Skip to content Elohim - The All-Powerful God Oct 14 · 46 min ...more
October 14, 2022 · 46 min · Knowing God
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Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies.
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0:02 Today, I want to introduce to you again for the first time the first name of God given to us in scripture. It is in the book of the beginnings, the book of Genesis, and we're introduced0:14 to it in the first verse. In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth. That is our introduction to God. The problem0:26 is that the word God is used for many of his names. And without the Hebrew language, the Old Testament language, you wouldn't know it. You just may see God or you may0:38 see Lord. But the particular word in a particular case is not the same, although it's referring to the same person. God will vary which Hebrew word he uses0:49 to define himself in light of what he wants you to learn about his name. We're introduced in chapter 1 verse 1 to God's1:01 name, Elohim. We can learn a whole bunch about god in verse 1. In the beginning, god1:13 created the heavens and the earth. What does god want us to know about him in verse 1 about the name Elohim? The word used for his name.1:25 Well, first of all, he wants you to know that he is transcendent. Transcendent is a big long theological word to say that he1:37 is distinct from the creation that he created. In what ways is God distinct from his creation? That is not to be1:48 amalgamated in it, or not to be simply made a part of it, but to be lifted above it and from it. First thing you need to know from verse 1 is that God,2:00 Elohim, is distinct in time. Because it says, in the beginning, God created. God created the beginning. That is God2:12 created time. So if God created time, then that is God preceded time. Because you can't create time2:23 unless you're here to create it. But if you're here to create it, and it doesn't start till you create it, that means you existed before it. So when you discuss time,2:36 as you and I do linearly, 1 to 2 to 3 to 4, God really can't be discussed like that because he exists outside of time.2:48 And the only thing you have outside of time is eternity, which means you're not subject to time. Time is your3:00 problem, not God's problem. That's why the Bible uses eternal language to speak about God. That's why the Bible defines him as we'll discuss later in the present3:12 tense always. You have yesterday, you have today, you have tomorrow because you are a subject of time. God has no yesterday or tomorrow. Everything3:23 for God is right now Because he has no past and he has no future. Everything is right now. Now when you and I get to heaven, you will discover right3:35 nowness. You will discover a place where there's no night. You will discover there is no measuring clock for day. Everything will be now. We will bump into3:47 each other after being in heaven for 1000000000 years. And when I bump into you after we've been there 1000000000 years, I will have seen you now. Now3:59 don't think too hard about that or you're gonna jump out somebody's window. I understand that. But the first thing you need to understand about Elohim is that his transcendence, he is4:10 transcendent of time. Not only is God, Elohim, this particular name, transcendent in time, he is transcended in space. Because it says, in the4:22 beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In other words, he predated his creation. He predated time, the beginning.4:34 He predated the things he made, heaven and earth. That's what we call in Hebrew a mirrorism. That is a summary statement. He created the universe. That that's basically what it's saying.4:47 The heavens, and then he carved out this 1 piece where he was gonna create man, and he specialized that place. He called that the earth. So space, God sits4:58 outside of. All you and I know are the heavens and the earth. We don't know anything beyond the heavens and the earth because that space. God existed when5:10 space did not exist. So God predated time. God predated space, and therefore, God also predated5:22 matter. You see, everything that we know about is tied to matter. That is the substance of all things that we have.5:34 So God transcends time. He transcends space. He transcends matter, the physical world of which that we know about.5:46 So why do you need to know that? Because in order for him to be outside of time, outside of space, and outside of matter, it means he exists5:58 in another dimension. Because our dimension is tethered to time, space, and matter. So if God is not tethered, tied to time, space, or matter, if6:09 Elohim is not linked to that because he has transcended, that means he operates in another realm, which means that's why you can't figure him out. You