God the Holy Spirit – "YHWH"

RV75-01

© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1993)

We are continuing in Revelation 4:1-5 which have to do with the throne room of God in heaven. This is segment number 8.

God's Throne Room

The apostle John stands in God's throne room in the third heaven. He has been observing things relative to the church after its removal from the earth in the rapture event. God the Father is seen in that throne room, seated upon His sovereign throne, and in great glory. This, of course, is something that is difficult to portray. But John sees this throne, and he sees it in glory form of the crystal-clear colors of the jasper stone and the blood-red sardius stone reflecting the glory concepts of God. And around the whole throne, he sees a total halo, which is emerald in color, signifying eternal life. Then around the throne, he sees 24 other thrones that are in a horizontal plane. On these thrones are seated 24 pastor-teacher-elders.

The Wrath of God

This throne is a place of grace for believers, but for unbelievers, it is the throne of judgment. John sees various symbols in the throne which indicate the wrath of God. One of the things that he sees coming from the throne are bolt flashes of lightning. He also hears thunderclaps from the throne. The lightning flashes indicate the approaching divine judgment on the tribulation world. That's what's about ready to happen. We're in heaven now. John sees God's throne as it is ready to move out into the tribulation judgments. There are the thunderclaps from the throne, signifying the power of divine wrath about to be released on mankind. Then there were sounds from the throne, which in this context, probably are the ramblings of nature before a violent storm. So, the God of grace is about to become the God of wrath. Terrible punishments are about to be poured forth upon the earth. Divine holiness is about to express itself.

Voices

In Revelation 4:5, where we stopped last time, we read, "About the throne, and out of it proceeding lightnings and thunders." Then we have the word "voices." We want to look at that for a moment. The word "voices" is this Greek word "phone." This word specifically means "sound," though it is used in the Bible for the idea of "voice." In this particular context of lightning and thunderclaps, the sounds probably are in the form of the rumblings of nature, as in an approaching tornado. If you have ever had the experience of being in the vicinity of a tornado that is approaching, you will be aware of the fact, as people have reported, that there is a tremendous rumbling sound. People have often described it like a freight train rolling along. There are these sounds of nature that are striking an additional note of terror, because they portend imminent catastrophe for the world which has been left behind at the rapture. These rumblings of nature portray the sovereign voice of God.

We have this alluded to in Psalm 29:3: "The voice (or the sound) of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of Majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. Yea, the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox. The voice (or the sound) of the Lord divides the flames. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the hinds to calve, and strips bear the forests; and in His temple everyone speaks of His glory." So, what the psalm is actually saying at the end is that everybody just shouts, "Glory," and this in the effects of God's voice in nature.

So, the rumblings here (the "phone") coming out of the throne are an indication, again, of a catastrophic event about to take place upon the earth.

These sights and sounds are familiar to us from other places in the Bible. One of the most outstanding is Exodus 19:16 on the occasion on Mount Sinai when the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Law were given. Exodus 19:16 says, "And it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount. And the voice of the trumpet (the sound of the trumpet) exceedingly loud so that all the people that were in the camp trembled." So, what you have here again is the impression of some catastrophe at Sinai. It was the fact that a holy God was going to be living and dwelling among His people. Here suddenly, the thunder and lightning and the sound of the trumpet break forth in an awesome type of warning that a holy God will not have His integrity contaminated by a sinful people.

So, the sights and sounds which are before John in heaven signal the imminent divine judgments upon the tribulation earth of unbelievers in their arrogant evil.

Seven Flaming Torches

Now John, in Revelation 4:5, having observed that, sees one thing more. He sees also before the throne: "Seven flames burning." The number seven is the Greek word "hepta." "Hepta" is the number in the Bible which indicates fullness or completeness. While our translation here says, "There are seven lamps," it really isn't the word for "lamps." It's the word "lampas" in the Greek Bible. The word "lampas," while it looks like "lamp," actually means "torch." So, what John suddenly sees is seven torches.

For example, just to illustrate it, this word "lampas" is used in John 18:3: "Judas then, having received the band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches (there's the word 'lampas') and weapons." So, what this word denotes is a flaming torch of some kind, which indeed may be fed by oil. Sometimes these torches were fed that way. But before the throne of God, there are seven of these flaming torches.

