In the beginning … before there was anything … there was … Elohim … our strong creator God who created the heavens and the earth. Sending out His Spirit, He sang the universe into existence … the galaxies, the stars, the planets. With a word He filled this planet that He created with life … all kinds of life … everything that crawls, walks flies, or swims.
And then He took some mud and breathed His life and His spirit into it and created man and woman. He told us that we could eat freely of every tree in the garden except one ... and from that moment on there has existed a rift between us and God.
And yet, even in the desert… the wilderness … Jehovah Jireh provides for us. He makes a covenant with Abram: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3).
Abram and Sarai have a child … a son named Isaac. Isaac has two sons … Esau and Jacob. Jacob has twelve sons … one of whom … Joseph … is sold off into slavery by his own brothers. And yet, Jehovah Shammai is there in Egypt with Joseph. When Joseph is made second-in-command over all of Egypt, Jehovah Jireh again provides for His people and they not only survive a famine but prosper … to the point that the Pharaoh becomes concerned and begins to oppress the Hebrew people. After 400 years of seeming silence, God answers His peoples’ prayers by sending a deliverer … an 80-year-old fugitive herding sheep in the backside of nowhere. It is in the wilderness that God chooses to reveal His personal name to His people through Moses … YWHW … the unpronounceable name of God … a name that speaks of God as the Eternal, Ever-Changing, Self-Existent One … The Great I Am … “I Am that I Am” … “I Will Become What I Choose” … “I Will Become What I desire” … “He Who Causes to Exist.”
Remember how Rabbi David Cooper described the glorious name of “Yod He Waw He” as an “interactive verb.” “From this perspective,” He says, “creation should not be treated as a noun. Creation is an ‘interactive verb’ … creation is constantly ‘creation-ing.’ When we put all these ideas together,” says Rabbi Cooper, “the paradigm of relationship shifts. God is ‘God-ing’ … creation is ‘creation-ing. Every aspect of creation is a process like an infinite flower opening its petals” (Cooper, D.A. 1997. God is a Verb. New York: Riverhead Books; p. 93). God is an infinitely opening flower … each unfolding petal revealing some new, fresh insight into God and who He is.
In the desert, the people of God learn that God is Jehovah Jireh … “The God Who Provides.” He provides them with bread from the storehouses of Heaven. Quail falls at their feet. Water rushes out of the very rocks. In the desert, the people of God learn that God is Jehovah Rapha … “The God Who Heals.” Jehovah Rapha heals the Israelites of their bitterness as Mar’ah … the bitter pool of water … by turning the water sweet and their bitterness to hope.
As they travel towards the Promised Land, God gave His people many signs that He was Jehovah Shammai … “The God Who Is There” … traveling before them as a cloud during the day and a column of fire at night … later traveling and dwelling amongst them in the Tabernacle. Again, the manna and the quail provide the people with evidence that God was them. When they were being attacked by poisonous serpents, God had them raise a fiery serpent on a pole as a reminder that God was Jehovah Nissi … their “banner” … their “flag” … so that whosover was bitten could look to Jehovah Nissi and live.
Time and time again, Jehovah Sabaoth …. “The Lord of Hosts” … the Supreme Commander of Heaven … would deliver them from their enemies … sometimes sending His angels to watch over them or defeat their enemies.
El Shaddai … the Mighty Mountain who nourished and took care of His people … bringing them to the Holy Mountain … Mt. Zion … the site where El Shaddai spoke to Moses from a burning bush and revealed Himself to Moses as “Yod He Waw he” … YHWH.
Yahweh calls the people to come to the mountain to meet Jehovah Shammai … “The God Who is There.” He appears as a fire descending on the mountain that covers the whole mountain in smoke. The ground trembles and the whole mountain shakes when … El Elyon … “God Most High” … when “Adonai” … “The LORD of Lords” … when Jehovah Sabaoth … “The Supreme Commander of Heaven” speaks.
Jehovah Shammai … God was there … God was with them. First in the tabernacle that traveled with them … and then in the Temple. El Shaddai’s holy mountain rising up in the middle of Jerusalem … until the Babylonians knocked down the first Temple … and the Romans destroyed the second one.
Seated at head of the Passover table sits … Yeshua … Jesus. His name means “Savior” … “for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Sitting there, who do the Disciples see? They see a carpenter’s son from Nazareth … a great teacher … a healer and a prophet who has demonstrated that God was working with Him and through Him in many ways. Sitting at the head of the table was possibly the next great king of Israel … who could possibly deliver them from the oppression of the Romans and make them a great nation once more.
But like His Father, Yahweh, Jesus is “an infinite flower opening its petals” (Cooper, p. 93). Before them is “Elohim” … the strong Creator God. “In the beginning was the “Word” … Logos … Jesus. “And the Word was with God” … Elohim … “and the Word” … Logos … Jesus … was God … Elohim … “all things came into being through Him … what has come into being in Him was life” (John 1:1-4).
