This is the secret of peace and calm elevation. If an Israelite, in the desert, had taken it into his head to make some movement independent of Jehovah; if he took it upon him to move when the crowd was at rest, or to halt while the crowd was moving, we can easily see what the result would have been. And so it will ever be with us. If we move when we ought to rest, or rest when we ought to move, we shall not have the divine presence with us.--_C. H. M._
Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea! Jehovah has triumph'd,--his people are free.
Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea! / Jehovah has triumph'd, His people are free.
Angels had been present on many august occasions, and they had joined in many a solemn chorus to the praise of their Almighty Creator. They were present at the creation: "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." They had seen many a planet fashioned between the palms of Jehovah, and wheeled by His eternal hands through the infinitude of space. They had sung solemn songs over many a world which the Great One had created. We doubt not, they had often chanted, "Blessing and honor, and glory, and majesty, and power, and dominion, and might, be unto Him that sitteth on the throne," manifesting Himself in the work of creation. I doubt not, too, that their songs had gathered force through ages. As when first created, their first breath was song, so when they saw God create new worlds, then their song received another note; they rose a little higher in the gamut of adoration. But this time, when they saw God stoop from His throne and become a babe hanging upon a woman's breast, they lifted their notes higher still; and reaching to the uttermost stretch of angelic music, they gained the highest notes of the divine scale of praise and they sang, "Glory to God _in the highest_," for higher in goodness they felt God could not go. Thus their highest praise they gave to Him in the highest act of His Godhead.--_Spurgeon._
Turris fortissima est nomen Jehovah=--A most strong tower is the name of Jehovah.
If immortality is meant for no more than a continuance of existence, if by a belief in immortality on the part of the Jews is meant no more than that the Jews did not believe in the annihilation of the soul at the time of death, we may confidently assert that, to the bulk of the Jewish nation, this very idea of annihilation was as yet unfamiliar. The fact is that the idea of absolute annihilation and nothingness is hardly ever found except among people whose mind has received some amount of philosophical education, certainly more than what the Jews possessed in early times. The Jews did not believe in the utter destruction of the soul, but, on the other hand, their idea of life after death was hardly that of life at all. It was existence without life. Death was considered by them, as by the Greeks, as the greatest of misfortunes. To rejoice in death is a purely Christian, not a Jewish, idea. Though the Jews believed that the souls continued to exist in Sheol, they did not believe that the wicked would there be punished and the good rewarded. All rewards and punishments for virtue or vice were confined to this world, and a long life was regarded as a sure proof of the favour of Jehovah. It was the Jewish conception of God, as infinitely removed from this world, that made a belief in true immortality almost impossible for them, and excluded all hope for a nearer approach to God, or for any share in that true immortality which belonged to Him and to Him alone.
Father of all! in every age, / In every clime adored, / By saint, by savage, and by sage, / Jehovah, Jove, or Lord.
There is an anger that is majestic as the frown of Jehovah's brow; it is the anger of truth and love.
Magnifying and applying come I, Outbidding at the start the old cautious hucksters, Taking myself the exact dimensions of Jehovah, Lithographing Kronos, Zeus his son, and Hercules his grandson, Buying drafts of Osiris, Isis, Belus, Brahma, Buddha, In my portfolio placing Manito loose, Allah on a leaf, the crucifix engraved, With Odin and the hideous-faced Mexitli and every idol and image, Taking them all for what they are worth and not a cent more, Admitting they were alive and did the work of their days, (They bore mites as for unfledg'd birds who have now to rise and fly and sing for themselves,) Accepting the rough deific sketches to fill out better in myself, bestowing them freely on each man and woman I see…
Remember your life is to be a singing life. This world is God's grand cathedral for you. You are to be one of God's choristers, and there is to be a continual eucharistic sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving going up from your heart, with which God shall be continually well pleased. And there should be not only the offering of the lips, but the surrender of the life with joy. Yes, with _joy_, and not with _constraint_. Every faculty of our nature should be presented to Him in gladsome service, for the Lord Jehovah is my song as well as my strength.--_W. Hay Aitken._
"Elohim," the name for the creative power in Genesis, is a female plural, a fact that generations of learned rabbis and Christian theologians have all explained as merely grammatical convention. The King James and most other Bibles translate it as "God," but if you take the grammar literally, it seems to mean "goddesses." Al Shaddai, god of battles, appears later, and YHWH, mispronounced Jehovah, later still.
