We're going to look at what I think is the most important name of God, and that's Jehovah. As we were talking about before, Randy mentioned that he had never been aware or never really put the dots together or whatever, that Yahweh and Jehovah are the same. And that's pretty much understandable. I can appreciate that. You know, if no one ever tells you anything, how are you supposed to know something, right? And it really brings up a good point, which is that very often we take things for granted. It reveals to me too, because I've been going to church for 30 some odd years, that the church doesn't do a very good job of testing your study. You think? Okay, so yeah, I would say that's an absolute truth. There is no question about that. At the end of the day, a lot of this stuff is there and we just don't pay attention. That's part of it. But in this particular case, I don't think that's the case. I think that's just, you know, it's just never, you know, it's kind of like we got, sometimes we think in terms of this is one thing and then this is another. And we don't really, you know, if no one's ever connected the dots for you, it just, that actually does make some sense. It's like we major in the New Testament and we minor in the Old Testament. Correct. The reality is we should major in all of it. That's correct. So the most used word in the entire Bible, other than the articles A and the words like is and stuff like that, but the most used noun, I believe is what it actually is, in the entire Bible, New Testament and Old Testament, anybody want to guess? That would be a verb, but that's okay. There we go. It's the name of God. It's Jehovah. It's Yahweh, whatever word you want to use, Yehovah. It's used 6,519 times, according to the BLB, in the Old Testament. Let's say that again. 6,519 times. That's a bunch. Okay. You know, so clearly that's what God wants to be called in the same way that Ken wants to be called Ken, in the same way that, you know, Don wants to be called Don, Orlando wants to be called Orlando. We all have names. And so Moses came to God in Exodus chapter three. And I want you to turn to that because I think that's really where I want to begin this thing this morning. We're not going to do a lot directly from the book today. We're going to do most of it just from the word. And that's fine. But a lot of this you'll find in the book as well sort of indirectly. So in Exodus chapter 3, we see the picture of the burning bush, if you guys remember that. And so what happens is that Moses is really not wanting to do much in the way of service for anybody at this point in his life. He's basically done. He thought he was trying to save the Hebrews and they didn't want anything to do with him. He certainly didn't want anything to do with the Egyptians because he saw what they were all about and so they were done with him. And he really hadn't had much of a relationship with God to this point, truth be known. He really hadn't. And now he's been out in the middle of nowhere and he comes upon this bush that is on fire. but it's not being consumed. Now, if anybody's been around a brush fire in the desert or any kind of dry place, South Florida before the storm, right? You know, if a bush starts to burn, it's not long before every bush around it's on fire and everything else around it is consumed. And if there's anything around it that's, you know, tender, It's gone, you know, just as quick as you can possibly imagine in there So there's no indication that this is like a wet area That this is like an area where he would expect something to be contained like a fire to be contained but this bush is on fire, but it's not being consumed and so he comes to this bush and he doesn't know what's going on with this bush and he He's really taken back by it, and God says, take off your shoes because the land that you're standing on is holy ground. And that's like, whoa, I don't know about you, but. That would have got my attention, right? And so he gets into this conversation with God. I don't really want to go into a little burning bush thing, but I do want to focus on is just a little bit further in when Moses gets it, says, okay, I'm ready to do this. I'll go talk to the Israelites. I think in the back of his brain, he's thinking, this is a waste of time, but I'll do it. I'm serious. I mean, if I were him, that's how I'd feel, right? And he's not a young man by any stretch of the imagination. At this point, he's probably close to 80 years old. So this is not just some spring chicken. You know, that's kind of waking up and going, geez, I'm going to go and attack the Egyptians, right? Man, I'm happy. I'm out here in the middle of nowhere. I got everything going that I need to get going. I don't have to worry about this. Those people have set their own problems. I don't want to get there. But God says, I got other ideas. And so then Moses, it says in verse 13, then Moses said to God, now this is interesting. And the word there is Elohim. So he says, then Moses said to God. Now, what's interesting is I was looking for all sorts of places in the Bible where it said, and then such and such said to God. Do you know any I found? None. This is it. It's only Moses, by the way. Moses is the only guy that seems to talk to God. Everybody else, God talks to them. I want you to think about that. And the Lord said this to me, thus saith the Lord. Isaiah, no indication that Isaiah ever had a conversation with God. Adam is kind of, yeah, but that's before the fall and so on. I'm talking about in, let's say, post-Babel. So at any rate, It says, so Moses said to God, which I thought was just fascinating, and it says, behold, I am going. He's saying, God, he's saying, hey God, behold. Now the word behold is an interesting word in and of itself because it's sort of saying, hey, I want you to know this, God. God doesn't know. If I say to you, Chuck, man, I got something exciting. Behold, look at this thing I got, right? It's like really something. Check this out. Yeah, check this out. God doesn't know this. It's kind of what I think is kind of interesting. Anyhow, little asides that have nothing to do with what we're going to talk about today. Just little things that are just interesting in this section. Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, the Lord of your fathers, not our fathers, but your fathers, the God of your fathers has sent me to you. Now they may say to me, what is his name? Oh, what should I say to them? Now on the face of it, that's a pretty interesting statement, but it actually makes a lot of sense because he has been out in the wilderness now for the last 40 some odd years, and everybody out there has got a named God. Okay, that's what I want you to understand. Everybody out there's got a, you know, some kind of a god and every one of those groups had their own and they named it something or them something in most cases because they had multiple gods. So they had, you know, all of them named. And so they all had names. And that's what is interesting is if you remember when Paul went to the Greeks, And he saw that one, you know, all these, these idols, and there's this one that's not named. And he says, I want to tell you about the one that's not named. I want to give you his name. I want to tell you the name of the one you called, because they didn't want to, they didn't want to miss one. That was what, that's why they did that. They had all these up there, you know, well, let's just not, in case we missed one, here's an idol to the one we might've missed. And Paul's doing that. So he's saying, they might say, what is your name? And so, and then, so you don't see God rebuking Moses. He doesn't rebuke him. He just says effectively, no problem. So it says, an Elohim said to Moses, I am who I am, which is a real interesting expression because it's made up of three words. I'm going to say words, but really it's three expressions in Hebrew. It's haya, aser, haya. Haya, aser, haya. And if you look at that in Hebrew without the vowel points, it's the four letters of Yahweh. That's what that basically is. and it is a Yud, a Heth, a Vav, and another Heth. And so that's the idea here is that it is It is just saying, it takes the word haya, which is basically just heth in a vowel point. That means I am, it means that which is present. Or to be, it's also used sometimes when you say to be. But it means me in the present. That's basically what it means. This is me, but it's in the present tense. It's not a future tense, not a past tense, not even any kind of a, Modified tense. It is just in the present. Hayah. So, he says, hayah aser hayah. And, that's an interesting, you know, we would sit there and say, you know, that's an interesting thing, but effectively, what God is saying, I think, is, I want you to know my name. My name is the description of what I really am. And if you think about it, that's what the names in the Bible were all about. Almost every name in the Bible, you know, we're studying the book of Isaiah right now. Isaiah named his two kids. One he named, you know, God is going to bring us back, you know, a remnant, Sher-Jahab. And the other one he named, I don't even know how to say it. It's such a ridiculously long name, but basically the name is that What is it? Good is the booty, but quick is your loss of that booty, is effectively what it's saying. So it's quick to gain the riches, but it's real easy to lose them, is basically what it's saying. And that was the judgment upon Israel at that time. So the names are really important, and God changed names all the time. You think about Abram became Abraham, but what did he add to it? excuse me, the consonant heth, which is this letter, this main letter in this thing of I am, it's just chayot, that's the letter heth with a vowel point on it. So we've got this real interesting, he did the same thing with Sarah, for example, and changed the name of Jacob to Israel, and all these different things to get his meaning across. But now he's saying, this is my name, I am, That I am, that aser, is just sort of an expression, just sort of puts them together. It really means I am I am. Or I am, you know, that I am, or I am. And so you'll see a lot of different Bibles, they'll say it different ways. But at the end of the day, it's just basically the name for Yahweh, or for Jehovah. as we would say it. So I'm going to have to say that now. I have to remind everybody that Yahweh and Jehovah are the same thing. I just, you know, again, we take this sometimes too much for granted. And so, and what we're going to see in the coming weeks, especially, not next week, but in the coming weeks, is that most of the names of God are a compound of this and something else. I want you to think about most of the actual names of God, and there are seven specific ones that are in the scripture that we're reminded of. For example, Abraham. Abraham goes and he goes to sacrifice his son. God steps in, provides the lamb for the sacrifice. He says to him, he says, I want you to build an altar in this place, and I want you to name this place Yehovah-Jireh. which means God provides, or I am provides, or I am the provider is effectively what that really is saying. I am the provider. And Moses, for example, when he brings out Israel into the wilderness, And God promises them that if they keep his rules, his laws, that they're not gonna get any of these diseases. Do you remember that? None of these diseases. There was a great book many years ago, it was written called None of These Diseases by a doctor who said, basically, if you do the diet that he put into the Bible, you won't have any of these diseases that he listed there. Okay, well, that's