REVIEW
 
So we have been studying the Names of God for a couple of months now, which all has been aimed at helping us know Him better and, therefore, it helps us to approach God better. So no, we are not studying this just simply to accrue more knowledge in our heads but to grow in a more personal & intimate knowledge of Him. 
 
The title we gave this series is “Hallowed Be Your Name” because this is how the Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray – by first recognizing His Name. I made the point that this evidently is a big part of our prayer life because if one does not truly know the One they are praying to, it can hurt their faith and level of confidence when presenting their requests to Him. However, as Daniel 11:32 says, the people who know their God will be strong and do great exploits. And that certainly applies to prayer. Amen?
 
Now you might question how knowing God’s Names can affect us so much, but in Bible times, the names of people, places, and things taught you a lot about the one you were referring to. Likewise, with God, His Names reveal to us who He was, who He is, and who He forevermore shall be. In other words, His Names reveal to us His nature, who He is at His core, and what we can count on Him always being.
 
So we’ve looked at several Names of God so far, beginning with the first name we see Him called – Elohim, which describes Him as the All-Powerful, All-Knowing Sovereign Creator who rules over all!
 
We then learned that Elohim needed a little more specific description, so there were several names given to it like El Shaddai, El Elyon, and El Roi.
 
We then turned our attention to the most accurate Name for God, the Name, Yahweh. We saw how this name describes God as the Great I AM, the self-existing One and the one who was and is to come. Through this Name, the LORD essentially says, “I AM” and we would say, “The LORD IS.” Yes, this Name basically invites us and even teases us to know Him better by leaving an open-ended sentence of who He is.
 
So then we saw how through this Name Yahweh (which is commonly known as Jehovah in our English-speaking Bibles) He began to reveal Himself more specifically to His chosen people and answer that question – Who is He?
 
So we then learned about Jehovah Shammah –The LORD is there. From this, we learned how God’s nature is to be faithfully present with His people.
 
Then we looked at Jehovah Rapha – the LORD is our Healer. So we learned that this describes the LORD as the One who heals and wants His people healthy.
 
We then looked at the Name of God, Jehovah M’Kaddesh, which means “The LORD is our Sanctifier.” In its simplest terms, this means that the LORD is the One who separates or sets apart something to make it different and special.
 
And then last week, we looked at what is the most often used Name of Yahweh in the Scriptures, the Name Jehovah Sabaoth. We saw that is where we get that familiar phrase “The LORD of hosts” from in the Scriptures and then we looked at what these hosts are that He is LORD over. The Scriptures describe all of His creation as part of His hosts like the stars in the heavens, the birds of the air, the fish in the sea, etc. His heavenly hosts are also included such as His army of angels, but His hosts also refer to man and the people He has put on this planet to execute His will. So we learned from this that the LORD certainly likes to use others to accomplish His purposes, and those “hosts” that He uses are to operate in rank & file, in unity and as one.
 
JEHOVAH ROHI
 
Now the next Name of God that I feel led to share on is one that is certainly appropriate for what we are doing here at HPC today. I want us to look at the Name, Jehovah Rohi, the LORD our Shepherd.
 
Now Jehovah Rohi is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible like some of His other Names, but it’s derived from a combination of two biblical words used in the 23rd Psalm, one of the most famous and beloved passages in the Old Testament.
 
King David begins this Psalm with, “The Lord is my Shepherd” (See Psalm 23:1).  
 
So the first three words we see here are “The LORD is …”, and this is the Hebrew word Yahweh. Like we’ve learned, Jehovah is a variant of this divine name Yahweh, which is often translated as “LORD.” And as we’ve also seen, Yahweh/Jehovah literally can be translated as “The LORD is” and describes the Great I Am, the Self-Existing One.
 
But the next two words – “… my Shepherd” – come from the Hebrew word rohi (derived from the Hebrew root ra’ah). This verb encompasses the actions and responsibilities of a shepherd, such as guiding, caring for, feeding, and protecting his sheep.
 
Therefore, when the Psalmist declares, “The Lord is my shepherd,” it conveys the idea that God fulfills the role of a loving, caring, and protective Shepherd in the lives of His people. And since this is a Name of God, it indicates that God’s core nature is that of a Shepherd.
 
Now it is easy to understand where this Psalm’s author got his inspiration from: King David of Israel had himself been a shepherd as a young man, caring for his father’s flocks. So he knew from personal experience how vitally important it is to the safety and well-being of the sheep to have a good shepherd who would care for them even if it meant putting himself at risk or hardship. As we learn in First Samuel 17:34-36, David killed both a lion and a bear that were attacking his flock.
 
Now we will get back to the 23rd Psalm, but I did want you to know that it is by no means the only picture in the Bible of the LORD as being our Shepherd. Yes, references to Jehovah Rohi are sprinkled throughout the Scriptures and this idea of God himself being the Shepherd of Israel and his people comes from deep within the Old Testament, from the first family to the latter prophets. Here are a few examples:
 
Isaiah 40:11 says, “He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young.”
 
Jeremiah 31:10 says, “…‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’”
 
Ezekiel 34:11-12 says, “For thus says the Lord God: ‘Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day.”
 
Psalm 100:3 says, “… We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”
 
Now unfortunately, just as sheep do not always follow their shepherd and wander off, we, too—God’s sheep—have failed to follow Him. We often wander away. Therefore, the Bible says in Isaiah 53:6 – “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
 
So from just this handful of Scriptures, we can clearly see what David said in Psalm 23:1 – that the LORD is indeed our Shepherd, our “Rohi.”
 
WHAT A SHEPHERD DOES
 
Now a lot of times what I like to do when discovering the meaning of certain Hebrew or Greek words is I like to look at how these words are translated the most. And I believe that would be a good practice here with rohi …
 
Did you know that even more than “Shepherd,” the original King James Version translates the word rohi as “feed”? So this shows me that one of the most important responsibilities of a shepherd is to feed his or her sheep.
 
Isn’t this some of the first things we see David describing that the Lord our Shepherd does for His sheep in the 23rd Psalm? He begins with saying, “… I shall not want.” (Psalm 23:1).
 
This reminds me of what David said in Psalm 34:9-10 – “Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger;
But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.”
 
Notice the comparison between “no want” and to a young lion lacking and suffering hunger. So to me, not “wanting” would definitely include being fed and not lacking the nourishment needed.
 
Psalm 23:2 goes on to describe how our Good Shepherd “makes us to lie down in green pastures and leads us beside the still waters.” Now this wasn’t just for peace & rest. How many of you know that those green pastures were to feed on and not just sleep on? Also, those sheep weren’t being led by the still waters to go sightseeing but to drink from.
 
So in the 23rd Psalm, we are seeing that the first things that the LORD our Shepherd does for us is make sure we are fed.
 
Now when it comes to us, His sheep, we are not just referring to physical food. We are also talking about spiritual food. And we know Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
 
So God’s Words are our manna! Yes, His Words – both the logos and the rhema – are our spiritual nourishment and what feeds our souls. Therefore, the LORD our Shepherd desires to feed us His spiritual food, being our teacher & preacher.
 
Now the first time we see this Hebrew word rohi used is in the story of Cain & Abel when in Genesis 4:2 we have described to us what these two brothers did. It says, “Then she (Eve) bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.”
 
It’s interesting that the word “keeper” is used here instead of shepherd because it reveals to us one of the primary responsibilities of a shepherd – to “keep” them (i.e. to protect them).
 
Isn’t the LORD described this way? As a keeper and protector? Oh yeah, He is certainly described over and over again as our shield, refuge, fortress, and strong tower. Time and time again the LORD is said to be the keeper of His sheep.
 
THE LORD IS MY PASTOR
 
Guess how else this Hebrew word rohi is translated? It’s also translated as “pastor.”
 
Now I’m sure some of you know this already, but this New Testament office that Jesus has gifted to His church of pastor literally describes a Shepherd. In fact, that’s the primary way that pastor is defined in our New Testament.
 
Now what is a pastor supposed to do? We are there to tend to God’s flock. We are there to feed His lambs and tend His sheep. This is what the Lord told Peter in John 21 when He asked him those three times if Peter loved Him. Jesus told Peter to “feed My lambs, tend my sheep, and feed my sheep.” So while this is not everything a true pastor does, it certainly is the primary thing.
 
Well, the Lord is the ultimate pastor! When our pastors drop the ball, mess things up, aren’t led & inspired by the Holy Spirit in what they say / teach, etc., God doesn’t. He is the perfect pastor and the One we should ultimately look to when it comes to our spiritual lives.
 
I say this because there are a lot of Christians out there who look to man for all their spiritual needs. Yes, they depend on their pastor to be their source of revelation. They look to the evangelist to bring people into the kingdom. They rely on the prophets to hear from God for them. But the fact is – David said that the LORD is my shepherd.
 
So you could translate this as David saying, “The LORD is my pastor.”
 
Now of course this does not mean that the LORD doesn’t give us pastors after the flesh and that He doesn’t use people to feed, keep, and tend to our needs. But my point is that you never put your faith and hope in flesh. We are all fallible and capable of missing it. We can let you down. But God is incapable of missing it and letting us down. He is faithful! Remember that!
 
You see, there are many Christians that like to put their “pastor” (or as some say, their “preacher”) up on a pedestal and either view them as a hireling who is there to do their bidding and come running every time they snap their fingers, or as the one that they hear from God through and the one that does their praying for them. Both of these mentalities are wrong.
 
A pastor is not there to hear God for you, to be the one who is always praying for you. I spent my first (close to) 4 years here developing a culture that we are not a one man show. You can believe God yourself. You can pray for others. You don’t need someone to hear from God for you. You are blessed. You are called. You are also in the ministry. My job is to simply equip and encourage you to go do the work of the ministry. Amen?  
 
Now don’t hear what I am not saying here. Robert and I are here to help, counsel and pray for you guys. We all at different times in our life need someone to hold our arms up when we are weak and weary, like Moses in the battle with Amalek (Exodus 17:11-12). My point is simply this: we do not want to live year after year, decade after decade, running to the pastor or even someone else every time we have a spiritual or natural need. As we learned last week, God has said that we all shall know Him from the least to the greatest. We all have a direct line with God and can pray and believe Him for ourselves. So, next time you have a need, don’t be so quick to run to the phone; first run to the throne – the throne of grace, that is. Amen!   
 
You see, if the Lord is my pastor, then that means I am to be taught of Him and He is my counselor and my comforter. Amen.
 
Again, this does not mean that you don’t need teaching from a man or woman, and it doesn’t mean that you don’t ever need counsel from someone other than God. Don’t get into either of these ditches. It just simply means that we need to go to God first – knowing that He is our Chief Shepherd. Amen?
 
First Peter 5:4 calls Jesus this when it says, “When the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.”
 
THE GOOD SHEPHERD
 
Now I’d like to tie this up today by looking at how Jesus specifically described Himself as this Jehovah Rohi and what our Chief Shepherd does for His sheep – John chapter 10.
 
But before we focus in on those verses, I did want to make sure we understand that John chapter 10 is certainly not the only passage that reveals to us that Jesus is our Shepherd.
 
In Matthew 18:12-13 Jesus said, “If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.” Luke 19:10 specifically tells us that He seeks and saves the lost like this.
 
