The Names of God - Yahweh-Rapha

Introduction
As we continue through our message series about the biblical names of God, we come today to the name Yahweh Rapha, which means “The Lord who heals.”  As we begin, I want to turn your thoughts to the idea of healing.  What does it mean to be healed? Is there something for which you need healing?

In our modern world, we tend to separate physical, spiritual, and mental healing.  Somehow, we’ve come to believe they are three separate spheres.  Even though we appreciate the interconnectedness of the mind, body, and soul, we still treat them as three separate and practically unrelated parts of a person’s life.  Doctors work primarily to heal the body with little or no concern for spiritual matters. Pastor’s focus on saving souls, but do little to address physical health.  And we still haven’t figured out mental health is inseparable from physical and spiritual health.

Modern people arrogantly believe we are better informed about everything than people in past ages.  However, the ancients were not ignorant of the interconnectedness of mental, spiritual, and physical healing.  In fact, they would not even describe them as interconnected because they would not even conceive of them as separate issues. What was true then is true now.  Healing—true healing—is encompasses every aspect of life--een extending beyon the individual person to the community and even creation.

We can sense the wholistic healing power of God in the Exodus story.  God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.  He convinced Pharaoh to let God's people go free and God lead them to freedom through the Red Sea.  However, just because the Israelites were no longer in physical bondage doesn’t mean they were free in their own hearts and minds.  Their people had spent 400 years as slaves in Egypt.  One does not simply stop thinking like a slave overnight.  It requires healing and that healing may take generations to take full effect.

Exodus 15:22-26
²² Then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea, and they moved out into the desert of Shur. They traveled in this desert for three days without finding any water. ²³ When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”).

²⁴ Then the people complained and turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?” they demanded. ²⁵ So Moses cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. Moses threw it into the water, and this made the water good to drink.

It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to him. ²⁶ He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”

Jehovah-Rafa/Yahweh-Rafa
The Hebrew name of God is hidden in this passage.  I don’t know why they didn’t list it as they have in the previous passages we’ve read in this series.  To see the name, you have to look at the original Hebrew where God’s name in the text is Yahweh Rafa.  Some may pronounce it Jehovah, but most scholars agree Yahweh was the original pronunciation until the middle ages when people wanting to refrain from saying or writing God's proper name used the vowels from AdOnAI (the Hebrew word for Lord) with the Ancient Hebrew YHWH (or JHVH).  This produced Jehovah.  

Also, the second part of the name Rafa or Rapha can also be spelled/pronounced variously as Rafa, Rapha, Rophe, or Ropha.  The letters/sounds P and F are closely related and shift over time and in different regions in human language.  For instance in English we say "Father"; in Spanish they say "Padre"; and Germans say "Vater".  So Rafa could have been pronounced a variety of ways.

Ok, enough of the nerd stuff.  What does this have to do with healing?

Rafa means healing.  In the ancient, biblical sense it wasn’t just medical healing.  It was an all-encompassing, wholistic healing of every part of a person’s being.  And not just a personal healing, it was a healing for the whole community and even the whole world.  You may recall from the creation story in Genesis that all of creation was corrupted when Adam and Eve first sinned.  Our sin doesn't just effect us; it effects others and even creation.  Therefore, all creation needs healing.  Yahweh (the Existent One, the Great I Am) said, “I am the Lord who heals you.”

God wanted to heal the Israelites.  He wanted to change their thinking from slaves who lived with a scarcity mentality—just trying to survive day by day, hour by hour—to a people who trusted God completely and knew, in His love, they had nothing to fear.  He wanted them to know in their heart they were royalty and priests with the holy task of showing God to the whole world.

We see the Israelites' sickness in their spasmodic thinking.  Just three days after Yahweh miraculously parted the Red Sea and they walked across on dry land, the Israelites have lost faith and are complaining about the bitter water they’ve found at the oasis in Marah.  These people have a long road to find healing.

So God gave them many rules and traditions to guide them toward a wholistic healing where they finally accepted and trusted Yahweh as their creator and Lord.  These rules, which we call the Old Testament Law would also set Israel apart as a peculiar people who would represent God to the whole world—because God’s desire is that every nation and all people (even all of creation) would know Him and find healing and wholeness and deliverance from slavery to sin.

Yahweh provided for the physical needs of His people.  He showed Moses a piece of wood to throw into the bitter spring at Marah and it made the water good to drink.  Some translations say it was a tree, but the original Hebrew literally means a piece of wood.  It cold have been a branch or a stick; that makes more sense than throwing a tree into the water.  The wording is vague.  There was a very famous piece of wood Moses is known for carrying.  I like to think God told Moses to use his staff he to make the water of Marah sweet.  It was the same staff God turned into a snake to show Pharaoh God is more powerful than the Egyptian gods.  It was the same piece of wood Moses raised to part the Red Sea.  I I can imagine God answering Moses' cry for help about the bitter water by saying, “Hey, remember this?  Remember this simple piece of wood I used to do all those other miraculous things to save your skin?  Use it to make the water sweet!”  