kind of interesting. But at any rate, he says, I want you to build an altar, and I want you to name this place Yehovah Rapha, which means the Lord is your healer, or the Lord heals. So this is, or I am your healer. Moses goes to war with Amalek, and he wins the victory. And the Lord says, I want you to build an altar. Do you see a commonality here? Build an altar, right? Place of worship. So build an altar, and I want you to name this place Yehovah Nisi, or Jehovah Nisi, which is I am your banner, or I am your ensign, really actually is really completely what it really means. Well, we think so. Okay, which is an interesting, as soon as I finish this little thing, we'll talk about that, because that's kind of important, because I want to get into that, and I also want to get into Revelation 19, which is a verse that John pointed out last week as well. But then, remember Gideon, right? So when God appears to Gideon and Gideon says, I can't live anymore because I've now seen the Lord, which by the way, he hadn't actually seen the Lord. He just, you know, he just had had a reflection of it, you know, but yet he thought he was seeing the face of God. Yeah. Yeah. Normally, it could be Elohim or it could be Elo, which is the singular version. El, actually, technically. Or it could be Eloheinu, which is our God. Oh, dude, this is one of my greatest frustrations with translations. They could have done such a better job by just leaving stuff alone. I'm being serious. That's where we're going. That's where we're going to end, actually, at the end of this thing in Genesis. So, yeah, that's really true. I mean, the fact of the matter is that everything Satan wants to do is impersonalize God, and God wants him to be personal. Anyhow, so Gideon goes and he says, you know, I can't live, but God says to Gideon, no, you're not going to die, you're going to have shalom. You're going to have peace. And he says, and I want you to build an altar and name that place Yehovah Shalom, which means I am your peace. So he thinks he's gonna die, and God says, no, you're not gonna die, I'm gonna give you my shalom. David says that the Lord is my shepherd, Yehovah-Rohi. We're gonna look at that when we get to that section as well. Jeremiah was prophesying against Israel because of their sin. God promises that one day that they will actually desire righteousness over iniquity. And he says to Jeremiah, I want you to build an altar. And I want you to call this place Yehovah Tzitkanu, which means I am your righteousness. Yehovah Tzitkanu. Ezekiel has a vision, which really most of us think of the millennial temple and you know, but that's seven or eight starting, I think it's in 49. goes to 56 or so, or seven, something like that, where he talks about the temple in the millennium and God reigning and so forth. But he tells the people at that time that even though they have rejected the Lord, the Lord is always there. And so the Lord says, build an altar and name this place Yehovah Shammah, which means I am always present. I'm always there. And it's interesting, this is where the whole doctrine of the omnipresent God actually stems from, is from that particular section. But my favorite, frankly, and the one that nobody ever talks about, those are the ones that everybody talks about, by the way, those are the seven, it's called the seven functional names of God. But the one that no one ever talks about, but the one that I think is the most important, happened when the angel Gabriel, or Gabrielle, depending on how you want to describe that, but the angel Gabriel comes to Joseph, who is the surrogate father of Jesus, and It was Joseph's job, by the way, to name the child. That's one of the functional things that every father is given the privilege of doing. And so he comes to him and he says, you're going to have a son and I want you to name this son Yeshua. which is really, if you really look at it, it's in Hebrew, Yeshua, it's Yehoshua, Yehoshua, and that's where you get Joshua from, Yehoshua, which just simply means salvation or I am your salvation is actually what it means. And he says, and the reason you're gonna call him Yehoshua or Yeshua is because he's going to save his people from their sin. tells him that, right there. And this is the only time that we see God's name used in concert with another, where it's not referring to a place, but it's referring to a person. And so we see that here, you know, in the New Testament, when he says, name him. Yeah. There's no altar, that's the point. There's no altar because He was the sacrifice. So there's just really beautiful pictures and so forth, little subtle things, and so forth. And of course, this one, Yeshua or Yehoshua would go on to take this expression, I am, and run with it. Right? The I am's of the bread of life. I am the good shepherd. I am the light of the world. I am the way, the truth, and the life. You know, I am the resurrection and the life, John chapter 11, which is becoming a really important verse in my own personal life right now. You know, I am the bright and morning star. I love this, when they were talking, when he was talking to the Pharisees and they tried to trip him up and get into this whole argument about, you know, Abraham and how is he any better than Abraham? And he says to them, he says, before Abraham was, I am. And it's interesting because the word that he uses there, if he was saying it in Hebrew, the only way that he could say that would have been to use either haya aser haya, because that's the only way you can say that in Hebrew, or he would have said Yehovah, which I don't know which, there's really no difference, they're the same. Question, the Messianic Jews use the term Yeshua Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah, because that's his name. That's what I just said. That's that's that. Well, that