JEHOVAH-SABAOTH: THE LORD OF HOSTS
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: The Highest Power
1. One Sunday morning, Victor, a Sunday school class teacher said to his young pupils, "OK children. We've been learning this morning just how powerful were the Kings and Queens in Bible times.
2. But there is even a higher power than Kings and Queens. Who can tell me what that higher power is?"
3. An 8 year old instantly raised his hand and shouted out, "It’s Aces, teacher! Aces are higher than Kings and Queens!"
4. That’s not really what we had in mind. God is over all powers – in heaven, Earth, and under the Earth.
B. ELISHA AT DOTHAN
1. What Elisha’s servant saw one morning nearly scared him to death. The city of Dothan where they were staying was surrounded with a great host from Syria with horses and chariots.
2. Elisha assured him, however, that “those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then he prayed that the Lord would open his servant’s eyes so that he could see into the spiritual realm.
3. Then the young man saw “the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kings 6:15-17).
4. Two hosts were present. One was a human army that had just come with the purpose of capturing and destroying Elisha.
5. The other, an angelic host, was there all along to protect God’s servant. But God, as the Lord of Hosts, was in control of both.
C. THESIS
1. Tonight we’re completing our study of the compound covenant names of Jehovah with the name Jehovah-Sabaoth.
2. Jehovah Sabaoth (The Lord of Hosts) is mentioned over 270 times making it the most frequently used compound name of God in Scripture. So it’s appropriate it concludes our study.
I. THE GOD OF ARMIES
A. WHAT ARMIES IS HE SAID TO BE OVER?
JEHOVAH TSABAOTH, as the Lord of Hosts, includes:
1. the host of heaven, the angels who minister to the Lord; 2. the stars and planets, which, like an army, carry out the will of God;
3. the armies of earth, whose conflicts his providence overrules to the accomplishment of his own wise designs;
4. the hordes of inferior creatures, as the locusts that plagued Egypt, the quails that fed Israel, and "the canker-worm and the palmer-worm, his great army," Joel 2:15; and 5. lastly, the people of the Lord, both of the old and new covenants, a truly great army, of which God is the general and commander, 2 Samuel 6:2 Psalm 24:10 Romans 9:29 James 5:4.” (ATS Bible Dictionary)
B. THE HEBREW’S WARRIOR GOD
1. To the ancient Hebrew, Jehovah Sabaoth was the leader and commander of the armies of the nation, who "went forth with them" (Psalms 44:9) and led them to certain victory.
2. Other nations believed their gods gave them victory over their adversaries, but they were just idols. But Israel proved, in the conquest of Canaan – defeating 31 nations – that the true God would give them victory if they served Him with a whole heart.
II. KEY OCCURRENCES OF ITS USE
A. HANNAH
1. First mentioned in 1 Samuel 1:3, we find Hannah making a covenant with the LORD of Hosts as she cried out for Him to hear her prayer and give her a child. (1 Samuel 1:11)
2. She called on the LORD of Hosts to win a war she could not win on her own.
B. DAVID
1. In 1 Sam. 17:45, David said to Goliath, “You come against me with the 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” 1 Sam. 17:45.
2. Goliath thought Israel’s army was just another army. David reminded Goliath that God had given Israel the Promised land and the Philistine takeover of Israel’s territory was in defiance of the Living God’s will.
3. In 2 Samuel 5:10, we find – “And David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him.”
C. ELIJAH
The “God of Armies” is the God of Elijah. Elijah names him when facing Ahab (1 Kgs. 18:15) and at Mt. Horeb (1 Kgs. 19:10,14).
D. ISAIAH
1. In Isaiah 51:15 we see He controls the sea and the waves.
2. In Isaiah’s vision of the Lord in the Temple, he heard the Seraphim crying to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3)
E. JEREMIAH and ZECHARIAH
1. Jeremiah lived during the time Judah and Jerusalem were about to go into exile to Babylon.
2. Jeremiah reminded them 88 times that God was still the God of Hosts -- they would not escape judgment, no matter what the false prophets were saying.
3. In Zechariah 4:6, He declares that He alone wins our battles when He tells Zerubbabel, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.”