How quickly people forget God's providence—even when we've been through something tremendous.  Traditions help us to remember and celebrate.  They can help us heal.  This past Sunday, Robert and Melissa Starling placed flowers in the sanctuary of my church.  It was a special occasion for their family.  You see, July 18th is the birthday of their son Harrison.  Harrison was born healthy but developed a virus within a couple of hours of birth and got terribly sick.  He did about a week later.  It was a terrible loss, as you can imagine.  However, God used that situation.  My wife was a nurse who took care of Harrison in the NICU.  And I hear that some friends of mine from Atlanta had a grandson in the NICU and wen to pray for hi and his family, and it turned out it was the same family my wife was caring for.  We prayed for healing, but it didn't come in the way we expected.  Harrison went Home to be with the Lord in Heaven.  And it took many years for Robert and Melissa to heal from losing their son (they are still healing).  But one way they have been healing is to place flowers on Harrison's grave every year on his birthday.  However, this year, the Starling family placed them in the sanctuary of my church because they joined as members of our church.  They were not attending church before Harrison's death.  But now, Melissa has transferred to my church and Robert has professed his faith in Jesus and been baptized along with their two sons who will be growing up learning about Jesus.  God has taken all these broken pieces and arranged them together into a beautiful mosaic of healing.  

Healing Isn’t Always Easy
Healing and growth aren’t always easy.  Sometimes they hurt.  Kelly and I listen to an amazing podcast by Radiolab about how a baby first starts to breathe.[i]

A baby spends 9 months inside the womb. 
Until the moment of birth, the baby gets all it’s blood through it’s umbilical cord.  So that useless scar everyone has on the belly that seems so useless, used to be one of the most important areas of your body.  Through it, the baby receives all the nurishment and oxygen it needs to live.  

Ababy can’t breathe because it’s living under water of the womb.  Their lungs are useless.
Then at the moment of birth, the lungs have to fire up and get to work.  There’s a door in the wall of the heart—between the left and right side of the heart.  In adults, the door is completely walled off, but it's open in unborn babies because the lungs aren’t working and the blood flows to the umbilical chord.  At the moment of birth, the door in the babies heart closes so the blood and oxygen stops flowing through their belly button and starts going through the lungs to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide.  When a baby is born, it is wet and feels cold for the very first time in it’s life. It’s quite a shock to go from the perfect temperature of mother's womb to the cold light of day in the real world.  When that cold air hits the baby’s skin, the skin sends little signals to the baby’s breathing center in the nervous system and BOOM! the baby starts breathing and the door in the heart closes and the blood begins to flow to the lungs and the baby has a heart and respiratory system just like every other human being on earth.  It’s just one of a million of God’s amazing miracles that happens in our first moments of life, but as you can imagine, it’s incredibly shocking and painful for the baby.  Why do you think they come out crying?  Fortunately, that pain serves a purpose.  It’s vital.  Otherwise, we would all be flopping around like a fish out of water trying to breath through our belly buttons!

Healing and growth aren’t always easy.  Sometimes it’s very uncomfortable or just plain hurts.  I want you to know that you don’t go through that pain alone.  God goes through it with you.  Think about the Israelites wandering through the desert.  People sometimes think it was cruel for God to make them wander there for 40 years before entering the Promise Land.  Do you think they were going through that wilderness alone?  No.  God was right there with them.  He told them to build a tabernacle, a tent in which God would live with them.  God could have been in the glory of Heaven, but He chose to wander through the desert with a bunch of whiny, rebellious, sinful former slaves for 40 years.  He was with them.

When you are going through whatever painful suffering and healing you must face, remember God left the glory of Heaven to live among us in our broken world and even suffered the agony of dying on the cross in order to heal you and our whole world.  And God is with you in your pain now because He is Yahweh Rafa—the Lord who heals.  The healing of Yahweh is complete and wholistic.  It covers you from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet.  It penetrates to the very center of your soul and extends out to your family, to your community, and to the whole world.  Think of it, when you get your life right with God through Jesus, it effects stars that are trillions of light years away.  Furthermore, it’s not a temporary healing—as all physical healing is in this life.  God’s healing is eternal and leads to eternal life where there will be no more sickness or sorrow or suffering or death.

Along the way, God may give you some rules and traditions to follow.  These are not meant to restrict us from enjoyment, but are merely the roadmap to the perfect place we want to be--the place of healing and wholeness.  God knows how we should live because He designed us and every part of creation.  God heals us on every level of our being when we follow His perfect plan for life through Hus Son, Jesus the Christ.

Yahweh Rafa says, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”

Invitation
So, I want to invite you to pray for God's healing—a healing that encompasses every aspect of your life and ultimately leads to eternal life with God as Lord.  

Are you weary from weary and carrying a heavy burden?
Do you need to forgive or be forgiven?
Pray to Yahweh-Rafa, the Lord who heals you.

---

[i] https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/breath

The Names of God - Yahweh-Yireh

Introduction
My message today is about one of God’s names:  Yahweh-Yireh, also known more commonly as Jehovah-Jireh.  Ancient Hebrew didn't have vowels, only consonants, which leaves a lot of room for interpretation on how to pronounce this ancient word.  Yahweh is spelled YHWH.  The letter Y can be pronounced as John or Yan.  Also, the letter W can be pronounced as What or Vat.  Therefore, Yahweh could be Jahvey.  Added to this confusion is that in the middle ages, Jews wanting to avoid saying or writing God's name would add the vowels for the Hebrew word Adonai in with the consonants of YHWH to render YaHoWaiH or JaHoVaiH, which is where we may get the word, Jehovah.  Most scholars believe the ancient pronunciation was closer to Yahweh.

