Elohim ~ God, Mighty Creator

The women of Tuesday morning Bible study have been doubly blessed this year!  Not only are we able to sit under solid Bible teaching on Tuesday mornings but we are also completing a homework assignment each week written for us by our very own women. As I write my blog post each week I will be highlighting points from both the Tuesday teaching and the homework. As we travel through our study on the names of God we will learn that our understanding of ‘God’ comes from many different Hebrew names.  These Hebrew names convey a wealth of meaning that is not readily apparent in the English translation.  By the end of the year we are going to come away with a much better understanding of Who our God is!!

What I Learned from Class: What better place to begin than the beginning! Today Janet taught on Elohim. This Hebrew name of God can be found in the very first verse of Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The name Elohim means God, the Mighty Creator.  I think that in some respects we take for granted what exactly this means.  Janet conveyed to us the wondrous nature of God as Creator.

Elohim was there in the beginning. In fact, before there was a beginning He was there.  He is eternal – no beginning, no end. He is outside of time; he transcends time and space.  Into the nothingness He brought order. In Hebrew the word for create is ‘bara’.  That means to create something out of nothing. Can you wrap your mind around that?  I think of the images of the universe I have seen through telescopes, pictures of the tallest mountain peaks, and the massiveness of the ocean. God created this all out of nothing. It is nearly incomprehensible.

Janet also spoke of God’s majesty and that He is ‘very God’.  I think if we allow the truth of this to seep into our minds for a moment we would be brought to a place of humility before Him.  Read in Isaiah 40:25-26, Gods testimony concerning Himself: “To whom will you compare me?   Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.  Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:   Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name.  Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”

What I learned from the homework: As Janet taught, God’s power and majesty are evident in creation and they bring us to a place of awe and reverence of His power. But we also learned something very important in the homework that we can not separate from God’s creative power. That is the Creator’s heart towards His creation.  

Not only does God create, but He also watches over His creation; “From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth — who considers everything they do” (Psalm 33:13-15).  Doesn’t that stir your heart to realize that not only does God create but He watches over His creation?

And not only does God watch over His creation, but He also sustains it.  We looked at a verse which really moved me: “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (Isaiah 46:4).  The definition for sustain means to basically “carry”.  My question to you, do you truly believe that God is carrying you in all that you are going through? If you are His creation, and you are, then you can count on it that Elohim is not watching over your life but sustaining you in it.

There was something else in the homework that not only reminded me of the blessing of knowing God personally as creator but brought personal conviction over those who do not when faced with the evolution/creation debate.  It said: “If a person believes that they are here just by chance through an evolutionary process, then they miss out on the wonder of a God who is not only sovereign but loving, and who chose to create them! They will find it hard to comprehend that God has chosen them for a unique purpose and He desires a relationship with them. What a great loss! This is one primary reason why we don’t apologize when it comes to apologetics and the creation/evolution debate. It isn’t about who is right but what they are missing out on with their evolutionary beliefs” (Arlene Solomon, from Elohim).

Wrapping it all up: Think about it. The very first thing that God wants us to know about Himself is that He is Creator of all.  Perhaps this is important to God because He knows that whatever else we believe about Him flows from this fundamental truth.  What a great place to start our study through the names of God. 

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

 

Names of God Bible Study Launch

Hello Everyone!  Today was the day we launched our new program of study for the 2012-2013 Tuesday Morning Women’s Bible Study season.  If you watched the video, you have probably figured out the Names of God will be the focus for this upcoming term.  I hope that you are as excited about learning more about God through His name as I am. 

Today in class we examined several questions that immediately come to my mind whenever I approach a Bible Study of any kind.  Those questions are “Why would I study this?” or more specifically, “Why study the names of God?”  “What do I hope to achieve from this kind of study and what are the benefits?”  I know that unless I clearly define a goal ahead of time more often than not I will end up not achieving that goal.  You know, if you aren’t aiming for anything in particular, you probably won’t hit it.  These are questions that I not only want answered for me but that you should be asking as well.   

There are more than a few benefits to studying the Names of God as we will find in Scripture but here are the four that we talked about today: 

1) Grow in Intimacy

         

“Those who know your name will trust in you.”  Psalm 9:10 (emphasis mine)

The word “know” that we find in this verse, in the Hebrew is yada` which means “to know, to learn to know, to perceive, to discern, to know by experience.”   I particularly like “to know by experience”.  God isn’t just after us having head knowledge of who He is but heart knowledge.  He wants us to have an active experiential relationship with His person through His Word and His Name.  Read what Paul the apostle stated as His driving purpose in scripture.   

          “[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him, [ that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly].”  Philippians 3:10a AMP

One might wonder if there is anything in Scripture that supports this assertion that God wants us to have “knowing” relationship with Him.  Take a look at what God spoke and recorded through the pen of His prophet Jeremiah.   “I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD.  They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.”  Jeremiah 24:7  (emphasis mine)

That word “know” is the same word that we defined in Psalm 9:10a.  It would seem that it is indeed God’s desire for us.

