nautical term “go-astern”- stern being the back of a boat…
Go-astern -> go-stunt…
(you know har… you go to the 白桥market… you find any empty lot and you can go-stunt your car into the lot…)
No worries… as long as the driver know what you’re talking about it’s ok already…
My preference when referring to God is to call Him God…
But it’s really up to you…
Whether you called God Yahweh, or Jehovah, or yahvah or yahovah…
God knows you’re talking about Him… as long as you continue to treat him and His name with respect it’s ok…
Your salvation is saved…
So, we don’t have to remove all your banners outside the church that says Jehovah or Yahweh…
God want to hear and is able to hear you…
And the next good news I want to share with us all in our study of God’s name this morning is that:
2. YHWH wants to be intimately involved in our lives
2. YHWH wants to be intimately involved in our lives
And how do we know that through the study of the name YHWH?
Well, we always know that our God is a very personal God and wants to be intimately involved in our lives right?
And we know that Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s involvement in humankind because even though Jesus was not bound by the time as we know it,
Yet the eternal God became temporarily transient and walked among us…
<slow down>
Take that in for a second or two…
An everlasting being subjected himself to the boundaries of time for our sakes…
We know all that… but how do we know that Jesus was God?
Well let me share some evidences of that…
Remember I said that the word YHWH is used approximately 6,000 times in the Old Testament
And always used to address God and nothing else…
Which in other words mean that whenever you see the letters YHWH,
they refer to our God…
Jesus revealed himself to be equal to YHWH by using the same words YHWH used in the Old Testament to describe Himself:
For example, in , when YHWH told Jacob “… My glory I will not give to another”
Jesus used the same words in “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”[6]
Jesus was asking YHWH to give Him the glory which is not given to anyone else but YHWH…
So Jesus is YHWH as well
The next one is even more obvious…
Isiah 44:6-7 “Lord (יהוה)says Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord (יהוה)Almighty:
I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.”[7]
Of which Jesus repeated the words in rev 1:17-18 “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.
18 I am the Living One”[8]
And one last example I would like to quote is in the Psalm everybody knows…
Verse 1 where David declares… “The LORD (יהוה) is my shepherd”
Which is echoed in Jesus’ self-declaration in that he is the good shepherd…
So, friends, I hope that that helps you see the connection that Jesus is God Himself…
not a mini-God or a demi-god like some make him out to be…
but the very God Himself,
And he wants to be involved in our lives…
So you can rejoice in the fact that even though our God alone decides how much to reveal of Himself to you,
He saw it fit to reveal to you the fact that Jesus is God and He came into our human time to be among us and to die for our sins…
Never forget the significance of that my friends…
<pause>
Friends, you know what…
I’m almost out of time but if you’ve noticed, I’ve only covered the first of two words in the name we want to focus today…
I’ve not even touched the second word (צְבָא֖וֹת)[tze-bo-ot] yet…
When I was crafting this sermon, I was really at a dilemma whether to continue or not
After agonizing for a while,
I felt that the next two sermons are just as important for you to hear,
And so I decided to give you an overview of what this term means and what it means
But that means I need to move quite fast… is that ok?
Ok… let’s go…
Now looking at the word צְבָא֖וֹת, if you break it down to it’s root word,
You will see that it is the word צָבָא, tza-ba,
Which sounds like the part of East Malaysia where I understand have great idyllic diving spots…
One meaning of this word in Hebrew is crouched in a very strong military connotation and literally means to “wage war with” or to be engaged in a military campaign…
And can be used to mean armies or military divisions…
So by saying YHWH Tze-bo-ot (יהוה צְבָא֖וֹת), we are literally saying that our God is a God of armies…
Or in our modern context, a military commander…
So how does that square away with our understanding of God?
What does it mean by knowing God is YHWH Tze-bo-ot (יהוה צְבָא֖וֹת)?
Well, for that you must understand that in many of the Ancient Near East understanding,
many of gods were not naturally the supreme leaders…
they rose up to supremacy by defeating primordial forces of chaos and evil…
an example of this is the Enuma Elish (an ancient writing) which describes the storm god Marduk leading a legion of deities to a war against the opposing armies associated with chaos and by defeated the latter, ascends to the divine throne among the heavenly assembly…
So, in this worldview, when we say that our God is YHWH Tze-bo-ot,
We are saying that our God is a warrior who had defeated the chaos and the evil ones and is at the supreme and divine throne…
And he will continue to fight for us our in everyday battles…
Examples of how this was understood is seen in when David spoke to the Philistine ““You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֔וֹת)(YHWH Tze-bo-ot), the God of the armies of Israel (אֱלֹהֵ֛י מַעַרְכ֥וֹת יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל) (elohim Ma-ar-kot Israel), whom you have defied.”