So there is obviously a lot that points to Jesus having a shepherd’s tendencies, but it is important that we go over to John chapter 10 and look at the section of Scriptures where our Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself as our good shepherd …
 
As we read this parable in John chapter 10, it becomes clear that Jesus is revealing Himself as not only our shepherd, but also as the door that the sheep enter in and out by. The premise of this parable is to show how our Lord is the shepherd as opposed to the hirelings – the thieves and robbers – that have come before Him.
 
The context of this parable is not my point as much as the characteristics that our shepherd possesses, because He reveals in this parable some wonderful attributes that we should take heed to. 
 
In verse 11, when Jesus reveals Himself as the Shepherd He described in this parable, He doesn’t just say He is any old shepherd – rather He says, “I am the good shepherd!” and goes on to describe Himself as the Good Shepherd who gives His life for the sheep.
 
Now there are a lot of things that make the Lord a “Good” Shepherd, but nothing trumps this one point – that He died for us that we might live! In other words, He gave His life for His sheep. Amen!
 
Now we acknowledge the fact that Jesus died for us and that the Father did not spare Him so that we might live. However, I think what Christians have failed to reconcile is that if the Father gave up His only begotten Son for us, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? (See Romans 8:32) Amen?
 
In other words, if He was willing to give us His very best – the Only Begotten of the Father – then why would we doubt that He would give us anything else we needed? That would be like me sacrificing Levi for you and then you doubting that I would help you pay your power bill. No, if I would give up my son for you, then I would most certainly be willing to give you things of much less value. Amen? He wants to take care of every area of our lives, and He has made the provision for this.
 
Jesus said in Luke 12:32, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
 
Here, Jesus was establishing our hearts in a very important truth – that the reason we do not need to fear or worry about our needs being met is because it is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom!
 
Now a very important point here is how He referred to us as His “little flock.” Little flock of what? Of His sheep, of course! Now a flock of sheep was not a band of pets. You realize that, right? Back then a flock was a business! So God sees you as His business, and He is not about to let His business fail.
 
All this rests on the fact that we must trust God - to hear Him, to know Him, to receive from Him.
 
THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD. THEREFORE…
 
But I want you to notice that in John chapter 10, there are some specific promises given to the Good Shepherd’s sheep and these are, therefore, things we can count on the Lord our Shepherd doing for us … 
 
Notice in verse 3 that Jesus says that His sheep:

1. Hear His voice.
2. Are called by name.
3. Are led by Him.

 
So, here we have three awesome promises of the Lord being our Shepherd:
 
HE KNOWS MY NAME
 
Let’s start with the fact that His sheep are called by name …
 
In verse 14, Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.” So again, we see the importance of knowing the Lord like we discussed last week. But I want you to notice that here we see the flipside of this: While it is certainly important to know that the Lord is not just our Shepherd, but that He is my own personal Shepherd, it is also important to know that our Shepherd knows us individually and specifically. So not only can we know His name; He knows our names too!
 
Isn’t that just awesome that our Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, knows His own sheep and calls them by name. Friends, that is a personal relationship. He knows who I am individually and who you are personally. He knows our names – which is not just knowing that we are Joe, Mary, etc.; it is knowing our personality, character, etc. He knows everything there is to know about us! Hallelujah!
 
This is so super important to understand because it creates confidence in God – that He knows who I am, what I need, what I like, etc., etc., etc. He knows me and, therefore, will not leave me hanging! Amen!
 
So we can see that the LORD wants us to know His Name, yes. But He knew our name first. Glory!
 
HEARING AND KNOWING HIS VOICE
 
In this passage, we also see that Jesus said that His sheep hear. In verse 4, He goes as far as saying that they know His voice. Therefore, if the Lord is our Shepherd we can rest in the fact that we hear and know His voice.
 
Now I understand that many Christians struggle with this, saying things like – “I just don’t feel like I hear from God.” Well, I believe a big reason for this is because many born again, Spirit-filled Christians have a serious misconception as to how God speaks to us.
 
When I hear this doubt in Christians that they can hear God, what I want to tell them is – If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you do indeed hear from God! Yes, you already do hear from God! How do I know this, you ask? I base that on these very Scriptures in John chapter 10. So, if Jesus – the Lord, our God – says that we hear His voice, shouldn’t we come into agreement with Him and start believing that we hear His voice? Of course, we should!
 
But you will hear believers cite their own experiences saying, “But I don’t hear His voice! I have asked and sought to hear from God, but I just don’t hear anything.” This is when we must base our belief system upon the foundation of His Word. As the apostle Paul said in Romans 3:4 – “Indeed, let God be true and every man a liar.” In other words, if our experiences and testimonies conflict with what God said in His Word, then those things are a lie in comparison. Saints, God’s Word is absolute truth. So, if He says here that we hear His voice, then we hear His voice, whether we feel like we do or not. This is one of the cornerstones of hearing from God – faith that we hear Him!
 
You see, we get what we expect from God (based on what He has spoken and promised to us). Things that God has provided are only going to be fully manifested in our lives as we actively put our hope in those promises and mix our faith with them. Everything from our initial salvation to hearing His voice is fully realized through our faith and hope – our confidence and expectation of them. So, we need to start believing and confessing that we do hear from God for He has said that His sheep hear and know His voice!
 
But someone will say, “Well, maybe I do hear something, but my big problem is that I do not know when what I am hearing is God or the devil, the Lord or myself.” I am glad you made that point because notice again what our Lord said… He said in verse 3 that His sheep hear His voice, but at the end of verse 4 He said that we know His voice! That means that not only do we hear from God, but we know when what we are hearing is God.
 
But in my experience, the general problem here is us: It is not that God is not speaking; it is us who are not hearing correctly.
 
A good example of all of this is that just as there are signals being transmitted in the air all around us right now – radio frequencies and television signals – there are also spiritual messages being transmitted in the atmosphere around us right now. But how many of you know that it would be ridiculous for one to say that they don’t believe that there are these signals and frequencies in the room with us right now just because they don’t see or hear them?
 
So, regarding this example, you can tell some people this and they might counter by saying – “I don’t hear spiritual frequencies and I don’t see these spiritual signals.” Well, it might not be that it is the transmitter that is broken; it might be that the problem is with their receiver!
 
You see, all of these unseen programs are being constantly broadcast, but if you do not have a receiver of some sort, you will be oblivious to them and won’t see or hear anything. And it is like that with all of those spiritual realities that we are promised exist. Friends, there is a spiritual world around us right now that actually is more real than this natural world we live in. Why? Because the spiritual world parented this natural world. All things were made by the things unseen (Hebrews 11:3).
 
That’s what faith does – It believes that the things that are made were created by unseen things. This verse teaches us an incredible lesson – that the Word of God was the parenting force that created all the things which are seen. And, bless God, you can bet the bank that it still works this way today! God’s Word can bring to reality in the natural realm things that are already a reality in the spiritual realm. The mirror of God’s Word reflects what is seen in God’s world. (Example of Elisha and his Servant, 2 Kings 6:17)
 
So, you see, it’s already there and we are not trying to get God to do something that He has not already done. No, we are simply positioning our receiver to hear and see what He has already done. Amen! And this certainly pertains to this promise of hearing God’s voice …
 
But I personally believe that the reason that many people’s hearing of God’s voice is so fuzzy is because they simply have not learned how He is communicating to us.
 
That is where this third and final benefit of our Good Shepherd comes in – He leads us …
 
Let’s look at a couple of passages that clearly indicate that we do hear from God and know His voice … 
 
AS MANY AS ARE SHEEP = AS MANY AS ARE LED
 
Let’s now look over at Romans 8:14 at another passage of Scripture that verifies my point that God’s children do hear His voice. Romans 8:14 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
 
Many will read this and say something like – “Oh, well, I better start being led by the Spirit of God so that I can become a child of God.” No, it is actually saying the opposite - It is saying that the by-product of being a child of God is that you are led by the Spirit of God.
 
Now I have heard some try to make a distinction here saying that being led by the Spirit requires great maturity - thus the reason Paul refers to the phrase “sons of God” like these believers are the grown-up ones, but I disagree with this mainly because Paul uses the terminology “children of God” and “sons of God” interchangeably. You can look down at verse 16 and see where he uses the term “children” and in Galatians 3:26 says, “For we are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”
 
No, I see all of this as an excuse of why more people are not led by the Spirit. And whether you were just saved yesterday or 50 years ago, you can be led by the Spirit of God just the same. In fact, I believe many baby Christians are able to be led better than Christians who have been saved for a long time because their hearts are more soft, pliable and sensitive to His direction – not being hardened by the constant friction of not walking in the light that they have. 
 
But notice again that the Bible tells us that the sons (or daughters) of God are led by the Spirit of God … Not can be led, not should be led, but are led! This verse is basically equating “as many” who are led by the Spirit to “as many” are the sons and daughters of God. Therefore, if we are God’s children we are led just as if we are God’s sheep and we do hear His voice. So, again, we need to get into agreement with God and start believing and expecting to be led by the Spirit of God.
 
So the LORD indeed is our Shepherd. He tends, keeps and feeds us like a good shepherd cares for his sheep. He knows each of us by name, we hear and know His voice, and we are led by Him. We can count on Him to take care of us, church.

REVIEW
 
So we have been studying the Names of God for a couple of months now, and we are approaching this study with how knowing & understanding His Names has so much to do with how His people approach Him.
 
We have entitled this series “Hallowed Be Your Name” because this is how the Lord Jesus taught His disciples how to approach their Heavenly Father in prayer. So we learned that this is evidently one of the most important ways to come to know Him, through His Names.
 
And the reason for this is because, in Bible times, the names of people, places, and things taught you a lot about the one you were referring to. Likewise, with God, His Names reveal to us who He was, who He is, and who He forever more shall be. In other words, His Names reveal to us who He is at His core, what His nature is, and what we can count on Him always being.
 
So while we began with the more general term for “God” (the Hebrew word Elohim), we saw that it’s important that we allow the Lord to take us beyond just simply knowing Him as the Creator, the All-Powerful, Sovereign One that the general population knows Him as. So, we moved on to seeing His primary Name – Yahweh – and how this Name reveals Him as the Existing One and as more relational than most see Him. Through this Name, the LORD essentially says, “I AM” and we would say, “The LORD IS.” Yes, this Name basically invites us and even teases us to know Him better by leaving an open-ended sentence of who He is.
 
So then we saw how through this Name Yahweh (which is commonly transliterated Jehovah in our English-speaking Bibles)  He began to reveal Himself more specifically to His chosen people and answer that question – Who is He?
 
So the first “Jehovah” Name of God that we looked at was Jehovah Shammah, which means “The LORD is there” and thus denotes – Yahweh is present. So we saw that this Name of Yahweh reveals God’s nature to always be there and present with His people. We then looked at a lot of Scriptures that echo this part of His Person where we learned that God is our ever-present help in a time of need and that He has promised to never leave or forsake us. Yes, God is faithful – God the Father always being the same, Jesus always being true, and the Holy Spirit always being there.
Then we looked at another Name of Jehovah – the Name Jehovah Rapha – and we learned that this describes the LORD as the One who heals and wants His people healthy. We looked at a ton of Scriptures that reveal God’s heart to heal His people and be our Great Physician. So as I said, God’s in the healing business and He’s not planning on going out of business anytime soon! He was the children of Israel’s healer yesterday, He is the church’s healer today, and He will always be the One who heals His people tomorrow. 
 