Genesis 22:1-14
¹ Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called.

“Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”

² “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”

³ The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. ⁴ On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵ “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.”

⁶ So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, ⁷ Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?”

⁸ “God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.

⁹ When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. ¹⁰ And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. ¹¹ At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!”

¹² “Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”

¹³ Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. ¹⁴ Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

Yahweh-Yireh
This is a strange and disturbing passage with which we should never become completely comfortable.  Anytime religious texts that promotes a loving and holy God commanding a person to sacrifice another human being, it should give us pause.  However, the passage reveals God’s name:  Yahweh-Yireh (or Jehovah-Jireh).

Yahweh means "I Am" or "I Am Who I Am".  In other words, God is who He is and we don't get to determine what He is like.  He created us in His image.  We don't get to create Him in ours.  God is the Great I Am.

Yireh means “see to it".  Vanilla Ice once rapped: "If there's a problem, yo, I'll save it."  God sees the problem and then sees to it and provides the solution.

People like there needs met.  In a world of uncertainty, it’s good to know we will have food to eat, shelter for warmth, companionship, etc.  Unfortunately, we always want more. 

I had an experience that illustrates this.  When my son was 2 years old, we were riding alone in the car and I had a really big bag of potato chips.  I decided we were going to eat as many of those chips as we wanted.  So I started eating and gave a chip to my son.  He loved it and wanted more.  SO I stated handing him chips one by one.  He would eat one and ask for another. I decided I would give him as many as he wanted, but I wasn't going to give him the bag and let him stick his grimy two-year-old hands in the bag.  After repeatedly giving Gavin chip after chip, he started asking for the bag.  I told him, he could have as many as he wanted, but only one chip at a time.  He couldn't have the bag.  He didn't like that.  He started to get upset and throw a fit.  He wanted the whole bag to himself.  He didn't want to have to depend upon me to give him each chip.

This is the human condition.  We don't want to depend on God or anyone else.  We want what we want and we want it independently.  We want things our way and leads to sin.  We see this from almost the very beginning of humanity.  In Genesis, we read how Adam and Eve in the Garden f Eden.  It was the very definition of paradise.  They had every thing they could ever want and it was perfect.  God said they could eat anything in the Garden except for the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  This alone would be a test to prove their loving obedience to God.  But then a Satan slithers up to them as a snake and convinces them "God is withholding something good from you."  And they wanted it and they believed a snake instead of God.

I see this in the church sometimes.  People have everything they need—people in the church that care about them, people that sacrifice for them and love them unconditionally while overlooking their faults, and so many good things.  And maybe for a time, they will tell you “This church has been such a blessing…”   They will be fine for a time, but unfortunately it often happens that these same families start to want something more they feel the church isn’t providing—better music, better kids programs, whatever—and they go looking somewhere else or they just get bored with the church and stop coming.  For them, God and His Church are just something to use to get what they want or need. They consume the church as a product or a fruit; and when they are finished with it or what more, they will move on and consume something or someone else.  This is the human heart and it is incredibly wicked.  Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”

And so humanity finds itself broken and corrupt, with no way to be healed.  But God is Jehovah-Jireh, the God who sees the problem and the God who provides the solution.

Abraham and Isaac
It is passages like this Abraham/Isaac story that convince me the Bible was inspired by God.  Yes, God used people to write and compile the stories, but their work was guided by God.  If it had only been a human effort, the editors would have gotten rid of passages like Genesis 22 a long time ago.  The editing committee would have sat together and said, "Come on guys.  This passage makes God look really bad.  We need to get rid of it."  But God is not trying to make us like Him.  He is Yahweh.  He is who He is.  

This story has an important purpose.  One purpose is to disabuse us of our entitlement mentality.  Lest we ever begin to think of God as our personal Sugar Daddy in the Sky who only exists to give us stuff and make us happy, the story of Abraham and Isaac serves to shake us from our selfishness.  In the image of Isaac on the altar, we see the agonizing cost of our broken relationship with God.  We see the agony of a father (Abraham) poised to sacrifice his only son (Isaac) and we are appalled.

Many religions throughout the millennia have advocated human sacrifice (and even child sacrifice) as a method to appease or manipulate the gods.  Yahweh actually forbids and abhors human sacrifice in the Bible (Deut. 18:10).  Yahweh cannot be controlled—He is who He is and He is sovereign.

The story of Abraham and Isaac foreshadows what God has done for us. While other so-called “gods” (which are really idols and false gods or demons parading as god) entice people to sacrifice their children in order to get something, the One True God—Jehovah-Jireh/Yahweh-Yireh, the God who provides—gave up His own Son for us.  He did this, not because we deserved it, but because we desperately needed it.

Mt Moriah is Mt. Calvary
Many scholars believe (and I agree) that Mount Moriah, where Abraham laid his son on the altar, is the same location where thousands of years later Jesus, the Son of God, was crucified on the cross.  God wanted Abraham and us to know the agony He would go through to provide for our deepest need and the cost of our atonement.

Notice what Genesis 22:14 says, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”  These words were spoken 2,000 years before Christ was even born and died on top of Mount Moriah (what the Christians call Mount Calvary).  No one could have known that one day a Messiah would be born that John 3:16 tells us is God’s “only Son”.  No one could have known he would be called "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world".  No one could have known that God’s Son would be bound and nailed to a cross for our sin.  No one could know this accept Yahweh-Yireh, who is the God who sees and provides what we really need.

