The Names of God- El Olam
Knowing God • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction:
Introduction:
I do not know if you have noticed or not, but we are studying the names of God as they appear in the Scripture because there is a progression in the self-revelation of God to His people through the use of His names.
First, we know Him as “Elohim.”
The strong, mighty God who creates, Who spoke everything into being.
This is where our relationship with God must begin.
Next, we understand Him as the El Elyon, the most high God.
Then we saw that He is Adonai, the Lord the boss.
We also saw Him as the Lord who sees and brings comfort as we see Him as the El Roi.
Last time we saw Him as the God that can do anything, He is the El Shaddai.
The next name of God that we will noticed is one no less as wonderful for the believer.
I. The Meaning of El Olam
I. The Meaning of El Olam
This is the fourth Hebrew compound name for God that we have studied together.
We remember that the Prefix “El” has to do with God being all powerful.
The Hebrew word “Olam” means “eternal.”
And this word used in conjunction with “El” it speaks of the almighty God who is eternal or “God of Eternity.”
What this reminds is that God is a God of permanence.
It speaks of God exaltation above the effects and surprises of time.
God is the God of the past, present, and future.
He is; therefore, the eternal or the everlasting God.
The name “Olam” reminds and helps us to know God as the eternal, ageless, and perpetual God who does not change amid the changing times of human history and culture.
Because God is the God of eternity, and the God who is perpetual, He is also the God that is changeless.
In Theological terms we call that The Immutability of God, God does not change and God does not change because He is eternal.
Because the fact that God is eternal not only speaks about the fact that He has always existed but also speaks of the fact that all of His ways are eternal.
It would be inconsistent to say that God is eternal but then to say that his decrees are not eternal.
So, since that is not the case, everything that God is and that has done is eternal.
His wisdom is eternal, His ways are eternal, His character is eternal; everything about God is eternal.
God, nor His standards change.
For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
God’s promise, of Which He reminds the sons Jacob, is that they are not consumed because of the covenant that He made with Abraham and because that covenant was an everlasting covenant, and because God is. too, eternal, the covenant does not change.
God is and can be eternal and immutable because God is independent of everything.
God is self-existent and self-sufficient, not depending on anything that is outside of Himself.
We also call this the Aseity of God.
He is Independent.
Because He is Independent and sufficient in and of Himself, He does not change.
We change because we are influenced by things that cause us to change.
Because God is self-sufficient and self-exiting, He is not subject to being influenced by the actions of others.
For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
God is self-sufficient is His mind.
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
God is independent in His will.
And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
God is independent in His counsel.
The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
God is Independent in His love.
I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.
God is Independent is His power.
But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
Now, since God is Independent, since He is self-sufficient and there is nothing outside of Him that could cause Him to change, His eternality includes His immutability.
He is the El Olam, the Eternal God.
Because He is eternal, He is changeless.
An eternal being cannot be changeable being.
Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.
They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:
But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Now, when we say that God is eternal; therefore, necessitates immutability, there is an apparent tension with some passages in Scripture that states that God repents.
And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
And there are others that I will not mention, because the answer would really be the same.
Now, to resolve this tension, many, such as open theists, have said God really does not change His mind, purposes, and promises in response to what humans do.
Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth Questions concerning God’s Immutability
They contend that one cannot justly harmonize God’s “changes” in Scripture with the traditional doctrine that God is unchangeable. They claim that if sinners turn from sin and respond in faith and love toward God, he will turn from (repent of, change his mind about) the judgment he intended and give them blessing instead.
The errors that we encounter on the denial of God’s Immutability is refuted by viewing God’s Immutability in a proper biblical perspective.
Immutability does not mean that God is static or inactive.
Nor does it mean that He does not act distinctly in time or possess true affections.
God is impassible, not in the sense that He is devoid of true feelings or has no affections, but in the sense that his emotions are active and deliberate expressions of his holy dispositions, not involuntary passions by which He is driven.
A good way to understand God’s apparent “changes” in Scripture is to consider that God reveals Himself in His relations to people.
They perceive only one aspect of God at a time.
God never changes, but creature so change, and they perceive God’s perfections and actions according to their current state.
God’s actions do not imply a change of essence or purpose.
Therefore, the language of God “repenting” or changing” is figurative expressions that communicate to man on his level of understanding about changes of dispositions or actions.
