The Glorious And Fearful Name (Part 4 of 2)

Yahweh Elohim

Having outlined from the Scriptures the basic teaching concerning the Glorious and Fearful Name, we come now in our studies to examine the various Name-Title combinations which are to be found in the Word of God. It is our intention to consider in turn each of the following:

  1. Yahweh Elohim
  2. Yahweh Roee
  3. Adonay Yahweh
  4. Yahweh Ropheka
  5. Yahweh Yireh
  6. Yahweh Nissi
  7. Yahweh Tsidkenu
  8. Yahweh Mekaddishkem
  9. Yahweh Tsavot
  10. Yahweh Shammah
  11. Yahweh Shalom
  12. Yahweh Elyon

Under this heading we shall remind the reader of many things said in previous studies and at the same time lay down a sequence of God manifesta­tion which will be followed in as most of the Name-titles are considered.

Yahweh Elohim appears in the A.V. as LORD God. This is the name which we have met from time to time in previous studies,and we might refer to it as the basic Name-title. It is the name found in Exodus chapter 3:15 where, having revealed His name to Moses in the bush, Yahweh says, “Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Yahweh Elohim of your fathers, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name forever (i.e., as has been shown, for the hidden period or millenium), and this is my memorial unto all generations (i.e. for a generation of the race).” This is the name found in Deuteronomy 28:58 where we read,

“If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, Yahweh thy Elohim; then Yahweh will make thy plagues wonderful…”

We have been at great pains to show during our previous studies that in this name the purpose of God is epitomised. In His name God declares that at some future date, He intends to manifest Himself in members of the human race, for, liter­ally rendered, the name Yahweh Elohim means, He who will be mighty ones.” And so we have argued that only when this is an accomplished fact will Exodus 6:7 be fulfilled, “I will be to you Elohim: and ye shall know that I am Yahweh your Elohim…” For this reason Israel was taken out of Egypt, and with them God has been working for centuries to the end that they might be taken to Him for a people,and established as His kingdom to be ruled over by the saints, the Elohim or mighty ones, in whom Yahweh will manifest Himself on Israel’s behalf.

As we have before remarked (No.2 page 56) the word Elohim is plural. Sometimes it denotes angels, or,to be more correct, God as manifested in the angels, but Yahweh Elohim (even when this name is s oken by angels) proclaims a future manifestation in members of the human race, or t is is God’s memor­ial “for a generation of the race” (Exodus 3:15), which generation we have seen to be the saints (See No.3 page 92 etc.).

The Firstborn

We have seen the importance of the work of Jesus in the outworking of this purpose which was revealed in God’s name. The manifestation of Yahweh in many sons comes in consequence of the work of the firstborn. Although Jesus manifested the Father to absolute perfection in the days of his flesh, it seems to me that he was not Elohim in the fulness of that word until his resurrection, for it was then that he became the Son of God with power (Romans 1:4) which is the basic idea behind the word Elohim. Although we cannot be certain about this, it would appear to be a reasonable assumption that Thomas also came to this conclusion when, in John 20:28, looking at Yahweh manifested in the Son, he declared, “My Lord and my God,” presumably using the Hebrew “Yahweh Elohim.” He looked on Jesus and recognized that here was a manifesta­tion of the Father (who was one Mighty One) in the Son (who was another Mighty One), and therefore he could speak of this manifestation as Mighty Ones, or Elohim.

Many Sons

As we have so often said in these studies, Christ is the first of many sons to be brought to glory and the Elohim of the Yahweh Name were to be a generation of the race. Joel speaks of the deliverance of Israel by certain mighty ones when he says:

“Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, 0 Yahweh” (Joel 3:11).

The Hebrew word here rendered’ mighty ones’is not Elohim but Gibborim, but the work of Yahweh through these mighty ones is also spoken of in verse 17 –

“So shall ye know that I am Yahweh your Elohim dwelling in Zion,my holy mountain.”

The 35th chapter of Isaiah speaks of this time when the promised glory will be revealed in the many sons: “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon: they shall see the glory of Yahweh, the excellency of our Elohim” (vv. 1 & 2 R.V.). This revelation of the glory of Yahweh will only be accom­plished, as Joel has shown us, by Yahweh roaring out of Zion manifest in His mighty ones, and so the prophet proceeds to say in verse 4, “Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold,your Elohim will come with vengeance, even Elohim with a recompense; he will come and save you.”

Thus the name Yahweh Elohim speaks of the future manifestation of God in the saints, all of them sons of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.