Though Christianity has given us a purer and truer idea of the Godhead, of the majesty of His power and the holiness of His will, there remains with many of us the conception of a merely objective Deity. God is still with many of us in the clouds, so far removed from the earth and so high above anything human, that in trying to realise fully the meaning of Christ's teaching we often shrink from approaching too near to the blinding effulgence of Jehovah. The idea that we should stand to Him in the relation of children to their father seems to some people almost irreverent, and the thought that God is near us everywhere, the belief that we are also His offspring, nay, that there has never been an absolute barrier between divinity and humanity, has often been branded as Pantheism. Yet Christianity would not be Christianity without this so-called Pantheism, and it is only some lingering belief in something like a Jove-like Deus Optimus Maximus that keeps the eyes of our mind fixed with awe on the God of Nature without, rather than on the much more awful God of the soul within.
Jesus destroyed the barrier between man and God, the veil that hid the Holiest was withdrawn. Man was taught to see what the prophets had seen dimly, that he was near to God, that God was near to every one of us, that the old Jewish view of a distant Jehovah had arisen from an excess of reverence, had filled the heart of man with fear, but not with love. Jesus did not teach a new doctrine, but He removed an old error, and that error, that slavish fear of God, once removed, the human heart would recover the old trust in God--man would return like a lost son to his lost father, he would feel that if he was anything, he could only be what his God had made him, and wished him to be. And if a name was wanted for that intimate relation between God and man, what better name was there than Father and Son?
You try it first, Othniel.” Othniel grinned. “So if I break my neck, you won’t have to worry about me.” He turned then and suddenly put out his hand. Rahab, surprised, took it and he said warmly, “I’ll never forget you or your family, Rahab. Don’t worry. Jehovah’s going to take care of you.” He quickly shinnied down the rope and disappeared into the darkness. “It will be hard for you with your wounded arm.” “I’ll be all right.” “Good-bye, then, and may the God of Israel keep you safe.
It is a sweet thought that Jesus Christ did not come forth without His Father's permission, authority, consent, and assistance. He was sent of the Father that He might be the Savior of men. . . . Didst thou ever consider the depth of love in the heart of Jehovah, when God the Father equipped His Son for the great enterprise of mercy? If not, be this thy day's meditation. The _Father_ sent Him! Contemplate that subject. Think how Jesus works what the _Father_ wills. In the wounds of the dying Savior see the love of the great I AM. Let every thought of Jesus be also connected with the eternal, ever-blessed God.--_Spurgeon._
Rahab knelt down and fed more twigs into the fire. She was thinking how to answer this man. “As I told you,” she said finally, “I did it because of your god. What is his name?” “He has many names. Jehovah is one of them.” “Jehovah. What does that mean?” “It’s an odd sort of name. It means, more or less, ‘one who keeps covenant with His people’” “And what is a covenant?” “It’s a promise, an agreement. Like if I promised you I would come on a certain day, say next week. That would be a covenant between us.” “And what promises has your god made you?” “Many,” Ardon said.
Father of all! in every age, In every clime adored, By saint, by savage, and by sage, Jehovah, Jove, or Lord.
To some any attempt to trace back the name and concept of Jehovah to the same hidden sources from which other nations derived their first intimation of deity may seem almost sacrilegious. They forget the difference between the human concept of the Deity and the Deity itself, which is beyond the reach of all human concepts. But the historian reads deeper lessons in the growth of these human concepts, as they spring up everywhere in the minds of men who have been seekers after truth--seeking the Lord if haply they might feel after Him and find Him--and when he can show the slow but healthy growth of the noblest and sublimest thoughts out of small and apparently insignificant beginnings, he rejoices as the labourer rejoices over his golden harvest; nay, he often wonders what is more truly wonderful, the butterfly that soars up to heaven on its silvery wings, or the grub that hides within its mean chrysalis such marvellous possibilities.
She asked me if she could become a woman of Israel.” “And what did you tell her?” “Why, I told her no, of course.” Ardon was surprised at the question. “You know that an idolater and a stranger cannot be a part of Israel.” “You know our history better than that. Moses was married to an Ethiopian woman. She wasn’t born a Hebrew. There are others too. You remember how Moses used to say that the strangers and foreigners could join us if they wanted to worship Jehovah.” Indeed, Ardon did know this, but he had shut it out of his mind. He never understood that and was resentful of strangers who were admitted into the fellowship of the nation of Israel. “But in any case,” he said, “she’s a prostitute, so that bars her.