that is his name. That's what I just said. That's when when the the angel Gabriel. came to Joseph, he said, call him Yeshua, or actually Yehoshua, which is the complete proper way to say it, but most of the time they would just say Yeshua, which is the same, but it's not actually pronounced that way. if you put all the vowel points with it. So it's really kind of interesting. But again, we don't even really know exactly how Yeshua, or just Yehovah in general, how that even should be pronounced. Because the fact of the matter is that we don't have it. But it's interesting that when Jesus said before Abraham was, I am, he actually effectively used the name of God. Now, what's interesting is that the reason they took up stones to stone him, which is what happens in the very next second, is because in Judaism, specifically Orthodox Judaism, but in all forms of Judaism, frankly, you do not use the name of God. That's why we don't know how to pronounce it. It is not used, it is not spoken, it is not discussed. If you're talking about God in a religious sense, you call Him Adonai. If you're talking about Him in a non-religious sense, you call it, you say Hashem, which is the name. And so Jews don't say, Yehovah, they don't say Jehovah, they don't say, certainly not Yahweh, which is a whole nother subject, which we're going to talk about. Well, we'll talk about it right now. Yahweh is what's typically known as the Tetrahedron. Grammaton, actually, I think is how you say it. Tetragrammaton, yeah, there we go. Tetragrammaton. And tetragrammaton, what does that mean? Well, tetra in Greek means four. Gammaton is letters, four letters. That's what it means. It means four letters. So they're so afraid to say the name, they've actually come up with an expression called the four letters, which they've put in multiple languages. So the tetragrammaton. So if you, for example, if you go online and you watch, there's a great video online from this organization called Jews for Jews, which is, Hobbit House Orthodox Jewish group that wants to basically get people not to believe in Jesus, which is a fascinating subject because you watch their videos and really when you break it down they all basically bring you back to Jesus as the Messiah, which is even more incredible to me. It just cracks me up. And so, anyhow, doesn't matter. But this idea of Tetragrammaton is The four letters, which is, as I said, yod, heth, or hey, vav, and then heth or hey again. And again, we don't even really know how to pronounce these letters even, which is really interesting, because we don't know what vowel point to put with them. So it just sort of, if the vowel point that's the equivalent of the A gets you ha, the vowel point that's the equivalent of an E gets you hey. Which is it? Oh, we don't know, okay? I mean, just, you know, we literally don't know. And because the word is not spoken by people that, in Hebrew, we have to just sort of run with it and kind of figure out what we're gonna do. And so when you're reading the Torah, for example, if you're reading the Talmud, it doesn't make any, not Talmud, but the, you know, the writings or the, you know, what's, what's the Nevi'im, the Ketuvim, when you're reading the Bible in Hebrew, and if I were teaching you how to read Hebrew, and we come to what they would call the Tetragrammon, which is exactly what they would say, when you get to the Tetragrammon, you don't say that, you say Adonai. It doesn't read Adonai, but that's what you say. If it's in a religious sense, if it's not in a religious sense, then you don't even go there, because you don't want to violate the second commandment, which says do not ever use the Lord's name in vain. So then they would just say the name, HaShem. And that's a really amazing situation to me. But the importance of God's name can never be underestimated. And I think it's absolutely essential that we get this. And this brings us to this Revelation 19 that John brought up last week. So let's go over to Revelation 19. And because I think Revelation 19 is, and I said this when we were teaching Revelation, is kind of the culmination of the chapter, or excuse me, of the book. This is the true revelation of the Messiah. That's what this book is called. It's called the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's not called revelations, plural. It's not the revelation of John. It is the revelation, singular, of Jesus. Well, what does revelation mean? Revelation means to declare something which was previously unknown. Everybody get that? It's important that you understand. Revelation is the declaration or the declaring of what was previously unknown. And so, we read here in chapter 19. And John, correct me if this is not the section that you were referring to, but I believe that this is the exact section you were talking to. Which is oftentimes sub-headed or whatever, the coming of the Messiah, coming of Christ. And so he says in verse 11, he says, And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat upon it is called faithful and true. Actually, the word there is in Greek, it would be better translated genuine instead of faithful. And I think that's a real interesting kind of differentiation in this particular section. And then, of course, true, it's not really the word true because the word true that's used, for example, in John chapter 14 where Jesus says, I am the truth is a totally different word. The word that's here is actually that he is, you can totally depend on this. You can count on it. You can bank it. That's the philosophy. That's the thinking here. Okay. So he's genuine and you can count on this being absolutely dependable. There's no wavering in any way, shape or form from it. So it's absolute truth. So he is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and wages war. It's interesting because when Jeremiah