Then last week, we looked at the Name of God – Jehovah M’Kaddesh – and we learned how this describes the LORD who sanctifies. This means that the LORD is the One who consecrates, dedicates, hallows (sound familiar?) or makes holy. In the simplest terms, it means to separate or set apart something to make it different and special.  
 
We looked at how God has “set apart” certain things like this such as

1. The Bible, calling it the Holy Bible in that it is a special Book that is unlike any other book.
2. The Sabbath, making it holy in that it is a special day set apart to God and unlike any other day of week.
3. The tithe, saying it is a special form of giving to the Lord because He said it is His.

 
I could go on and on with these examples, but the fact is, when God sets something apart, that makes it holy to Him and it is indeed special in His eyes. And we saw how that includes us because of the myriad of Scriptures in the New Testament that calls the church, a body of “saints.” So we looked at several verses that shows us how in Christ, we have been sanctified through the Holy Spirit, revealing to us that Jehovah M’Kaddesh is still all about making things holy.
 
JEHOVAH SABAOTH
 
Now the next “Jehovah” name of God that I want us to look at is probably one of the most often used ones – Jehovah Sabaoth (Saab-A-Oth)
 
This Name occurs more than 270 times in the Old Testament! Wow, that’s a lot of times for God to be called this, isn’t it? And you might be wondering – If this Name of His is used this many times in the Bible, how have I missed it? Well, that’s probably because what you’ve been seeing is the translation of it – Lord of hosts. Yes, when you see God referred to as the Lord of hosts, that is almost always a translation “Jehovah Sabaoth.”  
 
You see, the Hebrew word, sabaoth, literally describes a “host” or “multitude.” So when we put Yahweh together with Sabaoth, we get “The LORD is (In this case, the Lord of) hosts or a multitude.”
 
Various translations handle Jehovah Saboath in different ways: The NIV translates the name as “Lord Almighty.” The NLT has “the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” The NASB has the broader translation of the “Lord of armies.” And the NET has the even broader “Lord who rules over all.” All of these translations reflect the truth that the host or multitudes that He is over is a part of His might, His army, and what He rules through.
 
So let’s get a little more specific with this word “sabaoth” and answer the question – Who is this “host” that He is Lord of?
 
Well, the first thing that’s important to understand about the word “sabaoth” is that it’s most often used as a military term. Now it is by far translated “hosts” the most in the original King James Version, but it is also translated as “war” (41x), army (29x), battle (5x), and also as warfare, soldiers, etc. So we can clearly see that the majority of the times it is used, it is describing an army of some kind.
 
Now sometimes it is used to refer to an army of men (See First Samuel 17:45; Isaiah 13:4) and other times it is used to describe an army of angels or other heavenly hosts (See Psalm 148:2; First Kings 22:19). But sometimes it is just used to refer to the innumerable stars in the night sky (See Psalm 33:6; 103:20, 21).
 
But the important thing to understand about this Name for God is that whether it is referring to armies of men, multitudes of angels, or a host of stars, Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts, is the One who creates, calls, and commissions these people and things both on earth and in heaven. Yes, He is the Lord over these multitudes, both organizing and leading them.
 
Now the first time Jehovah Sabaoth appears in the Bible is in First Samuel 1:3 when we are told that Hannah’s husband, Elkanah, went up from his city annually to worship and sacrifice to the “Lord of hosts” in Shiloh. And then, verse 11 goes on to describe how childless Hannah, who wanted a son so badly and earnestly prayed that the Lord would grant her the desire of her heart. This verse says, “She made a vow and said, ‘O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life’.”
 
Now it is of great interest to me as to why these verses are the first time we see the phrase “the Lord of hosts” used: Perhaps its because this is how Samuel, the likely author of this Book of the Bible, saw the LORD. Maybe it’s because the Holy Spirit who inspired the author to call the LORD this was wanting us to see how the Lord’s kingdom operates.
 
I believe the latter is most likely: You see, the Books of First and Second Samuel are what chronicle a different season for Israel – the time where God began bringing more structure to His chosen people by giving them their heart’s desire for a king and establishing His kingdom, first through Saul, but mainly through David and his sons.
 
So the “Sabaoth,” the hosts or multitudes, that the LORD is Lord of could be a reference to His kingdom that He is establishing through his first couple of kings. Which teaches us something important …
 
Just as Samuel was given to the Lord by His mother, Hannah, in exchange for the blessing of giving her a son, the Lord of hosts looks for a people, whether that be a king or a priest, a prophet or just a regular man or woman, to be Lord over and who will do His will. We will get into this more momentarily.
 
Let’s now look at some of these other instances of “Lord of hosts” in the Scriptures to gain a clearer picture of those God is organizing or sending to fight for Him.
 
The first time we see the word sabaoth used by itself is in in the account of creation in Genesis 2:1. This verse says, “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.”
 
So “host” here is not used to describe any particular people, but of all of the “things” God created. So we can see that host is not always referring to entities, but sometimes to other created things like stars, trees, animals, etc. 
 
In First Samuel 17:45, it is in this Name that the young David took up Goliath’s arrogant challenge: This verse says, “Then David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.’”
 
Notice in this verse that David said he was coming at the giant in this specific name, Jehovah Sabaoth. And then he goes on to specifically describe who the Lord of hosts is – the God of the armies of Israel. So again we see the tie in of the word Sabaoth and armies, and we see that the army of Israel is the specific host David was referring to.   
 
Later on in David’s life, we see how Jehovah Sabaoth blessed Him and was backing him: “So David went on and became great, and the Lord of hosts was with him.” (First Chronicles 11:9). So because the LORD of hosts was backing Him, it increased David’s influence and the ground he was taking through God’s anointing.
 
Psalm 46:7 says something similar: It says, “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah” So because the Lord of hosts is with us, we don’t have to fear. We know we will be protected.
 
Psalm 103:20-21 shows us who these hosts are that are fighting for us: These verses say, “Bless the Lord, you His angels, Who excel in strength, who do His word, Heeding the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, You ministers of His, who do His pleasure.” So in these verses, we certainly see the LORD of hosts as the Lord over the heavenly hosts who excel in strength, do His word, and minister on His behalf, doing His pleasure. Hebrews 1:14 describes this host of angels as “ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation.”
 
So the host of angels, His ministers who do His pleasure, are sent forth to minister for us who have inherited salvation! Yes, they are watching over us to fight for and defend the children of God. Amen!
 
Now this name of God, the LORD of hosts, occurs mostly in the Prophets, especially in those speaking about the failure of Israel. It appears nearly 80 times in Jeremiah, 14 times in the 2 short chapters of Haggai, nearly 50 times in Zechariah, and 25 times in Malachi.
 
One of my favorites is found in Zechariah 4:6 where the LORD told Zerubbabel – “ ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
 
What the Lord was telling this man who had a tall task ahead of him to rebuild Jerusalem and its temple was that it wasn’t going to be by his “might” (that is, his collective strength of man-power, etc.) or by his “power” (that is, his own individual strength of his intellect and personal abilities), but it was going to be by the Spirit of God. And then by adding, “says the Lord of hosts,” I hear the LORD telling Zerubbabel – “But by My might and by My power because I AM the LORD of hosts!”
 
Finally, Malachi 3:17 (a verse I quoted last week) says, “ ‘They shall be Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘On the day that I make them My jewels.’ ”
 
This verse is obviously prophesying our Day when Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection will make us children of God, His pearls of great price and hidden treasures. And I also believe that we today are part of the “hosts” that He is Lord of.
 
SEEING THE LORD OF HOSTS
 
So who are the hosts over whom the Lord has authority? We’ve seen that His hosts involve all of His creation like the multitudes of stars in the heavens, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, etc. Yes, all of God’s creation is a part of His hosts and He will use them as necessary to see His kingdom come and will be done.
 
But it doesn’t stop there: We’ve seen that His hosts also include those in heaven like His angels and other spiritual beings surrounding His throne and inhabiting heaven. Therefore, Jehovah Sabaoth uses all of His spiritual hosts to accomplish His purposes as well. This is threaded throughout the Scriptures.    
 
But His hosts are not just spiritual entities. We’ve seen how His hosts are also described as His physical hosts such as the armies of Israel that He leads into battle and other armies of the nations He musters against His enemies.
 
I wonder how much our perspective would change if we saw this Name of God the way it is in truth. It would probably be like going from being Elijah’s servant in Second Kings chapter 6 who only saw the king’s horses and chariots surrounding the city to being Elijah who saw the horses and chariots of fire that the LORD of hosts had surrounding the mountain. His servant was freaking out because he could only see the “hosts” that were against them while Elijah was at peace because he saw the “hosts” who were more in numbers and strength and were there to protect them.
 
Yes, church, God’s people are always transformed when we recognize Jehovah-Sabaoth. It’s all a matter of perspective. It is a simple saying, yet there is a great deal of truth to it – small God, big problems: big God, small problems.
 
THE HOST ABOVE ALL HOSTS
 
Now I believe that there is some light we can gain about this Name of God by looking at how we primarily use the word “host” today.
 
So in our modern-day society, how do we primarily use the word “host”? It is used to describe “a person who receives or entertains guests socially, commercially, or officially” (Webster’s Dictionary). In layman’s terms, a host is someone who invites a person or people to maybe a party at their home, a meeting at their place of business, etc.
 
So the Lord is the Lord of Hosts – meaning, the Lord is all about Hosting. We see this throughout the Lord’s parables as He is described as a Man who threw a great dinner and invited many (See Luke 14:15-24), as the Father throwing a party in his house for His servants & sons (See Luke 15:22-27), etc. The LORD is the best host, and He sure knows how to throw a party!
 
But my point from these examples is that the LORD is obviously all about inviting others to be a part of what He is doing. Yes, He loves congregations! He delights in assemblies! He rejoices in family! Why? Because Love doesn’t like doing things alone. It loves to involve others – to bless them and let them be a part of something special.
 
Well, God, who is Love, is no different. The Lord of hosts obviously doesn’t just work alone. I think I’ve had this incorrect imagery of God – that since He doesn’t need anyone else to get things done, being the Almighty, All-Powerful Being that He is, that He doesn’t use anyone else. But how many of you know that’s not how the Lord of hosts operates? No, He uses others for His kingdom’s purposes.
 
For example, there are multiple verses that show us that when the Lord had enemies to defeat, that He would send angels to do His bidding. Oftentimes, He even used angels to deliver His Word to people. Did He have to do things this way? Couldn’t He simply move His pinky finger and defeat His enemies here on the earth? Couldn’t He just speak audibly to those He had a message for? Why use angels for these things? Well, I don’t believe it’s because He has to use angels. Rather, I believe it’s because He chooses to do things this way.
 
You see, there is a great misconception out there as to how the Lord operates: Consider the example of us as His creation and how He uses human beings. There is a very popular theology out there called the Sovereignty of God, and a big part of this doctrine teaches that God is in control and does whatever He wants to do. So if something happens to us, it was because God permitted it to happen for His purposes. This belief system goes as far as saying that everything – good or bad – that comes into our lives is a part of God’s sovereign plan.
 
Church, these things are simply not so. No, some things happen because the Lord has given man authority to do something about it and we didn’t. Yes, even evil is accomplished on this planet, not because God is allowing it, but because we yield ourselves to the flesh, sin, and satan. This is all part of God’s design when He created the heavens & the earth. He gave us dominion over His creation and told man to rule over this world that the Lord had given Him.
 