can't figure6:21 him out because you're trying to figure him out from your realm. You're looking at his dimension from your dimension when your dimension doesn't have a clue about his dimension.6:33 So if your dimension, my dimension is gonna understand his dimension, his dimension is gonna have to tell me about his dimension because my dimension can't get that high.6:45 It's too transcendent. It's too otherliness. Some theologians refer to Elohim as the holy other, that is in a realm of which we are not aware.6:59 Now, to understand that realm, you can ask him when you see him. He wants you to know that he predated time, space. And yet, this7:10 God who predates time, space, and matter, who who exists outside of it, at the very same time, fills time, space, and matter. You don't have7:22 to turn there, but Jeremiah 23 verses 23 and 24 says, God fills heaven and earth. He is here, there, and everywhere. Alright. So let's learn7:34 something about Elohim. Elohim is transcendent, so he exists outside of time, space, and matter. Yet Elohim is also imminent because he exists7:46 inside of time, space, and matter. He's transcendent outside of it. He's imminent inside of it. And inside of it, he is imminently everywhere.7:58 The theological word we use for that is omnipresent. He is everywhere present at the same time. Now we can illustrate that air. Air is8:10 everywhere present. It is it is no matter where you go, you're going to be in the atmosphere because the atmosphere encompasses all of this planet. And so we are in the8:22 atmosphere everywhere present. God is like the atmosphere. He is the he has an atmospheric presence in the earth, but he is not8:34 limited to the earth. When you leave the air and you leave gravity, you can leave the the air that you know here. You cannot leave8:45 God because when you leave him here, he is there. In fact, when you leave here to go to there, he doesn't have to catch up with you. He's there8:57 when you show up. Because he is simultaneously everywhere present, which is why everybody can pray at the same time and he can hear everybody's prayer because he's everywhere at the same time. So God is both9:09 transcendent, we see in verse 1. Jeremiah 23 tells us he is everywhere present. He is also personal. He is not, may9:20 the force be with you. He is not merely an energy source. We we read in verse 3, and God Elohim said. So he talks.9:32 We read through scripture, he feels. Okay. We saw in verse 1, he creates. So this God who is other dimensional yet totally engaged9:44 is intensely personal. You read with the story of Adam and Eve that he walked with them in the cool of the day. So to talk about God as an energy or9:56 as a force or as a concept or as a theory is not to talk about Elohim because Elohim has personalness to him. In other words, you and I10:08 do not live in an impersonal universe. We do not live in a universe that does not have to relate to a being. See, evolution wants you to be in a10:20 universe that doesn't have to relate to a being. You just relate to forces. But the universe is personal because Elohim is personal. The word Elohim is a10:32 plural word, not a singular word. It's a word for more than 1. He says, my name is Elohim. The prefix El is really the word God.10:43 Elohim is God in the majestic plural. Why is it plural? Because God is made up of more than 1 person. Right. Look at verse 26.10:57 God said, then God said, let us make man in our image. So God speaks of his creation in plural. Yet look at verse11:09 27. God created man in his own image. And you see that? He starts off by saying, let us make man. Then verse 27, it says, he made man all11:20 by himself. Well, if you're gonna say us do it, why don't you say us did it? He said us do it because the us,11:32 plural, is part of the singular God. He is a plural being, although he exists as 1 God. Now the theological word we use for11:44 that is trinity. The reason we use trinity is because the Bible designates 3 as God. For example, here in verse 2, it says, and the spirit of God was11:55 moving over the surface of the waters. In John chapter 1 verse 1, it says, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was12:07 God. And then it says in verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us referring to Jesus Christ. Colossians 1 16 says, and Jesus Christ created the12:19 world. But I thought God created the world. But Colossians 1 says, Jesus created the world. In order for Jesus to create the world, he had to be before the world. In order to be before the world, he had to be12:31 outside of space because the world had not been created yet. If he created it, he had to exist before the creation. He had to be outside of matter. But I thought only God existed before the creation of the earth. That is12:42 unless Jesus Christ is part of the plural