Jehovah-Tsebaoth

Before the creation of man a war took place. This battle was in heaven not on earth. Michael, God’s archangel and the army of God fought against Lucifer. (Now Satan) God being the ultimate warrior cast Lucifer from heaven along with his fallen angels. God is the Lord of Host and everyone, everything is under His authority.

The Lord of Host is a military term which means “God of the Battles.” This military term is most appropriate for our God. He is a fighter. He is a warrior. A warrior who wins. And actually, if you are a child of God you are also a warrior in God’s army. The beautiful thing about this battle is that it is already won. We are victors because of God and the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ. We operate through the success of Jesus Christ. This is very good news. When Satan inches his way into our life by spiritual warfare, we have a chief warrior. God, Jehovah-Tseboath “The Lord of Hosts.”

We anchor ourselves in the Lord of Host. We depend on Him to fight with us in battle. He is the Lord of the battles and He’s the Lord of Victories. James 4:7 reads, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil , and he will flee from you.”

There is also another very important scripture in the Old Testament in which I find great comfort. Isaiah 31:5, ” As birds flying, so will the Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.”

God not only defends, He delivers, He not only delivers but He preserves! Praise the Lord of Hosts! My battles are not mine they are His. There is hope, deliverance and safety in Jehovah-Tsebaoth. Thank you God for being my Chief Warrior.

Trish Wilkinson

The God Who Sees: El Roi

In writing about El-Roi in “The Character of God,” R. C. Sproul said:

“There are many things in my life that I do not want to put under the gaze of Christ. Yet I know there is nothing hidden from Him. He knows me better than my wife knows me. And yet He loves me. This is the most amazing thing of all about God’s grace. It would be one thing for Him to love us if we could fool Him into thinking that we were better than we actually are. But He knows better. He knows all there is to know about us, including those things that could destroy our reputation. He is minutely and acutely aware of every skeleton in every closet. And He loves us.”

While there are most certainly times in my life when I would prefer to believe I’d be better off if my God weren’t El Roi, it simply isn’t true.  El Roi defines God as one who see all, hears all, and most of all is in total control.  He sees not only what we have done, and what we are doing, but he knows what we WILL do.  He sees into the future, and maintains sovereignty.  We can not deny who we are or what we are before His Throne.  The beauty in that truth is that HE LOVES US ANYWAY!  It’s hard to imagine that even in the pit of the darkest times in my life, when I have been most ugly and wretched God loved me nonetheless. 

 

I find comfort knowing that when life becomes too painful for me to bear,  I can find strength in remembering what Hagar discovered. The Lord is “the God who sees me.”  When we understand that the Lord is aware of our pain and need, it renews our strength.  If we trust in the truth of His word, we know that his awareness of our pain and need means HE WILL PROVIDE.  God not only sees us, He sees the future. He promised Hagar a future for her unborn son Ishmael. God’s sovereignty gives us hope for tomorrow despite the pain we may be in the midst of today.

 

 

God is never caught by surprise. “When He cannot rule, He overrules; and He always accomplishes His purposes.”

 

 

 

Today maybe you find yourself running from a difficult situation where perhaps you were treated unfairly and maybe, like Hagar,  you have taken actions, in a human attempt, to ‘fix’ your problem and instead further complicated matters.  KNOW THIS: In your most painful trial you may have your most intimate and personal encounter with God. Hagar’s wilderness experience brought her face-to-face with God and taught her that He is the living God who sees and hears our pain and our hurts. He knows both our past and our future and cares for us.  What He desires most is that we trust him completely.

 

God, our Savior, knows all that we have had to go through in our lives. He knows the times we have been mistreated.  What He knows and that we need to remember is that in all of our trials there is the potential to bring Him glory. Because God is completely sovereign, we can trust that if something that is happening, or has happened, in our lives did not have the potential to conform us to the image of Christ, He would not have allowed it to occur.

Here are a few other scripture references that expound on God as El Roi.:

Psalm 33:13-15: From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all humankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth—he who forms the hearts of all,who considers everything they do.

 

Proverbs 5:21: For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.

 

 

 

Psalms 139:7-12: Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there Shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

 

 

 

I pray that today, and tomorrow, and all the days that follow we will each be increasingly aware that our God sees, hears, and is in complete control of our lives.  He is Master of All.

 

Krystee Edwards

God, Our Righteousness

Have you ever tried to read the book of Leviticus?  It is a difficult book to wade through with law after law after law concerning every detail of Hebrew life.  I would be interested to know exactly how many laws the book contains.  Any volunteers to count them up are welcome!  Even if some noble Hebrew had been able to keep every single law in that book, they would have still fallen short and been in need of a Savior. 

 

Isaiah 64:6 says We have all become like one who is unclean, and our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.  Even our best attempts to be righteous on our own before the Lord are nothing more than a “polluted garment”.  Another common translation uses the term “filthy rags”.  Everything we do is tainted with sinfulness. Left on our own, we have no chance of attaining righteousness.  We are in desperate need to know God as Jehovah Tsidkenu!   

 

How can we know God in such a way?  He has provided for us through faith in Christ.  Romans 3:21 says But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.  For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.     

 

We give Him our dirty rags, sometimes not even that.  He gives us the sacrifice of His son so that we may know Him as our righteousness.  I ask you to stand amazed and humbled with me at our merciful God.  Thank you, Father for not just forgiving me of my sins but for also becoming my very righteousness.    

Jenny Hord

Jehovah Tsidkenu- Our Righteousness

We were all born into a sinful world with a need for a Savior.  It was God’s plan from the very beginning to become that for us.  He reveals Himself to us as “our righteousness” in Jeremiah 23:6.  But we can see the foreshadowing of God’s plan even in the Garden of Eden, as God cloaks Adam and Eve in a lambskin after their first sin.  As He covered them in the sacrifice of a lamb, God covers us with the sacrifice of His son. 

