So Many names, so many meanings-God!

As I read the morning devotional in my "Our Daily Bread" booklet, I discovered once again there are many words I don't know or understand the meaning of.  Most usually it is English words that I have just never had occasion to use but what struck me this morning was---The many names mentioned referring to God.

When I was growing up, I only heard Him referred to as God.  Then years later I began to hear people calling Him: Aba Father, El-Shaddai and more that I had never heard.  I assummed it was God in various languages, so didn't give it much thought because to me He will always be My Heavenly Father, God.

Joe Stowell, the author of the devotional yesterday spoke of  how all the various names are discriptions of God.  What an eye-opener this is for me!

The names he spoke of were :
Elohi, The God above all gods
Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides
El-Shaddai, the almighty God
Jehovah Tapha, Our healer God
Jehovah Shalom, our God of peace
Jehovah Shamma, our God who is present
Jehovah Yahweh, our loving, covenant-keeping God.

He continued to add, It's no wonder the writer of Proverbs encourages us to remember that "the name of the Lord is a strong tower," that in times of need God-fearing people run to it and "Are safe.

Being the coureous person I am I thought I would try to find these different names in my bible.

Jehovah Jireh is one I have heard at various churches so did a search for that name.

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.
(and the ram was seen by Abraham and provided by God on the mountain) therefore, Jehovahjireh means God who provides. 

So it appears to me that the People who were present at a time that God did something wonderful would describe Him by adding a word of description much as I would say God, my wonderful heavenly Father or God who brought me Peace. 

Now perhaps you would like to do a search to discover what the Bible says about the other above mentioned names, and share them with me!  I prefer www.biblegateway.com as it is really easy to use and your search answers are available in all the different versions of the Bible.

I would love to hear from you, please leave a comment so that I know you are interested in my blog!

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