III. ANGEL ARMIES IN ACTION
A. FIGHTING AGAINST ISRAEL’S FOES
1. JUDGES 5:20, Angels fought against Sisera
“From the heavens the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera.”
2. 2 SAMUEL 5:24 Angels went before David
“As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the poplar trees, move quickly, because that will mean the Lord has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army.”
3. 2 Kgs. 6:17, Angel’s stationed around Elisha; “And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”
B. PRAISING IN GOD’S HEAVEN
1. Psalm 103:21, “Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will.”
2. Psalm 148:2, “Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his heavenly hosts.”
C. AVAILABLE TO ASSIST CHRIST
1. Matt. 26:53, Angels to rescue Jesus; “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”
2. John 18:36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
IV. NATURE OF JEHOVAH-SABAOTH
A. OUR DEFENDER
1. Throughout Scripture we find this LORD of Hosts as our ever present defender, the Sovereign and Holy God over all the universe who sees us, loves us and moves mountains on our behalf.
2. He fights our battles, wins our wars and is the refuge we can run to in time of need. He is Jehovah-Sabaoth!
B. ALL-POWERFUL, ALL-KNOWING
1. There is nothing He cannot do, nothing He does not know, nothing He cannot control, no enemy He cannot defeat, no heart He cannot heal, no mouth He cannot shut, no miracle He cannot perform.
2. And how beautiful to know He longs to work in our lives and on our behalf as the Lord of Hosts!
3. How does knowing that God is the Lord of Hosts help you in your circumstances? (donotdepart.com)
V. JEHOVAH-SABAOTH AT 2ND COMING OF CHRIST
A. COMMANDER OF GOD’S ARMIES
1. Many believe, also, that the Captain of the Lord’s Hosts who appeared to Joshua was a preincarnate manifestation of Christ.
2. Joshua was near Jericho looking over the situation, knowing that he did not have the equipment to take a walled city. Then “he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hands.
3. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”
4. Then Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”
5. The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you’re standing is holy” (Josh. 5:13-15). Then the Lord proceeded to give directions to Joshua for victory over Jericho.
6. God could have destroyed sinful Jericho with a natural calamity, of course. But then the world around wouldn’t have recognized the hand of Israel’s God.
7. But when God accompanied Israel’s, defeating an impossible city to conquer (walls fell down), they recognized that the God who defeated the Egyptians, opened the Red Sea, and defeated Sihon and Og, was continuing to defeat Israel’s enemies.
B. N.T. – JESUS AT 2ND COMING
1. In Israel's greatest hour of need the Lord Sabaoth will return & wage war & rescue His people Israel; “Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him” Zech. 14:5.
2. John describes it in Rev. 19:14, “The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.”
3. Paul says that the same Captain of the Lord’s Hosts will be “revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus” 2 Thess. 1:7-8.
4. But we as believers at the same time will see Him glorified in us as His holy people (2 Thess. 1:10). Then everyone will know that we are on the winning side.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: EXPECTING A VISIT FROM THE KING
1. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited the Scottish highlands in 1842. They loved the area and people so much that they purchased Balmoral Castle in 1852, rebuilt it, and made it their ancestral home. It’s still owned by her heirs today.
2. Queen Victoria, when in Scotland, loved to make unexpected calls on the farm folks who lived in cottages nearby.
3. Any day might be a royal day, and the Scots – who loved Her -- had a chair prepared for her visit. Their houses were kept spotless.
4. The Scots were a clean and wholesome people, but her
announced visits added to the joy of keeping their homes lovely.
5. Long afterward, the old people who remembered her visits charmed visitors by the expression they had used. They would say, “Perhaps today, she’ll come my way.”
B. THE CALL
1. The same expression could be used of us about the Coming of Jesus and the Rapture of the Church; “Perhaps He’ll come today!”
2. Are you ready should He come tonight? Would you be joyful or sad if He came today? Is your heart clean and prepared for His coming? Let’s pray.
(This is largely a rewrite of Stanley Horton’s monograph, “Yahweh-Tsabaoth,” with additions which have been noted in the various sections.)