God, Yahweh-Yireh, sees deeply into every situation and even far into the future and works out His perfect plans for us.  We must have faith like Abraham, especially when we don’t understand.  We need to trust God is providing for our truest needs.  And this is extremely important, because we feel like we have needs but we don’t always know what we really need.  We cry out to God in our perceived needs.  We pray for things we want and think we need.  We may even pray for things that seem reasonable and even noble—things like safety for our family, healing and health, etc.  And it’s ok to pray for those things.  But God really see our deepest needs and He provides.  And we have to trust Him because we can’t see the big picture and God’s providence may take forms we don’t understand.  We can’t even see what’s going to happen this afternoon and God is thinking thousands of years down the road.  He sees eternity and He wants you there with Him.  So we have to have faith—like Abraham—and listen for God’s voice and keep our eyes open.  God may provide a solution that’s just right there like a ram with its horns caught in a thicket.

Closing
What do you need today?  What do you really need?
You may not know.  You may have some idea.  You may think you know.
But maybe God has something to show you.  It could be a solution you haven’t seen before.
It could be that you’ve been looking at the problem all wrong.
God wants to give you new insight.
Ultimately, God has already seen to everything you really need for eternity.
On the mountain of the Lord it was provided in Jesus Christ on the cross.
Maybe you just need to accept it.
Well, I invite you to spend a moment talking to Yahweh-Yireh, the God Who Provides now.

The Names of God - Yahweh-Nissi

Introduction
There are over 250 flags that represent various countries around the world.

Originally, flags were mainly used for warfare, identifying friend from foe and rallying warriors together during the chaos of a battle.

In the 1600s, sailors started flying flags to show their ship’s country of origin.

Today, a flag is a way for a country to portray itself to the rest of the world. 

The colors and symbols have deep meanings that signify the core values of a nation.

I may be a bit biased, but I think the flag of the United States of America is one of the most beautiful flags in the world.  In 1777, the continental congress established the official flag of the United States. The flag has 13 stripes, alternating red and white to represent the 13 original colonies and a white star for each state on a blue field, representing a new constellation.  When America began as an independence democratic republic, it was something brand new in the world of nations and our flag with it's stripes and a new constellation of stars represents us well. 

Even the colors of the flag are symbolic.  Red symbolizes hardiness and valor. 
White symbolizes purity and innocence.  Blue represents vigilance, perseverance, and justice.

And so the flag represents the nation we call home, The United States of America.  We are a collection of individual states located on the North American continent.  In 1776, the 13 original colonies decided to unite together and separate from the British empire as an independent nation.  Over the years, the number has grown to 50 states who are united together as the United States of America.  The name describes who we are and our flag is the banner under which we rally together.

The various names of God in the Bible tell us about God and what He is like.  As we continue our message series about the names of God, it is fitting that we talk about this particular name of God on the 4^th of July.  The name for today is Yahweh-Nissi, which means “The Lord is My Banner.”

Exodus 17:8-15
⁸ While the people of Israel were still at Rephidim, the warriors of Amalek attacked them. ⁹ Moses commanded Joshua, “Choose some men to go out and fight the army of Amalek for us. Tomorrow, I will stand at the top of the hill, holding the staff of God in my hand.”

¹⁰ So Joshua did what Moses had commanded and fought the army of Amalek. Meanwhile, Moses, Aaron, and Hur climbed to the top of a nearby hill. ¹¹ As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage. ¹² Moses’ arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on.
Then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands. So his hands held steady until sunset. ¹³ As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle.

¹⁴ After the victory, the Lord instructed Moses, “Write this down on a scroll as a permanent reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua: I will erase the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” ¹⁵ Moses built an altar there and named it Yahweh-Nissi (which means “the Lord is my banner”). ¹⁶ He said, “They have raised their fist against the Lord’s throne, so now the Lord will be at war with Amalek generation after generation.”

Yahweh-Nissi
God chose the Israelites to be His people, to represent Him to the world.  They would be His people and He would be their God.  All the nations of the world would be able to look at the way the Israelites lived and know what God is like.  This was God’s plan, because He wants the world to know Him and have a relationship with Him.

And so, God chose Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land.
Along the way, while God’s people were still quite unorganized and vulnerable, the Amalekites treacherously attacked them. 

The attack was so despicable because the Israelites were not threatening Amalek.  In fact, they were moving in the opposite direction.  Yet the Amalekites wanted to to destroy God's people.  The Amalekites came to represent for Jews and Christians anyone or anything that is an enemy of God.  Ultimately, the Amalekites represent sin itself—which is the ultimate rebellion in the human heart against the Lordship of God in our lives.

God was with the Israelites.  He protected them when they were defenseless.  Joshua led a group of men out to fight the Amalekites while Moses stood atop a hill.  In his hand, Moses held his famous staff—the one God turned into a snake to show Pharaoh God’s power, the same staff Moses held high when God parted the Red Sea so the Israelites could escape the charging Egyptian army.  It was a staff, much like a pole used to wave a battle flag, only there wasn’t a flag on the staff—it was just the pole.

