Names of God
Table of Contents
Names of God: Part 1
This name, which has been rendered “Sovereign Ruler,” Master, Lord, is applied to the Lord, as God the Savior, I apprehend, in four passages of the word of God, in a peculiarly solemn way in connection with judgment—the irresistible judgment which the Lord will bring. The writer would just notice the passages, in the hope that something further of truth may be elicited regarding them, from the editor or other source.
Two of the passages in which this word occurs (Acts 4 and Rev. 6) bring out, in a remarkably vivid manner, the difference between the former and the present dispensation; the striking contrast indeed in knowledge and walk, and divine experience between the Church as under grace and a people under law. I would first refer the reader to Jude and 2 Peter for the use of this title, and the connection in which it is found. In Jude (ver. 4) we read, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, (judgment or sentence,) ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master (δεσπότην) and Lord Jesus Christ.” Jude, in a peculiarly energetic way, treats of apostasy up to its judgment. In 2 Peter 2:1 we find a similar prophetic strain of apostasy and judgment with this name: “There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord (δεσπότην) that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” It may be well to note here, not “bought” in the sense of redemption, not a redeemed people; but a price has been paid, a full price. They refuse to own or obey the Master.
Let us refer to Rev. 6:9-11. Those who cry “with a loud voice” represent a martyred company (the first martyred remnant in the book) “that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.” Their souls seen under the altar evidently figurative, they had laid down, or offered, their bodies. They cried, “How long, Ο Sovereign Ruler (ϐέσποτα) holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” They cry in the same spirit and words as the remnant of Israel whom we find in the Psalms; these people in their tribulation looking for One who will come forth as Deliverer to shed the blood of their enemies. A reference to Psa. 79:6-12 will show the cry and expectation; also Psa. 58:9-11, and 68:23.
The Lord is seen here as a God of judgment. It is not grace. They are not the children of the heavenly Father. We do not find the Church here. These cry for vengeance on their enemies, and the Lord will hear and answer them. Isa. 63:1-6, reveals Jehovah Messiah “traveling in the greatness of his strength” in the day of vengeance, because “the year of my redeemed is come;” while Rev. 19 speaks of that hour in fuller terms.
We will now see how the Church at Jerusalem appeal to the Lord under this solemn name of δεσπότης. Peter and John are in persecution in their service and testimony, and the rulers threatening them, when Peter “filled with the Holy Ghost” utters the bold testimony. (Acts 4:8-12.) On being commanded “not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus,” Peter speaks that simple word, “we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” What a definition of real testimony! God must be hearkened to; and out “of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh;” reminding of John's definition of Christianity, “We have known and believed the love that God hath to us;” (1 John 4:16;) not our experiences and convictions which man, as man, loves to dwell on, but the love of God we have known. On further threatening “being let go, they went to their own company.” (Ver. 23.) In testimony to and before the world—in boldness, in persecution, they seek the presence of God with a separated people, bloodwashed worshippers who, in the liberty and presence of the Holy Ghost, can “lift up their voice to God with one accord,” (a prayer-meeting indeed!) and said, “Lord, (δέσποτα), thou art God which hast made heaven and earth, and the sea and all that in them is.” The Creator of all things. It seems to me to be extremely beautiful that these, in the intelligence and power of the Spirit of the Lord, quote enough of Psa. 2 to mark what was said of the opposition of kings and rulers; yet they do not look on to the judgment, the wrath of which the psalm speaks, much less do they seek to shelter themselves from persecution or call on that name for vengeance on their enemies. They call for blessing, as verse 29 shows “And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word.” Healing, signs, and wonders to be done by the name of the holy child Jesus—the full answer we have in the sequel. What a marked difference between a people in the enjoyment of heavenly grace—suffering, serving, and praying while waiting for the Son of God from heaven, (a truth, however, with the full blessing of the Church, more fully revealed by Paul,)—and a people who cry to Him to shed the blood of their enemies, a cry which He will answer in righteousness, which brings judgment!