It says that they are "flaming." The word "flaming" is "pur," which is the word for "flame." These were seven lamps (seven torches) of fire. And they are "burning." The word "burning" is "kaio." This word means "to be lighted" or "to be flaming." So, actually, there was before John a torch that was aflame (on fire). It was burning, and it was moving around the way a flaming torch would. This particular verb "burning" is in the present tense, which indicates that it was constantly doing this. It is passive, indicating that the torches were set on fire, and were functioning. These are described as being before the throne. The word "before" is the Greek word "enopios." This means "in the presence of." It's in the presence of the "thronos." That's the throne that we have previously been speaking about, which was first referred to in verse 2. That is the throne of God.

So, before this throne, you have seven of these torches burning. Each of them is sitting there aflame, and John is awed by that site.

Seven Spirits

Now you have an interesting question of interpretation. What in the world do these seven torches stand for? In this case, as so often happens in the Revelation, God the Holy Spirit gives the interpretation. After describing these seven flaming torches, he says, "Which are." The word "are" is the Greek word "eimi." This is the word for status quo. It's going to be used here to explain what is the meaning of these seven flaming torches. These are "seven Spirits." The word "Spirit" is the Greek word "pneuma." This is the normal word for non-material beings, and it is a spirit specifically of "theos," the Spirit of God. The Greek Bible does not have the word "the." It simply says, "Which are the seven Spirits of God" – not "Of the God." Therefore it is referring to the Spirit of deity. These seven Spirits refer to God – specifically, the Holy Spirit. Again, the word "seven" indicates a fullness of ministry on the part of the Holy Spirit in His diversified activity as the executor of the Trinity God. The Holy Spirit is the one who executes the plan of God, the Father.

The Sevenfold Spirits

Now we have come across this concept of a sevenfold spirit before. This is referred to in Isaiah 11:2, where we have a description of the power of God the Holy Spirit as it would rest upon Jesus Christ when He came as the Messiah. This verse is going to become very important to us now. We'll just read it for the moment: "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him." Here, it is speaking about the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ: "The spirit of wisdom and understanding; the spirit of counsel and might; the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord."

This is the ministry provided to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is described in a unique sevenfold package deal which will be upon the Messiah. The Holy Spirit, as you know, always appears to human beings in some symbolic form. When Jesus was being baptized, Matthew 3:16 tells us that the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove. On the day of Pentecost, Acts 2:3 tells us that the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of split tongues of fire on the heads of the believers. So, it is not unnatural for John to see God the Holy Spirit again in a symbolic form, and here, as seven flaming torches.

For a moment, before we get into Isaiah 11:2, we need to remind ourselves of some important things concerning God the Holy Spirit in terms of the church-age believers, because the point of those seven flaming torches, representing the firmness of ministry of God the Holy Spirit, is in relationship to the church age believer. What John is seeing is the condition of the church after the rapture. We are in heaven, and here is a significant element for us to understand of our relationship to God the Holy Spirit, which will be climaxed at that time, but which is now in existence for us today.

The Holy Spirit

As you know, the Holy Spirit is the key feature in God's plan during the church age. The Lord Jesus Christ sent God the Holy Spirit to the earth after His ascension to replace Himself. The Lord was drawn. God the Holy Spirit was sent to replace Him. In John 14:16, the Lord indicates this: "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever." At that point, Jesus Christ was their Comforter or Helper. Now He says, "I am leaving, but I'm going to ask the Father to send another Comforter to replace Me."

The Apostles' Recording of Scripture

Then in verse 26, He says, "But the comforter (and then He identifies Him), who is the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name: He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said unto you." So, the Lord said, "I'm leaving, but I'm going to send you another Helper. And one of the ways He is going to help you is that He is going to enable you to recall all of the things that I've taught you." This is why the disciples (the apostles) were able to write the New Testament books. You may have wondered, "Did they make notes? Did they remember all these conversations? How could they have all these details that we have in the gospels, for example, concerning Jesus Christ?" Well, it was because they did have a memory bank. They had a memory bank in the person of God the Holy Spirit. At the right moment, their minds were triggered. Everything was already in the subconscious of those disciples. What they had heard from Jesus was already stored. All they needed was the supernatural triggering of that information back to their conscious mind. At the right points, they had it there to record.