2) Grow in our Faith

“Those who know your name will trust in you.”  Psalm 9:10 (emphasis mine)

The Hebrew word for “trust” is batach and it means “to attach oneself, trust, confide in, feel safe, be confident, secure, a confident expectation”.   I loved the part of the definition that talks of attaching oneself.  We examined the question together “what are you attaching yourself (trusting) to other then God?”  Could it be a person, money, a leader, a family member, your intellect, a position, health, gifts, or even your own self-sufficiency?   Then more importantly, why are you attaching yourself to it?  Is it security, love, acceptance, notoriety, sense of purpose, fulfilling what was (recreating a past good experience) or what will be (a dream)? 

3) Grow in our Security

“Because he loves me, says the LORD, I will rescue him, I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.”  Psalm 91:14 (emphasis mine)

The word “acknowledges” in this verse is our same Hebrew word that we just studied for the word “know”.  As we come to know God through His name we will recognize Him more and more as our protection and our security.  We will also examine the question that can seep into a crevice of unbelief “well then why didn’t He protect me from….”?  Everyone asks that question at one time or another in their walk with God.  We will examine that more fully in the course of our study but, for now, know that if God doesn’t deliver you from something, He could be delivering you through it.  Sometimes the best course is for us to go through and our only recourse is to trust that God is going to use it for His glory and our good. 

4) Grow in Boldness

“but the people who do know their God shall be strong, and do great exploits.”  Daniel 11:32 (NKJV) (emphasis mine)

I don’t know about you but when I see this verse, in particular that part about “great exploits”, I cringe because I know that with great exploits come equally great hardships.  I am not really sure that I am ready for that kind of greatness.

Or I will dismiss it as not for me.  When I see the words “great exploits” I think of the really famous people who are doing great things for God or the radical missionaries who risk life and limb to spread the gospel.  I somehow think that maybe that verse really isn’t meant for me. 

I looked up both of those words in the original language.  The word for “great” could also mean “to be strong, be courageous, to make firm, to strengthen, support”.  The word for “exploits” could also mean “to do, make, work, create, accomplish”.  If I replace those two words with my underlined ones from the definition this is what I come up with.

“but the people who do know their God shall be strong and do courageous accomplishments”

Hmmm it would seem that I am not exempt after all.  As I come to know God through His Name, I will be bolder in the things that He has asked me to do.  How many of you know it takes courage to raise children today, or to take that job at that your age or perhaps stepping out in ministry is what you need courage for.? Maybe you need courage to share the Lord with that family member or neighbor or courage to speak up when you know you should regarding an injustice.  Or possibly you just need to have courage to do the thing that you love more than anything in the world but you have such a strong sense of duty that you hold back.  What do you need courage for?  According to this scripture, as you spend time getting to really know your God, you will get it.

As we embark on our journey through the Names of God our goal is to grow in intimacy with Him, grow in our faith in who He is, grow in our security and to increase in our boldness but above all we want to grow in our love for Him.  And to “know” God, truly know Him, is to love Him.  That is our ultimate and primary goal.  Everything that we do as far as Bible study should have the end goal of loving Him more.  I am absolutely certain that this will be accomplished as we dive together into the scriptures to study His Name. 

So how are we going to do this?  Very good question.  Each Tuesday, we will be meeting together to listen to a teaching on the Name of God that is on the syllabus for that week. Then we will divide into groups to discuss the homework that was assigned for that name.  We are doing something different this year then we have in the past.  We are writing our own homework that God is tailoring just for us.  We have put together a binder and you will keep all your homework in that binder. 

  

The homework assignment will be handed out one week in advance either in Women’s Bible Study or it can be emailed to you and you can download at home and print it out there.  Found within the binder are several things, a prayer, a syllabus, a blank page where you will record each Name of God and its meaning and a bookmark. 

                                      

On the bookmark is a prayer that Paul prayed over the Ephesian church that you can pray for yourself as well.  Keep that bookmark in your Bible and pray for yourself, your teachers, your fellow Bible Study friends or whoever God lays on your heart who you think might need a fresh revelation of Him.  If you missed Women’s Bible study today, contact us through the email address on the right side of this blog and we will get you the binder with the missing homework assignments.  If you are only following us on the blog, you are welcome to those assignments as well.  

How I hope that you are as excited as I am about what God has in store for us this year.  There isn’t anything like getting together with a group of God loving women.  It can be extremely infectious.  You ladies are extremely precious but never more so when we are knee deep in Bible Study together.  Your love for God and His Word rocks and humbles me all at the same time.  I just love you all so much and I count it a privilege to serve you.

Mazel tov! 

Opening Day!!!