Psalm 115:16 says, “The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s; But the earth He has given to the children of men.”
 
So the earth is ours, not His – all because He chose to give it to us. Yes, ultimately, He is the owner of His creation, but He has essentially leased out this planet to mankind. Therefore, it is our responsibility to guard our garden, taking care of it both naturally and spiritually.
 
So I say all of this to say that God has chosen to not do it Himself, but to delegate His authority to us to handle. And this couldn’t be more true for the host that the Lord has redeemed, saved, and sanctified – the church of the Lord Jesus, the body of Christ. Yes, we are Christ’s representatives here on the earth, His delegated ambassadors called to occupy till He comes.
 
That certainly does not mean that He doesn’t use the hosts of heaven like angels to do things, but if you study the New Testament, you’ll find how the church is meant to work together with the armies of angels that God gives us to guard and protect us.
 
But one of the primary ways that God uses His “hosts” to get the job done is through unity. Yes, it’s through the body of Christ working together. Yes, it’s through His church being fitly joined together. This is what releases the power of heaven’s hosts to do the most damage to the kingdom of darkness.
 
Let me give you some examples from both the Old and New Testament to show how this works …
 
THE POWER OF UNITY
 
Psalm 133 says, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, Running down on the beard, The beard of Aaron, Running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon, Descending upon the mountains of Zion; For there the Lord commanded the blessing-- Life forevermore.”
 
Friends, this psalm is prophetically declaring that there is a corporate anointing for the body of Christ, and when we dwell together in unity – forgetting our cultural differences, putting aside our doctrinal differences, and laying down our pride and insecurities – for one common purpose and one common goal, that it is a good and pleasant thing! When we join together as the body of Christ, that oil of the Holy Spirit can then flow from one part to the next, from the top of the head down the edge of the garments. This is what happens when our Host has an assembling of His hosts!
 
So it is no wonder why Satan fights unity so much, right? It is because He fears the corporate anointing and he is afraid of a body of believers who might join together with one common goal. This is why you see church splits. This is why you see division in the community. And this is why you see such an escalation of divorce. It is because his number one goal is to divide! For a house divided against itself cannot stand.
 
Do you remember when Jesus was accused of casting out demons by Beelzebub? What was His response? He said that Satan cannot cast out Satan, for a house divided against itself cannot stand. In other words, you even see order in Satan’s camp. It is not perfect chaos. He has systematic order in his kingdom because he knows the power of operating in this way. Ephesians 6:12 shows us how, in his kingdom, he has ranks of demons: First, there are the principalities. Under them, there are the powers (or, authorities). Then comes the rulers of the darkness of this age and then the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Friends, he has order and each demon in his kingdom works according to their assignment and their position. 
 
Let’s turn over to Genesis chapter 11 and see an example of how Satan inspired an event called the Tower of Babel…
 
In Genesis chapter 11, we see the story of man called Nimrod and this man had a plan. He and his people decided they wanted to make a name for themselves. So they planned to build a tower that would reach to the heavens lest they be scattered across the earth. Well, God saw what they purposed in their heart to do and came down and divided their language because He said in verse 6, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.” That is a powerful statement! God basically said something similar that came out of the mouth of Jesus when He said that nothing shall be impossible for us. And why was there the prospect of this people accomplishing anything and nothing being impossible for them to do? It was because they were one! It was because all had one language! It was because they had tapped into a spiritual law that when a people become one and they pursue a common goal - with one mind, one mouth, and in one accord - nothing shall be impossible for them.
 
So if this is a true principle for Satan and the ungodly, how much more do you reckon this will work for the body of Christ!?! I guarantee you that if it works for them tenfold; it will work for us a hundredfold!
 
And, as a matter of fact, we’ve already seen it work in the Book of Acts! Turn over to chapter two…
 
Acts 2:1-3 says, “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord and in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues (that’s the only thing you will ever find divided in God’s kingdom), and one sat upon each of them. And then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
 
Friends, this is Psalm 133 fulfilled! When they gathered together in that upper room in one accord, the Holy Spirit – the Anointing Himself – came upon each one of this royal priesthood and took ordinary men and women and made them extraordinary! That oil was poured out on them and was mixed with those tongues of fire, and they became the light of the world. Hallelujah! They became that golden lampstand filled with oil and with fire at the wick to burn bright in this dark and perverse generation. But how did it all start? As they were in one place and in one accord!
 
Yes, saints, this is when the church was truly empowered and commissioned. It’s when it became the Lord’s army, His hosts that were capable of turning the world right-side up! It was, is, and evermore shall be the heart of Jehovah Sabaoth, our Lord Jesus Christ – to have a unified body that is one even as He and the Father are One. 
 
Lord, may these lamps burn bright for your glory! May these churches be golden lampstands in this community! May we be the lights of Middle Georgia! 

REVIEW
 
Church, it’s all about knowing Him! This is the simplicity of Christianity and if our pursuits in the faith are not wrapped up in this one thing, we might just be practicing religion and missing the boat.  
 
God has always just wanted to have a relationship with His creation. It is not about following a bunch of rules or just being good, moral people. There’s nothing wrong with some of those things, but at the foundation of our faith is the knowledge of God – that is, knowing Him personally & intimately and enjoying good fellowship with Him.
 
And I have come to find that one of the most meaningful ways of coming to know the LORD better is by studying His Names, because the name of a person represents their character, personality, and behavior. So if I want to know Him, then learning who He is becomes paramount.
 
So we started off looking at His first, general Name for “God”— the name Elohim – which is generally the first way we all come to know Him – as the all-powerful, sovereign, creator of the heavens and the earth whom we must give an account to in the future as our Ruler and Judge. However, we ought not stop there as so many of God’s children do.
 
We need to come to know ALL of His Names in order to have the complete picture of who He is revealed to us. So that’s why God revealed Himself to Moses and the children of Israel in a much more elaborate and detailed way than He did with the Patriarchs – So they could fully KNOW Him.
 
So this is where His Name Yahweh/Jehovah came in: The LORD said He wanted Israel to know Him this way. And that’s my desire as well!
 
So what we are spending the majority of our time doing in this series is focusing on the covenant-keeping, Jehovah names of God in the Old Testament – the Names He revealed Himself by to Israel. These are those Yahweh/Jehovah names of God that further amplify what our God is, was, and ever more shall be, our Lord who always keeps His covenant, and who will do what He promised for those He is in relationship with.
 
So the first “Jehovah” Name of God that we looked at was Jehovah Shammah, which is what the LORD revealed Himself as in Ezekiel 48:35.  
 
We learned that Jehovah Shammah means “The LORD is there” and thus denotes – Yahweh is present. So we saw that this Name of Yahweh reveals God’s nature to always be there and present with His people.
 
So we looked at a lot of Scriptures that echo this part of His Person where we learned that God is our ever-present help in a time of need and that He has promised to never leave or forsake us.
 
You see, church, God’s character is that of faithfulness, and being faithful means you are consistently there for the one’s you love. So the LORD’s nature is to always be present and there for us, the objects of His love. Which He took to another level under this new and better covenant that we have with Him because now Christ is in us, being with us even to the ends of the earth, and the Holy Spirit lives in the temple of our body to abide with us forever.
 
So Jehovah Shammah – the LORD is there and present – is most certainly a part of God’s nature and character from the beginning of the Bible to the end of it. 
 
Then last week, we looked at the Name He revealed to the children of Israel in Exodus 15:26, the Name Jehovah Rapha.
 
We saw that this Name literally described the LORD as the One who heals or make healthful – which is certainly a part of God’s nature when you consider the plethora of Scriptures that talk about God’s will to heal His people, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
 
But we also saw how “rapha” describes curing, mending, or repairing, and it was even the word used to describe a physician or doctor. So not only could we say that the LORD is our Healer, but we could say that the LORD is our Doctor! Yes, even Jesus was referred to as a Physician during His ministry – because He was doing what Jehovah Rapha does – healing, mending, curing, and repairing.
 
So we walked through the example of going to our doctors, and the process of getting help from them, because the LORD showed us that there are a lot of parallels there to how we receive from our Great Physician.
 
If you missed that, go back and listen to that study on the LORD being our healer because that is really important to Him – that He be your Divine Physician, and that you be made healed & whole.  Yes, God’s in the healing business and He’s not planning on going out of business anytime soon!
 
 
 
JEHOVAH M’KADDESH
 
Now the next Name of Yahweh that I want us to look at is His Name “Jehovah M’Kaddesh.”
 
This particular Name of God is used not once but twice in the Old Testament – both in Exodus 31:13 and Leviticus 20:8. We will look at both of these in a moment, but first, let’s look at what Jehovah M’Kaddesh actually means …
 
Of course, Jehovah comes from God’s Name of Yahweh, and as we’ve seen, it describes the Great I Am. So it means that the LORD IS this or the Lord IS that. Here, it means that the LORD IS He who “sanctifies.”
 
Now invariably you’ve heard the words “sanctify” or “sanctification” if you’ve been going to church for any length of time. Unfortunately, even though we are using Biblical words and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that, many church going people do not know what these words mean. So let’s define what it means to sanctify someone and thus learn what sanctification is.
 
The Hebrew word M’Kaddesh means to consecrate, to dedicate, to hallow (sound familiar?) or to make holy. In the simplest terms, to sanctify means “to separate or set apart.” So “sanctification” describes the act of consecrating, dedicating, making holy, and setting something apart – thus making it different and special.  
 
Now let’s take a look at the two times Jehovah M’Kaddesh is used because I believe these two examples help us to understand sanctification better …
 
The first time it was used is when the Lord spoke to Moses, giving him the Sabbath law for His people. And in Exodus 31:13, He said, “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.” So here we see that the LORD was saying that the keeping of His various Sabbaths was meant to be sign between Him and His people and that they would know that He is Jehovah M’Kaddesh … 
 
Now I think it is interesting that the LORD gave them this Name regarding them keeping the Sabbath. What does the Sabbath have to do with the LORD sanctifying His people?
 
Well, the Sabbath itself was blessed and sanctified, wasn’t it? Genesis 2:3 says, “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
 
So the LORD set this particular day apart. Doing what? Making it a “special” day, unlike the other six days of the week.
 
So in Exodus 31:13, I believe it relates to how their keeping the Sabbath made them different and special. Yes, that was not a normal way that the world did things. The world certainly doesn’t practice a Day of Rest where it rests from its labor and recognizes the One True & Living God for the abundance of everything He has blessed them with. Heck, no!
 
Well, the Sabbath made Israel special. It set them apart. It let the world know and was a sign that the LORD had dedicated and consecrated them as His own special people. Amen?
 
Now you’ll hear this as a common theme today, but it is important to understand that it is God doing this setting apart here in Exodus 31:13. The children of Israel did not first dedicate, consecrate, or separate themselves. It was God who did it to them.
 
Why is this important to understand? It’s because far too many of us, when we think of this idea of sanctification, think that this is what we do. WE set ourselves apart to the Lord. WE dedicate ourselves to Him. WE consecrate our lives to Him. And yes, these things are important things for us to do, but we ought not get the cart in front of the horse. What do I mean by that? I mean that when you study “sanctification,” God is the One who does it to us first, and then and only then, are we able to do it unto Him.
 
So in our first example, God calls Himself Jehovah M’Kaddesh. He is the One who set His people apart through the Sabbath because the Sabbath itself was a special day that the Lord set apart in the beginning.
 
