J24-8: The Lord Did NOT Make Himself Known By His Personal Name To Abraham, Isaac And Jacob

“Y’hoshua said to all the people, “This is what YHVH the Elohim of Israel says: ‘In antiquity your ancestors lived on the other side of the [Euphrates] River — Terach the father of Avraham and Nachor — and they served other gods.”-Joshua 24:2

Verse 2 starts off with a staggering statement.

Joshua tells the leaders of Israel…

…“This is what YHVH the Elohim of Israel says”.

Why is this staggering?

It’s staggering because the use of God’s personal name indicates the close and fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant when God went by the name of El Shaddai.

That’s right.

What’s happening here at Shechem was not just a covenant renewal ceremony.

It was also a powerful testimony that the Lord had indeed kept His promise He made to Abraham long ago.

And what was that promise?

The promise was that a countless number of Abraham’s descendants would in due time possess a land they could call their own.

This was also a reaffirmation of the Mosaic Covenant.

Here’s the thing,

The first 4 verses of Joshua chapter 24 is focused on Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (otherwise known as the Patriarchs of Israel).

We can connect this idea to this verse from the Book of Exodus.

“I appeared to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya’akov as El Shaddai, although I did not make myself known to them by my name, Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [ADONAI].”-Exodus 6:3

Isn’t it interesting that God says He did not make Himself know to the Patriarchs by His personal name?

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob only had the privilege of knowing God as EL SHADDAI which by the way does NOT mean “God Almighty”.

That’s an incorrect translation from the Hebrew that has been perpetrated for like forever.

Shaddai is an old Hebrew word now extinct that means “mountain”.

So as I’ve discussed before, EL SHADDAI means the “God of the Mountain”.

We’ll continue on with this topic the next time we meet.