(2) Yahweh Roee (Psa.23:1)

The idea of God as a shepherd is one that frequently finds expression in the Scriptures. In Psalm 78 we read, “He made his own people to go forth like sheep,and guided them in the wilderness like a flock” (verse 52), speaking of His care for Israel at the exodus in Psalm 80 we read, “Give ear, 0 Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth” (v.1), – this being a reference to the way in which the camp set out with the ark (God’s presence) in front of the tribe of Ephraim, as they journeyed through the wilderness. The Hebrew word for shepherd means to feed sheep and denotes the act of providing for the needs of the flock. This God was always willing to do, and,because He could not directly communi­cate with men, He raised up men to perform the duties of shepherd on His behalf so that in I Chron. 17:6 we read of “the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed, (i.e. shepherd) my people, saying, Why have ye not built me an house of cedars: David was one such shepherd of whom it is written that, “he chose David also his servant, and took him from among the sheepfolds: and following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed (shepherd) Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he fed (shepherded) them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands”

(Psalm 78:70-72). For the most part the shepherds of Israel performed their work indifferently and of them it was said, “Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not (shepherd not) the flock” (Ezekiel 34:3). Notice incidentally verse 11 where God speaks of Israel as “my sheep.”

Because of the failure of God’s representatives, Israel was so often “like sheep not having a shepherd.” But this would not always be the case,for the days would come, as Ezekiel 34 proceeds to tell us, when “I will save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle. And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd… And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord Yahweh” (verses 22, 23, 31).

Thus we have in the Scriptures the clear teaching that Israel was Yahweh’s flock – they were His sheep. Secondly, He was their Shepherd,and thirdly, it was His purpose to raise up a shepherd in the house of David (of whom God had said, “I will be his Father, and he shall be my Son”) who would shepherd them faithfully. It is this purpose of God to manifest Himself toward Israel as a shepherd which is referred to in the name Yahweh Roee.

The Firstborn Shepherd

This purpose of God to manifest Himself in the descendants of David as the shepherd of Israel was indicated in the 49th chapter of Genesis. “His bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty God (Hebrew ‘abir’) of Jacob” (verse 24). And concerning this Mighty One of Jacob it is said, “From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel.” Thus we see that the shepherd would have his origins in the Mighty One of Jacob. Micah referring back to these ancient prophecies of the coming of the shepherd of Israel says, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” The “goings forth” of Messiah here refers to the ancient promises concerning him, such as Genesis 49, and Micah proceeds to say concerning this one who would arise out of Bethlehem, “He shall appear and be their shepherd in the strength of Yahweh, in the majesty of the Name of Yahweh His God”(verse 4,N.E.B.),

Thus the one who would arise in Bethlehem, the city of David, would be a shepherd to Israel in the strength of Yahweh. In this connection Zechariah 13 is interesting,for this passage also clearly has reference to Messiah,being quoted of him in Matthew 26:31 and applied to his crucifixion; and it is interesting to note the description given here of Yahweh’s shepherd: “Awake, 0 sword against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith Yahweh of Hosts” (verse 7). The word “man” is the Hebrew ‘gibbor’, which means a strong one,and is the same word rendered in Isaiah 9:6 ‘Mighty God’ (El Gibbor). “My fellow” in the quotation is the Hebrew ‘amith’, a word that implies fellowship and equality. It would appear in John 10 that Jesus is referring back to this prophecy of the smiting of the shepherd when he says, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” In verse 16 of the same chapter he refers to the bringing of the Gentiles into the purpose of God and he says, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also must I bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” Still speaking of his shepherd ministry, he says in verse 25, “The works that I do in my Father’s Name, they bear witness of me.”

Thus he performed his work as a shepherd in his Father’s Name, and it is against this background that he proceeds to say in verse 30, “I and my Father are one,” and from the context it cannot be donied that he is speaking of this work of a shepherd. His shepherding work was done in his Father’s Name; he and the Father were one shepherd. Jesus was God’s shepherd,”the man my fellow” mani­festing to perfection God as shepherd of Israel.

Yahweh Roee was thus fulfilled in Christ. “He will be my shepherd” became by manifestation the shepherd of the one fold and performed the work of a shepherd even to the extent of giving his life for the sheep. The 23rd Psalm is thus the personal expression of faith of everyone of the fold of whom Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).

Messiah’s Future Shepherd Ministry

But Yahweh my shepherd reaches out to the future, too, as we have seen, for says the prophet, “I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd” (Ezekiel 34:23). Isaiah too declares, “Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young ” (Isaiah 40:10 and 11). And,finally,on this point Jeremiah says, “Hear the word of Yahweh, 0 ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock” (Jeremiah 31:10).

Many Shepherds

But there is something exciting here. We have seen in our consideration of the purpose of God revealed in His Name, that there was to be an initial manifestation in one styled”the firstborn”, and the subsequent manifestation in the many sons brought to glory – the generation of the race. And so it is in the development of the purpose of God revealed in the name Yahweh Roee. When the Scriptures which we have quoted above are fulfilled, then the One Shepherd will be manifested not only in His son, but in a family of men and women, and it is concerning these that the prophet speaks when he says, “And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith Yahweh” (Jeremiah 23:3 and 4). And again, “Turn, 0 backsliding children, saith Yahweh; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: and I will give you pastors (Hebrew’shepherds’) according to mine heart, which shall feed (Hebrew ‘shepherd’)you with knowledge and understanding” (Jeremiah 3:14 and 15).