Jesus … Yahweh … the Eternal, Ever-Changing, Self-Existent One … incarnate … eating and drinking, and celebrating the Passover with them. “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made Him known” (John 1:18).
Jesus … Jehovah Rapha … God the Healer. The blind were given sight. The lame walked. Lepers were given clean skin. A mere touch or a word from Jesus would bring healing and the forgiveness of sin and a new heart and a new life.
Jesus … Jehovah Jireh … “God the Provider.” He not only fed thousands with some bread and fish but fed their hearts and their minds with His parables and His teachings … sharing the good news with them about the Kingdom of Heaven. He even provided for us after He was crucified … sending us the Holy Spirit to provide comfort and guidance for us.
Jesus … Jehovah Shammai … “God Who is There” … who stepped down from His throne in Heaven and came, not to the Temple, who did not sit on top of His mountain and demand that we come to Him but who took on flesh and dwelled among us. Yahweh … fully divine … fully human … God who was there on the cross … God who is here with us today.
Jesus … El Shaddai … “The All-Sufficient, Mighty One.” Jesus … the mountain with the heart of a nurturing mother … who wept over Martha and Mary’s pain and suffering and brought their brother back to life … who brought a widow’s son back to life … who went to Jarirus’ house when every one told Him that there was no point … who healed the servant of a centurion, an officer of Rome’s occupying army … who gave into a gentile mother’s demands for a few scrapes of grace and healing for her dying daughter … who worried and fretted over Jerusalem and His people like a mother hen (Matthew 22:37) … who prayed for His Father to watch over His Disciples and followers when He was gone .. and goes from calling them “Disciples” and “followers” to “friends.”
Jesus … Jehovah Sabaoth … “Lord of Hosts” … “Supreme Commander of Heaven” … who drove a legion of demons out of a possessed man living in a gentile cemetery among pigs … who told His Disicples that He could call down 72,000 angels if He needed. Demons know His name and quake at His approach and do as He commands.
Jesus … Adonai … “King of kings” and “Lord of lords” … who revealed His glory to Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration … who’s Father declared, “This is my Son” and who called Yahweh “Abba” … Papa … who told Pontius Pilate that He is not only a king but an “Adon” or Lord of a Kingdom far greater than any on this earth … including Caesar’s.
Jesus … El Elyon … “God Most High.” Just as God revealed Himself to Isaiah in a vision, so Jesus revealed His power and His authority to John in a vision … a revelation where he sees Jesus, the Slain Lamb of God, on the heavenly throne surrounded by all the angels, the heavenly hosts, and saints worshipping Him … all ready to obey His every command.
Jesus … Elohim … the powerful Creator … who spoke a word and the storm and the waves obeyed him … who walked on water and turned water into wine. The Alpha and Omega. Jesus … who was, who is, and who will always be.
Jesus … YHWH … who took on flesh … who was without sin … who became a sacrifice for our sins. Who allowed His body to be broken … nailed to a cross and lifted up as a banner … Jehovah Nissi … the banner of our Salvation … a symbol of His victory … our victory … over sin and death … who was lifted up so that all who believed in Him would be saved.
Elohim … YHWH … Jehovah Jireh … Jehovah Shammai … He who created life also has absolute power over death.
El Shaddai … Jehovah Rapha … His body broken [break bread]. He allowed Himself to be broken and nailed to a cross for our sake. He laid down His life but also had the power to pick it up again. “No one takes it from me but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again” (John 10:18)
Only a king could sign a covenant or “peace treaty.” Jesus signed the covenant of our salvation [lift cup] with His blood.
“For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God … El Shaddai, Ever-lasting Father … Elohim, Prince of Peace … Jehovah Shalom” (Isaiah 9:6-7).
Jehovah Rapha. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness; for by His wounds, you have been healed” (1st Peter 2:24).
Come, my brothers and sisters. Come to the table of Elohim, our powerful creator. Come to the table of Yahweh, our Eternal, Ever-Changing, Self-Existent One. Come to the table of Jehovah Shammai … for He is here. Come receive mercy and grace … a pardon for your sins from Jehovah Sabaoth. Eat of the Bread of Life … drink from the cup of living water provided by Jehovah Jireh. Come to the mountain of El Shaddai and receive healing from Jehovah Rapha. Come, kneel under the banner of Jehovah Nissi … the cross of Jesus Christ. Offer up your heart, your body, your mind, and your soul to the eternal service of El Elyon … Jesus Christ … God Most High!
Let us pray:
By sharing this bread and lifting this cup, O God of Sacrifice, we are lifting high the cross of Christ and proclaiming Your great love. WE partake with gratitude all the gifts that are ours in Christ Crucified … new life … eternal life … meaningful purpose … and real unity.
Fill us now with the power of Your Holy spirit that we might be bold in our witness to Jesus Christ till all the world adores His sacred name. In the name of our Risen Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Would all God’s grateful children help me make it so by saying “amen.”
