Names of God- Jehovah Mequaddishkem
Knowing God • Sermon • Submitted
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Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.
Introduction:
Introduction:
As we come to the twelfth name of God that we are learned so far, we are once again brought to the forefront of the fact that the God behind all these names is a personal God, that deals with His people on a personal level.
We looked at the fact that God is Adonai, which means that He is Lord, the Master, the Boss.
And we saw that the personal relationship that wee see in that name is the fact that God is Lord or Master over His children.
We put it in Biblical terms as “slave.”
The Apostle Paul consistently calls himself the “δοῦλος” of Christ, and the word “δοῦλος” is the Greek word that means “slave.”
And this really goes back to the personal relationship that Paul had with God as his Adonai, his Master.
We also saw another name of God is El Elyon, El meaning “all powerful” and Elyon meaning “Most High God.”
And because He is the Most High God, everything belongs to Him.
Since He is the creator of everything, everything belongs to Him.
This is personal because it means that everything that we have really belongs to the Lord and He just allows us to use them.
We also saw the name “Elohim” which appears in the Scriptures 4,565 times and is plural in its Hebrew form and is the attested name of God in the very first verse of the first book of the Bible.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And since it is in the Hebrew plural form, we know that it is speaking about the entire Godhead.
The entire Godhead was involved in the creation of all that we see and, mostly personally, was involved in our creation.
We also saw the name El Roi, the all powerful God who sees.
And we saw that name in connection with the expelled handmaiden of Sarah, Hagar.
The LORD came to Hagar and she gave Him the name of the God Who sees.
This is the epitome of personal, God sees everything about me.
Sometimes that brings fear, but that should bring comfort.
All of these names trace back to some form of the character of God and how He deals with His people.
And the name that is before us is no less of a name that shows the personal working of God with His people.
We see that God is Jehovah Mequaddishkem.
I. The Meaning of Jehovah Meqaddishkem
I. The Meaning of Jehovah Meqaddishkem
What appears in our text is yet another name of God, yet a name that is one that, admittedly, is less well known and less used.
It is the Hebrew word “קדשׁ” (mqaddish) and it means, “The LORD that Sanctifies you.”
In the OT God had entered into a covenant relationship with His people in which they were to know Him as their God.
What this text tells us is that the weekly sabbath was designed to promote the knowledge of God.
The purpose of the sabbath was to promote a day in which the people of God would rest in His Grace.
God had already told them to set aside a holy place; the tabernacle, where He promised to dwell.
But it would take time to construct the tabernacle and the sabbath was a way of making sure that His people would take the time to get to know Him.
Lets me real, when we are running around, we seem to find very little time for the things of God to fill our minds.
We get our bodies and our minds so busy, that very little of it is filled with getting to know God better.
For the people of Israel, the tabernacle and the Sabbath put God at the center of Israel’s time and space.
The OT Sabbath is, of course, the pattern of the creation week in which God created six days and He rested on the seventh.
The name sabbath means “to cease, to rest.”
However it also carries the idea “to consecrate.”
For Israel, every seventh day (or Saturday) was to be a day that was consecrated to the Lord.
It was to be a time in which Israel would contemplate the knowledge of God.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
In the OT, it was not only the people of Israel that were to observe the Sabbath.
“Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as your stranger, may refresh themselves.
Now, it is very to us that God resting on the seventh day is not because He was tired and needed to rest, but it was merely for us an example that we should follow Him.
Now, for the people of Israel is looked forward to full redemption, when God’s people would enter their rest in the Promised Land.
But for the present time it was a time that could grow deeper into the knowledge of God.
By spending time in prayer and praise, God’s people would come to know Him better as their God.
And in the process they would become holy like HIm.
Now, I want you to notice something that I find very interesting.
The Sabbath was given not solely or even mainly for purpose of physical rest; although, that is certainly a benefit of it.
But notice what our text says:
Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.
I find it very interesting that the command to keep the sabbaths was directly related to sanctification.
And that is what this name of God means, the LORD who sanctifies you.
The covenant relationship with God was a sanctifying relationship, and the sabbath was part of the process.
As the people set apart a day for worship and rest, God set them apart for His service.
So, the meaning of Jehovah Mequaddishkem is the LORD who sanctifies.