Elohim. That's why Jesus Christ cannot be related to as just a big example or an or a great12:54 prophet or an ordinary man, not if he created the worlds. We call this process the progress of revelation, where God will give a13:06 concept and explain it as he goes on. So we have the plural, but we don't have the specific designation of the Trinitarian being. We just know it's more than 1.13:18 But as the progress of revelation goes, God explains that and brings that into light. And that's why in the New Testament, he says, baptize them in the name singular of the father and the son and the holy spirit.13:31 The triune God. 1 God composed of 3 distinct persons who are 1 in essence yet distinct in personality. But this God,13:43 this Elohim is a unique being like a pretzel that has 3 holes, but all tied together by the same dough. The triune God, 113:55 God, 3 holes, the father, the son, the holy spirit, all connected by the same dough, divine nature. It is a unique identification. Now I14:06 know the questions, where did God come from? Ask him when you see him. Actually, there is an answer, but you won't understand the answer. The14:18 answer is there's never been a time when God has not been. That's the answer. There's a headache of an answer, but it's an answer. There's never been a time God has not been.14:30 We say, I don't buy that. I'm a go to evolution. Okay? I'm a I'm a buy the Big Bang Theory. Okay? What went boom? You still gotta answer where did the first thing come from that went14:42 boom? Well, if you go back to the amoeba, okay, where did the amoeba come from that became everything else? You see, so you don't solve your problem by leaving God. So I I would rather have somebody who made14:53 sense than something I tried to make up. Elohim.15:05 This is his name. It is the only name he uses between Genesis 1 1 and Genesis 2 3. 35 times, you will discover Elohim.15:17 Elohim. Elohim. Elohim. Elohim. Elohim. 35 times, that's the name God uses because it's the name He uses in relationship to creation. In chapter 2 verse 4,15:28 He throws us another name, Jehovah. So in chapter 2 verse 4, you find the word the Lord God. But you don't find the Lord God in chapters 115:40 1 through 2 3. It's all God, God, God, God, God, God, God, that is Elohim, Elohim, Elohim, Elohim, Elohim. Why does he want you to know that? Because he wants you to understand15:52 his power. Elohim is his term of power. El means strong 1. It has to do with sovereignty and authority and greatness of power.16:04 In the beginning, God created. By the way, created is only used of God in the Bible because men don't create.16:17 Men reconfigure. Men men recalibrate. Men form things. But let me explain what God means when he says he creates.16:29 Let me read to you Hebrews chapter 11 verse 3. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 3. 1 verse, and here's what it says. By faith, we understand that16:41 the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. The author of16:52 Hebrews says, let me tell you how bad God is. He is a bad boy. So let me tell you how bad he is. He created not the17:04 world. He says he created the worlds. See, all you all we know about is the world. He created the worlds, plural,17:16 without having any raw material to work with. Now I don't know how many inventors you know, but you don't know any inventor who invented something17:28 with nothing. Anybody who creates or makes something, he used something to make the something with. But17:40 Hebrews 11 3 says, let me tell you what Elohim does. He makes something when there is the nothing to work with to arrive at the something that he wants.17:53 Theologians call that ex nilo, creation out of nothing. Nothing in the invisible world was needed for God to create. Because in Genesis18:05 1, it said, and God said. He creates with his mouth. He speaks things that are not in order that they might be.18:15 That's why he was upset with Abraham and Sarah when he told Abraham and Sarah, I know you're 100, and I know you're 90, and I know you're barren, and you18:27 laughed when I told you you were gonna get pregnant. You laughed at me. And then he raised the question, is there anything too hard for me? If I could create out of18:38 nothing, can you come up with something that is too big for me? That's why when Mary, the mother of Jesus, was contemplating, I'm a virgin. I have never been with a man. Yet you're18:50 telling me I'm gonna have a baby. And it says she pondered in her heart, how can this thing be? And the angel came to her and raised a very practical question, is there anything too hard for me?19:05 Because see, that's why whatever situation in your life and and you got an exaggerated headache and you're trying to figure out how is this gonna work, when is this gonna work, how is God gonna turn this around, I don't19:15 see