Thus, God’s perceived “changes” are always in the context of His eternal omniscience and will, so they are never because God is surprised and has to adjust.
They are always done in harmony with is truth and faithfulness.
All His acts that might be perceived as changes are eternally foreknown and predetermined.
So, we see that El Olam is the eternal God and because He is the eternal God, He cannot change.
II. Manifestation of El Olam
II. Manifestation of El Olam
Same principle as before, “the rule of first mention.”
And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.
This name is used to sum what what Abraham learned about God in Genesis 21.
First, Sarah asked Abraham to get rid of the slave woman Hagar and her son, who was also Abraham’s son, Ishmael.
Notice what God said that may have been a cause of shock for Abraham.
And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
Now, it may seemed to Abraham that God was being unfair.
After all, the birth of Ishmael was a result of the lapse of faith of Abraham and Sarah, not of Hafar and Ishmael.
There are at least two reasons why God told Abraham to send them away.
First, In Genesis 22 Abraham is going to be tested in his willingness to sacrifice Isaac, his only son of promise.
The expulsion of Ishmael was in preparation for this supreme test of Abraham’s faith.
If Abraham still had Ishmael when it came time to offer Isaac, in his mind he might think that even if he lost Isaac, he would still have a son in Ishmael.
Thus, the offering of Isaac would require much less faith and have far less meaning.
From Abraham’s vantage point, God may certainly seem unfair, but in order for him to obedient he had to learn that God was the El Olam, the God of not only the past and present, but also the God of the future.
When we look at things that happen to us in life only from the vantage point of the past and present, often God seems to be unfair.
However, when we get to know God as the El Olam, we understand that He has an important and loving purpose for everything He allows to happen to us.
(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
If we are to know God as He wants us to know Him, we must believe that He is the GOD of the past, present and future and that He is working in all three to accomplish His sovereign and Divine purpose in our lives.
There was another area in which God was to reveal Himself in the sending away of Hagar and Ishmael.
Now, this would not be fully known until the revelation of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 4:21-31.
In that context the Judaizers were teaching the believers in Galatia to trade their freedom in Christ for the bondage of the law.
It was a gospel of works.
The Jews were prideful because of their physical descent from Abraham and in many cases believed the blessings God promised to Abraham were theirs exclusively.
Now, in Galatians 4, the distinction between Ishmael and Isaac is revealed in spiritual terms.
Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul explains that Ishmael represents the Old Covenant, the Law.
Also, the passage says Ishmael represents those who are part of Abraham’s family through the physical birth, for the birth was entirely by natural means.
On the other hand, Isaac was the child of promise, his birth was by means of a miracle.
It is not the natural birth that makes us part of the covenant people; it is miraculous birth.
So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
This was all part of the plan of “El Olam,” the Eternal God.
Abraham could not understand it; he just had to trust his future to God; because the NT reveals what was concealed in the OT by the God of Eternity.
Abraham really did not get to know “El Olam” until later in Genesis 21 when he planted a tree as a token of his agreement with Abimelech.
Abimelech’s servants had stolen some of Abraham’s land, including a very important well that Abraham had dug.
And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away.
When confronted by Abraham, Abimelech swore he knew nothing about it.
And Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing: neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day.
Notice what Abraham did.
And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant.
Abraham did not fight over the well because it would have resulted in bloodshed on both sides.
Now, he did not know for sure that Abimelech would be trusted, but he committed the situation to “El Olam.”
Abraham came to know that as long as he did what was right for today, he could trust “El Olam” with tomorrow.
If it costs is, it is hard to the right thing today, but we will if we know God is “El Olam,” the God of Eternity, The God of the present and future.
Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
III. The Material of El Olam
III. The Material of El Olam
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Of course, when Isaiah wrote this Isreal was very despondent because the Assyrians had already captured many bordering nations, as well as Israel and much of Judah.
While Isaiah was preaching through this time, he was warning Judah’s king about making alliances with pagan kings rather than trusting in the Lord.
When faith begins to fail, who, do you trust?
Where do you turn, when faith grows weak?
The secret for supernatural strength when our strength seems to be failing is to trust the everlasting God, “El Olam.”
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
We need to learn the indispensable lesson that because is the everlasting God, He has no beginning and no ending; He knows all and has ordained all and we can renew our strength by placing our trust for today and tomorrow in the God that has been there and will be there because He is the El Olam, the Everlasting God.