Yahweh is God's First Name, So Let's Stop Calling Him "Sir"

So the Gospel Coalition has an article giving some reasons for why we should translate יהוה as "Yahweh" as opposed to "LORD." I completely agree. I also think however that it is helpful for those who are reading their Bible to know what their translations are trying to accomplish.

I just wanted to add to what the article will say that it may be helpful to understand the discussion in light of how we address people in English. In English, most people have a first name and a last name, some have a middle name or even middle names. Additionally, in English, some people have titles such as "Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr., Rev., etc." Also, there are words that function as respectful ways of addressing people, such as the above, yet there are some others that are used in some situations, such as when trying to be extra respectful we may ask, "Can I help you, sir/ma'am?" Others have positional titles, such as "General Manager, Judge, President, Queen, etc." We would normally not consider "Mister" or "Sir" or "President" someone's name. However, "lord" is in fact a title that functions halfway between "mister" and "president." So if you watch a movie that emulates some old school English, you may hear, "Yes, m'lord." Or if you go to England today, you can visit the House of Lords with Lords so-and-so and so-and-so. The thing is that יהוה is a name, not a title. Moreover, this causes problems with the Name יהוה (Yahweh) is right next to the title אדני, which means "my lord." You can't really say "The LORD my Lord." Anyways, the article will on to explain more, my point is just that the times your Bible reads LORD in all caps, it is trying to translate God''s Name, the Name He goes by, just like I go by Anthony. Yahweh is the Name God goes by, but you may not have known that because many Bibles translate God's personal name, His given name (He gave it to Himself). In English, we would pronounce and spell God personal Name as "Yahweh."

Please click the link below to get a better handling of the issue as well as some reasons for why the translation of "LORD" came up in the first place as well as reasons for using and enjoying the using of God's Personal Name, Yahweh.
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/10/01/getting-gods-name-right/

Jesus is Impressive Because He Can Heal Anything, and He Keeps His Priorities Straight

Scripture: Mark 1.29-45

Translation: ²⁹And immediately after going out from the synagogue, the went into Simon’s and Andrew’s house with James and John. ³⁰And Simon’s mother-in-law was lying down burning up with fever. And immediately they were speaking to Him about her. ³¹And after going in, He lifted her up when he grabbed her hand. And the fever left her, and she was served them. ³²And after it became evening, when the sun had set, they were bringing to Him all those who were badly sick and those who were being demonized. ³³And so the whole city was gathered to the door. ³⁴And He healed lots of people who were badly sick with different kinds of diseases. And He threw out lots of demons, but He didn’t let the demons speak, because they knew Him.

³⁵And after getting up really early in the morning while it was still night, He went out and went away into a deserted place and there He was praying. ³⁶And Simon and those with him were looking all over for Him. ³⁷And they found Him and were saying to Him that “All the people are searching for You.” ³⁸And He was saying to them, “We should go somewhere else, into the next market-towns, so that I can also preach there, because for this purpose I went out.

³⁹And He went—preaching—into their synagogues into the whole region of Galilee, and throwing out the demons. ⁴⁰And a leper came to Him urging Him and kneeling down and saying to Him that “If you want to be able to make me clean?” ⁴¹And because He felt compassion, after stretching out His hand, He touched him all on His own and was saying to him, “I want to. Be made clean!” ⁴²And then immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean. ⁴³And He was saying to him, “Make sure you say nothing to nobody! Rather go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded as a testimony to them. ⁴⁵But when he went out he began to preach many things and spread the word, so that He wasn’t able to go into a city openly any longer, rather He was outside at the deserted places. And they were coming to Him from everywhere.

Passage Summary: After preaching with authority and driving out a demon, Jesus  goes to Simon and Andrew’s house and heals a fever, then everyone brings sick people to be healed and demonized people to have the demons expelled, then Jesus gets up early to pray, and people are already looking for Him to, Jesus decides it’s time to move on to the other towns to preach, so He preaches all over the place, but He still casts out demons too, but He also heals a leper who comes to Him because of His compassion. Jesus tells the former leper to keep quiet, but instead he starts preaching and spreading the word/message, so Jesus has to minister in the deserted placed, but people still come from all over.