The Vicar

So, the Helper, Jesus, was going to heaven. The Helper, the Spirit of God, was going to come to replace Him during the church age. For that reason, we say that God the Holy Spirit is the Vicar of the Lord Jesus Christ between Pentecost and the rapture. He is the Vicar of Christ on this earth. He is the representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In John 16:14, the Lord says of the Holy Spirit: "He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. The Pope in Rome, who claims to be the Vicar of Christ, is a false vicar. The true Vicar of Christ upon the earth today, who is glorifying the Son of God, is the person of God the Holy Spirit.

So, we say that this Spirit of God is the key feature of the church age. Everything revolves around God the Holy Spirit. All local church ministry and all personal spiritual progress is hinged to God the Holy Spirit. He is the linchpin of the whole operation.

In Act 1:8, therefore, we read, "But you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto Me both in all Judea, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." Here's the Lord Jesus Christ about to return to heaven. Again, He is speaking about the Vicar who is going to be sent to represent Him – the substitute Helper, or the new Comforter. The very thing that He says about Him is, "The reason He's coming is to give you the power to do My work."

Of course, these disciples have been called (as have we) to do a very important work, but one which is impossible without the capacity of the Spirit of God. He is the key today. Therefore, it is self-evident that if there is any doctrine that the devil is going to foul up; confuse; and, distort, it is the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. We won't get into that now. The whole charismatic movement today is a prime example of the confusion that Satan has injected concerning the role and the operation of God the Holy Spirit today. When you have a false doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit, then Satan is able to neutralize you in the angelic warfare.

One of the things that the Bible tells us, as Christians in the church age, of our relationship to God the Holy Spirit is that He draws us permanently. In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Paul says, "What? Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have of God, and you are not your own?" You have Him from God, so you don't belong yourself: "For you are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." The believer's body is actually the temple of the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit today indwells every believer. That dwelling takes place at the moment that you are saved.

In John 14:16-17, Jesus Christ says, "And I will pray the Father. He shall give you another Comforter that He may abide with you forever." He is speaking to these disciples now. Remember that this is in the portion of the gospel of John which is called the upper room discourse. It is among the purest church truth to be found in the Word of God. It is the section of the gospels that applies directly to the church. A great part of the gospels apply to Israel and apply to the gentiles. This person, in the upper room discourse, is the portion that belongs to the church. Therefore, He is speaking to believers, and He says to them, "I'm going to ask the Father. He'll give you another Helper, and He will abide with you forever." Now, how long is forever? Obviously, forever means no termination. So, that is a very significant statement.

Verse 17 says, "Even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it doesn't see Him and it doesn't know Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you, and shall be in you." On the day of Pentecost, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit took place among all the believers at the time for the first time in human history on a permanent basis. In the past, God the Holy Spirit did indwell certain believers for certain duties; certain powers; certain crafts; and, certain abilities. He would indwell them to enable them to function in a certain way, and then He would leave them. Now we have the Scriptures telling us that this Spirit of God is here to dwell in you as believers forever. And your body is now His temple. The Holy Spirit fills or controls the spiritual church-age believer (each believer, that is, who is in temporal fellowship).

While you may be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you may not be necessarily controlled by the Holy Spirit. There is a difference between being indwelt and being filled with the spirit. In Ephesians 5:18, you have this commandment: "Be not drunk with wine (don't be getting high with booze) in which is excess, but be filled with the Spirit (but come under the high of the control of God the Holy Spirit)." The point here is that some believers are under the control because they are positive and obedient to the leading of the Spirit through the Word of God. While all believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, only those who are positive and who have exercised 1 John 1:9 in the confession of known sins, are in the status of spirituality where God the Holy Spirit controls the life of that believer.

The indwelling Holy Spirit exerts seven fantastic influences in the life of the church age believer, because He is functioning in us, in our ministry just as he functioned in Jesus the Messiah for His ministry, as we read in Isaiah 11:2. That's why Isaiah 11:2 becomes an enormously important verse in the Bible for us, because it's another one of those sections that amplify for us exactly what happened to you and me when we became Christians – not when we became believing Jews of the Old Testament, or believing gentiles of the Old Testament. But these things happened to us when we entered the body of Christ, the church. Only we, who live between Pentecost and the rapture, are in that exclusive group of humanity – the body of Christ. But something amazing has happened to you and me that makes us capable of things that other human beings in our society are not capable of.