The reader will observe that in Acts 4 the title δεσπότης is applied to God as such, the Creator, and contradistinguished from His “holy servant (παῖς) Jesus.” I doubt not that this, and other scriptures so used, do but bring out distinctly the glorious divinity of the Lord Jesus, “who created all things.” For instance, in John's writings God and Christ are used as one and the same. In chapter 1 of the Apocalypse we see the Lord spoken of as the Jehovah of the Old Testament—the Lord God Almighty, as the Ancient of Days, yet as the Son of man. So in Dan. 7, the Son of man comes to the Ancient of Days (contradistinguished as in Acts 4); but it is seen in the same chapter of Daniel that it is the Ancient of Days Himself who comes. In Rev. 1, Jehovah Jesus, the Ancient of Days, the coming One, the Living One; a Man victorious over death, and has “the keys of hades and of death.” (Ver. 18.) I apprehend that in the passages considered, the ΔΕΣΠΟΤΗΣ is to be regarded as our God and Savior the Lord Jesus Christ, “who is over all God blessed forever. Amen.”
One might well say that the Holy Ghost has “the pen of a ready writer.” With what names and titles does He invest the Lord Jesus! How He puts crown upon crown upon His head, who is “crowned with glory and honor!” Whether it be the Lord's divine, essential glory, as God; His living official glory, or His moral glory; the heart and ways and sympathies of the Son of man, (so attractive and so binding the soul to Him as really known;) whether it be a name setting forth His love and grace, who came to seek and to save the lost; or one denoting His rights and sovereign rule and power in judgment—all is perfect, because all divine.
May our hearts be bowed in worship. Amen.
Names of God: Part 2
That God, in the revelation of Himself, employs different names for the purposes of that revelation, which bring out some particular character in which He is pleased to act in the display of Himself, every one who has paid the least attention to Scripture is perfectly aware of.
There are three names especially which constitute so many grounds and bases of relationship with Him. He always was what is revealed in each one; but He was it not formally in relationship with man, until revealed for that purpose.
God is the general name of the Being—Elohim.
Almighty was the name He took as the special protector of Abraham—Shaddaϊ.
Jehovah, as in relationship with Israel, the abiding One, “who was, and is, and is to come,” who will accomplish in power what He has promised and undertaken in grace (see Ex. 6:3). As this was the name He thus formally took with Israel, to whom these oracles were given, He is careful to show, from the outset, that Jehovah their God was the Elohim Shaddai (“God Almighty") of creation and of Abraham. And hence the name of Jehovah is introduced from the beginning of any relationship of God with His creatures, though it was not the name of formal revelation and relationship. (Comp. Gen. 2)
3. The third name is Father. This is with Christians. Hence it is said in 2 Cor. 6:17, 18, “Come out from among them and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you and will be a Father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” That is, the living God (see verse 16), Jehovah Shaddaϊ makes Himself Father with those who come out and believe.
As soon as God begins to unfold His ways with His creation, to be in relationship with it as a subsisting thing, and the ground on which this is based, and manner in which it has been formed, is developed, He reveals Himself as being that very Jehovah whom the Jews knew as their God. When it was the mere fact of creation in power, the great thing was to show that God, as such, did it. Elohim created, Elohim made; but when God is teaching what He was for this creation, and how He took such a place, He takes a name of relationship in which those to whom the revelation was addressed knew Him as their God. He is called not simply Jehovah, but Jehovah-Elohim, so as to connect the two thoughts, and show the Jehovah their God as Elohim the Creator, the supreme source of all things. And this was of the very last importance. Germans and infidels, who are entirely ignorant really of the whole scope and purport of Scripture, naturally find some reason within the scope of their infidelity (which cannot reach beyond a question of documents), for what is really altogether a perfection, and a pretty evident one for such as are at all attentive to Scripture.