“For who is God but Adonai,
And who is a Rock but our God?”
-2 Samuel 22:32
In verse 32, David poses an interesting question.
He asks, “Who is God but Adonai?”
However, to grasp the full impact of what David’s saying, we need to replace two words in this verse with their original Hebrew counterparts.
When we do that, we get the following:
“Who is EL but YEHOVAH?”
What’s David saying here?
He’s saying two things.
FIRST, he’s saying YEHOVAH is Israel’s EL.
SECOND, he’s saying YEHOVAH is the ultimate EL.
Recall the discussion we had about verse 14.
“Adonai thundered from heaven,
Ha‘Elyon sounded his voice.”
-2 Samuel 22:14
You can go back and read it HERE.
The takeaway to be extracted from these verses is particularly relevant in our day and age.
The bottom line is that the God who created the heavens and the earth has a name.
His name is NOT Allah.
His name is NOT Buddha.
He ain’t the old homie upstairs.
He ain’t some kind of generic intelligence of the universe.
He is ECHAD (one).
And He is Holy…
Meaning he is separate from any other being in the universe.
And his name is YHWH.
YAHWEH is the God of the Bible, and there is no other.
There ain’t such a thing as some unnamed God.
Or some interfaith God who represents multiple religions.
So let’s get this straight, homies.
If you’re part of some kind of interfaith Chrislam movement…
You ain’t unknowingly praying to Jesus when you’re praying to Allah.
And yes, there are a ton of Christian denominations out there that claim that.
If you pray to a being named Allah.
Or eat food dedicated to that idol.
You’re praying or eating food dedicated to Satan at worst…
Or worshipping and directing your prayers to absolutely nothing at best.
Ya feel me?
Done.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“And this is eternal life,
that they know you,
the only true God,
and Messiah Yeshua
whom you have sent.”
-John 17:3
“For there is one God,
and there is one mediator
between God and men,
the man Messiah Yeshua.”
-1 Timothy 2:5
“For there is one God
and Father of all,
who is over all and
through all and in all.”
-Ephesians 4:6
“And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord
will be saved.”
Romans 10:13
“I have come in my Father’s name,
and you do not receive me.”
-John 5:43
When I when I run into “Holy Namers”, I will use the title/name that God told Moses to use to identify himself: he said he is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (Exodus 3:15), and that is how we are to refer to him throughout all our generations.
The use of the word “name” throughout the Bible can mean more than just a word which signifies an entity, such as Steve or Rich.
When we read about the “name of God”, more often than not it refers not to just the entity we know as God, but his reputation his renown, his power and position.
More often than not, these names we use to refer to the God of Abraham, et.al., are not really names but titles (representing his authority) or descriptions of his being.
In Exodus 3, when
moses asks what name he should tell the people sent him, God’s first response is “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh”‘, generally translated as “I am what I am” (No, Popeye is not God), and he tells Moses that is the name to use when they ask who sent him.
Then, after initially describing who he is, he gives Moses the Tetragrammaton (the 4 letters no one, really, knows how to pronounce) and then he uses the God of Abraham, et.al.
S, as far as God is concerned, it appears he considers referring to who he is as more important than what to call him,hence, the reason I say “name” is more important used as a description of who God is than some unique identifier.
There is only onr, true God so he doesnt need a name to identify him from anything else- he is what he is.
That, to me, is how we should understand God’s name(s)- not as the sort of name we humans use to identify one from another, but as a descriptive of an entity who does not need an identifier because he is, as you said, Rich, Echod (although usually this means one, with reference to the Shema, I prefer a different meaning for that word, which is “alone”.)
The true God, Adonai (the preferred name we Jews use, meaning “Lord”), is alone, unique, and to try to pigeon-hole him in a way we identify each other is as useless as trying to count to infinity.
Our mortal minds cannot grasp the truth of his existence, so we ‘humanize” him by giving him a label, just like the rest of us.
Fortunately, Adonai knows our hearts and minds, and when we pray, I have to believe that he knows who we think we are praying to.
foe example, I do not accept “Jesus” as the name of the Messiah God sent, but billions of God-fearing Christians have been brought up and baptized in that name, and I do not believe the compassionate, loving, and forgiving God of Abraham, et.al, would condemn someone to hell for using a name that they know to be Yeshua.
When we pray, God knows who we think we are praying to, and I have to believe he accepts prayers to him, no matter which name we believe is his, so long as in our hearts and minds, we pray to the God of Abraham, et. al.
Hi Steven,
Thanks for your comment. I wouldn’t disagree with what you wrote here, but I have a feeling this might be one of those topics we could have an interesting debate on…as we did with our Christmas discussion.
For starters, in your English bibles, whenever you see the word God, Lord, or Adonai, 99% of the time the original Hebrew will be the tetragrammaton, in other words, God’s name spelled out Yud, Heh, Vav, Heh.
And when I say 99%, I am not exaggerating.
In the Scriptures, God’s name appears about 6000 times.
However, if you were to go through any modern English bible and literally count out the number of times Yahweh or Jehovah is used, at most you would come to about 100 times.
So what happened to the other 5900 times?
Also, what do you make of the instruction that we are to call on the NAME of the Lord?
Are you saying that means we are to call on the name of His reputation?
Finally, when Moses confronted Pharaoh, Pharaoh said to Moses, I do NOT know a god named YAHWEH.
He was using it as a point of distinction, which I think is important.
Yes, as you said, I worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
But He has a name.
And His name is YHVH.