The Bookends of Creation

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Some interesting revelations about the Bible and the eternal nature of God...

Sunday I listened to our pastor talk about part of the Lord's prayer, "...give us this day our daily bread..." My mind wandered as usually happens when the Holy Spirit begins speaking to me from the text. I thought, "daily bread" sounds like "manna in the wilderness". I thought about the verses in John where Jesus said "I am the bread of life...that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world". I thought about the beatitude that said "Blessed are they which hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." And I thought "Jesus Christ is our righteousness". I want to hunger and thirst for the bread of life that comes down from heaven and gives righteousness and abundant life!

But my mind didn't stop wandering. I noticed all the paragraphs in the book of John that start with "I am". John is the gospel that describes how the soldiers of the chief priest drew back and fell down when Jesus declared "I AM" (probably "eh-yeh" or the name of God in Hebrew). After church I made a list of all the declarations of Jesus' identity (Word of God made flesh, Anointed One, bread of life, light of the world, good shepherd, resurrection and life, way/truth/life, true vine, eternal Son of God) and noticed that at the end of John something quite profound had happened to the disciples:

None of the disciples ventured to question Him, “Who are You?” knowing that it was the Lord.
John 21:12

Ponder that for a moment. Jesus had taken on a glorified body and was in many ways different from when they last saw Him, but they understood His NATURE and felt his divine presence in their midst. They KNEW HIM because He said who HE IS.

The remainder of the chapter is the most intimate picture of the love of Jesus in all the gospel accounts.

The gospel of John clearly defines Jesus' eternal divine nature, but the Revelation to John at the end of the Bible contains the most profound "I AM" statement of all.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
Revelation 22:13

I didn't realize until this week that this is a quote from Isaiah:

"Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me.
Isaiah 44:6

Clearly Jesus through John is speaking as the eternal almighty God.

The Greek words of this verse in Revelation are also very interesting. Omega is not just the final letter of the Greek alphabet, but a form of the verb "to be", the same verb used in the words "I AM". Alpha on the other hand is not just the first letter of the Greek alphabet, but a prefix that negates whatever comes after it. So Alpha is "the state before anything" and Omega is "the final state of being".

Jesus is the author and finisher, before creation and the ultimate end of creation. Protos and Eschatos, beginning and end, Arche and Telos, pre-eminent ruler and the long-awaited answer to every prayer.

This is my savior and Lord who finally says "I am the root and offspring of David, the bright morning star." Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Name Above All Names

The Hebrew name of God consists of four characters, “YOD”-“HEY”-“VAV”-“HEY”. You might have seen it spelled YHWH, the unpronounceable name.

Characters in the Hebrew language are as interesting as some of the real Hebrew characters in the Bible.  First, there are no vowels in the written language so sounds have to be added by annotations called “nikkud” or just added when the text is read based on knowing how each word should sound.  This makes it very difficult for a non-Hebrew speaking person to learn to speak Hebrew. Hebrew is not designed to be learned from a book, but rather from a teacher.

Aside from that challenge, in fact some characters in the Hebrew language can function as vowels or consonants depending on the word in which they are used. It happens that God’s name has two of these vowel/consonant characters, “VAV” and “HEY”. VAV can sound like a “V” when used at the beginning of a word, or like a “U” or “O” when used in the middle of a word. HEY can sound like an “H” or like “ha” when used at the beginning of a word, or like “ah” when used elsewhere. It can also be silent in some cases.

So now we get to the point – how to pronounce the name of God. Well, that’s even trickier because the ones who know won’t say, for fear of using the name of God in vain. And the ones who don’t know are all over the map. Jehovah and Yahweh are two commonly used pronunciations. There is also evidence that Yahu’ah could be the correct pronunciation. The translators of the Bible just avoid the whole issue by translating it “LORD” in all upper case.

One night I was thinking about the name of God and had this inspiring thought. If I were to attempt to say “Yahu’ah” around a Jewish priest he would probably say “shhhh!” Ya-shhh-hu’ah! That’s the Hebrew name for Jesus.

Yes, that is the name of my LORD! Lord you and the Father are one, Yeshua, yes you are!

Now why is God reluctant to be called by name? A name is used to distinguish one from another. In the case of God, there is only one and thus no need to identify Him. However, His name is also powerful, and at the sound of His name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. This goes back to holiness; we are not allowed to regard Him as one among many.

Speaking of Yeshua, what did he call God? Simply “Abba” or “Father”. That is really special; you only have one father and using that name identifies the love, respect and uniqueness that is due His name. I’m so thankful that He is willing to be called Father; that means that He is willing to call me son!