The battle between Israel and her enemies was fierce.  Yet the staff in Moses’ hand was a rallying cry to Israel’s soldiers.  Whenever they saw it raised high above Moses’ head, the Israelites fought fiercely to win the battle. But when Moses’ arms grew weary and he lowered the staff, God’s people began to lose.  So Moses’ assistants, Aaron and Hur, helped Moses keep the  staff up high for all to see and Israel won the battle to defeat God’s enemies.

There was no visible flag on Moses’ staff.  God Himself is the flag.  Yahweh-Nissi means “The Lord is my banner (or flag)”.

YHWH – Adonai - YaHoVaiH
Now some translations render this name as Jehovah-Nissi.  Jehovah is an alternate way to pronounce Yahweh.  Ancient Hebrew had no vowels.  Yahweh is spelled YHWH.  In some languages, Y has a J sound and W has a V sound.  (In Germany John is pronounced Yan and What is pronounced Vhat.)  In the 12^th century, Jews, wanting to avoid saying God’s Holy Name (Yahweh) interspersing the vowels from the Hebrew word for Lord (Adonai) with the consonants for Yahweh (YHWH).  This rendered the name Ya-Ho-Wai-H or Ja-Ho-Vai-H (depending on how you pronounce the Y's and W's).

The consensus among scholars today is the original pronunciation was Yahweh.[i]   Whether we pronounce the name Jehovah-Nissi or Yahweh-Nissi, the meaning is still the same:  The Lord is My Banner or Yahweh is My Banner.  And a banner serves the same purpose as a flag.

Representing God
It’s an interesting responsibility--to represent God.  God was the Israelites’ flag and the Israelites were to be God’s people.  In other words, the Israelites were to represent God just like the American flag represents America. When people look at Israel (and we’re talking about Biblical Israel not the modern country of Israel; modern Israel is not the same as Biblical Israel adn they are not under the same covenant nor are they God's representatives in our modern world.)  Whenever people looked at ancient, Biblical Israel, they were looking at a people whose whole purpose was to represent God.  The food they ate, the clothes they wore, the religion they practiced, the songs they sang, everything was supposed to tell the whole world what God is like. 

Unfortunately, Israel failed.  Israel became more interested in their own power and prestige in the world than with what God wanted.  They just wanted to live the good life, enjoy pleasure, and live their lives the way they wanted regardless of what God wanted.  Israel became no different than any of the other nations around them.  In their hearts, they threw down their Banner (God) on the ground and trampled it under their feet.

Yet Yahweh-Nissi raised up a remnant to be faithful and represent Him.  God sent Jesus Christ to call God’s people to repent of their sin and return to God.  And all who accept the invitation become God’s holy people and have the privilege of representing God to the world.

In the New Testament in Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus said, ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”

Now, Jesus and His true followers are the flag of God.  Our lives symbolize who God is just as the American flag symbolizes the United States.  As long as Christians lift up God as our banner, we cannot be defeated.  Even when Jesus died on the cross, He was not defeated, but He defeated sin and death and all the forces of evil.

Closing
From time to time, flags on our flag poles become worn and frayed due to the wind and weather.
We replace them when this happens.  Sometimes the way we represent God to the world becomes worn and frayed.  Sometimes it’s due to a particular rough spiritual battle.  Other times it’s just due to the normal wear and tear of living the Christian life.  With God’s help, we can renew our witness to the Lord.  Let’s pray and ask the Lord to help us renew our witness today.

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[i]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah#:~:text=The%20derived%20forms%20Iehouah%20and,and%20the%20King%20James%20Version.

Introspective Prayer - The Examen by McKenzi Marlow

Today, I am pleased to share the final instalment in a series on prayer by a member of my church, McKenzi Marlow.  McKenzi is a deep thinker and an excellent writer and the prayer technique she chose for this week fits her personality perfectly.  Enjoy McKenzi's explanation of the Examen Prayer and try it out for yourself.
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Hello regular readers of Pastor Chris’s blog!

Have you ever heard of St. Ignatius of Loyola?

Ignatius of Loyola was a Spanish knight who lived in the 16^th century. On May 20, 1521, he was wounded by a cannon ball while defending Pamplona from French invaders. During his recovery, Ignatius entertained himself by reading a biography on Christ and past saints. He became fascinated by the lives the first Christians led and experienced a spiritual awakening. Once recovered, Ignatius began imitating the saints; he lived as a beggar, fasted regularly, and spent seven hours a day in prayer! Later in life, Ignatius became an ordained Catholic minister and founded the Society of Jesus, known today as the Jesuits. His most famous work, and the one that inspired today’s post, was approved by the Pope for study in 1548. It is called The Spiritual Exercises.

 Among the exercises Ignatius outlines in his piece is his famous Daily Examen. Mark Thibodeaux, a prayer and discernment expert in the Jesuit community, encourages us to use St. Ignatius’s Examen to “review our recent past to find God and God’s blessings in life.” He writes that the most important thing to do is to ask for “insight into what graces we might need to live the next day well.” The Examen is the most introspective, personal prayer method I have come across in my research over the past few weeks. It requires emotional maturity as you look at your actions, words, and thoughts from the Holy Spirit’s perspective and condemn them—not justify them—before asking for forgiveness. Its purpose is to reveal our transgressions so that we can work on fixing them to become more like Jesus. I realize The Examen sounds messy, but don’t worry! It seems St. Ignatius was just as Type-A as I am because he provided us with a structure to follow as we delve into our character before the Almighty.