 

God sent His son, Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin. That free gift to us gives us right standing with Him.  2 Corinthians 5:21 says “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” If you are a believer, God views you through the lens of Christ’s righteousness.  He does not see all our sin and filth that entangles us but only the righteousness of Christ.  

 

Praise be the God of grace!

 

I am reminded of a great old hymn written by Horatius Bonar

 

Not what my hands have done

Can save my guilty soul; 

Not what my toiling flesh has born

Can make my spirit whole. 

Not what I feel or do

Can give me peace with God. 

Not all my prayers and sighs and tears

Can bear my awful load.

 

Thy work alone, O Christ,

Can ease this weight of sin.

Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God

Can give me peace within.

Thy love to me O God,

Not mine O Lord to thee

Can rid me of this dark unrest

And set my spirit free.

 

Thy grace alone O God,

To me can pardon speak.

Thy power alone O Lamb of God

Can this sore bondage break. 

No other work, save thine,

No other blood will do. 

No strength, save that which is divine

Can bear me safely though.    

 

I praise the God of grace

I trust his truth and might

He calls me his, I call him mine,

My God, my joy, my light.

‘Tis he who saveth me,

And freely pardon gives;

I love because he loveth me,

I live because he lives.

 

Jenny Hord

Jehovah Shalom – “Completeness”

Throughout scripture, God is forever using paradox. He employs the weakness of man to display strength. (2 Cor. 12:9-10). He utilizes the foolish things of this world to shame the wise.  (1 Cor. 1:27) He uses death to create life. (Gal. 2:20) He endorses slavery to righteousness in order to usher in freedom from sin. (Rom. 6:19)

 

Gideon’s experiences with God in Judges 6 seem only to confirm God’s affinity for paradox. For after proclaiming God as Jehovah Shalom, Gideon’s life is filled with conflict. And oddly enough, God is the initiator of that conflict. In Judges 6:25-27, God commands Gideon to tear down his father’s idols and construct an altar to the Lord. Even though those idols were distractions from complete devotion to God, such an act of defiance seems uncharacteristic for a God of peace.

 

Yet, while the Hebrew word “Shalom” means “peace” or “tranquility” it also means “completeness.” Therefore, Jehovah Shalom, the God of peace, is also the God of completeness. Pursuing our whole hearts and contending with the idols in our lives that distract us from complete devotion to Him. From Gideon’s experience with God, we learn that in God’s economy tranquility does not trump completeness. Jehovah Shalom goes after the idols in our lives, even if it requires conflict!

 

“Lord, I confess, I have so many idols – idols of control, comfort, and affirmation. They contend for my devotion while You long to have my whole heart. Thank you Lord for the adversity You have allowed in my life, for that conflict is the very thing you use to uproot idols and make me completely yours. Thank you for the criticism you sent to ward off the idol of affirmation. Thank you for the times I’ve felt overwhelmed, intimidated, and scared, for those hardships remind me that I’m not in control, You are. Thank you for those times when I’ve suffered and struggled, going without food or sleep because You were more important than my comfort idol. Thank you that You’re a God of completeness and You are going after ALL of me.”

 

Sarah Howell

 

Jehovah Shalom – “God is Peace”

The name, Jehovah Shalom, fell from the lips of a frightened Israelite named Gideon. Gideon lived in a warzone, his homeland of Israel ravaged by the pagan nation of Midian. Gideon’s countrymen were so fearful of the Midianites that they built dens and caves in nearby mountains to hide from their oppressors. (Judges 6:2)

 

Gideon was not a man well-acquainted with peace – peace with man or peace with God. In the book of Judges, Israel had turned from God, serving the idols of neighboring nations. Therefore God had turned them over to be oppressed by those nations, leaving Israel and its inhabitants in a constant state of conflict.

 

Then one day, God drew near. Despite the idolatry of the Israelites, God drew near to Gideon and that encounter left Gideon uttering the covenant name of God, “Jehovah Shalom.” Though the Midianites were not yet subdued, Gideon recognized that true peace was not the absence of conflict between man and his enemy. True peace is the absence of conflict between man and God.

 

“Precious Lord, thank you that you are a God who draws near. You are a God who longs for fellowship and unity with sinful man. You long for it so deeply that you sent your Son to die for our sins and unite us to you. This unity is our peace. Though in this fallen world, conflict rages and adversity assails us, may we hide ourselves within the safety of your peaceful embrace.”

Sarah Howell

 

 

 

Jehovah Nissi- Our Banner

Earlier in the week we expanded on Jehovah Nissi- Our Conqueror.  Today let’s take a look at how Jehovah Nissi is also Our Banner.  We all march under various banners.  Banners can be things or people in which you place your trust.  When an Army is marching to war, they will place a banner or a symbol somewhere as a constant reminder of who is fighting and where to place their trust.  The United States uses our nations flag.  We can put our trust in different things.  These “things” become our banners.

Some put their trust in other people, their spouse, their parents, their friendships.  When trouble comes they run to their “trusted” people.  While others place their trust in things like…their intelligence… their money… or their careers.  These people and things become their banners in which they hang their hat.  They march under the banners of trust they have created for themselves. 

You have heard people say… “I’m gonna be just fine, because my husband is my rock!” or “Everything will work out because we will get the best money can buy…”  or  “Just give me time and I will figure this out.”  These are banners…. people, money and intellect.  All of which are nothing.  Our victory doesn’t lie in any of those things. At some point in time, things will fail you, but Jehovah Nissi will never fail. 

He is our Banner!  “Help me Father, not to turn to relationships, or to anything else as I walk through life. Help me to walk in you as my banner.  If I walk with you, in you …victory is mine.”

Trish Wilkinson