I’m sorry, but your family’s all right.” “Yes. God has delivered us all. Jehovah is a great God.” He could not think of what to say, but at that moment Joshua and Caleb were passing by. They were both weary with battle, but Joshua’s eyes took in the pair. He came over at once and said, “This is Rahab, I take it?” “Yes, sir.” “We owe you a great debt, young woman,” Joshua said warmly. “Have you been taken care of?” Rahab was warmed by the man’s thoughtful air. He was rough-looking and his voice was rather gruff, but he had kind eyes. “Yes. Ardon has seen to it that we have a place to live and food to eat.
The Bible is the writing of the living God. Each letter was penned with an almighty finger. Each word in it dropped from the everlasting lips. Each sentence was dictated by the Holy Spirit. Albeit that Moses was employed to write his histories with his fiery pen, God guided that pen. It may be that David touched his harp, and let sweet psalms of melody drop from his fingers; but God moved his hands over the living strings of his golden harp. Solomon sang canticles of love and gave forth words of consummate wisdom; but God directed his lips, and made the preacher eloquent. If I follow the thundering Nahum, when his horses plough the waters; or Habakkuk, when he sees the tents of Cushan in affliction; if I read Malachi, when the earth is burning like an oven; if I turn to the smooth page of John, who tells of love; or the rugged chapters of Peter, who speaks of fire devouring God's enemies; if I turn aside to Jude, who launches forth anathemas upon the foes of God--everywhere I find God speaking; it is God's voice, not man's; the words are God's words; the words of the Eternal, the Invisible, the Almighty, the Jehovah of ages. This Bible is God's Bible; and when I see it, I seem to hear a voice springing up from it, saying, "I am the Book of God. Man, read me. I am God's writing. Study my page, for I was penned by God. Love me, for He is my Author, and you will see Him visible and manifest everywhere."--_Spurgeon._
Is there anything I can do for you in return for your service to our people?” Rahab hesitated, and then she gathered her courage and said, “I want to worship your God, sir.” Joshua was tremendously pleased with her answer. “Why, of course. Ardon, take her to Phinehas. Tell him that I want him to teach her the ways of Jehovah.” “But—” Ardon almost blurted out that the woman was a harlot and an idolatress, but Joshua’s eyes met his, and he stopped at once. “Yes, sir,” he said. “Moses said many times that there would be no difference between our people and the stranger. He was very stern as he spoke these words. Now, you see that my orders are carried out. And Rahab,” he said turning to her, “you will always have a place in Israel.” “I thank you so much—for me and my family.
Oh, the victories of prayer! They are the mountain-tops of the Bible. They take us back to the plains of Mamre, to the fords of Peniel, to the prison of Joseph, to the triumphs of Moses, to the transcendent victories of Joshua, to the deliverances of David, to the miracles of Elijah and Elisha, to the whole story of the Master's life, to the secret of Pentecost, to the key-note of Paul's unparalleled ministry, to the lives of saints and the deaths of martyrs, to all that is most sacred and sweet in the history of the Church and the experience of the children of God. And when, for us, the last conflict shall have passed, and the footstool of prayer shall have given place to the harp of praise, the spots of time that shall be gilded with the most celestial and eternal radiance, shall be those, often linked with deepest sorrow and darkest night, over which we have the inscription, "Jehovah-Shammah: The Lord was there!"--_A. B. Simpson._
Rahab exclaimed, “That’s exactly what I said! The people in Jericho, they go to the temples to ask for things. Always asking! But I always wanted to know what the god or goddess was like.” “Well, Jehovah is hard to understand. For one thing, nobody’s ever seen Him.” “Nobody? Not even Abraham?” “Not even Moses, really. Moses was our leader who led us out of Egypt. You may have heard about him.” “Yes. Everyone knows about Moses. Did you know him?” “Yes, of course. He only died a short time ago. He was a hundred twenty years old, but he was as strong as if he were a young man.
