Genesis 1 (selected verses)       September 28, 2008

 

The Names of God, Part 2

“One Master Designer”

Rev. Meagan Boozer

 

            Two weeks ago, we started a new sermon series on the names of God.  In that sermon I stated that the greatest purpose God has for your life and mine, is for each of us to come into a personal relationship with Him - for God knows that when we know Him personally, we can’t help but love Him, and then we will want to glorify Him.  God knows, as the One who created us, that in knowing Him, and loving Him, and glorifying Him, we will find true joy and deep peace.

            I preach about this a lot – joy and peace.  I can’t help it.  One of the things that drives me half nuts is coming alongside Christians who are constantly grumpy and filled with worry.  Now, I know from time to time we all go through low periods – everybody has them if they’re honest.  Maybe you’re in one of those right now (lots of people are with all the stuff going on in the world today).  But I believe, with all of my heart, that when we invest time and energy into developing our relationship with God, learning to know Him, we will more consistently come through our hard times with our faith strong, our joy complete, and our peace in tact. 

God says (Jeremiah 29:11-13), “For I know the plans I have for you – plans to prosper you and not to harm you.  Plans to give you a future filled with hope.  You will find me, when you seek me with all of your heart.”  God wants to be known.  

            Let us pray:  Thank you, loving Father, for forming us and calling us by name.  Thank you for calling us to yourself by the Holy Spirit, and showing us yourself through Jesus.  Take our hearts and form them; take our minds, transform them; take our wills, and conform them to yours, O Lord.  This we pray in the name of Jesus our Teacher, our Savior, and our Friend, Amen.

            Does God have a first name?  A few weeks ago I shared with you that my mom named me Cicely Meagan.  Before I was married, Cicely was my official first name; after I was married everything sort of shifted to the left, pushing Cicely over the cliff, and finally making Meagan my official first name.

            God has many names.  But God does not have a first name like you and I do.  However, God does have a name that was used first.

            The very first time you and I meet God in the pages of Scripture, we are introduced to him by name.  Now, in our language, we can’t tell that.  But in Hebrew, we can.  I knew those semesters of Hebrew had to pay off somehow!  (But really, anyone can read a commentary like we have in our library, and find the same information that I have and am still learning.)  In Genesis 1:1, in the Hebrew, the name we first learn for God is Elohim.

            We read: “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.”  For our purposes today: “In the beginning, Elohim created…”   This first name (named used first), Elohim, is used more than 2,250 times in the whole Bible.  Thirty-five of those times are found before we get to the 4th verse in the 2nd chapter of Genesis (which is 35 verses)! 

Elohim is the plural form of the simpler name, El.  Many things have plurals.  Some nouns use the same word for both the plural form and the singular form.  We don’t say, “Look, there’s a bunch of deers in the field.”  We don’t say, “Let’s go sheer some sheeps.”  Sheep and deer and fish use the same form for both singular and plural.  Elohim is the plural form of El – which means ‘first’ as in ‘Lord,’ indicating ‘the strong and mighty one.’  The singular name El is hardly ever used alone in the Old Testament.  El is most frequently found in compound names such as those we will study for the next several weeks: El Elyon, or El Roi or El Shaddai.  I’m making a bit of a big deal out of this because I want you to remember this.  Elohim is the plural form.

Look with me, please, at Genesis 1:26.  Here we read, “Then God (Elohim) said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.”  Do you hear those plural pronouns?  ‘Us?’  ‘Our?’

From the very beginning, God has always been three in one – plural, yet singular, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - the blessed Trinity.  In Genesis 1:2, we read that the Spirit of God (the wind of God) was hovering over the waters.  In the first chapter of the Gospel of John (John 1:2,3), we learn that Jesus was with God in the beginning.  “He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” 

The very first thing God wants us to know about himself is that

he is the strong, almighty, three-in-one Creator of everything

that has ever been or that ever will be.

·        Elohim created the hummingbird that almost ran right into me on its way to a flower last week as I was showing someone around the property.

·        Elohim created trees that stay green all year, and created trees with leaves that change color, and drop off, then grow new ones months later. 