said that God is called Yehovah Sidkenu, which is, of course, I am his righteousness, it was when the people were being unrighteously warred against. And it says here that when God is being warred, or when God wars, he does it in righteousness. And there's a totally different. feelings there, you know, is what's going on. So there are, I guess, righteous wars. But he says, and in righteousness he judges and wages war. And the eyes, and his eyes are like a flame of fire. Now notice it doesn't say it is a flame of fire, it says it's like a flame of fire. And we see that a lot in Revelation. We talked about this when we did Revelation. He does, because he doesn't know how to explain stuff, so he's just... He's just, yeah, he's using these comparative things like, you know, I don't know how to explain it, but it was like, you know, flames of fire. I, you know, I don't know. Yeah. Uh, I saw a pair of eyes yesterday on, on, on this gal. Uh, I, I swear to you, I thought her eyes were ice. She had the most gorgeous blue eyes I've ever seen in my life. And, and they just were like ice. And so I was trying to describe them to a friend of mine. I said, I saw this girl and she had eyes and they were like ice. And he goes, where they go like ice. And I said, yeah, I know I was just, but I couldn't think of any other because they literally looked like ice. I mean, to me, you know, it was, you know, how that, that clarity of ice, that kind of a bluish, you know, kind of whitish, I don't know how to explain it. And I was really struggling trying to explain what I was, what I was seeing. I'd never seen a person with eyes like that before ever. And it was just something I couldn't... Well, it was just... It was just amazing to me. And, you know, I sat there and it was actually on TV. I didn't actually see this person face to face. But more importantly, when I was just fascinated, I couldn't describe it. And it reminded me of what John went through when he was writing the book of Revelation. He was being asked to describe stuff that he didn't even know how to describe. And I know ice was the wrong description, by the way. I knew it. I mean, because eyes of ice would indicate she's got no soul, or whatever. And that's not what I was trying to say. It was just that clarity to it. Anyhow, the point is, he says, his eyes were like a flame of fire, and upon his head are many diadems, or many crowns. That's a bit differentiated, by the way, from in Revelation chapter six, where he talks about Satan having many crowns, And that's not diadems, that's actually just, that's earthly crowns, actually. Diadems are things which last forever. That's the idea behind that. It's a permanent crown, okay? So, by the way, that's one of the reasons why, when they built the crown for the King of Britain, which you're gonna see here in a couple of weeks, it's made completely out of, not one thing in it is not precious stones. Not one thing in it. The whole entire thing is made out of stuff which is imperishable, is the idea behind it. Because the idea is that we're gonna make this, well, of course it can't be, but that was the attempt that they were trying to make, kind of in this idea here. But his head had many diadems, and he has a name written which no one knows except himself. Okay, so now what is this word we're talking about? This is the book of the revelations. So the truth is is that he's he's saying now we're also talking about the second person of the Godhead here. We're talking about the Messiah and he says he has a name which which is written. That's important. It's important. It was written. Why did John say it was written? Because now he's going to tell you what that name is in the very next verse. Listen to what he says. And he is clothed with a robe, dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God written. So what's interesting is that prior to this revelation that was given to John, There was no true understanding. It was only known to Him. It was only known to Him that He was, in fact, the Word of God. And so on. Now, what's interesting is that John had declared this in John chapter 1. But here's what's interesting. Listen to what it says in John chapter 1. It says, "...and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And then in verse 12, it says, but his own received him not. They did not acknowledge that he was the word of God. And that's what's saying, that's what this is going on right here. Because this is the, by the way, this is the redemption of the Jewish people that's going on here in chapter 19. And so there is this, this miss, they just completely missed. The only one who knew it was him. And they did not know it. So go back to John. It's really interesting, the wording that John chose to use there in chapter one. Correct. This is Israel accepting Jesus, actually. Here, this is now. No, in Revelation. Okay. So we see in John chapter one, actually get in the right book here, right? John is not Luke. Luke is Luke and John is John. There we go. So let's see what he says. He says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him. Now, we talked about that last week. Elohim is about creation. And Elohim is the creating God. He is the God that, He is the personage that actually created all things. And of course, we see that concluded by Paul as well when he says that Jesus was the creator of Colossians. where he says that Jesus was the creator of all things. He was, all things were created by him and for him and so on. But look at what John says here in verse 11. He says this, he says, he came unto his own and those who were his own received him not. He came into his own, but his own received him not. But to as many as do receive him, To them, he gave the power to become the sons of God, or the children of God, technically, the children of God, to those who believe, listen