Joshua cried out, “Moses, my master, my teacher, I cannot bear the thought!” “Every man serves God in his own generation. As our father Abraham did and our father Isaac and our father Jacob, so I have tried to serve the great and almighty Jehovah. Now, know of the special love I have had for you two.” For a long time Moses stayed with the two men, encouraging them, until he stopped and said, “I must go.” “Let me go with you, master,” Joshua cried. “You are the new leader of Israel. One day you will join me, but now it is time for me to go meet with my God.
history of his people well. His eyes grew dreamy as he began to speak of how Jehovah had appeared to Abraham. “He promised him a land flowing with milk and honey, and though he was only one man he said, ‘One day your descendants will be as many as the stars in the sky.’ Abraham was the first Hebrew.” Rahab was fascinated. This was the first time Ardon had spoken to her at any length. “Tell me more about your god.” “Why do you want to know?” “Surely everyone wants to know about your god.” “I don’t think so. Most people want what God will do for them. They don’t want God himself.
Isaac dwelt there, and made the well of the living and all-seeing God his constant source of supply. The usual tenor of a man's life, the _dwelling_ of his soul, is the true test of his state. Let us learn to live in the presence of the living God. Let us pray the Holy Spirit that this day, and every other day, we may feel, "Thou God seest me." May the Lord Jehovah be as a well to us, delightful, comforting, unfailing, springing up unto eternal life. The bottle of the creature cracks and dries up, but the well of the Creator never fails. Happy is he who dwells at the well, and so has abundant and constant supplies near at hand! Glorious Lord, constrain us that we may never leave Thee, but dwell by the well of the living God!--_Spurgeon._
Not me, guy. I read the Bash man page each day like a Jehovah's Witness reads the Bible. No wait, the Bash man page IS the bible. Excuse me... -- More on confusing aliases, taken from comp.os.linux.misc
Not me, guy. I read the Bash man page each day like a Jehovah's Witness reads the Bible. No wait, the Bash man page IS the bible. Excuse me... (More on confusing aliases, taken from comp.os.linux.misc)
We are told that when Jehovah created the world he saw that it was good. What would he say now?
The gamin of Paris is respectful, ironical, and insolent. He has villainous teeth, because he is badly fed and his stomach suffers, and handsome eyes because he has wit. If Jehovah himself were present, he would go hopping up the steps of paradise on one foot. He is strong on boxing. All beliefs are possible to him. He plays in the gutter, and straightens himself up with a revolt; his effrontery persists even in the presence of grape-shot; he was a scapegrace, he is a hero; like the little Theban, he shakes the skin from the lion; Barra the drummer-boy was a gamin of Paris; he Shouts: "Forward!" as the horse of Scripture says "Vah!" and in a moment he has passed from the small brat to the giant.
Jahveh or Yahweh is apparently an example of a common type of Hebrew proper names which have the form of the 3rd pers. sing, of the verb. e.g. Jabneh (name of a city), Jabin, Jamlek, Jiptah (Jephthah), &c. Most of these really are verbs, the suppressed or implicit subject being _'el_, "_numen_, god," or the name of a god; cf. Jabneh and Jabne-el, Jiptah and Jiptah-el. Entry: JEHOVAH
3. _The Era of Moses._--We are now on safer ground though still obscure. Moses was the first historic individuality who can be said to have welded the Israelite clans into a whole. This could never have been accomplished without unity of worship. The object of this worship was Yahweh. As we have already indicated, the document J assumes that Yahweh was worshipped by the Hebrew race from the first. On the other hand, according to P (Ex. vi. 2), God spake to Moses and said to him: "I am Yahweh. But I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Shaddai and by my name Yahweh I did not make myself known to them." According to this later tradition Yahweh was unknown till the days of Moses, and under the aegis of His power the Hebrew tribes were delivered from Egyptian thraldom. The truth probably lies somewhere between these two sharply contrasted traditions. So much is clear. Yahweh now becomes the supreme deity of the Hebrew people, and an ark analogous to the Egyptian and Babylonian arks portrayed on the monuments[8] was constructed as embodiment of the _numen_ of Yahweh and was borne in front of the Hebrew army when it marched to war. It was the signal victory won by Moses at the exodus against the Egyptians and in the subsequent battle at Rephidim against 'Amalek (Ex. xvii.) that consolidated the prestige of Yahweh, Israel's war-god. Indications in the Old Testament itself clearly point to the celestial or atmospheric character of the Yahweh of the Hebrews. The supposition that the name originally