Thursday, November 17, 2011

Names of God - Elohim

When we open to the first verse of the first chapter of the Bible the first thing God does is introduce Himself to us with one of His names.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1

God in Genesis 1:1 in the Hebrew is "Elohim".
So what exactly does this name tell us about our God? 

To find out we must first look at the context. What is God doing when He uses this particular name for Himself? When we look we see that He is creating the heavens and the earth. This is God's name to show us that He is the Creator God. 

The name Elohim is a noun masculine and it is also plural.
In the very beginning God our Creator introduces Himself to us as the Trinity.
When we read further in this first chapter of the Word we read,

Let Us make man in Our image...
Genesis 1:26

Wow!
Now when we look back at the first few verses of this chapter we notice that we see this truth even more clearly...

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 
The earth was formless and void,
and darkness was over the surface of the deep,
and the Spirit of God was moving
over the surface of the waters. 
Then God said...,
Genesis 1:1-3


Now compare with the revealed mystery in the New Testament

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 through Him,
and apart from Him nothing came into being
that has come into being. ....
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...
John 1:1-3, 14 

In the beginnings God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit... absolutely breathtakingly beautiful!

We also learn from the Hebrew definition of the word created that our Creator God creates out of nothing. We may say we create something but we in our creations we always start with something, but God creates out of nothing.


Our Creator God is so huge and powerful that He not only created this massive universe but He sustains it, orders it, controls it, and upholds it with only His word.

And He is the radiance of His glory
and the exact representation of His nature,
and upholds all things by the word of His power...
Hebrews 1:3

Not only this but our Creator God is so intimately involved with His creation that while He is upholding the entire universe by the word of His power He is also able to tenderly knit a life within the womb.



For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 139:13

Oh precious one, how amazing is our Creator God! How can we ever doubt this God is so awesome that He can create and sustain galaxies and yet is so tender and able to draw so close to us that He knits life within our womb? He controls when and how and where the sun shines and a star falls and He also cares for the doe as she gives birth and makes sure a sparrow is fed and knows us so well that He has numbered every hair on our head. How easy it is to see why David cried out, wrote about, and sang about how he and we can find help in His name.

 Our help is in the name of the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth. 
Psalm 124:8

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