The Point I’m Stressing from the Text: Jesus is Impressive, because He can heal all kinds of diseases and drive out all demons and because He puts prayer first (His relationship with the Father first) and because He kept His focus on His Primary Calling of Preaching, but also because that did not stop Him from also healing sicknesses, even the incurable ones, and throwing out demons, humanizing the dehumanized, because He was filled with compassion, but as well because He still upheld the Law of Moses, and because fame was not His objective, but faithfulness was. But of course, because Jesus is this impressive, He became mega famous. He is clearly Powerful, more powerful than all demons and all diseases! The people knew what this meant. This meant coming to Jesus for healing, this meant telling the world about Who He Is and what He can do, trusting in Him for healing. 

Genesis 39: Translation

Genesis 39

¹Now Joseph was brought down to Egypt. And Potiphar, Pharaoh’s officer, the Commander of the Bodyguard, an Egyptian man, bought him from the hand of the Ishmaelites, who brought him down there. ²And Yahweh was with Joseph. And so he was a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. ³And his master saw that Yahweh was with him, and [that] all that he did Yahweh was making successful in his hand. ⁴And so Joseph found favor in his eyes. And he served him. And he made him an overseer over his house.

Now, he gave all that belonged to him into his care [lit. hand]. ⁵And from that time on he was overseeing him/it[?] in his house and over all that belonged to him. And so Yahweh blessed the house of the Egyptian because of Joseph.

And the blessing of Yahweh was on all that belonged to him in the house and in the field. ⁶And he left all that was his in the hand of Joseph, and didn’t worry about [lit. know with himself] anything, except the bread that he was eating.

Now Joseph was sexy in form and sexy in appearance. ⁷And it happened after these things[lit. words] that his master’s wife started checking out [lit. lifted up her eyes toward] Joseph, and she said, “Sleep with me.” ⁸And he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, my master doesn’t worry about [lit. know with himself] whatever’s in his house and all that belongs to him he gave into my care [lit. hand]. ⁹There’s nobody greater in this house than me, and he didn’t withhold from me anything, except you, because you’re his wife! So how could I do this great evil and sin against God?”

¹⁰And there was a similar invitation to Joseph [lit. it was like her word to Joseph] day after day, but he didn’t listen to her to sleep next to her or to be with her. ¹¹And it happened like this day that he went into the house to do his work, but there wasn’t a man in from the men of house there in the house. ¹²And she grabbed him by his clothes saying, “Sleep with me!” So he left his clothing in her hand and fled and went out to the outside.

 ¹³And it happened as she saw that he left his clothing in her hand and fled to the outside ¹⁴that she screamed to men in her house and she said to them saying, “Look, he brought a Hebrew man in to us to make fun of us! He came in to me to sleep with me, so I screamed with a loud voice!” ¹⁵And it happened as he heard that  I raised my voice and screamed that he left his clothing next to me and fled and went out to the outside.” ¹⁶ And she put his clothes down next to her until his master came in to his house. ¹⁷And she told him  like these words by saying, “That Hebrew slave that you brought in to us came into me to make fun of me! ¹⁸And it happened as I raised my voice and screamed that he left his clothing next to me and fled to the outside!” ¹⁹And it happened as his master heard the words of his wife that she spoke to him saying, “your slave did like these words to me” that he got really angry. ²⁰And so Joseph’s master took him and gave him to the jail-house, a place that the king’s prisoners were being imprisoned.

And he was there in the prison-house. ²¹And Yahweh was with Joseph. And he extended loyalty to him and He gave His favor in the eyes of the commander of the prison-house. ²²And the commander of the prison-house gave into Joseph’s care [lit. hand] all the prisoners that were in the prison-house and he was doing all that they were doing there. ²³There wasn’t the commander of the prison-house looking over all of anything in his care [hand] because Yahweh was with him and what he did Yahweh made successful. 

Jesus is Impressive and Preaches with Power

            Scripture: Mark 1.14-28

Translation: ¹⁴After John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee preaching God’s Good News, ¹⁵namely by saying that “The time is fulfilled and God’s Kingdom is nearby: Change your minds and trust in the Good News!”

¹⁶And while passing by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew Simon’s brother throwing fishnets in the sea, because they were fishermen. ¹⁷And Jesus said to them: “Come on after Me, and I will make you become fishers of men! ¹⁸And immediately leaving the fishnets, they followed Him. ¹⁹And going ahead a little bit, He saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother and them in the boat getting the fishnets ready. ²⁰And immediately He yelled out to them. And leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the employees, they came out after Him.