contained the notion of permanent or eternal being, and was derived from the verbal root signifying "to be," involves too abstract a conception to be probable, though it is based on Ex. iii. 15 (E) representing a tradition which may have prevailed in the 8th century B.C. Kautzsch, however, supports it (Hastings's _D.B._, extra vol. "Rel. of Isr." p. 625 foll.) against the other derivations proposed by recent scholars (see JEHOVAH). That the name also prevailed as that of a god among other Semitic races (or even non-Semitic) is rendered certain by the proper names Jau-bi'-di (= Ilu-bi'di) of Hamath in Sargon's inscriptions, Ahi-jawi (mi) in Sellin's discovered tablet at Ta'annek, to say nothing of those which have been found in the documents of Khammurabi's reign. It has generally been held that Stade's supposition has much to recommend it, that it was derived by Moses from the Kenites, and should be connected with the Sinai-Horeb region. The name Sinai suggests moon-worship and the moon-god Sin; and it also suggests Babylonian influence (cf. also Mount Nebo, which was a place-name both in Moab and in Judah, and naturally connects itself with the name of the Babylonian deity). Several indications favour the view of the connexion in the age of Moses between the Yahweh-cult at Sinai and the moon-worship of Babylonian origin to which the name Sinai points (Sin being the Babylonian moon-god). We note (a) that in the worship of Yahweh the sacred seasons of new moon and Sabbath are obviously _lunar_. Recent investigations have even been held to disclose the fact that the Sabbath coincided originally, i.e. in early pre-exilian days, with the full moon.[9] (b) It also accords with the name bestowed on Yahweh as "Lord of Hosts" (_sebaoth_) or stars, which were regarded as personified beings (Job xxxviii. 7) and attendants on the celestial Yahweh, constituting His retinue (1 Kings xxii. 19) which fought on high while the earthly armies of Israel, His people, contended below (Judges v. 20). Entry: 3
42. _The Later Empire._--With the failure in 135 of the attempt led by Barcochebas to free Judaea from Roman domination a new era begins in the history of the Jews. The direct consequence of the failure was the annihilation of political nationality. Large numbers fell in the actual fighting. Dio Cassius puts the total at the incredible figure of 580,000, besides the incalculable number who succumbed to famine, disease and fire (Dio-Xiphilin lxix. 11-15). Jerusalem was rebuilt by Hadrian, orders to this effect being given during the emperor's first journey through Syria in 130, the date of his foundations at Gaza, Tiberias and Petra (Reinach, _Textes relatifs au Judaïsme_, p. 198). The new city was named Aelia Capitolina, and on the site of the temple of Jehovah there arose another temple dedicated to Jupiter. To Eusebius the erection of a temple of Venus over the sepulchre of Christ was an act of mockery against the Christian religion. Rome had been roused to unwonted fury, and the truculence of the rebels was matched by the cruelty of their masters. The holy city was barred against the Jews; they were excluded, under pain of death, from approaching within view of the walls. Hadrian's policy in this respect was matched later on by the edict of the caliph Omar (c. 638), who, like his Roman prototype, prevented the Jews from settling in the capital of their ancient country. The death of Hadrian and the accession of Antoninus Pius (138), however, gave the dispersed people of Palestine a breathing-space. Roman law was by no means intolerant to the Jews. Under the constitution of Caracalla (198-217) all inhabitants of the Roman empire enjoyed the civil rights of the _Cives Romani_ (Scherer, _Die Rechtsverhältnisse der Juden_, p. 10). Entry: 42
The early Christian scholars, who inquired what was the true name of the God of the Old Testament, had therefore no great difficulty in getting the information they sought. Clement of Alexandria (d. c. 212) says that it was pronounced [Greek: Iaoue].[9] Epiphanius (d. 404), who was born in Palestine and spent a considerable part of his life there, gives [Greek: Iabe] (one cod. [Greek: Iaue]).[10] Theodoret (d. c. 457),[11] born in Antioch, writes that the Samaritans pronounced the name [Greek: Iabe] (in another passage, [Greek: Iabai]), the Jews [Greek: Aia].[12] The latter is probably not Jhvh but _Ehyeh_ (Exod. iii. 14), which the Jews counted among the names of God; there is no reason whatever to imagine that the Samaritans pronounced the name Jhvh differently from the Jews. This direct testimony is supplemented by that of the magical texts, in which [Greek: Iabe zebyth] (Jahveh Sebaoth), as well as [Greek: Iaba], occurs frequently.[13] In an Ethiopic list of magical names of Jesus, purporting to have been taught by him to his disciples, _Yawe_ is found.[14] Finally, there is evidence from more than one source that the modern Samaritan priests pronounce the name _Yahweh_ or _Yahwa_.[15] Entry: JEHOVAH