II. The Manifestation of Jehovah Mequaddishkem
II. The Manifestation of Jehovah Mequaddishkem
Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
God was dead serious about this command.
The prohibition was absolute.
Preaching the Word: Exodus—Saved for God's Glory What Else is New?
As Michael Horton comments, the day did not require “cessation from activity but cessation from a particular kind of activity—namely, the six-day labor that is intrinsically good but has suffered the curse after the fall.”
The Sabbath day was not a day for business as usual, or for people to do their own thing.
If they did, they would suffer the penalty.
Because if they violated the Sabbath, the text says that they were “desecrating” the Sabbath.
But does this refer to all work or just certain kinds of work?
Does it refer to only the work that requires some kinds of heavy labor?
It would seem from the Scripture that all kinds of work was forbidden.
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.
And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.
And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.
And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.
Why was this command so vital?
Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.
This was time for the people of Israel to reflect on God in order to increase their sanctification.
So we see the meaning of Jehovah Mequaddishkem.
We see the Manifestation of Jehovah Mequaddishkem.
III. The Material of Jehovah Mequaddishkem
III. The Material of Jehovah Mequaddishkem
Now, we understand that this command or penalty no longer apply.
Of the 10 commandments, Jesus remains 9 but does not rename this one.
In fact, Paul tells is that it is nullified.
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
Jesus said:
And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
The Sabbath day was instituted by God to benefit man by giving them a day of rest, but the Pharisees turned it into a burden and made man a slave to their myriad of man-made regulations.
Of course, the Sabbath was Saturday and because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ our day of rest has been changed to Sunday.
And the purpose of our day of rest, is the same as the day of rest for the people of Israel and that was to grow in their knowledge of God.
Again, that is why our text in Exodus links the day of rest with sanctification.
Understand that the reason that the Sabbath rules no longer apply is because their were three types of OT law: moral, civil, and ceremonial.
Preaching the Word: Exodus—Saved for God's Glory What Else is New?
The moral law is God’s universal and eternal will for all people in all places. The civil law was for Old Testament Israel as a nation under the direct rule of God; its judicial sanctions are no longer binding. The ceremonial law governed the rituals of religious worship, such as the system of sacrifice. This law has been fulfilled in Christ.
And even though we are no longer under the rule or the penalty of the Sabbath, it is very important to keep a day of rest.
I think that in general terms that it is very important to come to at least a day when you come and rest the body and contemplate of the knowledge of God because that leads to your sanctification.
We become more like Christ as we ponder and enjoy the knowledge of God and we will always have trouble doing that if we stay busy and do not come apart to contemplate God.
J.C. Penny said, “If you are do busy that you have to work on Sunday, then you are too busy.”
Notice, again our text.
Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.
God is the one who brings about our sanctification and that happens as we stop, rest, and contemplate and worship God.
One of the wills of God for His people is that we be holy.
For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth The Nature of Sanctification
In the first place, sanctification is fundamentally a supernatural work of God done in the inner nature of man
Charles Hodge rightly observed:
Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth The Nature of Sanctification
sanctification … does not consist exclusively in a series of a new kind of acts. It is the making the tree good, in order that the fruit may be good. It involves an essential change of character. As regeneration is not an act of the subject of the work, but in the language of the Bible a new birth, a new creation, a quickening or communicating a new life, … so sanctification in its essential nature is not holy acts, but such a change in the state of the soul, that sinful acts become more infrequent, and holy acts more and more habitual and controlling.
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth The Means of Sanctification
However, while sanctification is properly said to be an internal work of the Spirit, it does not follow that the believer has nothing to do in this matter, since Scripture is replete with exhortations and imperatives for the believer to pursue holiness.
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
As we stop and contemplate who God is and rest, we grow in our holiness and sanctification.
When our lives are a constant flow of activity, work and other activities other than thoughts about the Lord, we will suffer in becoming more sanctified.
God is the LORD who sanctifies.
And we all need to take those moments our of schedule to contemplate God and turn that contemplation into Praise so that we will grow in our sanctification.
We call Sunday, “The Lord’s Day,” and in the life of the believer it needs to be the Lords Day.
It needs to be the day that is set apart to rest the body so that the mind can focus on God.
And increased focus on God, increases the level of sanctification.
He is the LORD who Sanctifies, He is the LORD Mequaddishkem.