any solution inside. You got to remember his name is Elohim, which means he does not need raw material to work with. He doesn't need something that's visible. So19:27 you're trying to see a solution. God does not need something that's seen to do something with it. See, that's why you need to know his name. Because he19:38 transcends the need for raw material, and he can still create something out of nothing. Now, you know what this means19:50 now? When when going back to Genesis 1 and creation? It means all the world is religious. All the world is religious. The reason why all the world is religious is20:01 because since God created everything, his fingerprints are on it. See, because he's the creator. When somebody creates something, their fingerprints are on it. In other words, their touches on it.20:13 So God's touch is on the world. The reason why people want to promote evolution as opposed to20:25 creationism is that they wanna remove those fingerprints. See, it's not it's not just about evolution versus creation. It is about not having to deal with his fingerprints.20:37 Because as long as you say he created it, I gotta deal with him. So let's come up with evolution that nobody use nothing to create everything.20:49 Let's come with that 1 so we don't have to deal with a creator. The issue of evolution is not merely science. The issue of evolution is I don't wanna have to deal with the fingerprints.21:01 Because if I got fingerprints, I got a person. And I don't wanna have to deal with the person. So let's get rid of the person in education. Let's get rid of the person in science. But I love God because because God says21:13 God challenges science. He says, science, look into it. And if you look into it honestly and deep enough, all you're do is run into me.21:27 I didn't just make that up. Job said that. Let me show you what Job says in Job chapter 12. Job, that comes before Psalms. Job chapter 12. Look at God21:39 challenging science. He says, I I ain't spared. Do all the scientific work you wanna do because he says in verse 721:51 of Job 12, now ask the beast and let them tell you. Do you study in zoology? Because the lions will22:03 talk. He says, or ask the birds of the heaven and let them tell you how to develop a airplane and the aerodynamics of flight.22:16 Or verse 8, speak to the earth, geology, and all the science that deals with botany and all of that, and let the earth tell you.22:27 And when you finish with the earth, the fish will talk. And let the fish of the sea declare to you. Who among all these does22:39 not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? God will challenge science and say, if you study the birds and the beast and the flowers and the trees, they'll speak for22:51 me. Who among these things don't know that it was me? Dumb man. He don't want because23:03 the lions know. The beast know that creation look. You can't have a watch without a watchmaker. You can't have23:15 a design without a designer. You can't have a painting without a painter. In order to have an effect, there must be23:26 a preceding sufficient cause, and the cause must be worthy of the effect. To somehow think that not not just this23:38 world, but the world, that is the universe was created out of chance and luck when it has design. The bible the bible never spends23:50 time proving that there's a God. The bible says simply, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Because to be godless, you have to be a fool or have gone to24:02 college first. You have to be educated into atheism because it ain't natural.24:17 Nobody goes to a watchmaker and says, tell me the evolutionary process that brought all these parts together in this 1 small place with this glass covering so that it keeps accurate time. Give me the evolution.24:30 They're gonna send you to a person or a group of people whose ingenuity put it together because they have the raw materials to draw from. Elohim24:42 says, that's my name. And that's my trademark brand because you don't know anybody else who can do that. This24:55 creation is staggering. You just think about the world's plural. The world's plural. In 19 97, the Hubble telescope25:11 looked out and through this powerful lens discovered that there are a staggering amount of other25:22 galaxies. Now now, poor earth is just in this 1 galaxy, the Milky Way. This little disc shaped spiral that you see of light, that's our galaxy. Little25:34 earth and the sun and the moon. You know, we we got our little little spot, you know, and, you know, the 9 planets and all they threw out Pluto. So, you know, but but but, you know, we we got this little we25:46 got this little thing. And they discovered we're just 1 little tiny galaxy. And there are other arrangements out there of planets and suns. Then they25:58 said, and each of these galaxies have up