²¹And they traveled into Capernaum. And then on the Sabbaths after coming into the Synagogue He taught. ²²And they were consistently impressed because of His teaching, because He was teaching them like someone who had authority and not like the scribes. And immediately a man with an unclean spirit was in the their synagogue and he yelled ²⁴saying: “What’s the deal for us and for You, Nazarene Jesus? Did you come to destroy us? I know You, Who You are! God’s Holy One!” ²⁵And Jesus rebuked him by saying: “Be quiet and come out of him!” ²⁶And after the unclean spirit sent him into convulsions and screamed with a loud voice, it came out of him. ²⁷And absolutely all of the people were amazed, so that they discussing with themselves by saying: “What is this?! New teaching according to authority?!” and “He commands the unclean spirits and they obey Him!” ²⁸And the report about Him went out immediately everywhere into the whole surrounding region around Galilee!

Passage Summary: Jesus starts His ministry by preaching the Gospel, calling four fishmen to fish for men with Him, teaching the synagogue, and by casting a demon out of a man, illustrating that He has the Spirit, that He is the One John prophesied, and that He has a powerful message from God: He is not like anyone else.

The Point I’m Stressing: Jesus is the One John Prophesied about, He has the Holy Spirit, He preaches the Gospel of changing one’s mind and trusting the Good News, He is worthy of being followed, He has authority to teach, and He is the boss of demons. Therefore, we should believe His message and change our minds, we should leave everything and follow Him, we should be impressed and amazed, we should rely on Him to deal with demons

Applications

1.      We have heard that Jesus has a message with authority, we have seen this Jesus be able to call people away from their work and families, we have seen this Jesus is able to change the direction of people’s lives, we have seen He really has the Holy Spirit and that He is the One John the Baptist was talking about, we have even seen demons, Jesus’ powerful arch-enemies obey Him, so that leaves one question for us: Will we? Indeed, if even the demons obey His command, we shouldn’t we? Are you more self-deceived and arrogant than demons? I hope not, but if you reject obedience to Christ, you are!

2.      The passage starts by telling us that Jesus is preaching God’s Good News and as part of that issuing God’s command: Change your minds and believe the Message! In this Passage we Jesus issue commands to men, and they listen, commands to demons and they listen, but while you may not realize it, He is still issuing commands and those commands are coming to us, to you, to me, and the question remains, will you listen, will I listen, will we listen?

3.      We have seen how the people in Jesus day reacted to His teaching and His doing: they were impressed and amazed, they could tell something was different! But how are we reacting? Are you impressed, are you amazed, can you see that something is different about this Jesus? If you can’t, the problem is not with the Bible, or with Jesus, it’s with you, and me, and us, if you can’t see it, and I can’t see it, and we as a community can’t see it, but of course seeing it means more than just mentally understanding the concepts, it means that we feel impressed, we feel amazed, we feel the differentness of Jesus, but that leaves the question: Do you, do I, do we?

4.      Moreover, Jesus’ command is to change our minds, that means change how we think, feel, and act, to have a change of heart, but His command is also to trust His Good News from God, this means we trust what God has to say not only about the Good News, but about how we should be thinking, feeling, and acting, and making His ways our ways, and making the Good News from God Good News for us from God!

The Beginning of the Good News about Jesus

Scripture: Mark 1.1-13

Translation: ¹The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, God’s Son: ²Just like it stands written in Isaiah the prophet: “Look, I’m sending My messenger ahead of Your face, who will prepare Your way! ³A voice of someone shouting is in the desert: ‘Get the Lord’s road ready! Make His paths straight!’” ⁴John, the one who was baptizing in the desert and preaching a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins, came. ⁵And the whole Judean region and all the people from Jerusalem were traveling out to him. And they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River [and] confessing their sins. ⁶And John was clothing himself with camel hair and leather belt around his waist and eating locusts and wild honey. ⁷And He preached by saying, “The One Who is stronger than me is after me, Who I’m not worth of for bending down to untie the straps of His sandals! ⁸I baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!”

⁹And it happened in those days. Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized into the Jordan River by John. ¹⁰And immediately while coming up out of the water He saw the heavens being torn apart and the Spirit like a dove coming down into Him! ¹¹And a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My Loved Son! I’m really happy with You!” ¹²And immediately the Spirit drove Him out into the desert! ¹³And He was in the desert for forty days being tested by Satan. And He was with the wild animals. And the angels were serving Him.

Descriptive Summary: God made a promise and kept the promise by sending John to prep Jesus’ way, which he did, even to the point of baptizing Jesus with water, but then God the Father baptized Jesus with the Holy Spirit, which may double as His Anointing. The baptism/anointing of the Spirit is proven by the driving to the desert, the temptation success, and the angels service.