First, jesuitresource.org says we must pause, breathe, and allow ourselves time to enter the presence of God. As I sat on my bed, crisscross apple sauce, I tried to empty my mind to focus on my quiet time. And while I thought about emptying my mind, I realized I was thirsty. And then I remembered I hadn’t had much water that day. And then I felt guilty for not watering the body God gave me. And then I felt guilty for entering the presence of God thinking about water when the Living Water was right there . . .

Frustrated, I decided to start over. Every time I drew air into my nostrils, I imagined my lungs swelling behind my ribs like balloons before gently emptying the air back through my nose. I counted fifteen breaths before I was finally calm and quiet. Step one: pause and breathe complete!

Step two is a bit more involved. Now that we have acknowledged we are in the presence of God Almighty, Creator of the Universe, it’s time to thank Him. Thibodeaux writes, “I allow my mind to wander as I reflect on the ways God has blessed me on this particular day.” It doesn’t matter how big or small the blessing is, recount it. As I moved through the week, I had fun remembering my day and picking out the smallest details. Some nights I would say, “God! Thank you for sending that scarlet Cardinal to perch on the tree at the end of the deck. He was beautiful!” On my birthday I said, “God, thank you for my parents! They had to work, but they still managed to make my day special with red roses and two cakes!” I relished in the diversity of His blessings, and even felt myself smiling as I told God the ways He’d delighted me that day.

Warmed up with thanksgiving, we turn to step three: invite the Holy Spirit to illuminate your mistakes and failures of the day. Ugh. Failure is my worst nightmare; it’s embarrassing, you disappoint yourself, and sometimes you even let other people in your life down. So, it’s better to just keep moving, letting mistakes glance off your back without a second thought. Right? Nope. St. Ignatius’s ancient method doesn’t allow for anything to be swept under the rug, shoved into the closet, or discretely hidden in a drawer. It is not in the Holy Spirit’s nature to hide, and we don’t want Him to! We need this daily inspection to keep us in tip top spiritual shape.  

After humbly submitting to the Holy Spirit, we can move to step four. It’s time to review and recognize our mistakes for what they are. I remember feeling my smile stumble as I remembered the times I’d gotten angry when someone wasn’t driving the way I thought they should, or the times I’d allowed cynicism to erode my spirit while reading the news. As Christians, we are meant to be gentle, optimistic lights that point others to God. I can’t be a beacon for Heaven if I’m defeated by one news article or incensed by another motorist’s negligent use of their blinker! And, if I cannot recognize and admit these moments of weakness as failures, how will I be able to admit to worse sins? Even though these two steps in St. Ignatius’s Examen are arduous, they are crucial! Without them we become blind to our imperfections and our pride begins to whisper “Oh, but see, you’re doing well! What do you need the Spirit for?” And that, readers, is a dangerous thought.

But take heart! Step five is easy. Now that you’ve been searched and admitted your failures (good job), you can repent and ask our gracious Father for forgiveness. Thibodeaux makes it sound so simple. If you’ve made a mistake, tell Him and then ask for help moving on and the wisdom to better handle similar moments in the future. That’s the lovely thing about what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. Because He covered my sins as a sacrificial lamb, I can sit on my bed, crisscross apple sauce, and ask the God of the Universe for forgiveness . . . and He grants it! The debt is paid!

Now that we’ve thanked God for our daily blessings, been searched and admitted our failures, and been forgiven, we can turn to tomorrow. Step six says to imagine the next day and ask for help making future decisions. Do you have a long commute? Ask God to soothe your frustration before it can boil into anger. Do you find yourself extremely distressed while reading the news? Ask God to help you pray through each headline. If you know you have a big test or interview or presentation the next day, ask God for clarity and calm in the moment. Step six is not an excuse for us to dwell on the future. I can’t teleport to 2023 to find myself a job after grad school, so I leave that problem out of my nightly prayers. A time will come when I begin praying through that anxiety, but I since haven’t even stepped foot on campus as a grad student yet, I know that time is not now. The Examen calls us to pray for tomorrow’s small worries, so we can give them to God and get some much-needed rest.

At the end of the week, I feel my prayer life has been refreshed by this streamlined, introspective approach to prayer. I deviated from the method a bit and chose to perform St. Ignatius’s Examen as a journal prompt after two nights because, as I’ve learned, writing improves my focus. I enjoyed this prayer method because it included God in my day. Every morning, God makes sure we have something beautiful around us whether it’s an emerald green hummingbird hovering above my mom’s hot pink roses or short, encouraging text messages from friends. The Examen helped me remember to thank Him for taking time to fill my day with bursts of joy even as I faced the ugly truth of myself every night.  

I’ve learned, over the course of this three-week experiment, that prayer is a process just as much as it is a conversation, but it never has to be perfect. God is the Father of Lights and the Lord of Armies, yes, but He is also the Wonderful Counselor and our Heavenly Father. Whether you journal or speak into silence, He just wants to communicate with you. What an honor! Ultimately, I feel encouraged in my journey, and I hope you feel the same.

In Christ,

Mckenzi 

Citation:

Ryan, Edward A. “St. Ignatius of Loyola.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 January 2021, https://www.britannica.com/biography/St-Ignatius-of-Loyola. Accessed 27 June 2021.

