Who Is God?

Have you ever spent time contemplating the fathomless question, “Who is God?” That’s what I have done the past few weeks. Several weeks ago I began to sense that the Lord was speaking to me about Himself, who He is.

One of the vehicles God used to speak to me about Himself was the song our choir sang today, “More Than Enough” a song recorded by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. The song refers to God by three of the compound names He is known by in the Old Testament, Jehovah-Jireh, Jehovah-Rophe and Jehovah-Shammai.

There are actually eight compounded names for God listed in the O.T. In addition to Jehovah-Jireh, Jehovah-Rophe and Jehovah-Shammai. They include Jehovah-rohi, Jehovah-shalom, Jehovah-tsidkenu, Jehovah-m’kaddesh, and Jehovah-nissi.

It’s important to remember that in the Old Testament names always reveal character. A name was often given to express the nature of the person or to memorialize a significant event or occasion.

Each of the eight names of God was given following a significant occurrence or intervention of God with His people. Each name carries a different insight into the person, the nature or the character of God. In other words, the different names give a different insight into who God is.

Just as we all are known by different names or titles, which help reveal the person we are, so there are many names of God, which reveal who He is.

For example, my name happens to be Bobby Douglas Earls, but I am also known by other names or titles each of which reveals something about who I am.

I am occasionally known as the Reverend Bobby Earls, or Preacher, or a name I prefer, Pastor. Those names reveal something about my profession.

During my lifetime I have been called by many names like Cotton, Little-Man, Hustler, and a few other names I cannot use in the pulpit.

The name I’ve heard a lot the past few years is Bubba. All these names are nicknames that were given to me by people who were close to me and saw some particular insight into my personality that came out based upon the relationship we shared.

Then there are more personal and intimate titles or names such as son, brother, husband, or dad that reveal even more about who I am.

So a name or the names by which someone is known reveals the nature, or something about the character of that person in relationship to others. So let me return to the eight compound names of God in the O.T. and give you the meaning of each.

Jehovah-means “the self-existent One.” It literally means I am the ever living, self-existent one, I am that I am. Jehovah is the name God used when He revealed Himself to Moses in the wilderness in Exodus 3.

1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.” 4 So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” 6 Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

7 And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8“So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. 9“Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10“Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

13 Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” 15 Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’

1. GOD IS THE LORD WHO PROVIDES (Jehovah Jireh)

Jehovah-Jireh means “The Lord who provides.”

Genesis 22 (KJV)

1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. 2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the donkey; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. 9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. 12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.

2. GOD IS THE LORD WHO HEALS (Jehovah Ropha)

Jehovah-Rophe means “The Lord who heals”

Exodus 15

22 Then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea, and they moved out into the Shur Desert. They traveled in this desert for three days without water. 23 When they came to Marah, they finally found water. But the people couldn’t drink it because it was bitter. (That is why the place was called Marah, which means “bitter.”)

24 Then the people turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?” they demanded.

25 So Moses cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a branch. Moses took the branch and threw it into the water. This made the water good to drink.

It was there at Marah that the Lord laid before them the following conditions to test their faithfulness to him: 26 “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and laws, then I will not make you suffer the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”

Our God is the God who heals. Now God can heal us in many ways. God can heal us physically, or emotionally, or mentally. But the greatest of all healings God provides is spiritual healing.

I believe that’s what Isaiah had in mind in that wonderful Messianic 53rd chapter of Isaiah when he said, “by his stripes we are healed.”

That’s what Peter understood. Or else why did he write, in First Peter 2:24-25, "Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."

I believe that is what Solomon the King had in mind when he prayed that great prayer in 2 Chronicles 7. And God responded in verse 14 by saying if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

All sin is healed at Calvary. How, by Christ being sin for us.

3. GOD IS THE LORD WHO IS PRESENT (Jehovah Shammah)

Jehovah-Shammah means, “The Lord is there.” As the song says, Thou art with me.

Jehovah-Shammah is the God who promised to be with Moses as he went before Pharaoh with the message from God to ‘let my people go.”

Jehovah-Shammah is the God who was with Joshua as he led God’s people into the Promised Land remembering the promise as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.

Jehovah Shammah is the God who was with young David as he stood before the giant Philistine called Goliath and said who is this uncircumcised Philistine who dares to defy the armies of the living God?”

Listen to a portion of the account of David’s victory over this giant. It’s great!

40 Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine. 41 So the Philistine came, and began drawing near to David, and the man who bore the shield went before him. 42 And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him; for he was only a youth, ruddy and good-looking. 43 So the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 And the Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!” 45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46“This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 47“Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”

48 So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hastened and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. 49 Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. 50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David. 51 Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it.

The actual appearance of the name Jehovah Shammah is found in Ezekiel 48:35, the last verse of the last chapter of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel had been the prophet of doom and destruction, of woe and defeat and destruction. Because of their sins and unwillingness to repent God repeated said through the prophet Ezekiel that the people of Israel would be destroyed as indeed they were in 589 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar came with the armies of Babylon and conquered the city of Jerusalem and burned it walls and destroyed the temple.

While in captivity, however, God gives Ezekiel this final message of hope and restoration. The prophecy was that the very city God had abandoned would one day be visited again. This last verse is a promise of the presence of God in the restored city of Zion.

And from that day the name of the city will be ‘The Lord Is There.’ ”

The God who provides, and the God who heals, is also the God who is there. He is with us.

Jesus promised never to leave us or forsake us. “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Whatever your need is. Jehovah Jireh, God provides. Whatever your hurt is. Jehovah Ropha, God heals. Whatever your fear, Jehovah Shammah, God is there.

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