Now in our other example of this Name of God, we do see the Lord telling His people to sanctify themselves, with the context being that the LORD was warning His people to not commit harlotry with the false of gods of the land.
 
In Leviticus 20:7 He says, “Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.” Then He tells them in verse 8 – “And you shall keep My statutes, and perform them: I am the Lord who sanctifies you.”
 
The idea of them being consecrated and set apart to Him in these verses was referring to not committing idolatry – which ultimately was viewed by God as spiritual prostitution.

So again, it’s about relationship with the Lord, and the fact that He has already sanctified His people shows that He, the Holy One, has set them apart for Himself, and therefore was dedicating Himself to them. Now, He is expecting His sanctified people to be holy and set themselves apart for Him.
 
So again, it starts with Jehovah M’Kaddesh being the LORD who sanctifies us and then ought to be reflected in our lives as well by us staying consecrated to Him. Amen? 
 
 
 
WHO IS THE SANCTIFIER?
 
So since the LORD is our Jehovah M’Kaddesh, the LORD who sanctifies, it is clear that God first does this work of sanctification in things. Let me give you a few verses that teach us this …
 
In the Old Testament, the LORD oftentimes reminded Israel that they were His own special people, His treasures that He had picked out for Himself. While these verses don’t specifically refer to “sanctification,” they imply it – for the LORD’s calling them out to be His own special treasure reveals God setting them apart for Him.
 
But when turning to the New Testament, we see how what Jehovah M’Kaddesh originally did for Israel has also been done for all who put their trust in Jesus Christ, His Son.
 
First Peter 2:9-10 say, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”
 
Again, this beautiful passage of Scripture clearly shows us that the sanctifying work that the LORD did for the children of Israel has been done for the Gentiles who are in Christ. Yes, we are now a chosen generation, His own elect! We are His royal priesthood, being His kings and priests! We are His holy nation, being made citizens of the kingdom of God! We are His own special people, His hidden treasure and pearls of great price!
 
Let’s look at some more Scriptures in the New Testament that show us this sanctifying work that He has done in us … 
 
Acts 26:18 – “to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.”
 
In recounting his testimony, the apostle Paul described what would happen for those who are converted. And among all of the things, he ends with those who are sanctified by faith in Me – showing us that this setting apart takes place as we believe on Jesus.
 
First Corinthians 1:2 – “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:”
 
So the apostle Paul refers to the Church at Corinth as those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus – not will be set apart, but ARE this way. Why? Because they are in Christ Jesus.
 
And that’s why He goes on to call them saints (a point we will revisit here shortly) …
 
First Corinthians 1:30 – “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption …”
 
Notice that Paul says here that Jesus became for us these things – righteousness, redemption, and sanctification. So it’s not you becoming sanctified for Him; He became that sanctification on our behalf.
 
First Corinthians 6:11 – “And such were some of you. (fornicators, adulterers, thieves, drunkards, etc. See verses 9-10) But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
 
So this verse implies that while we once were sinners – practicing all of these abominable things – since then, we were washed, justified, and sanctified – meaning, we were set apart when we were born again.
 
The Book of Hebrews likes to refer to this concept of sanctification …
 
Hebrews 13:12 – “Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.”
 
Hebrews 10:14 – “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”
 
Hebrews 2:11 – “For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,”
 
So how does this “sanctification” work? Sure, we’ve seen that it happens as we believe on Christ, but it happens through the Holy Spirit. Check out these verses …
 
Second Thessalonians 2:13 – “But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth,”
 
First Peter 1:1-2 – “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ:”
 
These verses show us that we become God’s elect / chosen ones in and through sanctification by the Spirit – meaning, it’s by the Holy Spirit’s work that this sanctification occurs.
 
So it is clear that Jehovah M’Kaddesh has accomplished this “sanctification” for all those who believe on His Son. Yes, sanctification comes by faith and is a product of a work of the Holy Spirit in us, not the other way around.
 
However, like we’ve touched on already, there is a responsibility of us living sanctified lives too. Yes, the Lord desires our walks to reflect what has taken place in us through Christ. And this goes for everything that Jesus has done for us: The Lord wants us to live righteous lives because we’ve been made righteous. He wants us to love because we’ve already been loved. He desires for us to live holy because He has already made us holy.
 
And while we are on the subject of sanctification, I want to remind you of what part of our definition was for sanctify – it also meant “to make holy.” So the LORD is the One who sanctifies and makes holy. This is why I can say He has already made us holy.  
 
Now when you hear the truth that He has already made us holy, is that tough to swallow? I know a lot of us have been taught differently – that we are the ones responsible for making ourselves holy. But what we are learning today is that God is Jehovah M’Kaddesh – the One who sanctifies us and makes us holy.
 
Let’s look back at the Old Testament and then ahead to the New Testament and see how the same thing that God did for Israel then is what He has done for His church now …
 
A HOLY PEOPLE
 
Let’s begin in the Book of Deuteronomy, particularly, Deuteronomy 7:6-8. I want us to look first in this passage of Scripture because I believe God’s heart in choosing the people of Israel to be His own, chosen people mirrors what God did for us in Christ Jesus. 
 
In these verses, God began to say to the children of Israel— “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth…”
 
Now, first of all, when He began by describing them as a “holy” people to Himself, we need to understand that He was not using this term “holy” like we do today. No, He was not saying that they were perfect, blameless, or flawless. The children of Israel were far from that! No, what he was saying is that they were different “to the Lord your God”—meaning, they were not like the other nations, but were special, different, and precious to Him.
 
For example, oftentimes in the Old Testament, you would see the Lord say that certain items like things in the Tabernacle, etc. were “holy” unto Him. He called the tithe as holy unto Him, so what that meant was that particular kind of giving was different, special and precious to the LORD.
 
Another good example is how the Word of God is called “The Holy Bible.” What that means is that it is a special Book, and not to be considered like just any other book out there. It’s different in that it is inspired by God and ought to be precious to us. Likewise, Israel is called God’s own special people and precious to Him. We see this in the rest of verse 6 when He said, “…the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.”
 
Now can you imagine how this must have made Israel feel? “We are special to God! We are His favorites among all the peoples on the face of the earth!” But this was obviously not because they deserved it either. God set them apart for Himself before all of their mistakes and flaws, and why? This verse says it was because He “chose” to choose them.
 
Notice what the Lord went on to say in verses 7-8— “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
 
You see, there are two very important things to understand in these two verses about God sanctifying Israel:

1. He said that He did not set His love on them or choose them because of how mighty and strong they were in terms of numbers. What this is saying is that the Lord does not choose people because they are strong, smart, talented, or worthy of being chosen in any way. No, He actually delights in choosing the weak, the poor, the dishonored, etc. In other words, one is not chosen because they are sufficient in themselves or because of their own abilities and work. It is all by His grace, and as He goes on to say, because of His love.
2. But He also said that He chose them because He was keeping His promise which He made to their fathers. In other words, the Lord is a covenant keeping God. If He swore an oath to someone, He will keep it no matter what. And the great news for us is that Father God’s covenant is now with His Son! So, now God will keep the covenant that He swore to His Son! Glory and hallelujah!

 
But here is another good example of how “holy” can also mean to be different and special: First Thessalonians 5:26 says to greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. Now how many of you know that you are not to go around kissing other Christians like you would kiss your wife!?! You better not come to this church kissing on people like you kiss your spouse. No, a holy kiss would obviously be both a pure and a different kind of kiss—meaning, it’s not like other kisses out there while at the same time being void of any impure motives.
 
Well, just like we have a “Holy Bible” and “holy kisses”—which are precious and pure things—God’s church is said to be holy and without blame before Him in love. That means that He views us, spiritually speaking, as “infallible, without error, precious and prized.” Yes, we are different, His own peculiar treasure, that is passionately loved by our Creator!    
 
Church, I believe this is the way the apostle Paul used this term “holy” in Ephesians 1:4 when he said that God chose us in Him “that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”
 
Now when we look at the terminology here, we can read it as saying that Jesus chose us in Christ so that someday we should become holy and without blame before God. But that is not what Paul was saying here. He was saying that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world so that we should, at the moment we receive Him, be holy and without blame before God. In other words, in Christ Jesus, we are holy and without blame at the moment we are born again and remain that way as we remain in Him. Amen! 
 
And notice how this verse says that we are holy and without blame before Him: You see, we might have a different opinion of ourselves, and others might have different opinions of us, but it’s not anyone else’s opinion that is important; it is God’s opinion that truly matters. And if He views us as “holy” (i.e. special, precious, different, and prized) and “blameless” (We will look at this in a moment) then that’s the way we are. Period. Amen?
 
SAINTS!
 
Now one of the ways that you know how someone views you is by how they refer to you. And when we look in the mirror of this new covenant that you and I are in with God, we see a term that is commonly used to refer to us—the word “saints.”
 
Of course, this term is used when someone like the apostle Paul was referring to one of his churches, but again, we need to take these references like “beloved, saints, etc.” like God is talking to us, as all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and these men were moved by the Holy Spirit to write the things they did. Therefore, when we see that we, as a body of believers, are referred to as “saints,” then I take that as how my Heavenly Father sees me.   
 
In fact, I have found that we as the body of Christ are referred to as “saints” over 50 times in the New Testament! (See Romans 1:7, 8:27, 12:13, 15:25-26,31, 16:2,15; First Corinthians 1:2, 6:1,2, 14:33, 16:1,15; Second Corinthians 1:1, 8:4, 9:1,12, 13:13; Ephesians 1:1, 1:15,18, 2:19, 3:8, 3:18, 4:12, 5:3, 6:18; Philippians 1:1, 4:21-22; Colossians 1:2,4,12,26; First Thessalonians 5:27; Second Thessalonians 1:10; First Timothy 5:10; Philemon 5,7; Hebrews 6:10, 13:24; Jude 3,14; Revelation 5:8, 8:3-4, 13:7,10, 14:12, 15:3, 16:6, 17:6, 18:24, 19:8, 20:9). That’s a lot! In fact, it is used many more times than the term “Christians, believers, etc.”—any of these other titles that we give ourselves today as followers of Christ. So, apparently, this is one of the predominant ways God sees us. Glory!
 
You know, the way that we generally use the term “saints” today is to either refer to old Christians or dead ones. That’s right—we like to call the elderly Christians who have lived somewhat “holy” lives this, and some also like to refer to the renowned Christians who did great things many generations ago this way too. But again, the Bible doesn’t share these same sentiments. Like we said, it refers to every born-again believer this way time and time again in the New Testament.
 
Now someone might then gravitate towards watering down the meaning of the word “saint” when they see it refers to every Christian, but it does essentially mean what we have believed it to mean. It comes from the Greek word hagios which literally means “holy ones.”
 
In fact, this word hagios is the very same word used to describe God’s “holy” law (See Romans 7:12), the “holy” apostles and prophets (See Ephesians 3:5), the “Holy” Scriptures (See Romans 1:2), the “Holy” Spirit (Romans 5:5), the “Holy One,” Jesus Christ Himself (See First John 2:20 & Revelation 3:7), and, yes, the Lord God Almighty Himself who has the hosts of heaven constantly declaring that He is “Holy, holy, holy!” So, do you know what that means? It means if we are His holy ones, then we are in the same boat with the rest of these other Most Holy things! 
 