·        Elohim created the ocean and at least 20,000 different kinds of fish that live there.

·        Elohim created the 250,000+ different species of beetles.

·        Elohim created snow.

·        Elohim created the stars and the planets and the solar systems. 

·        Elohim created a bird that can perfectly mimic the sounds it hears, even people’s voices, and the sounds of other birds.  I know.  We have one who lives with us.

·        Elohim created dogs.  Little ones.  Big ones.  Yippy ones.  Howling ones.

·        Elohim created dirt. 

Sand. 

Salt. 

Milk. 

Zebras. 

Porcupines. 

Coconuts. 

Cat-o’-nine tails

Butterflies

 

Elohim created it all.  Elohim created you.  Psalm 139 proclaims it, “For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  Did you know, that:

·        You lose around 50 to 100 hairs from your head everyday, but they are replaced that same day (some of us may doubt this…).

·        A nail takes around 6 months to grow from base to the tip.

·        Around 45 miles of nerves run through our body. These electric impulses travel at a speed of almost 250 mph!

·        Babies have 94 more bones than an adult, in total 300 bones.

·        An average human blinks 25 times a minute, that's over 6,205,000 times a year!

·        By the age of 70, your heart will have beat 2.5 billion times and pumped around 48,000,000 gallons of blood.

·        The average human body contains enough: Sulphur to kill all fleas on an average dog, Carbon to make 900 pencils, Potassium to fire a toy cannon, Fat to make 7 bars of soap, Phosphorus to make 2,200 match heads, and enough Water to fill a ten gallon tank.

·        You produce a quart of saliva daily – 10,000 gallons in a lifetime.

·        Each second 10,000,000 cells die and are replaced in your body.

·        You create new skin every month and a new skeleton every 3 months!

·        Ears and nose don't stop growing during your entire lifetime (that’s because cartilage is one of the only tissues that grows as people age!)

·         The liver is the body's chemical factory. It has over 500 functions!

·        You spend one third of your lifetime sleeping -- 20 years in an average lifetime!

Fearfully and wonderfully made – that’s for sure!

Now, you can say it if you want to, but it will never be the truth that you were a mistake.  “Oh, I’m mom and dad’s little ‘oops.’  “I was a surprise.”  Well, maybe to your parents, but never to God.  I’ve heard people say, “I wasn’t wanted.”  Well, your Creator wanted you.  That’s why he created you.

Irving Berlin, one of the best known composers in the last century who wrote “God Bless America,” and “White Christmas,” was asked this question in an interview:  “Is there any question you’ve never been asked that you would like someone to ask you?”  “Yes,” he replied.  “There is one.  I would like to be asked, ‘What do you think of the many songs you’ve written that didn’t become hits?”  My reply would be that I still think they are wonderful.”

Elohim, the Creator, your Creator, also has a pure, unshakeable delight in what, in whom, he has made.  Elohim thinks each of us are wonderful – and whether we think, or others think that we’re a ‘hit’ in the eyes of the world or not, Elohim always thinks we’re wonderful.  In low times, it helps me to know this about God.  It’s easy to look at our outward appearance and wonder, ‘why?’  I’m too short, too tall, too clumsy, too plain, not smart enough, not talented enough, not skinny enough, not strong enough, not something enough…  It’s easy to look at how the world measures significance, and wonder why God even bothered.  Elohim never wonders; he just waits for us to take the time to know him, really know him, so that we can see what he sees.

            Many years ago I met a man who was born with one arm that went from shoulder to fingertip, and one arm that had never formed from the elbow down.  His name was Dave.  Dave taught me an important lesson.  I’m sure he had many frustrating moments in his life, but you would never know it.  Shortly after I met him, before I had gained the courage to ask him what had happened to his arm, he was helping me with a project.  I had my back to him.  He turned to me and asked, “Meagan, can you give me a hand here?”  I turned to him to see what he needed, and I could tell from his face, that this was not a real request.  This was a joke from a one-handed man.  He loved seeing my face as I struggled with my response, and then he busted out laughing.  And so did I.

            Dave taught me about being at peace, and even finding joy, in the person he was created to be – no matter what shape, size, or what ‘level’ of competence or productivity the world stamps on us. 