to 100000000000 stars in them. Remember, he created the world's plural. So you got a whole bunch26:10 of other they said millions of galaxies, and each galaxy could have up to 100000000 stars in it. Okay. Let let me let me okay. That that may be too big. Let me narrow it.26:21 1 of the close galaxies that the Hubble satellite could see was Andromeda. Okay? Andromeda. That that's a26:33 galaxy near us. Andromeda is 2200000.0 light years from us, and that's a close26:45 1. Andromeda is 2200000.0 light years. Light travels at 186000 miles a second.26:59 Andromeda is 2200000.0 light years from here, and light travels 186000 miles a second. Now, let let me tell you what that means. That means if you had a27:11 homeboy or girl living on Andromeda, and you sent them a message at the speed of a radio wave, and radio waves travel27:24 around the earth 7 times a second. You can send a radio wave and it'll flip the earth 7 times in 1 second. So that much speed covering27:35 2200000.0 light years for your homeboy or homegirl to reply to your message would take 4400000 years for you27:47 to get the word back from the message you sent. And that's a nearby galaxy. And guess what? All God did was say something. Because all he27:59 did was say a little something something, and it came into existence. So Elohim is a bad boy. In the beginning, God created the28:11 heavens and the earth. And it is staggering in its implication. God wants to the word in the name Elohim is for you to understand his creative power, but not only his creative power.28:23 Look at verse 2. Because I didn't spent 40 minutes on verse 1. So let's go to verse 2. The earth was formless and void, and darkness28:35 was upon the surface of the deep. Something's not right here. The Hebrew word for formless and void is pronounced Tohu28:46 Wabohu. And Tohu Wabohu basically means a waste or garbage dump. It was uninhabitable. It was28:58 without form, and it was void of of life. Life couldn't live here. Now the question is why? Because Isaiah 45 1829:10 says, God who creates does not create waste. Isaiah 45 18 says, God can't create a waste. When he when he does it, he does it right, in other29:22 Yet in verse 2, we have a wasteland. No life can live here. It's void of existence. It's empty. That's that's that's what we see in verse 2. But God doesn't create that kind of29:34 thing. Like we would say, God doesn't create any mess. So why do we have a wasteland in verse 2? Because somewhere between Genesis 1 1 and Genesis 1 2, Satan falls.29:48 Ezekiel 28 9, Isaiah 14 says, Satan rebelled against God and he was kicked to planet Earth. So the reason why you've got this emptiness and garbage dump on30:00 planet Earth is because garbage lives here. Satan and his demons were cast down to the planet, and so the planet became a wasteland. And, of course, that's what30:11 Satan does through sin. What he does is turn our lives into a wasteland. But guess what the Bible says?30:24 God, the holy spirit, Elohim, in his plurality, the holy spirit began to brood over, hover over30:37 this wasteland, and life popped up. Guess what God did? Elohim. It says, God said, let30:48 there be light. Guess what happened? There light. There was light. God said, let there be an expanse in the water, verse 6, and let it separate the waters31:00 from the waters. So now you have seas and oceans being separated from land. Because when land and water is mixed, that's a swamp.31:12 That's a marsh. But now God made earth livable. Watch this. God came into something satan had messed up31:24 and restores it. So what do we learn about Elohim? Not only can Elohim create out of nothing, he can take something the devil has junked up and fix it up.31:37 So he can make it right the first time, then when the devil gets in and messes it up and makes it death rather than life, God's holy spirit can come and turn that which Satan has killed31:49 and make it alive again. And that should be hope for somebody who needs to know a God who can turn a mess into a miracle. By the way, his name is Elohim. So32:03 God creates watch this now. It's getting gooder. He turns darkness into light. He makes the desolate inhabitable. And then32:15 he creates his main attraction. Verse 26, let us make man in our image. Now watch this. An image is a mirror, a mirror.32:27 You go to the mirror in the morning and you see your image flash back at you from the mirror. It is an image. The flowers weren't asked to do this, weren't created this way. The beast weren't created32:39 this way. The fish weren't created this way. Only man was created with the capacity to mirror God. Everything else is a validation32:51 of God, but only man, male and female, were created to mirror God. So powerful is this principle that the33:02 Bible calls God's saints little Elohims. The scriptures refer to you and me as Elohims