Romans 11:16 gives us this same principle: “if the root is holy, then so are the branches.” We might say that, according to Jesus’ word in John chapter 15, if the Vine is holy, then the branches are truly holy as well!
 
Now I understand that there are those out there who might say, “Well, don’t the Scriptures say that we are to be holy even as He is holy? (See First Peter 1:16) Yes, but the context here specifically refers to being holy in all our conduct, and we need to understand that there is a big difference between our “who” and our “do.” No, I am not talking about your hairdo, but about your actions, conduct, etc. So, yes, there is a difference between who you are and what you do.
 
Speaking of hairdos, this is one of the very things some church people think makes someone holy—how they wear their hair. They take Scriptures like First Peter 3:1-6 and say, “See there, if you are going to be holy, then you can’t be fixin’ your hair, wearing jewelry or nice clothes.” No, no, no. That’s not Peter’s point here. He was not saying that a Christian should not wear nice clothes, put on jewelry, or wear makeup. Listen, if an old barn needs painting, paint it, bless God! Just don’t make your outward man your priority. So, what Peter was teaching them was that we shouldn’t “merely” be concerned with adorning our outward man—for its beauty is fleeting—but we should give our attention to what we are wearing on the inside for that is what is very precious in the sight of God. And I’ll tell you, the hidden man of our heart is what is important! It is to God and ought to be to us as well!
 
So, should we walk in holiness? Absolutely! We need to live lives that correspond with who we are in the spirit and reflect our holiness for all the world to see. What we should avoid, however, is basing our holiness on our actions. We are not holy because of what we do; we are holy because of what Christ has done. 
 
Let’s look at another verse in this Mirror that reflects the same truth, just in a different way:
 
 
 
WITHOUT SPOT OR WRINKLE
 
In the Book of Colossians, which is a mirror book to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Paul says, “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight - if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I Paul, became a minister.” (Colossians 1:21-23). What a powerful passage of Scriptures!
 
Now when Paul begins with the words “And you,” what he is doing is continuing along the lines of what he said in the prior verse about Jesus making peace through His blood and reconciling the world unto Himself. So, a good paraphrase of these truths might be: “Not only has God reconciled all things back unto Himself through Jesus Christ, He also has reconciled all of mankind that receive His Son Jesus Christ to Himself.” Glory to Jesus! This will become important when it comes to what he said next …
 
Paul goes on to say, “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works.” Notice that this says we “who once were.” That’s a far cry from “who now are.” But it sure doesn’t feel this way sometimes, does it? Sometimes those “wicked works” can leave us feeling in our minds like we are alienated from and enemies of God, can’t they? Yes, when we miss it and fall short of God’s glory, we are left feeling “alienated,” which literally means “to be excluded, separated, or foreign to.” This means that His life can feel “foreign” to us. Not only that, but we can even feel like God is hostile towards us.  
 
But I want you to notice where the core-root of this alienation from and hostility towards God was located— “in your mind.” In other words, what we experienced was a result of the way we were thinking and what we believed in our heart. So, what this means is that if it was our “stinking thinking” that led us away from God in the first place, then the renewing of our minds must be part of the process of restoring us back to God. In other words, if this alienation began in our minds, it is possible that we can continue to experience alienation in our flesh & soul until our thinking changes.
 
And I am telling you the truth, the majority of Christians who have been fully reconciled to God do not sense or experience that reconciliation, and they live their entire lives feeling like God is way up there somewhere and they are stuck way down here all alone. This ought not to be so, church! This verse goes on to say, “yet now He has reconciled.” Not, “yet in the future He will reconcile,” but “now He has reconciled.” Therefore, all who have put their faith in Christ have been and currently are reconciled unto God! Glory!
 
Once you renew your mind to that truth—when you own it as yours—then say goodbye to feeling like you are alienated from God and His enemy! Praise God! You will experience that peace that comes through His reconciliation!
 
Then notice the glorious truths of verse 22— “in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, blameless, and above reproach in His sight…” So, Jesus offered up His life as a sacrifice for our sins in order to present us to God like an offering that is holy, blameless, and above reproach in the sight of God!
 
Now we’ve already touched on this word “holy,” but let’s look at the other terms used to describe our reconciled condition in Christ …
 
The word “blameless” refers to being “faultless & without blemish”—like the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament were to be without blemish. In fact, this word “blameless” is the same word used in 1 Peter 1:19 to describe Jesus as the Lamb “without blemish” and without spot. Therefore, we have been presented to the Father like pure and spotless lambs because we are in the Lamb of God who is pure and spotless! That means we have no spots, no wrinkles, and are presented that way to our Holy Husband (Compare with Ephesians 5:26-27).
 
Notice the next words— “above reproach.” This literally means “not called in” (i.e. “not called to account”). This phrase describes being totally free from any charge being on our account. You see, not only are we made without blemish, but all the charges that we previously had on our account have been washed away in the blood of Christ! Glory! But wait, it gets even better …
 
Paul goes to say that we are holy, blameless, and above reproach “in His sight.” This is the same “sight” that all things are naked and open to the eyes of (See Hebrews 4:13). The Greek word for “sight” literally means “to look down it,” denoting a deep inspection and a penetrating gaze. You see, God has so thoroughly cleansed us, made us blameless, and erased the charges we once had, that not even God’s most thorough and penetrating inspection can detect a flaw in our newly recreated spirit! Glory!
 
Again, the picture that Paul is painting here in verse 22 is of God’s most desirable offering under the Old Testament. He began by showing how Jesus—who truly was the perfect sacrifice—died for us so that He could present us—who were imperfect in ourselves—as “holy, blameless, and above reproach in the sight of God.” Yes, Jesus Christ—the Lamb of God who is without blemish and without spot—suffered in our place—so that we could become His perfect and holy people, that even under the most complete and thorough inspection of God Himself would be found to be perfect and complete before Him! Glory to God!
 
Church, we must set these truths ever before us and proclaim them in the face of all temptations to believe otherwise. Yes, when our flesh, our own heart, or the devil tries to tell us that we are impure, unclean, or not special, it is then that we need to proclaim that we are “Holy!” When our mind or the enemy tries to tell us that we are to be blamed, it is then that we must proclaim that we are “blameless.” When any of these things try to bring an accusation of something we may have done, it is then that we must proclaim that we are “without reproach.” Yes, we can declare today and everyday that we are sanctified because He is the LORD our SANCTIFIER! Amen!      

REVIEW
 
Hallowed be His Name! That’s exactly what we’ve been doing over the past month where we have been specifically focusing on the Names of God in an attempt to get to know Him better.
 
You see, as we made the point of in the beginning of this series, in Bible times, a person’s name told you a lot about that person.  Oftentimes, people were named things that the one naming them desired to see in their lives or what God specifically was prophesying that they would become. So a name represented the person’s character, person, and behavior. Likewise, God’s Names specifically reveal to us His person, character, and attributes.  
 
So, if you and I want to come to know God better, studying His Names is a great way to do so. And what will this produce? It will yield more confidence, assurance, and boldness in how we approach God and do things in His Name.
 
So, we started off looking at His first, general Name for “God”— the name Elohim. This describes God as the all-powerful, sovereign, creator of the heavens and the earth whom we must give an account to in the future as our Ruler and Judge. This is a good, healthy way to know God initially. However, we ought not stop there as so many of God’s children do.
 
We need to come to know ALL of His Names in order to have the complete picture of who He is revealed to us. And we then started looking at how “God” was more than just the all-powerful One but that He is the One who is Most High, All-Seeing, and our All-Sufficiency – three of those “El” names of Elohim.
 
But what I wanted to spend the majority of the time doing in this series is focusing on the covenant-keeping, Jehovah names of God in the Old Testament – the Names He revealed Himself by to Israel. In my opinion, these names show us very clearly what the LORD has promised to be to us, His covenant people.
 
Speaking of LORD, we spent a week talking about this term because all of these other names stem from it – the Name Yahweh. And we learned how this Name is the relational Name of God.   
 
You see, it’s all about relationship with Yahweh. In fact, this name of His is a very relational name as it’s used when God gets involved with His creation and shows us His redeeming power. Yes, Yahweh is God’s covenant keeping name and what He “exists” to do on our behalf.
 
I intentionally used the word “exist” there because, at its root, Yahweh means “to be.” We learned that this is why, when Moses asked God to give him His name, that He said to tell the children of Israel that “I Am Who I Am” had sent him to them. So Yahweh’s full meaning is – “The One who was, who is, and who is to come” – which is what Jesus revealed Himself as to the apostle John (Revelation 1:8).
 
But we also learned that Yahweh was the name that God had intended to reveal Himself as to the children of Israel – a name that was not fully realized by even Abraham and the rest of the patriarchs (See Exodus 6:1-8). In other words, Yahweh/Jehovah was going to be the name that God was going to use to further expound on His nature & character through the covenant He would establish with Israel.
       
Which leads us to what we began looking at last week – the Yahweh/Jehovah names of God that further amplify what our God is, was, and ever more shall be, our Lord who always keeps His covenant, and who will do what He promised for those He is in relationship with.
 
Yes, these names are the fulfillment of what God meant in Exodus chapter 6 when he said that He was going to reveal His name as Yahweh to His people and they would REALLY come to know Him in a way that the patriarchs never did. Thereby, Israel would be able to obtain the promises that escaped the patriarchs.
 
Now as I said last week, I am going to use the name Jehovah for all of these names because that is how I learned them as an English-speaking American, but you are free to substitute Yahweh for Jehovah on each of these names if you so desire. 
 
So last week, we began with the name God revealed Himself through in Ezekiel 48:35 – Jehovah Shammah.   
 
We learned that Jehovah Shammah means “The LORD is there” and thus denotes – Yahweh is present. So we saw that this Name of Yahweh reveals God’s nature to always be there and present with His people.
 
So we looked at a lot of Scriptures that echo this part of His Person where we learned that God is our ever-present help in a time of need and that He has promised to never leave or forsake us.
 
You see, church, God’s character is that of faithfulness, and being faithful means you are consistently there for the one’s you love. So the LORD’s nature is to always be present and there for us, the objects of His love. Which He took to another level under this new and better covenant that we have with Him because now Christ is in us.
We saw this illustrated in the first verse of the Bible that Shammah was used in when Genesis 2:8 says, “The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.”
 
The picture that was painted here is of God planting a garden and then placing the man whom he created “there” (i.e. Shammah). So when you and I were saved, a garden was planted in us – our old, stony heart was taken out and new, soft, cultivated spirit was placed in us. Then the “Man” was put in THERE. That’s the Lord Jesus Christ, the Last Adam. Glory!
 
So if Christ abides within us, then you and I can’t have the Lord any more “there” than that, amen? Likewise, the Holy Spirit has filled our temples if we’ve received Him. So that’s another member of the Godhead “present” and He was promised to abide with us forever. Amen! 
 
But oh, how often do God’s people feel like God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit have left them and forsaken them? It’s more than it ought to be – because if we’ve got these exceedingly great and precious promises of Him always being with us, why would we let the way we feel get in the way of what He has promised?  
 
Yes, saints, God is with us and will never not be – all because He is Jehovah Shammah and He always will be present, whether we feel Him or not.
 