“The Examen: A Daily Prayer.” Jesuitresource.org, Xavier University, n.d. https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/jesuit-a-z/terms-e/daily-examen#:~:text=The%20Examen%20is%20simply%20a,the%20presence%20of%20the%20Holy.

Thibodeaux, Mark. “Try the Daily Examen.” Loyola Press, n.d. https://www.loyolapress.com/catholic-resources/ignatian-spirituality/examen-and-ignatian-prayer/how-can-i-pray-try-the-daily-examen/

 

 

 

 

The Names of God - Yahweh

Introduction
My son, Gavin, will turn 23 in just a couple weeks.  He was the very first of my Mom’s grandchildren.  After we had a child, the dam broke for my siblings and the nieces and nephews just started coming one after another.  I’m not very good with names, so it started getting tough to keep up with everyone’s name.  My sister thought she was gonna have twins at one point.  I said, “That’s awesome!” (but I was thinking “How in the world am I gonna tell them apart and remember their names?”)  My sister said, “Yeah twins!  Isn’t that amazing?  And one will be a boy and one is a girl. But I’m not sure what to name them?”

Well, I’m a fixer and an innovator and I’m practical.  So I said, “I think you should call the girl Denise.”  “That’s a pretty name,” said my sister, “but what about the boy?  What should I name him?”  I said, “Denephew.” …Cause then it would be Deniece and Denephew…

That's not really a true story, but I thought it was a funny joke about names.  This summer, we are reviewing the names of God in Scripture.  God has many names that represent His multifaceted character.  And He has told us His names because God wants us to know Him and what He is like.  So through this series, I challenge you to expand your thinking about God.  God is infinite and it is not enough to know Him only in one way.  You should strive to know God better and understand His many qualities. So far, we have learned:

• God is Elohim – A Triune God who is Three in One: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
• He is El Shaddai – the Almighty, All-Sufficient God who is everything you need
• He is Abba Father – and you can relate to God like an infant to a loving daddy
• Today, we learn God’s eternal name – Yahweh

Exodus 3:1-6
¹ One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. ³ “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.”

⁴ When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

“Here I am!” Moses replied.

⁵ “Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. ⁶ I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.

Have you hear this story?  God asked Moses to go tell the Pharaoh of Egypt to let God's people go.  God was going to use Moses to lead the Hebrew's out of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land.

Exodus 3:13-15
¹³ But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?”

¹⁴ God replied to Moses, “I am who i am. Say this to the people of Israel: I am has sent me to you.” ¹⁵ God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh,^[e] the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.

This is my eternal name,
    my name to remember for all generations.

 

Yahweh - I AM WHO I AM
People in the ancient Middle East were very superstitious.  They believed you could manipulate a god if you knew its name.  In Egypt, where Moses grew up, they had many, many gods.  The Egyptians used their gods’ names and magical spells to manipulate nature.  But amidst a the thousands and thousands of Egyptian gods, which one was speaking to Moses from the burning bush?

 

There is only one real God.  All others are fakes or idols or demons.  God reveals His proper name to Moses, which shows He is eternal and He cannot be manipulated.  God reveals His name is Yahweh, and it’s a word that is hard to translate.  It means something like “I AM WHO I AM”.  You get the sense of the unchanging, eternal quality of God’s character.  He is who He is.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Notice that it is also present tense.  It is not, I WAS or I WILL BE.  It is I AM.  God is not some forgotten relic of the past or something we look forward to in the future.  God is RIGHT NOW.  And He is always RIGHT NOW. 

 

One thing that is hard for mortal to comprehend is that God created time.  If God created time then that means at some point time didn't exist.  We can’t imagine an existence without time.  The human mind tries to mark everything by what happened yesterday and what will happen tomorrow.  Sometimes, we are so consumed by our infatuation with time, we forget to live right now in the moment.  Many people spend years in counseling because of emotional scars from their childhood.  Their past keeps them from living a full life in the present.  Others are so filled with anxiety about what might happen in the feature they are unable to live fully in the present, right now.

God is not like that.  God is the great I AM.  He is always, RIGHT NOW.

 

Yahweh and Jehovah

Ancient Hebrew writing is weird.  First of all, they write backwards, from right to left.  Some scholars think this is because ancient Hebrew was written on clay tablets or chiseled into stone and it was easier to chisel from right to left.  They would hold the chisel in their left hand and a hammer in their right (because most people are right handed).  This made it easier to chisel sentences from right to left.  Many ancient languages that were primarily engraved on stone went from right to left. It wasn't until people started using paper and ink that it became more common to go from left to right (because going right to left would smear the ink on the paper).

Another weird thing is ancient Hebrew didn't have vowels, only consonants (vowels weren't invented until much later).  So a name like Bill, would be spelled BLL.  The vowel sounds were just assumed. So God's name Yahweh was spelled YHWH.  Nobody in the ancient world complained or thought it was dumb not to have vowels; they were just thrilled to be able to write down sounds for the first time.

Something else that complicates language is how the sounds of letter can change over time and also in different places.  Everyone in America knows how to pronounce the name JOHN (say it to yourself).  However, if you go to Germany, the same name spelled JOHN will be pronounced Yan, because J in Germany has a Y sound.  If you go to Mexico, it's pronounced Wan, because they give J a W sound.