Other places in which we know this to be true includes where it is written
“For the Lord (יהוה)your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”” (, NIV)
And this warrior theme is continued in the New Testament even in when Jesus described himself to be the one who carries the sword…
So the next point this morning is that:
3. YHWH is Warrior God who will fight for us even in this world
3. YHWH is Warrior God who will fight for us even in this world
Then because all of you are so sharp, you look into your bibles,
Especially at the , which I quoted just now and ask…
Eh pastor…
How come how come I don’t find the word Tze-bo-ot or armies…
I only find the words “host” or “almighty”
Well, if I put three different translations of beside each other, it gets rather interesting…
“David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” (, NIV)
“Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” (, ESV)
“David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” (, NLT)
So which is right?
Well, actually, all three are right…
The New Living Translation kept the original Hebrew meaning of (צְבָא֔וֹת)Tze-bo-ot – army, but added a qualifier…
Not just army… but heaven’s armies…
The angels…
bore witness to how the servant saw a heavenly army full of horses and chariots of fire protected Elisha and the servant…
This was even attested by 1st Century non-Jewish sources, such as Josephus who reported angelic “chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor running among the clouds and surrounding the cities”[9]
described how the “Michael and his angels” were engaged in a war against the beast in heaven…
described how the number of angels praising God was “thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand.”[10]
And knowing that the word “host” in old English refers to “1 a large number of or 2 an army” (Oxford Dictionary)
And was used in ““Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.””” (, NIV)
So, we know that heavenly host and heavenly armies refer to the same thing…
And as to why the NIV decided to replace heavenly host and heavenly army with almighty,
It is likely because the translators decided to emphasize on God being the Lord of the heavenly armies,
As an expression of his military might and power…
Since he is the commander-in-chief over the heavenly armies…
So, in reality they are all the same but presented in three different ways…
The bottom-line is that our God is a warrior God who is supreme over all and cares for you very intimately…
And once again, this is seen in Jesus Christ Himself,
Who said in
“Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (, NIV)
Which again tells us that Jesus Christ, our Lord is God Himself, and is the incarnate God who was willing to come into our lives and be intimately involved in our lives…
I think I’ve really run out of time and with my final few minutes, I would like to share one more aspect of what tze-bo-ot (צְבָא֖וֹת) means…
Which are the stars and moon and planets…
I’m sure you heard of the phrase the Heavenly hosts…
In the Lord told Isaiah “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host (צְבָאָ֑ם)one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” (, NIV)
The last message I want to share with you is that YHWH Tze-bo-ot means our God is the creator of everything…
Even of the stars above as well as moon and all…
And that is significant because in the ancient days,
Many people are animistic in their belief…
By that I mean they pray to mountains and waters and sun and moon…
They pray to nature because they did not understand God and were thought these natural forces were God…
They did not know the God who created these things…
That’s why God cautioned them in
“And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host (צְבָ֣א) of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them”(, ESV)
Friends, it is very clear here…
Do not bow down to stars and sun and moon…
The sun and moon and stars are made by God…
Do not go for the created things…
Go straight to the creator…
And as to where Jesus is in this picture?
Well, tell us that regarding Jesus, “he [was] appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power…” (, ESV)
Jesus was the co-creator of the world… and sustains the world… and is God himself…
And again in Colossians
“And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (, ESV)
Back to the warning not to bow down to stars and all,
I’m sure many of us here will be thinking to ourselves…
Of course we are too sophisticated then that…
Friends, this also includes all other forms of idolatory…
Which essentially the act of replacing God in your lives…
This may be the more obvious forms of astrology, reading horoscope…
Experimenting with ouija boards, and other forms of necromancy or fortune telling
Or even gambling, buying 4Ds etc…
It is so easy to be waylaid and create idols for ourselves…
It can take the form of money, power…
There is nothing wrong in being wealthy and having power…
But we need to get there in ways that are honoring to God and according to His ways…
Don’t take short cuts…
That’s how the first couple fell…
They decided to take the shortcut to gaining knowledge rather than the proper and God-honoring ways…
So my final point I can squeeze in this morning is:
4. Do you settle for less but YHWH
4. Do you settle for less but YHWH
Do not settle for lesser things,
Do not succumb to the lies of the evil ones,
All these get rich schemes and scams…
Buying things that would help you get rich quickly…
Guard yourselves from the things of the world…
Do not bow down to them and serve them,
Do you put your trust in the ways of the world,
But put your trust in God, the creator of heaven and earth…
And coming back to our main text today, which summaries all that I’ve shared today…
““O Lord of hosts (יהוה צְבָא֖וֹת), God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim (the Lord of the hosts of the angelic beings - cherubim), you are the God, you alone (the supreme God), of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth (only creator of all – including heaven and earth). Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone (affirmation that idols of any form do not last). Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord (an appeal to the warrior God who is among us and fights for us).”” (, ESV)
Let us give thanks and praise to our YHWH tze-bo-ot (יהוה צְבָא֖וֹת)…
The God that is not subject to our manipulation and yet loves us so much that He had decided to come into our lives and be among us… Amen….
[1] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), .
[2] Drew Longacre, “Masorah,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).
[3] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), .
[4] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), .
[5] Henry O. Thompson, “Yahweh (Deity),” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 1011.
[6] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), .
[7] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), .
[8] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), .
[9] Flavius Josephus, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, trans. William Whiston (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), para. Wars of the Jews 6.5.3, 298.
[10] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), .