THE ORIGIN OF RAPHA
 
Now the next name of God that I would like us to look at is probably one of the most well-known “Jehovah names” of God – the Name “Jehovah Rapha.” Not that it’s meaning is embraced and esteemed by the majority of the Lord’s church in terms of believing in and trusting Him for it, but this name is certainly more commonly recognized than the LORD’s other names.
 
This Name of God is mentioned first in Exodus 15:26. Let me give you just a little background of it …
 
Immediately following the miracle at the Red Sea where God parted the waters, the children of Israel passed through it on dry ground, and the pursuing Pharoah was drowned in it, the LORD brought them into the Wilderness of Shur. So after three days of wandering in this wilderness, the Israelites were in desperate need of water. Then they discovered a river called Marah, but its waters were too “bitter” to drink.
 
Interestingly enough, the word used for “bitter” here was also used to describe the attitude of bitterness. So to me, this describes the “attitude” we should have toward bitterness – that we should never drink of it like we would never drink of bitter waters like Marah.
 
You see, church, there are certain vices like bitterness, unforgiveness, offense, etc. that we need to have zero tolerance towards. In fact, these little foxes are what will spoil our vines the most (Song of Solomon 2:15). So I hold to the standard that I have zero tolerance of these particular sins just like I would stealing, killing, adultery, etc.
 
So as the children of Israel complained against Moses for leading them out into the wilderness with nothing to drink, he cried out to the Lord and the Lord showed him a tree – and not just any tree, but this was a special tree that provide the cure/remedy for the water’s bitterness. (Is the Lord talking to anybody in this place today?)
 
So when Moses cast that particular tree into the waters of Marah, we are told that the bitter waters were made “sweet”—that is, good and pleasurable.   
 
So following this miracle, we are told that God made a statute and an ordinance for them after testing them there. And so then we come to Exodus 15:26 where He declared Himself as Jehovah Rapha to His people …
 
He said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.” (Exodus 15:26)
 
This promise was obviously a gesture of assurance from God to the children of Israel – calling it a statute and an ordinance – who had witnessed the plagues that God had released over all of Egypt prior to their release from slavery. However, the timing and connection here to the bitter waters of Marah being made sweet by the tree is what is interesting to me – for this seems to just come out of the blue.
 
But I don’t think that’s the case – I believe the waters being “healed, cured, and remedied” is the cause for our introduction to Jehovah Rapha because this is what Rapha describes. Let me explain …
 
I AM YOUR HEALER
 
So before we get into anything else, let’s look at this name God gave Himself at the end of Exodus 15:26 – Jehovah Rapha. 
 
Now the Hebrew word “rapha” literally describes to heal or make healthful, but it also describes curing, mending, or repairing.
 
But again, let me remind you that the name/term “Jehovah” has come from the Hebrew word Yahweh and at its core, Yahweh describes the One that “Be.” We learned that this is why, when Moses asked God to give him His name that He said to tell the children of Israel that “I Am Who I Am” had sent him to them. So Yahweh’s full meaning is – “The One who was and who will be. Therefore, He is the One who IS.
 
Therefore, when we have these names of God that begin with Yahweh/Jehovah, they were prefaced with – “The LORD is ….”
 
That means that like when “Shammah” was added on, God’s Name is – “The LORD IS There.” So here when “Rapha” is included, the LORD’s name is – “The LORD IS Healer.” Yes, He’s the One who Cures, Mends, Repairs, Makes Whole, and HEALS!
 
And if you’ve spent any time objectively studying the Scriptures, you’ll see that this is most certainly who He was, is, and evermore shall be – The LORD our Healer!
 
Let’s look at some of the Scriptures that clearly reveal God to us as our Healer …
 
Now like it was with Jehovah Shammah where we saw that there are boo coo’s of Scripture that echo God’s Name of “I AM THERE,” there are also a whole lot of Scriptures that echo Jehovah Rapha. And this shouldn’t surprise us – for if these are His Names, then they are core characteristics of His divine nature and, therefore, will be laced throughout the Scriptures. Amen?  
 
So let’s take a look at some of the verses that describe God as the LORD our Healer, beginning in the Old Testament …
 
ü  Exodus 23:25 – “So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you. No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.”
 
ü  Deuteronomy 7:15 – “And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.”
 
ü  Psalm 103:3 – “Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,”
 
ü  Psalm 107:19-20 – “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”
 
ü  Psalm 147:3 – “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
 
ü  Isaiah 53:4-5 – “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.”
 
ü  Jeremiah 17:14 – “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; Save me, and I shall be saved, for You are my praise.”
 
ü  Jeremiah 30:17 – “For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds,’ says the Lord …”
 
So Yahweh was certainly a Healer in the Old Testament, but what about the New Testament?


Well, Jesus was sent to us as the “express image of God” (Hebrews 1:3). He said that if we have seen Him, we have seen the Father (John 14:9). Why? Because the Son came to declare Him when no man can see God on their own (John 1:18).
 
So I say all of this to say, if we want to learn about God’s “Name” then just look at Jesus because His works reveal to us the true nature of God.
 
Now in Jesus ministry, we have a lot along the lines of Him being a Healer …
 
ü  Matthew 4:23 – “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.”
 
ü  Matthew 9:35 – “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.”
 
ü  Matthew 10:1 – “And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.”
 
ü  Mark 16:17-18 – “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name … they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
 
ü  Acts 10:38 – “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”
 
Then toward the end of the New Testament, we have one of my personal favorite verses that reveals God’s desire for us to live healthy lives …
 
ü  3 John 2 – “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”
 
So through all of these verses, it is crystal clear that the LORD is our Healer! Amen? Yes, He was in the healing business in the Old Testament. And is in the healing business in the New Testament. And guess what? He always will be in the healing business. Yes, He has always been in the healing business and He’s not going out of business anytime soon! Amen!
 
THE LORD OUR PHYSICIAN
 
But when it comes to the Hebrew word “rapha,” there is something about this word that I believe is extremely important to note: Next to be translated as “heal” in the original King James Version, the second most used translation of this word rapha is the term “physician.”
 
In fact, when we look at how “rapha” is defined, we can see how a physician or doctor could come from it – for the word means to heal or make healthful, and also included to mend, repair, and cure – all of which are things that someone from the medical community have devoted their lives to do. Amen!
 
One example with this word “rapha” is used in the Old Testament, where there was a specific connection being made between a person’s disease and how they went about being healed: This was the story of King Asa in Second Chronicles 16:12 where we are told – “And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe, yet in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians.”
 
The word used for “physicians” at the end of this verse is the Hebrew word “rapha.” So what do we see happening here in this story? We see the Scriptures giving us a warning that when it comes to healing, it’s important to our Great Physician that we seek Him first for it.
 
I’d compare it to this – Say you have a doctor already, but then when you have an issue, you go to another doctor. Well, if your doctor learned that you did that, it might be little offensive to them, right?
 
You see, the LORD does not want us turning to anything or anyone above Him, and this certainly applies to the needs we have in our lives like healing. He wants to be our source! He desires for us to seek Him first, not second, third, fourth, etc. This is important to our Great Physician. 
 
Now don’t hear what I’m not saying: The Lord is not against us going to doctors, having surgeries, or taking medicine. In fact, sometimes He will lead one to do these things. Why? Because both our Great Physician and the physicians of this world are fighting the same battle. My point is simply that when it comes to the care for our bodies, the Lord wants us to turn to Him first and see how He wants us to handle it – all because again, He is our Great Physician.
 
So this is why you probably have heard God referred to as our Great Physician. This comes from Jesus’ words – both when He said that those who are sick are the ones in need of a physician, obviously referring to Himself (See Luke 5:31), and also when others would quote the proverb to Him, “Physician, heal yourself!” So Jesus was obviously referred to as a Physician (See Luke 4:23).
 
Now I’d like to walk us through the example we have in this world of going to our doctors and the process of getting help from them because the LORD has shown me that there are a lot of parallels there to how we receive from Him.  
 
You see, if God is our Great Physician, the true expert in this profession of health and healing, then it would behoove us to go to our “Doc” and let Him lead us into our healing. Amen?
 
So let’s look at this natural example of us going to our physicians and the steps that are taken to help lead us into healing …
 
STEP #1 – GOING TO THE DOCTOR
 
So what’s the first thing that we have to do to allow our physicians to help us with our health? Well, I think the obvious answer to that is you have got to go to them!
 
You see, so many people don’t ever make appointments to see their doctor until it’s an absolute emergency. But wisdom would be to prepare for healing before there’s ever an issue, right?
 
So getting in the presence of the physician is obviously the first step. Likewise, getting in the presence of our Great Physician is a vital part of receiving His healing.
 
You see, there are a lot of us Christians who go to God with the same frequency that we go to the doctor – meaning, sure, we go to Him when there’s an emergency, but other than that, we rarely seek the Lord. How many of you know that shouldn’t be the case? We don’t need to just seek God when we are in tough spots. We ought to seek God and come to Him regularly.
 
Now I can give you plenty of Scripture on the need for us to come to the Lord …
 
For one, on almost every healing that Jesus performed during His ministry and that was recorded in the Gospels, the sick & infirm came to Him. Of course, there are times where someone came on behalf of the sick like say the Centurion with his servant and Jairus with his daughter, but the fact is, the person with the authority in that household came to the Great Physician. There were a couple of instances where Jesus seemed to initiate the healing/miracle, but the vast majority of people who got healed in Jesus’ ministry had to come to Him to initiate it themselves. And the good news is that every person we see that came to Him in faith got what they came for!
 
Now we might have to make an appointment with our doctors here on the earth, but none of these folks did. They just oftentimes showed up at Jesus’ office and barged in. So it’s obvious that our Great Physicians policy is “No appointments necessary!” Yes, come as you are, says the Lord! As Isaiah 55:1 says, “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price.” So not only is the Lord saying that no appointment is necessary, but He also says that He’s not expecting payment either. Just simply draw near to Him and He will draw near to you. He doesn’t need us to clean our act up; He just needs us to repent – which is to turn unto Him and away from anything that is contrary to Him. Amen!  
 
So simply going to the doctor is the first step to receiving the help we need. Perhaps this is why we see passages of Scripture like the 91st Psalm, that promise Him delivering us from the perilous pestilence and taking away the plague from our dwelling, starting off with dwelling in the secret place of the Most High and abiding under the shadow of Shaddai. It’s because living in Jehovah Rapha’s presence will do nothing but help yield healing in our lives.
 
Psalm 91:1 reads: “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” So what this verse is saying is that it is the one who dwells in the secret place of the Most High (El Elyon) that shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty (El Shaddai) and thus receive Elohim and Yahweh’s promise of provision and protection, including healing. 
 
You know, that wise saying – “You become like who you hang around” – certainly applies to God as well. Yes, just maintaining a good, healthy relationship with Him and staying close to Him will yield the fruit of His Name more times than not. For example, if God is a blessing, then hanging out with Him will produce blessing in our lives. Likewise, if God is a Healer, then sticking around Him will produce healing in our lives as well. Amen?
 
So hopefully you can see just how important getting in the presence of the Physician is. Oftentimes, just getting to the Door is the first step. 
 
STEP #2 – SPEAK THE TRUTH
 
But like it is with us going to the Doctor, that’s usually not enough. When you’re there, there are other things that must be done to get the help that you need …
 
Now this part needs to be said – What is usually the first thing we have to do when we get to the doctor’s office? WAIT! Yeah, you might have to wait for an amount of time that your flesh ain’t too comfortable with.
 