Another letter sound that shifts arounds is W.  In America, you would say, "What do you want?"  But in Russia, it might be pronounced "Vat do you vant?"  This changing sound of letters has affected the way the name of God has been passed down through the ages and even produced an alternate name--Jehovah.

Starting around 300 BC (the time in between the completion of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament), Jew’s became very superstitious about using God’s name.[i]  The third of the Ten Commandments says, “Do not misuse the name of the Lord.” Or “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain.”  (Exodus 20:7).  A proper interpretation of this is that God's people who represent Him shouldn't misrepresent His character by their bad behavior.  Well, many Jews began to misinterpret the third commandment to believe they shouldn’t even say or write Yahweh at all (even though God said Yahweh was to be His name for all generations).  So, the Jews from 300 BC on began to substitute the Hebrew word for Lord (Adonai) instead of saying or writing Yahweh.  Others would intersperse the vowels from Adonai into the consonants for YHWH (because they had invented vowels by that point) rendering the word YaHoWaiH or JaHoVaH.  This is where we get the word Jehovah, which is common way to say God's name today.  The superstition about saying or writing God's name has persisted throughout the centuries right up until our time.  In most translations, you will find Yahweh translated as LORD, with the word in all capital letters,  Whenever you LORD written in all-caps in the Bible, it indicates the word is actually Yahweh.

 

Jesus is Yahweh
Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”  However, many people read the Bible and remark that the Old Testament seems much harsher than the New Testament.  Perhaps you have felt that way.  Sometimes people will say, “I like Jesus, but I don’t like the God of the Old Testament.  Jesus is so loving, but God is so vengeful in the Old Testament.” 

 

I can understand how some people could get the impression that Jesus is somehow different from Yahweh in the Old Testament.  However, that’s an oversimplification of the Bible that doesn’t really hold true.  If you study and understand the Bible, you will find mercy in grace in the Old Testament too. For instance, God saved the Israelites from slavery in Egypt before they were good people.  That's mercy and grace.  You also find judgment and vengeance in the New Testament.  Have you read Revelation?  It's full of God's vengeance and plagues and judgment.  We see "Old Testament" style vengeance and judgement in the New Testament book of Acts too.  Remember the time the Holy Spirit struck Annanias and Saphira dead on the spot for lying to Peter in the New Testament Book of Acts?  (Acts 5:1-11)   And there are many other places throughout the New Testament where we see the God of the New Testament acting just like He does in the Old Testament.  It's just that the New Testament primarily focuses on Yahweh invitation to humanity to be reconciled with God.  Also, understand than the New Testament is less than a quarter of the length of the Old Testament.  So to call the Old Testament harsh and the New Testament sweet is a naïve oversimplification.  

 

Jesus in the New Testament and Yahweh in the Old Testament are the same God.  In fact, Jesus even specifically called himself “I AM” (the translation of God’s name, Yahweh).  While arguing with the Jews about what it means to be a child of God and to follow God, Jesus said he was God.  In John 8:58, Jesus referred to himself with the ancient eternal name of God when he said, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I am!”  Remember how I told you the Jews were extremely superstitious about God’s name?  Saying God’s name was enough to get a person stoned to death and the Jews in John 8 tried to stone Jesus to death.  However, because Jesus is Yahweh, the great I AM, He was able to disappear and escape unharmed.

 

So many people only see Jesus as their friend or their buddy.  Jesus is a friend for sinners, bu a true friend is someone who tells you the truth even if you don’t want to hear it.  Furthermore, Jesus is more than just your friend.  Jesus is the eternal, all knowing, all present, all powerful God of the universe.  We would be fools to forget it and only think of Jesus as our buddy.

 

The God of the Old Testament and Jesus of the New Testament are one in the same. There is no difference whatsoever in the character and actions of the Old Testament and New Testament God.  He is who He is.  Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean you can disregard it.  The Old Testament focuses more on the power, judgment, and sovereignty of God.  The New Testament focuses more on God’s reconciling mercy, love, and grace.  It’s not one or the other.  It’s both.  That is why Jesus preached throughout the Gospels, “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” (Mark 1:15) 

 

The Bad News you don’t want to hear because it makes you feel uncomfortable is that you have sinned, and the consequences of your sin is death and eternal punishment.  The Good News is Jesus/God loves you so much He paid for your sin by dying on the cross.  He took your place.  Therefore, you can repent and be saved.  However, you must repent and let God be the absolute Lord of our life or you are in eternal danger.

 

Conclusion
I want to do something strange as we close.  Right now, you are on Holy Ground in the presence of a strange and Holy God.  When Yahweh spoke to Moses from the burning bush, He said, “Take off your sandals for you are standing on holy ground…” 

 

So now, in the presence of Holy Yahweh in this Holy place, I invite you to take off your shoes…

 

Now, Bow your head and close your eyes.  Imagine that Yahweh is with you right now (because He is).  Feel the heat from the burning bush warm on your skin.  God is calling your name...  He says, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of your ancestors.  I am the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament and the God of today.  I am Yahweh—the Great I AM.  I Am Who I Am.  I do not change.  You cannot control me.  You cannot make Me who You want me to be, but I can make you into the person you were designed to be.”

 

Now talk to Yahweh… or just listen to what He would say to you for a few moments…

 

Amen.

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[i] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Yahweh