The Many Names of God help us see God…
We are gaining an image of God through his many names…
Yahweh – God’s First Name
Personal and omniscient and omnipresent
We get a sense of his presence and participation in our lives
El Elyon – God Most High
From El Elyon we get a sense of his worthiness as a focus of our lives. He is worthy of our time. He is worthy of our service. He is the only real source of our blessings. He is worthy to be worshiped.
El Shaddai – God Almighty
As El Shaddai, He is our All-sufficient God
No matter what our circumstances – he is there to take care of us. He guided Abraham. He took care of Naomi and Job. He will take care of you and me.
Today we learn of another name of God – Yahweh Sabaoth
Yahweh Sabaoth is a God who is not easy to ignore... although many try
Lots of people try to ignore God, either by the diminishment of His presence or by the outright denial of his existence. This week we’re going to learn about a name of God that reveals a part of his nature that is tough to disregard - and in the end will not be ignored.
God is the head of a great army of heavenly host. The world has never seen a conqueror like him. There has never been a king, an emperor, a dictator, potentate, general, or marshal like him. He leads angels more numerous than can be counted. They act at his word. They live to serve and save human kind.
When you experience God the result is that you become a new creature, renewed, cleansed, forgiven and purified. You become one of His Holy ones. It’s not easy to ignore such a God.
Yahweh Sabaoth – Lord of Hosts
I want you to get a picture of God in your head that is most likely quite different than any of the pictures you currently have
Some picture God as a tired old man that is passively watching the world go by.
Some see God as a sweet kind of Santa Clause than hands out treats on request – if we’ve been good!
Some see God as a mythological figure that only the intellectually deficient hold onto because they just don’t know better.
When you understand that God, “Yahweh Sabaoth”, The Lord of Hosts you get a whole new picture of God.
It is an image of unlimited power, unbridled might, and untarnished glory.
He is impossible to describe and incredible to imagine.
Lord of Hosts
Isaiah 6:1-3 (The Message)
6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Master sitting on a throne—high, exalted!—and the train of his robes filled the Temple. Angel-seraphs hovered above him, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew.” And they called back and forth one to the other,
Holy, Holy, Holy is GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies.
His bright glory fills the whole earth.
Yahweh Sabaoth – God of Hosts
Yahweh Sabaoth. This compound name, ‘Lord of Hosts,’ which occurs 279 times in the Old Testament, depicts God as the commander of armies. Originating in holy war, the expression became a polemic against astral cults: Yahweh rules the heavenly armies. The name was eventually understood as a plural of intensity, ‘Lord Almighty,’ thus neutralizing the existence of the celestial gods.
Sabaoth — the transliteration of the Hebrew word tsebha ‘oth, meaning “hosts,” “armies” (Rom. 9:29; James 5:4). In the LXX. the Hebrew word is rendered by “Almighty.” (See Rev. 4:8; comp. Isa. 6:3.) It may designate Jehovah as either (1) God of the armies of earth, or (2) God of the armies of the stars, or (3) God of the unseen armies of angels; or perhaps it may include all these ideas.
The Heavenly Hosts
The hosts referred to seem to be the celestial beings we call angels. These servants of God are real spiritual beings who cruise the world doing His work.
The “Hosts” of the Lord are not seen
2 Kings 6:16-17 (NCV)
16 Elisha said, “Don’t be afraid. The army that fights for us is larger than the one against us.”
17 Then Elisha prayed, “LORD, open my servant’s eyes, and let him see.”
The LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
We are spiritual beings poured into physical containers in a finite existence…
It limits our vision…
We simply cannot see the full spectrum of all that there is. It is no different that the light waves our eyes can detect vs. the ultra-violet and infrared waves that we cannot see.
We have visible and invisible light. Both are real. There are some realms which go beyond are ability to see, touch, taste, feel, or hear. There is a spiritual side of life that goes beyond the physical spectrum we live in.
It stretches our faith…
This knowledge demands faith. It cannot be understood without trusting in the revelation of truth that cannot be known in any other way. Only trust in a source that has told us about a reality we cannot personally know.
God gives us glimpses. There are hints. We call them miracles… or coincidences. They happen all around us.
It encourages our dependence on God…
Our response is one of choice. Either we become more responsive to God and put our trust in him or we withdraw and live in a physical world without hope or joy.
Worst case: If I and all those who have gone before us in faith are wrong we have lived with hope and joy.
Best case: Jesus has gone to prepare a mansion for me. I’m going to have an eternity to share perfect completeness with God.
This faith gives me the strength to withstand a mighty blow.
We know that he is the Lord of Hosts
Honestly, I forget that sometimes… Do you?
I do not know what will happen in five years or tomorrow. I do know who I am with – Even when he isn’t seen.
The Lord of Hosts
The Lord of Hosts will Right all Wrongs
James 5:4-6 (The Message)
All the workers you’ve exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You’ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you’ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you’ve done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it.
God will right the wrongs in his day and in his time
We must be patient.
We must be careful.
God is Yahweh Sabaoth - the Lord of Hosts.
He has the power to change the world. He waits until the right moment.
Martin Luther effectively summed up the concept in his hymn,
“A Mighty Fortress is our God”
Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing:
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His name,
From age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
Why doesn’t the Lord of Hosts do something now?
2 Peter 3:9-10 (The Message)
God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.
But when the Day of God’s Judgment does come, it will be unannounced, like a thief. The sky will collapse with a thunderous bang, everything disintegrating in a huge conflagration, earth and all its works exposed to the scrutiny of Judgment.
He is waiting
for you…
for your family
for your neighbors
for your friends
He will not wait indefinitely. There will be a day when God says one word as the Lord of Hosts to his angel armies… “Enough”
Don’t wait for that day… It will be too late.
Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day to give your life to the Lord.
Will you confess him today…
Stand and if you want to confess him as Lord repeat after me…
“I confess…
That Jesus is the Christ…
The son of the living God…
I acknowledge my sin…
And I give to Jesus my life…
With his help…
I will turn from my sin…
And I will follow Jesus.
One thing more…
If this is the first time you have said these words or words like these then you need to do one thing more. You need to be baptized into Jesus Christ, his death, his burial, his resurrection to become your death, your burial, and your resurrection.
You don’t need to understand it all… Just enough to say I want to follow Jesus and he wants me personally pledge my life to him.
I invite you to come forward. I want to pray with you and to encourage you in your decision to follow Jesus.