The Points I’m Stressing: God keeps all His Promises, so you can trust Him; Jesus is so awesome that God sends someone to get the way ready for Him; Jesus is God’s Son, and His Chosen Servant, which the Baptism shows us! Jesus also obeyed the Spirit and wanted to glorify God more than anything else, but He was also stronger than anyone else by the Holy Spirit, and so He endured testing and angels served Him. We have the same Holy Spirit in us if we believe in Jesus, so that means we can endure testing too and do what God wants us to do.

The Text and Its Truths

1.      Key Themes

a.       God fulfills His Word/keeps His Promises

b.      John the Baptist is the fulfillment of God’s Word/Promises

                                                              i.      He fulfills because he prepares the way by baptizing (vv.4, 5, 8, 9)

                                                            ii.      He fulfills because he prepares by preaching forgiveness of sins (vv.4, 5)

                                                          iii.      He fulfills because he really is in the desert (vv.4, 5, 6, 9)

                                                          iv.      He fulfills because he proclaims Jesus’ Value, Power, and Holiness (vv.7-8)

                                                            v.      He fulfills because he foretells of Jesus’ kind of ministry of Spirit Baptism (v.8)

                                                          vi.      He fulfills because he baptized Jesus (v.9)

c.       Jesus is Worthy of Honor

                                                              i.      John honors Jesus (vv.4-9, esp. 7-8)

1.      By prepping His Way for his ministry with people (v.4-6)

2.      By prepping the people for the difference and preeminence of His ministry (vv.7-8)

                                                            ii.      God the Father honors Jesus

1.      By sending the prophecy (vv.2-3)

2.      By sending the prophecy’s fulfillment in John (vv.4-9)

3.      By splitting the heavens open (v.10)

4.      By sending the Spirit into Him (v.10)

5.      By publically proclaiming Him as His loved Son (v.11)

6.      By publically proclaiming He was happy with Jesus (v.11)

7.      By the driving to the desert, testing by Satan, and the service of angels to show Jesus’ Endurance, Power, and Holiness (vv.12-13)

                                                          iii.      Jesus obeys the Spirit (vv.12-13)

                                                          iv.      Jesus passes the testing from Satan (v.13)

                                                            v.      Jesus has angels serving Him (v.13)

d.      Jesus is Powerful

                                                              i.      He is filled with the Holy Spirit (v.8, 10)

                                                            ii.      He is God’s Son (vv.1, 11)

                                                          iii.      He is Anointed (vv. 1, 10, 12-13)

                                                          iv.      He is Filled with the Spirit (vv.8, 10, 12-13)

                                                            v.      He passed the testing in the desert with the wild animals and the devil (vv.12-13)

1.      He can handle nature

2.      He can handle the devil

3.      He can handle wild animals

                                                          vi.      Angels serve Jesus (the lesser serves the greater) (v.13)

e.       Jesus is God’s Son (vv.1, 10-11)

f.       Jesus is Holy (vv.8-9, 9-11, 12-13)

2.      Key Doctrines

a.       The Faithfulness of God to ALL of His Promises

b.      Divine Sonship of Christ

c.       Infinite Worthiness of Christ

d.      The Necessity of Baptism

e.       Anointing of the Anointed One by the Spirit

f.       The Sinlessness of Christ

                                                              i.      Obedience to the Spirit

                                                            ii.      Resistance to Satan/Sin

g.      The Power of Christ over Satan and Angels (Authority, foreshadowing the following verses)

Applications (Look)

1.      Trust All of God’s Promises

2.      Give Christ the Honor He Deserves

3.      Get Baptized

4.      If saved and thus filled with the Spirit, obey Him and resist the temptations of the devil/sin

5.      Rely on Christ when dealing with demonic warfare

6.      Believe in Christ as God’s Son, and thus King over All

7.      Get the way ready for Christ’s second coming by sharing the Gospel

8.      Be impressed by Jesus’ success in obedience, fasting, and testing

9.      Be thankful that God kept His promises

10.  Be thankful John got Jesus’ way ready, and let that message prep your own heart for Christ

11.  Be thankful Jesus surpasses even what John said in awesomeness and goodness

12.  And whatever else the Spirit works into your soul from the Word, and be like Jesus in listening to His moving, even if its hard or crazy

"The [Spiritual] Gifts are Really Just Tools for Loving Well"

So tonight in my Pentateuch and Historical Books Class with Dr. Richard Averbeck I heard such a legit quote! Dr. Averbeck was commenting on the meaning of I Cor 12-13 and explained that the point Paul was making was "the [Spiritual] gifts are really just tools for loving well."

