Let’s get our bearings of where we’re at in our discussion about how the Lord progressively revealed more and more of Himself to his people.
Here’s the basics.
First, EL is NOT a Hebrew word and it is NOT the name of the God of Israel.
EL was the name of the top god within the pagan Canaanite god system and was a loan word that was integrated into the Hebrew language.
And as unsavory as this may be to some folks, Abraham only knew the Lord as EL.
The same goes for Isaac and Jacob.
However, from Moses onwards things changed.
Moses knew God as YAHWEH and so did his successor Joshua.
The first generation of Hebrews who witnessed the plagues and left Egypt also knew God as YAHWEH.
From that point onwards, the Lord stopped identifying Himself with the old Canaanite god system where EL was the chief god.
And God’s warnings towards Israel to stay away from these Mystery Babylon gods intensified dramatically.
In the past, the Lord may have tolerated Israel’s involvement with these pagan deities to a degree but now the nature of what He demanded from Israel had shifted.
God was now making it clear to His people the land they had just inherited was NOT ruled by the Canaanite God El.
It was ruled by Him and He was not EL.
In fact, the Lord despised chief Canaanite god EL and all of his subordinate deities.
This is progressive revelation in action folks.
This 2nd generation of Israelites had graduated to the next stage in their understanding of who God was and much more importantly who He was NOT.
And one thing God was making crystal clear is that He was most definitely NOT some Canaanite or Babylon mystery religion deity.
Let me remind you that the Biblical meaning of the word “name” or SHEM in Hebrew differs from our modern understanding.
In our day and age, a name is just an easy way to identify and distinguish one person from another.
But in the Bible, a person or a god’s name revealed that person or god’s personality, character, unique attributes and his or her mission or purpose in life.
For example, Yeshua means “salvation”.
Isn’t that the perfect title that gives us the reason and purpose why Messiah came to the world?
To close, understand that once God made it clear He would no longer allow Himself to be identified as EL, He was separating Himself from the Canaanite god system and the attributes of EL (who usually demanded child sacrifice on a regular basis) for all time and FOREVER.
At this point in Hebrew history, the Lord was drawing a clear line of demarcation between Him and all the gods existing within the Mystery Babylon religions.
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