We've already read the verse of John where Jesus said, "I'm going to send the Holy Spirit, who will not only be with you (as He is now), but He is going to be in you. However, the world is not going to receive Him. Something exclusive will happen to you believers, who are forming My body, which will not be true of all the good, fine people that you work with; all the good, fine people that live in your neighborhood; and, all the good, fine people that are in public life, and that you associate with in one way or another. You have a distinct relationship to the Spirit of God that the average, unbelieving, marvelous, wonderful, nice, civilized, cultured, law-abiding human being that you know does not have. You are in a category beyond him. What these things provide give you such an enormous edge over every other human being as to be staggering to the human imagination. If you have these seven things functioning in your life, you are an awesome individual, and you are a winner like there have never been winners in the history of the human race. The positive believer indwelt by God the Holy Spirit and controlled by God the Holy Spirit has seven powerful characteristics functioning in him. This kind of a Christian is one that is awesome for the world to reckon with.

The ultimate goal of this functioning of the Holy Spirit within us is stated for us in Revelation 5:13, where we read, "And every creature that is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying, "Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sits upon the throne, and onto the Lamb forever and ever." That's where we're going – where everybody (both man and animals) recognize Jesus Christ as the celebrity of the universe. And everybody directs praise and honor to Him. You and I are sharing the qualities that are going to make the world honor Him. What Isaiah 11:1 describes, of the work of the Holy Spirit upon the Messiah, is why Jesus Christ is the awesome person that He is, and will in time dominate this whole world.

At this point after the rapture, there is no longer any resident Spirit of God upon the face of the earth. John is seeing, in the form of these seven flaming torches, God the Holy Spirit, now in heaven, no longer resident upon the earth. He is no longer there restraining evil. When John sees Him, John recognizes, in a new way, what God the Holy Spirit was sent to do for the individual believer.

In 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7, we have this departure condition described: "And now you know what (or specifically, who) restrains, that He might be revealed in His time. For the mystery of iniquity already works. Only He who now hinders will continue to hinder until He is taken out of the way." Then Paul goes on to describe the coming antichrist, and his power and his impact upon humanity. What 2 Thessalonians tells us is that, until God the Holy Spirit is removed from the earth in His residence, evil will be restrained. So, the world today is not as evil as it's going to be. It is certainly pretty bad already today.

If you pick up an issue of TV Guide, for example, you will notice that suddenly there is an explosion of cable television stations, and they're listing what you may see now on cable television. It's quite an education to just run your eye through the descriptions of those programs. Almost uniformly, they are vile and degrading. They are dehumanizing. They are programs that could not be shown on normal television. That's the purpose of cable. Cable is to degrade society. Of course, it is presented as elevating. Satan always does that. You're going to be able to get cultured programs, and you're going to be able to get marvelous athletic programs, and so on. But the real reason is to be able to further degraded American society.

Cable television, as you read those summaries, sounds pretty bad, but it's not anything like what people are going to see on television once the tribulation begins. Then all restraints are removed, because God the Holy Spirit is removed. Of course, He was removed from His resident functioning here on the earth at the point that the rapture took place. When the rapture took place, and the church left, we are His temple, and He lives with us. Then all hell breaks loose upon the earth, and mankind descends to its lowest condition that it has ever experienced in its whole history.

The Spirit of the Lord

So, what is it that is going to cause Jesus Christ to be elevated to the position where all the world will bow down in honor in homage to Him? It is the things of Isaiah 11:2. When John gets to heaven, he sees before this throne, lo and behold, seven flaming torches representing these seven functions of God the Holy Spirit in the life of the Messiah. This same Spirit who indwells us provides that same kind of blessing upon us. So, let's turn to Isaiah 11:2, and let's see what it is that is so dramatically true about us.