            We exist because Elohim said we should.  You exist because Elohim spoke you into being.  We exist because of Elohim, and we exist for Elohim.  We are the unique, distinctive handiwork of the Master Designer.

In Isaiah 40, we read these beautiful verses (from The Message):

“So—who is like me?  Who holds a candle to me?” says The Holy.

Look at the night skies: Who do you think made all this?  Who marches this army of stars out each night, counts them off, calls each by name—so magnificent! so powerful!— and never overlooks a single one?”

The nation Israel, at the time, was questioning whether God really cared about them.  They were questioning whether God really even knew what was happening in their lives.  Have you ever done that?  “Hello God!  Are you there?  Do you see the mess I’m in here?  Do you even care?”  Isaiah continues: 

Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or, whine, Israel, saying,“God has lost track of me.  He doesn’t care what happens to me”?

Don’t you know anything?  Haven’t you been listening?  God doesn’t come and go.  God lasts.  He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.

He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.  And he knows everything, inside and out.  He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts.  For even young people tire and drop out, young folk in their prime stumble and fall.  But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.  They spread their wings and soar like eagles, They run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind.”

When Job was going through such a hard time (talk about a hard time – all of his children were killed, and his body was covered with boils and sores), near the end of the book Job calls into question the designs of the Master Designer.  God answers, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?  Tell me if you have understanding.  Who sets its measurements, since you know?  Or who stretched the line on it?  (Job 38:4,5)

Have you ever thought you knew better than God?  Have you ever thought you could do life better without consulting his instructions?  Have you ever just gone ahead and acted on those impulses without waiting on Him?  God graciously asks, “Um, were you here when I spoke light into the darkness?  Were you the one who formed the mountains and the seas?”

            If you believe that with perfect precision and eternal purpose, Elohim created the Heavens and the Earth and everything in, on, above, and under it, then logic demands that you must also choose to believe that Elohim created you with perfect precision and eternal purpose.  God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, created you and me in his three-in-one image, with a capacity to be in strong, beautiful, healthy community with him, and with one another.  Elohim declares to Job, and he declares to us, “I know you.  I can sustain you.  I can care for you.  You can trust me.”

            Job makes his confession in chapter 42 – and this confession becomes the beginning of an attitude transformation about life.  Sometimes I need an attitude adjustment like this:

Job answered God: “I’m convinced: You can do anything and everything.  Nothing and no one can upset your plans.  You asked, ‘Who is this muddying the water, ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?’  I admit it.  I was the one.  I babbled on about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head.  You told me, ‘Listen, and let me do the talking.  Let me ask the questions. You give the answers.’  I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears!  I’m sorry—forgive me.  I’ll never do that again, I promise!  I’ll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor.”

            Today is a good day to talk about God’s plan and purposes for his creation.  Today, as we gather after worship for our time of discernment as a congregation, we say to Elohim, the almighty Creator:

·        We know we don’t have the answers. 

·        We know we cannot create a future on our own strength, or our own intellect, or our own creativity. 

·        We know you can do anything and everything.  (All we have to do is look to the left!) 

·        We know you are the creator of all things, including the creator of this - your Body, the Church. 

·        We know you love your Church, for Christ himself, is the Head over the body.

·        We know you want your Church to move forward, continuing the work of Jesus with faith instead of fear,

with encouragement instead of grumbling,

with confidence instead of worry,

with joy in the journey, and

with peace in our hearts.

 

Proverbs 18:10 declares, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower.  The righteous run into it and are safe.”  “Being safe” in the name of the Lord doesn’t mean we are cozied up on God’s lap with the fire crackling and all the doors locked.  “Being safe” in the name of the Lord doesn’t mean there are not still uncomfortable moments as new challenges rise before us.  “Being safe” in the name of the Lord means that as we take on new challenges in our personal lives and in our congregational life, we are securely fastened to the One who leads us - the One who spoke, and created the whole world out of nothing.

I pray that the more we come to know God by learning his names, the more quickly we will run to him, and invite others to run with us. 

 

“In the beginning, Elohim…”

 

Amen.