to this, in his what? In his name. And what is his name? It's the word of God. What is his name? The word of God. So this was revealed to the Jewish people who up until that time did not believe it. Now, for the most part today, Jewish people do not believe that Jesus is the word of God. They don't believe that he is the word. They do not believe the name of God. They don't even want to say the name of God. The last thing they would do is attribute that name to Jesus. That would be like ridiculous. Well, that was why they took up stones to stone him when he said before Abraham was, I am. So this whole thing, so John, I really appreciated you bringing that back to my attention. And when I went back through my notes and the revelation, but you kind of caught me off guard last week, and I'm glad you did, is because I actually hadn't remembered it at that moment. And then when I went back in my notes, I was like, oh yeah, John, you're absolutely right, man. This is a big deal. Because it is a big deal. I'm sorry, what'd you say, John? I said yes. Yeah, so this idea that God did not have a name, that's not what Revelation is saying. What it's saying is that the Jewish people did not receive His name, nor did they take His name, but to as many as do believe in His name, which is the Word of God, which says right in the very next verse, to them He gave the power to become the children of God. And that to me is just such a beautiful picture of this whole entire thing. Jehovah is the name of God. But more importantly, because names, especially in the Old Testament, are a description of what you are. It's a description of what you are. So Jehovah, I'm just gonna say Jehovah because it's easier than trying to say all the other ways you can pronounce this. I mean, we'll just use the English for a variation of it. But Jehovah is interesting because Jehovah is eternal. We see that. Jehovah is immutable, can't change. We see that. Jehovah is always relevant. Always. God is always relevant. There is never a time that God is irrelevant. You should think about that. There is never a moment in time. Why? Because he is I am. He is always there. He's always present. He's always here. He's always working. He's always, do you see the redundancy here? It's all about always. He doesn't slow down. He doesn't take a minute off. He doesn't take a millisecond off. He doesn't take any time off, because God doesn't deal in time, space, and matter. He doesn't deal in those things. God is beyond all of those things, and it's just impossible for us to ignore the fact that He is always relevant. He is always current. It's always now. That's even better. I like that. That's even better. I should have wrote that down. Yeah. Well, no, and we're going to learn that next week, actually, when we talk about Adonai, because that's Lord of Lords. Yeah, that's Lord of Lords. Adonai is that whole expression. It's Adonai. Yes. Yep. Yep. Well, and that's and that's why I love this verse that there's a verse that says that in him there is no variation nor shifting of shadow. I want you to think about that expression for a section. There is no variation nor shifting of shadow. What does that mean? So if I stand here and I'm outside, let's say I'm outside. What happens to my shadow? Constantly. My shadow never ever is the same. It may be millimeters, multi-millimeters, or whatever that word is, of movement, but it is never ever not moving. My shadow is always moving. Why? Because I live in time, space, and matter. But God doesn't live in time, space and matter and so therefore there is no shadow with God. There is no movement away in God. There is no changing in God. There is no variation in God. There is no change that we can perceive or even understand. Because he, well yeah, he is the, I don't know if I'd go that far, but because that would actually make him sub to you, your shadow is sub to you. So the shadow is the reflection actually of what, of what, you know, the sun is beating off you. That's all it is. But God's beyond all that. God's above all that. God's got no variation. And this is my favorite. Jehovah is personal. Jehovah is personal. He's not, you know, just casual. He's personal. There was a time I did not know this man. Not long ago, right? There was a time I did not know this man. We had no relationship whatsoever, right? None. But once we had our relationship, once we got to know each other, all I want to do is know more about this man. I'm serious, all I want to know is more, I want to know more about Steve Elwood. There was a time when I didn't know Steve Elwood, and now I want to know more about Steve Elwood. There was a time I didn't know Ken, and I'm telling you, I definitely want to know more about Ken. So my point is that, and this relationship deepens. Now I have another fellow over here in the corner, Clark and I have known each other since we were like 30 years old, I think. I mean, nearly 40 years we've known each other. And the longer we get to know each other, the more we love that relationship. That relationship becomes stronger. It doesn't get weaker, you know, and so forth. And that is the relationship we have with God. There is that period when we just get to know Him and we're just like, whoa. But God has always known us. You see that? God has always known us. Bible tells us that he's known us since the foundation of the earth. He knew us before we were even known to us, before we were even known. I mean, it was like, huh? Why? Because God is always been, always is, doesn't change, no variation. And to me, it's like there is no wannabe with God. Does that make any sense? There is no one. It's like God doesn't, you know, so many times, how many times, especially early in your life, man, I really want to be this. I want to be that. I'd like to do this or I'd like to do that. You know, but