That perspective and insight was legit. They really are. I experientially resonate with that idea, because when I preach that is what it is for me, it is my way of expressing my love to my sheep, to the rest of the body of Christ. God gives me this love for people and then it compels me to preach and teach and counsel and pastor and evangelize and lead and disciple! I pray that indeed I use all my Spiritual gifts to love well, and that you do too.

What!? That's in the Bible!?: Ezekiel 4, vv.1-3

So the last edition of this series was a little serious, so this time I thought I would pick a passage that was a little funny. OK, it's pretty funny, although it's still pretty serious. What Yahweh tells Ezekiel to do is pretty funny, and at the same time the meaning behind the action is scary sad. Actually this whole chapter has some pretty humorous/sad stuff in it. The funniest part is the last section, but I think it is better to break the chapter into few bit sized chunks. So for the next few days, each day will get the next chunk added. So without further ado...

Ezekiel 4.1-3

^“1And you son of man, take a brick for yourself and put it in front of you and engrave a city on it, Jerusalem [to be exact]. ²And lay siege against it and build a siege-wall against it and pour out a siege-ramp against it and put military-camps against it and set up battering rams against it on all sides. ³And now take for yourself an flat iron pan and put it as a wall of iron between you and the city. And make it stand firm in front of you and it will be under the siege and you will besiege it. This is a sign for the House of Israel."

So, this is really odd. I want you to picture/image how this went. Ezekiel is there, and then Yahweh God speaks to him. "Hey, Zeke, go get a brick! then chisel the name Jerusalem on it. Then I want to you play war with it like when you were a kid. You know, with battering rams and siege ramps and barricades and even the little tents and army men all around it. Then find a nice iron pan and stand it up between you and this whole setup. Then the siege is on and you will be besieging the city. This will be a signal of things to come for Israel!"

Yahweh continues and some more interesting commands are given to Ezekiel. However, this whole thing is kind of funny to picture. Like if you or I were to get this message, it might make us chuckle a little, but then again maybe it wouldn't. You don't see Ezekiel laughing in the passage. That's because God is sending a message Israel with all this. And it is not a happy message. It is kind of like a skit or claymation film showing what is about it happen. These are not fake people. This is not a game. This is a promise of what is about to happen. This promise is not happy, because it is a promise of doom! An entire city is doomed to war, doomed to capture, doomed to destruction. Yahweh in His grace is telling them in advance. And it is so important for His chosen people to really understand that He is giving a sign and a demonstration of what will happen.

I'll be honest I am not completely sure what the iron pan is about, but my guess is that it is supposed to signify that the coming attack and army would be like an impenetrable wall, an indestructible wall. The brick city could never break through it. I suppose another possibility is that God is saying He could be a like an Iron Wall for His City between them an their attackers, assuming they trusted Him to be that for them, but that does not seem to be the force of the passage or the book in general. So, it seems like the point is the point is Jerusalem will be under siege and they won't be able to break through to either escape or claim victory.

But what good does it do for us to know this? Well, while we are not Israelites, Yahweh is still the Same God. We know the kind of God He is. He is the God Who hates sin, and deals with it seriously. He is the God Who will even bring stern punishment against His chosen people. Being chosen by God does not keep God from dealing with our sin issues. But it also tells us that He is a God Who longs for repentance and a restoration to Him. He is giving this sign and message from Ezekiel to not just pull the Israelites to repentance and a restored relationship with Him in the past, but to pull us today to Him, to pull us to confess and turn away from our sinful lifestyles and actions and have a living healthy relationship with Him.

So if you are someone who has already trusted in Christ to save you from your sins and give you life forever with God in perfect relationship with Him, please, join me in being pulled to confessing our sins to God and changing our life to match His lifestyle. God will come after us if necessary, and we don't want that, so let's turn now! And even if God is already coming after, and the punishment won't be stopped, if you really do love and trust Him, turn to Him because that is the whole point of all that is/will happen!

But, if you have never trusted in Christ to save you from the punishment that is coming for all the times you have not listened to what Yahweh the Only True God has told you and to give you new life in Him by the Holy Spirit, then trust Him to do that today and turn to Yahweh before the punishment gets here, because it is just as sure and just as inescapable as the punishment that destroyed Jerusalem 2500 years ago. You have heard/read this blog so that you might turn to God and turn away from all the bad things you've been doing! Listen now, while you still have a chance! If you have more questions, contact me, please!