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).