For any of you who know me very well (and for a lot of you who either do not know me at all, or who hardly know me), I am a person who can hardly be content with just a little study, or just a little knowledge. Whenever I get interested in finding something out about God and/or His ways, I generally go what some would consider way overboard. I find myself trying to find out as much about a particular subject as I can. I sometimes fear that I bore others when I share with them about something I have learned.

            I also know that God has created me in this way. I love learning so much that it really does not matter what others think.

           It is God’s business, not mine, if I ever get to share what I have learned. There is no doubt in my mind that I am doing what He has called and anointed me to do whenever I learn more about Him. There is also no doubt in my mind that I am doing what He has called and anointed me to do whenever I have the opportunity to teach/share what I have learned. It lights up my life when I see or hear from someone that something I wrote or something I told them has helped them to understand God or God’s business in a way that enlightens their way.

           Over the last few weeks, I have become wrapped up in learning more about God from the names that He has chosen to reveal Himself through in the Bible. So I have been studying and learning what I can in the hopes that, firstly, I know Him better; and, secondly, that you know Him better.            

           I have resorted to only three books to help in this so far. If more come into play, I will add that information to the end of this work.            

           The first book was written by Nathan Stone. It is titled Names of God. It was published in 1944 by the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, Illinois. It was originally given as a radio Bible Study over WMBI, a radio station in Chicago. It is a little stilted in places, but is basically an excellent book. I have added the number 1 at the end of a direct or almost-direct quote.

            The second book that I have worked from is the Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible with Greek and Hebrew Dictionary. Mine was published sometime in the 1970s but was taken directly from the original book printed in 1894. It is published by Crusade Bible Publishers, Inc., in Nashville, Tennessee. I have added the number 2 at the end of a usage of the Strong’s.

            The third book that I have used in this study is the Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, by W. E. Vine. It was published in 1997 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. in Nashville, Tennessee. I have added a number 3 at the end of a usage of this dictionary.

NAMES OF GOD

            There are many ways that God can choose to manifest Himself to His children – probably as many different ways as we, His children, have pictures, or mindsets, of what and who He is. Basically, there should be no limit to the ways in which God can manifest Himself to us because there is no limit to what He can do.
God, however, seems to have chosen a finite number of ways to reveal Himself to us through His written word. He could have done it any way He chose, yet He has limited Himself to a specific number of names or titles that we can know through His word.

            However, the names He chose for us to know Him by are incredible. They are certainly worth spending some time studying. We humans seem to want to know primarily what God can do for us. It seems as though if we were to try to get to know Him better by what He calls Himself, we should be able to gain a much deeper insight into Who He is.

            The plus side to knowing Who He is and why He reveals Himself to us through these Self-appointed names (or titles) is that we can better understand how we are to react to Him in various and sundry situations. If we can understand Who He is through His various names, we can learn better how to approach Him in times of need, times of concern, times of anguish, times of joy, and times when we just want to rest in Him.

            The word or title God or Lord as we see it in our English Bibles, conveys little more to us than the designation of the Supreme Being and Sovereign of the universe. It tells little about His character and ways. Indeed we cannot say all that the mysterious word God means to us until we know more about Him. And we can know little of what the word God means until we go to the language from which the word God is translated, the language which is the first written record of the revelation of God Himself, the language in which He spoke to Moses and the prophets.1.

            The Old Testament contains a number of names and compound names for God which reveal Him in some aspect of His character and dealings with mankind.

1) Quotes from "Names of God", Nathan Stone

2) Strong's Concordance

3) Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, W. E. Vine

Continue to: ELOHIM

2009 © JOE KELLEY