there is no want to be with God. Do you understand what I'm saying now? You know, like, like I want, I want to, you know, visit someplace or I want to do this or I want to have this, or I want to have this experience or whatever. And God's like, okay, you know, I don't have any walls. I am. See, that's the beauty of it. So what I said here is God is personal, but Satan wants to make God impersonal. That is his function, that is his goal, that is his direction. He wants to take and he wants to make Jehovah God. Just God. He wants to put him in a box where he is not this one who is, in fact, personal, eternal, immutable. And he does a good job, okay? He really does. He does a great job. And the fact is that one of the reasons why I have gotten into this habit now, and it's interesting, the more I do this, the more real it becomes, is I've stopped calling Jehovah God. unless I say Jehovah God, which by the way is the really cool thing because then you're saying Yehovah Elohim, which is, which is now you're saying he is personal and he is the creator of all things. Now, okay, now we're talking. Okay. That's, that's pretty cool. And Ken, what's your fascination with Elohim? You said to me the other day, you know, that you said something about Psalm 80 something, Psalm 92. Okay, because you'd said to me, I saw me and I read it and I was like, I don't see it. So obviously I had the wrong date, wrong verse. I read Psalm 82, which is a short psalm, and it only has eight verses in it, but I was not sure what it was that you were referring to. Well, I have the NLP version, so it's a little different. But in the ESD version, basically, it's God presides over his court. He pronounces judgment on heavenly beings, how long you can bend unjust decisions by being wicked. But in the translation, God is referring to the heavenly beings as hell-be. What version do you have? I have the numeric standard. I don't see that. What verse are we talking about? First verse, in the ESV version, it basically uses the term God sitting on his throne, talking to his divine counsel. Well, to his congregation. The word actually is congregation there. I looked it up. But in the ESV version, you go back to the Hebrew, it says the word Elohim. Why are you using the word? So you're saying that that word in Hebrew is Elohim? It could very well be. When you deal with liturgy, it's talking about fleshly ministry. God does not judge himself. Okay, so the word there that you're saying is Elohim is not Elohim. It's Idah. And that's the same word that's used for the whole congregation, the whole assembly of Israel. Idah. A-D-O-N? Well, you get vowel points. Small a. Yeah, so it's... I watched the Shabbat. service, and it was always a sextet of men singing, and then the rabbi, they would kind of do an interesting thing. And I know that was a question I was going to ask, because it was like, have an eye, except it was no eye and small. Yep. Yep. So again, that's a dot, which is, which is the, which is the idea of the whole assembly of Israel. That's that's the, and so they use that in, in all their services, not just in the Shabbat, but, uh, so, uh, yeah. So I don't know where that, where the ESV or some of these later translations got that from, but. That's not what it says in the Hebrew. And so it says, so God takes his stand in his own edat, or edah, which is his group, which is, in other words, that's his people. That's the point. It's not some other congregation, it's not some other group, and so forth. I could actually see them saying church there. That might make more sense to me than any other thing. Any judges in the midst of the rulers, that would be actually elders there. The word there for rulers, I actually looked that one up as well. I'll do it again. It's crazy with all the descriptions they come up with God in this service I watch. It's like they're coming up with all these different names because they don't want to say what you say. Yeah. They don't want to say his name. Yeah. I mean, there's at least eight different descriptions of God. Right. And not the ones that we're talking about here. I mean... Right. And so where he says here... They like the Almighty. Right. El Shaddai, and so, but what's really interesting is that the word that is used for Elohim is this word rulers, okay? And that's actually false gods. Those are people that set them, because remember Elohim is not only talking about God, but it's also talking about gods. We talked about this last week. You know, the false gods. So Elohim is also used when describing false gods. as well. So it's the same word. So again, it's kind of fascinating. That's why I said last week that Elohim is not a name of God. It is the descriptor of the triune nature of God, that He is plural. It represents His plurality. And the fact that He's Creator. But He says, in the midst of the gods. So He judges in the midst of the gods. In other words, He's judging in the midst of the people that have set up these false gods in the midst of all of these false deities that are out there. And by the way, there were a couple of false deities in that time. When Asaph wrote this, that's all there were. I mean, remember, he just talked about there was Moses. There was, you know, that's why he said, you know, I got to tell him, what's your name? Because everybody's got their own name for their deity, for their gods, and so forth. And how long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? That's to the gods. He's talking very specifically to these false gods. That's what they do. They show partiality. They show, especially to the wicked, and to vindicate the weak and the fatherless, which is what God does, and do justice to the afflicted and the destitute, and rescue the weak and the needy. So this is a condemnation against these false gods that are there. And that's the