with a small e33:14 cause we're supposed to mirror the we Elohim Junior. That's why he made you a tripod being, body, soul, and spirit. You're supposed to33:26 I'm supposed to mirror the divine in history. We're not God, the big e. That's the thing more highly of yourself than you ought to think. No. But33:38 for the little e, we're supposed to mirror the divine as part of his born again new creation. We're supposed to mirror him because we have his image33:50 stamped on us. We have the capacity as part of the new creation to mirror him. Now, you might be asking, okay.34:02 That's nice. I I have now I know a Hebrew word. I can go to work. Tell me I learned about Elohim. I know he creates predating time, space, and matter.34:15 I know that he can restore that which the devil has made lifeless and brought death to in his creative genius. Okay. That's nice to know, but what's that34:26 got to do with me going home today and hearing noisy kids and fighting with my maid and being a single Christian? And what does that got to do about, you know, there's no my money34:38 is funny and my health's not good. Okay. I know his name, but so what? Watch this then. Stick with me.34:53 Look at chapter 2. Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed and all their host. By the35:05 seventh day, God completed, Elohim completed his work which he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had35:17 done. Then Elohim, God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his work35:29 which God had created and made. Now watch me. Stick with me. Day 1, God created,35:40 let there be, and it was so. Day 2, let there be, and it was so. Day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6, God created and it was so. And every day he said,35:52 that's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. On day number 6, he makes man in his36:04 own image because he spent the first 5 days getting the creation ready for his masterpiece. The reason why man wasn't created36:16 the first day is because then he would have had to live in darkness for 6 more days. The reason why man wasn't created in the other days is there would been no beauty. There would have been no flowers. He would have36:27 stood in a marsh rather than on land if God hadn't already separate the waters from the land. So God is setting stuff up for Elohim Junior. He's setting up this36:39 world for Junior to be able to operate on. He doesn't create man till the sixth day.36:51 Because after he creates man, he finished. Because everything was created for man. On the seventh37:02 day, he looks out and he sees all that it is he has done, and he says, this is very good. Now up until that37:14 time, it was good. But until he created man and it finished the masterpiece and looked back over the whole painting, he said, now this is bad. This37:26 is this is too good. You he went and looked at himself in the mirror and say, you bad. He said, this is very good. And then he did something.37:39 He rested. Now he not resting because he tired because he didn't work that hard. I mean, it's not like he broke a sweat. I mean, all he did was say, let it be and it was so. So it wasn't like he he37:50 he got his hands dirty. He rested doesn't mean he was tired and quit. It means he was finished and there was nothing left to do. In other words, he38:02 had completed what he had designed to do. Now watch this now. Stick with me. It says, and the seventh day, on the seventh day,38:16 he sanctified it. To sanctify means to set apart as unique or special. Unique or special. He said, Saturday is not like38:28 Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. That is a unique day, and it's the unique day because it's my rest day. Watch this. I I I don't think you caught it. He38:40 didn't sanctify the workday. He sanctified the rest day. He didn't sanctify the day when he was doing all38:51 this stuff and getting everything ready and making it and talking the stuff and bringing it to existence. He said, the day I'm a make special is the day I'm finished. Yeah. That's my quit39:03 day. That's my day off. He worked this thing through all the Old Testament. Not only did he say, remember the Sabbath to keep it holy, he said every seventh year will be a39:15 sabbatical year. Every seventh year, you tell the land to chill. Because I'm a give you enough in year 6 to cover year 7. Then39:27 in the 40 ninth year, the 7 sevens. He said, on that 1, I want you chill. And I wanna bring society and restore it and bring it back in order again because39:39 I want to operate by a Sabbath principle. Turn your Bible to Hebrews chapter 4. We'll see if we can put this all together.39:50 Hebrews chapter 4. In Hebrews 4, God lays out the Sabbath principle, links it to creation or the work of Elohim.Show more
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