And sometimes it feels that way when spending time with the LORD. Yes, we might have to wait on the Lord, and do it when it doesn’t feel like He is there with us.
 
But what have we learned already? He’s always there! So you got to do it by faith sometimes and wait for the manifestation of His presence. Wait on the Lord, I say.
 
Now once your name gets called in the waiting room, the next thing you have to do is ultra important: When one of the doctor’s techs or nurses come into the room and start asking you all of their questions, you have to be honest and disclose everything!
 
Yes, when we go to the doctor, the first thing they usually do is ask us some questions by doing an assessment and then the doctor themselves will ask you certain questions when they see you. Well, if you don’t give them all the information and disclose all your symptoms, history, etc. it’s going to be more difficult for them to diagnose your problem.
 
So how does this relate to us with our Great Physician? Well, you have to be truthful with Him. You can’t hide things (not that you could ever hide anything from Him anyway).
 
Did you know that sometimes healing simply comes as you are willing to be transparent? I have personally experienced how, as being the “preacher,” that people try to hide their weaknesses, faults and shortcomings from me. They will hide their cigarettes when I approach them. They will clean up their language when I am around them. But what we need to understand is that if we are not willing to put our struggles & weaknesses on the table, then the Lord is going to have a harder time taking them from us. We must walk in truth and transparency – being willing to acknowledge and deal with our stuff in order to have it eradicated from our lives.
 
This certainly applies to the Lord – our Physician and Counselor. He wants us to walk in the truth with Him, to be open and transparent.
 
STEP #3 – LETTING THEM RUN DIAGNOSTICS
 
Another thing that happens as we go to the doctor and they do their assessment is that after they gather their information, they oftentimes will do diagnostic tests – that is, they will do labs, x-rays, ultrasounds, etc.
 
And why do they do this? It’s because there are a lot of things that cannot be determined with the naked eye. They have to go deeper and find out what is going on beneath the surface to be able to nail down what the real problems are.
 
Well, how does this relate to the Lord, our Great Physician? It’s simple – the Lord obviously sees deeper than we can. He is said to be the One whom no creature is hidden from His sight, but that all things are naked and open to Him (See Hebrews 4:13). Yes, His Word is able to cut deep down and discern the thoughts and intents of our hearts (See verse 12).
 
So my point is that our Physician knows how to run some diagnostics. He knows better than anyone what is our true condition deep down in our hearts. Therefore, He always comes to the correct conclusion when it comes to the root causes of all of our infirmities and also knows the correct course of action.
 
And this is why we need to go to our Divine Physician first – because even our best doctors can’t see everything. Yes, they can miss it. God, on the other hand, knows what the root cause of everything and sometimes the physical problems we have are a result of spiritual issues. Therefore, going to Him and letting Him look deep into our lives is critical, as He is omniscient.
 
Now that leads me to the next thing …
 
STEP #4 – BEING REFERRED TO A SPECIALIST
 
One of the things that happens when we visit our doctor is that, based on the issue that we are having, he or she will have to direct us to a specialist. Like for example – if our primary care physician sees that our issues are likely heart related, they might refer us to a heart specialist (i.e. a cardiologist). If our doctor believes that our physical symptoms are being caused by neurological issues, they will refer us to a neurologist. You get the point.
 
So I say this to say that when we go to the Lord, our Great Physician, there is a chance He might “lead” you to go this person or that person to get the help you need. That might be you going to your pastor. It could be you going to a particular meeting where your answers lie. It could be listening to a certain teaching that contains your answer. The possibilities are endless. My point is that sometimes the Lord will “refer” you to something or someone else that might specialize in the issues you are having, and you and I need to be open to that.
 
It's not that the Lord doesn’t have all the answers and can’t give them to you, but you’ve got to understand something – It’s not always about what He can do; it’s really about what we can receive. And that certainly relates to healing.
 
The bottom line is the Lord wants us well, so if we are going to best receive by having a certain person speak truth into our lives, then He will lead you to that. We just have to remain open.  
 
STEP #5 – FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS & FILLING THE PRESCRIPTION
 
Then finally, one of the most important things that one must do is that, when the doctor gives you instructions, you gotta do what he or she says and not despise the counsel the doctor gives you!
 
You see, sometimes our physicians might tell us that we need to shed some of that excess weight through exercise. Sometimes they might tell us to make some dietary adjustments by eating more of this or less of that. And sometimes (which today seems more like most of the time) they will prescribe you with medicine of some kind.
 
And I understand – when it comes to our natural doctors, we might not trust their instructions. We might be leery of the medications they are prescribing to us. But when it comes to our Great Physician, you can and should always trust His prescriptions.
 
For example, He might prescribe you some “Psalmex” – saying, “Take Psalm 91 and call me in the morning!” He might call you in some “Romanol” and have you taking a concentrated dose of your righteousness in Christ. He might have you taking some “Philippian” and focusing on your joy levels.   
 
There are a lot of options and direction He might take to cure your particular ailment, but this is why its important to get in His presence and let Him give you the proper diagnosis.
 
This is what I like to call taking God’s “medicine,” which actually has a Scriptural basis.
 
So, let’s turn in our Bibles over to Proverbs 4:20-23 where Solomon writes – “My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.”
 
Notice, first of all, that Solomon is referring to His sons (and daughters) by saying, “My son…”
 
Now, although Solomon was the man who penned this, we know that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Therefore, this is God communicating with us, His sons and daughters. So, let’s read this that way—not just as black letters on white pages but as it is in truth, God speaking to us His children.
 
Now we also made the point last week that exhortations like these to give attention to His Words, etc. are done solely in love just like we tell our children things like - “Now make sure you brush your teeth, take your vitamins, etc.” Now why do you tell them things like that? Because you understand things they don’t yet - that doing certain things are for their own good and you are trying to make their lives more healthy and prosperous. Amen?
 
Well, this is why God tells you things too. Jesus said that if we being evil know how to give good gifts (including instruction) to our children, how much more does our Father in heaven know how to give good gifts (including instruction) to His children? Amen! Yes, saints, God is not trying to get something through you; He is trying to get something to you. He loves you so much that He gives you specific instructions like this to make your life better. Thank you, Lord!
 
Now notice down in verse 22 that HE (the Holy Spirit through Solomon) says, “For they (They what? They—His Words and His sayings) are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.”
 
But I want you to notice that the latter part of verse 22 does not say that God’s Word is “healing” for all our flesh. No, it says that His Words are “health” to all our flesh. In fact, the Hebrew word used for “health” here describes “medicine.” Yes, if you look in the margin of your Bible, you will see that the word “health” literally describes “medicine.” This word comes from the Hebrew word “marpe” which is defined as “restoration of health, remedy, cure, medicine.” This word occurs 13 times in the Old Testament, coming from our word “rapha” (the verb) which, like we said, means to heal, cure, or repair.
 
So, what this Scripture is stating is that God’s Word is medicine, a remedy and a cure to all of our flesh! Amen!
 
Now it is important to understand that medicine does not always produce an instant cure. Sometimes you have to take it for days before it takes effect. Well, God’s Word is like that. But here is the great part: It will work every time because it is a spiritual law and His Word is packed full of life and healing remedies, like a capsule or pill has contained within it what you need to be healed.
 
Now let me say that if God’s “Words and Sayings” will heal you and bring health to your body, then how could it not be God’s will for everyone to be healed? Let me ask it this way, if God told us here how to get health to all our flesh, then shouldn’t this be clear that God’s will is to heal? Someone will say, “How does this prove to us that it is God’s will to heal, Trey?” Well, aren’t God’s Words for everybody? Would you say that it is not God’s will for you receive any of His Words? Of course not! If anyone said that you would call them a heretic, right? No, friends, God tells us how to receive health and healing to all our flesh and it is through receiving His Words. So if His Words are for everyone, then healing and health must be for everyone, for His Word is life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. Amen! On top of that, why would God tell you how to get something like life and health and it not be His will for you? No, if He tells you how to get it, then it most certainly is to be “gotten.” Amen!
 
Now we are not just talking about healing verses in the Bible. This Scripture does not specifically say that His promises of healing are health to all our flesh. No, all of God’s Word is life to those who find it and health to all our flesh.
 
For example, God’s Word is food for our spirit, and just like we do not have to know what the molecular structure of a piece of corn or the complete makeup of a grain of wheat, we can still partake of it and receive all the benefits. In other words, you don’t have to know everything about what you put in your body—whether it be what you drink or what you eat and even the medicine that you take. All you have to do is take it, and it will perform what it is programmed to perform.
 
Brother Kenneth E. Hagin used to say that when he was a little boy, he used to wonder how a brown cow could eat green grass and produce white milk which when churned became yellow butter; but all the time, while he was trying to figure it out, he was enjoying the butter and drinking the milk. Hallelujah!
 
Friends, just put God’s Word in you. You don’t have to understand it all. You don’t have to have a theological degree and understand the original Greek and Hebrew. Just take God’s Word—take it at face value and let His medicine become health to all your flesh! Amen!
 
 
 
So if God’s Words and Sayings are medicine to all our flesh, then do you reckon God has a prescribed formula of how to take His medicine? In other words, if His Word is our medicine, then does God’s Word also give us directions on how to take it?
 
You see, our Great Physician has given us a prescription - which is an instruction written that authorizes us to be provided a medicine or treatment. Well, that would most certainly be God’s Word: It contains the prescription that authorizes you and I to obtain His medicine. Hallelujah! So we already have the prescription! It’s waiting at the pharmacy, with our name on it! Our health insurance—the stripes of Jesus—have already paid for our prescription. Amen! No, in God’s kingdom, there is no co-pay. There is no deductible that needs to be met. It’s already been paid for 100% by our Great Physician!
 
So it’s not God’s fault if we aren’t taking our medicine - He’s already made available what to take and He’s already paid for it! So there are no more excuses. We don’t have to wait for the gifts of the Spirit to be in operation to receive healing and health. C’mon somebody!
 
All we have to do is follow His directions for taking His medicine, and those directions are listed right here, in Proverbs 4:20-21. Yes, God’s directions for taking His medicine – which is health to all our flesh – are listed here in Proverbs 4:20-21. Amen!
 
Yes, these verses contain the directions for taking God’s medicine so that it can take full effect in our body! Amen!
 
First, we need to give our full attention to His Words—that is, using both our ears and our eyes. Second, we need to incline our ears to His Words—that is, putting ourselves in the best position to hear. Third, we need to keep God’s Words ever before our eyes by meditating on them day and night. And, last but not least, by following these first three directions – His Words will enter into the midst of our heart. Then it is our job to keep them there. And we do this through giving even the more earnest heed to the things we have heard. Amen! 
 
If you follow these four directions that are on God’s medicine bottle, it will be impossible for any sickness, weakness, disease, etc. to remain in your body - because this is some potent medicine! It will work for everyone – regardless of who you are or what you’ve done. Amen!
 
Again, if you, following these specific directions, will take enough of God’s Word for long enough, you will be healed! Amen and amen! 
 
Church, this is the prescribed formula that our Great Physician has given to us that works every single, solitary time. But we first have to go to Him. We have to wait on the Lord in His presence. Then we need to be honest and transparent, and then let Him examine us. After that, if He sends you to a certain “specialist,” by all means go! And finally, if He calls you in some specific meds, take them. God’s way is always perfect, saints! You’ll never find a better Physician than Him.