idea of where it is. But he's not saying that these people are gods, not by any stretch of the imagination. So Elohim relates to gods? It's plural. It's plural. It's just the plural. The singular for God is El. It's not just that it relates to God. It's the plural of God. It's just the plural of God. Right. And so when we talk about false gods. And not meaning Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. No, no. Not necessarily. Not always. The fact is that it could. And again, it comes back to context. It's lower G. Low G, high G. Yeah, if you want to do it that way. Yeah. Yeah, that's where it is. Yeah. You know, a thought occurred to me when Steve was talking about what you were watching and so forth. Don't you hate it when you meet somebody or you see somebody and you haven't seen him for what's happened to me Just the other day. I was at Starbucks. I walk in some girl yells out. Hey, Don. I I got no clue, man. I'm serious, got no clue. First of all, I haven't seen this, it turns out, I haven't seen this person for nearly 40 years. Somehow she remembered me. I don't know how. Okay. I didn't remember her and I'm telling you, she don't look like what I remembered this person looking like. Okay. So, but the point is, is that, so what was the first thing that I, that I did? When she asked me to sit down, so I did, I sat down. What was the first thing I did? I said, hey, help me. I forgot your name. I'm almost 70. And she goes, I know. And this is what she said. She said, old age is tough. She wasn't easy. She was good. And then she told me her name. And even when she told me her name, I wasn't placing it. But once we started talking about her family, and we started talking about, oh yeah, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, you know, and so this woman would happen to be a Jewish lady that I had actually met back when we were in ministry and doing that, and got to know her and her husband and her kids, and she was telling me, and I knew, and it's interesting, I remembered her kids more than I remembered her. Because she started telling me about her sons, and now her son has kids of his own. It was just interesting. But until I knew her name, I didn't even feel like we could have a conversation. You know what I'm saying? And that's what this is all about. This is what it's all about. And I just want to end it on this. In Exodus chapter 33, it's in the book, you don't have to read it. But in Exodus 33, verses 19 through 23, what was interesting was God was revealing himself to Moses, remember? And he showed him just his back and he hit him in the cleft of the rock. And so we read about that. And what's interesting was Moses wanted He'd gotten to know God, he'd gotten to know his name, but he wanted to know more. It's like we were talking about Clark and me, right? The longer he knew him, the more he wanted to know, the more he wanted to see, the more he wanted to experience, the more he wanted to do that. And I think it's interesting because he wanted, what I wrote in my book here is Moses wanted an intimate relationship, not with Elohim, his God, but with Yehovah Elohim. He is Lord God. And when that happened, God said, you know what? All right, I'll give you a piece of me. I'll give you what you can handle. And I think that's pretty cool. Yeah. Can I tell a quick story? Yeah, absolutely. Allison was on jury duty. And she was in the courthouse on Monday. And they were wadering the jury. There was 40 people in there. Yep. The defense attorney memorized every I mean, he was working them from day one because he was developing a relationship by knowing, I mean, there's 40 people there. He spent the time to memorize, and this is, I mean, he's going off a piece of paper, jury number one, jury number two, and he's remembering by their first name. Well, I mean, that's pretty impressive. Absolutely. I mean, he's just working from day one, minute one, he's developing a relationship by calling them by their first names. Yep. Making it personal. And more than that, I guarantee you that the eye contact was also there. And I think that's what Exodus 33 is all about, is Moses wanted eye contact. He wanted to see his face. And God said, well, I can't show you my face, but I can show you something. I'll give you a little bit of a look. Yeah. I just want to say this. We don't know how long Adam walked with God. No, we don't. It could have been eons. But the mere fact he had such a relationship with God let us know that even though Adam ate the forbidden fruit, knew the character. Of God and in knowing his character, even if he failed, he knew God is gonna fix it. Mm hmm. Cuz when you get to know a person character, you know them and Adam walk with God all the time. Think about that. Yeah, Adam ate the forbidden fruit because he willingly ate it. He wasn't deceived. But having a relationship, and even us, thank you Holy Ghost, even us, even when we fail, when we have a relationship, God put it in his word, if you confess your sin, I am faithful and just to forgive you of your sin and to make it right. Is that what he said? And when you think it like that, it's like, and what you saying about names of God, it is his desire all the time for us to know him because he already know us. So next week we're going to do the third of the principal names of God. Elohim, we said first and foremost was to show his plurality. Yehovah, to show his presence. And then Adonai, to show that he is Lord, that he is Lord. And that... Yeah, go ahead John. Amen. Yes. That's right. As much as that is his identity, it is also part of our identity because we inherited it. Powerful stuff. Amen. It is. It's beyond sometimes what I can even think about. Amen. Anyhow, thank you guys for coming today. I appreciate y'all and I hope this worked for all of you and we got something out of it. It was awesome.