Notes of Faith August 19, 2022
Jehovah Elohim: Creator God of Everything We See
Rabbi Jason
Being around creative people lights my fire. Painters, actors, singers, and musicians, to name a few, use their gifts to reach deeply into our emotions, touching those hidden spots within our souls, causing us to cry, laugh, and remember. They inspire me. They encourage the world.
As a small child, renowned composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein wasn’t interested in music until his aunt gave her piano to his family. When Leonard sat down at the keys, things just clicked. With a natural ear for music, he could hear a song on the radio and immediately recite the tune on the piano. It was a rare gift.
Leonard Bernstein was a creator. He wrote several musicals, including his most famous West Side Story (1957), and he conducted world-famous symphonies for which he won countless awards and accolades. But nothing he created compared to the works of God.1
There are two primary names for God in the Creation account. The first is Elohim. “In the beginning [Elohim] created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). In Jewish thought, Elohim is associated with God as the Creator who providentially cares for His creation. As the Maker and Master of the universe, Elohim is revealed in and through nature. “The heavens declare the glory of God [El, which is the singular form of Elohim],” wrote the psalmist, “and the sky shows His handiwork” (Psalm 19:2). He is the all-powerful God who exercises complete authority over all creation.
Elohim is also associated with God’s attribute of strict justice, or middat hadin in Hebrew. Elohim is both the First Cause of Creation and the Supreme Judge and Ruler of the universe. Initially God wanted to create the world according to strict justice but knew the world wouldn’t be able to endure it. The divine attribute of strict justice, middat hadin, is connected to God holding the world accountable and judging people according to His general revelation in creation and special revelation in Scripture. For this reason, Elohim is the name of God used in the account of the giving of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). Judgment is the natural result when God withdraws His grace and kindness and allows people to reap what they sow. When God’s divine quality of strict justice deals with a person or nation, measure for measure, that person experiences the expected consequences for their actions apart from God’s attribute of mercy.
The heavens declare the glory of God
The Powerful Name of God
The Hebrew word for “name” most often means “sign” or “distinctive mark.” It’s the idea that a person’s name carries with it the nature of the person, describing their essential character. For example, “‘Noah’ means ‘one who brings relief and comfort’ (Genesis 5:29); ‘Jesus’ means ‘savior’ (Matthew 1:21).”2
Elohim derives from the Hebrew word El, which can mean “power” or “might.” For example, we find its use in Genesis 31:29 when Laban confronted Jacob, saying, “It is in the power [b’el] of my hand to do evil with you.” Elohim describes God as an all-powerful Omnipotent One who has absolute power and control over everything. This thought is underscored because, in the alphanumeric nature of the Hebrew alphabet, both Elohim and hateva (nature) have the same numerical value of 86 in their letters.3 Elohim/86 is the One who created and has complete power over all creation (nature/hateva/86).
One Bible encyclopedia says, “Elohim is best understood as expressing intensity. God makes Himself known by this name as the Lord of intense and extensive glory and richness as He exercises His preeminence and power in the created cosmos.”4
There is another significant connection between Elohim/God/86 and nature/hateva/86. The Ten Commandments state, “I am the Lord your God... You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:2–3 niv). Strangely, the word used for “other gods” in this verse is also elohim. This doesn’t seem to make sense until one understands that those who worshiped idols in biblical times ascribed divinity and power to them (connected to the El and Elohim/86) of nature/hateva/86.
At the root of all this is the numerical connection between nature and God. The power/86 of God/86 is concealed in creation, nature/86! Creation demonstrates the power and goodness of God our Creator, but sin impacted the ability to distinguish between the Creator and the creation. As Paul wrote,
The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. In unrighteousness they suppress the truth, because what can be known about God is plain to them — for God has shown it to them. His invisible attributes — His eternal power and His divine nature — have been clearly seen ever since the creation of the world, being understood through the things that have been made. So people are without excuse — for even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. Instead, their thinking became futile, and their senseless hearts were made dark. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image in the form of mortal man and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.
— Romans 1:18–23
Here again, there’s a connection between the name Elohim, God as Creator, and God as Judge, as Paul related in the above passage. In Jewish thought, Elohim represents God’s attribute of justice, and YHVH/Jehovah/ Lord represents His attribute of mercy and kindness.
Arnold Cheyney, Legends of the Arts: 50 Inspiring Stories of Creative People (Culver City, CA: Good Year Books, 2007), 16.
Gerard Van Groningen, “God, Names of,” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1988), 880.
“Here’s how the Hebrew numeric system works: the first ten Hebrew letters increase in value by a factor of one (aleph is 1, bet is 2, and so on). The next ten Hebrew letters increase in value by a factor of ten (kaf is 20, lamed is
30, and so on). The final Hebrew letters increase in value by a factor of one hundred (kof is 100, reish is 200, and so on) through the final letter, tav, with a value of 400.” Rabbi Jason Sobel, Mysteries of the Messiah: Unveiling Divine Connections from Genesis to Today (Nashville: W Publishing, 2021), 195.
Van Groningen, “God, Names of,” 881–82.
Excerpted from The God of the Way by Kathie Lee Gifford and Rabbi Jason Sobel, copyright Kathie Lee Gifford and Rabbi Jason Sobel.
One of the things left out in the excerpt above is that Elohim is plural which clearly speaks to our God existing in community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is most understood in English when God creates man…”Let us” make man in our image… Our God lives eternally in perfect love and unity as three in One. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Pastor Dale