The Breath of Life

Isaiah says, "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him. The word "Spirit" looks like this in the Hebrew Bible: "ruach." The word "ruach" is a noun. It basically means "air in motion," and thus it is used of the breath of man and animals. What you breathe in and out is described as your "ruach." The breath signifies life and the entire immaterial consciousness. That is why, when the "ruach" stops, the life is gone. This is how the Hebrews used to think about life. They would think about the breathing as the sign of the presence of immaterial consciousness. The Hebrew is a language that is not abstract like the Greek is. It's all very concrete in its imagery. The Hebrews thought about a person breathing, and out of his nostrils, that last breath exuded his life. His "ruach" left him, and he was dead. So, it is immaterial consciousness. Specifically, here, it is the "ruach" of the LORD.

YHWH

Notice, in your King James translation, that the word LORD is in all capital letters: "LORD.' The King James translation followed that pattern of using capitals for the word "LORD" in order to indicate a specific name of God, which looks like this: "YHWH." This is actually four Hebrew letters. And we don't know how this word was pronounced in the Hebrew Bible, but this word, which occurs something like 5,000 to 6,000 times, was probably pronounced "YHaWeH." These 4 consonants were viewed by the Jews as the most holy letters in this combination, and this word as the most holy word in their language, because it was the most sacred name of God. It was the name by which God identified Himself in some very significant ways, and which was used of Him in its most dramatic form.

The Sacred Tetragrammaton

Therefore, this was called by the Jews (and you have heard us use this term) the sacred Tetragrammaton. "Tetra" means "four," and "grammaton" means letters. These were the four sacred letters. Every Jew who knows anything about the Bible today knows these four Hebrew letters as the sacred Tetragrammaton. In post-biblical times, they developed such reference for these four consonants of the sacred Tetragrammaton, and such respect for that that they refused to say it aloud. As they would read the Old Testament Bible, every time (something like 5,500 to 6,000 times) that these four letters occur in the Old Testament, they would not pronounce this word. When they came to the sacred Tetragrammaton, what they would do is substitute another name of God – the one that looks like this: "adonai," which actually means "master" or "lord." So, every time they would come to the sacred Tetragrammaton, instead of saying "YHaWeH," perhaps (or however it was pronounced), they would say "adonai." The medieval Jewish scholars begin adding the vowel points (little vowel marks). The Hebrew language, originally, was all consonants, and even today, they write Hebrew without any vowel points.

Jehovah

When Mrs. Danish and I were in Israel two summers ago, I asked our guide about the use of vowel points in the Hebrew language and he said, "I quit using that in the second grade." So, you could see the Hebrew written everywhere. If you know the language, you know what the vowels are supposed to be. But in the Middle Ages, Jewish scholars decided that they needed to accurately set down and preserve how the Hebrew was pronounced. So they began adding these little vowel points to the consonants. So, when they came along to write out the four sacred letters of the name of God, they put these vowel points on the sacred Tetragrammaton, and it came out as "YAHOWAH" (or "Yahweh"), out of which has come the English word "Jehovah."

Now, Jehovah is not really the name of God, even in English, coming down from the Hebrew. But it's the best we have to identify Him with the name that was extremely sacred. It was so sacred that we've lost completely the pronunciation of this word as it originally came from the lips of God. But these four letters, the sacred Tetragrammaton, is the name by which God identifies Himself. And by that, He means that He identifies His character, and He identifies His nature.

This is what was indicated to Moses when he wanted to know, "What am I going to tell these people (that is, the elders of Israel who are in slavery in Egypt)? What am I going to tell them when I come along and say that I have a message from God to you concerning your release from slavery?" So, in Exodus 3:13, we have a record of God's answer: "And Moses said unto God, 'Behold, when I come onto the children of Israel, and shall say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me unto you.' and they shall say to me, 'What is his name?' What shall I say to them?' And God said to Moses, 'I Am that I Am.' And He said, 'Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: 'I Am has sent me unto you.'' And God said moreover unto Moses: 'Thus shall you say unto the children of Israel: 'The Lord God of your fathers: the God of Abraham; the God of Isaac; and, the God of Jacob have sent me unto you. This is My name forever. And this is My memorial until all generations.''"

So, what Moses was told was: "Go back to the people and tell them that YHWH has sent you." Now, this word "YHWH" is related to a Hebrew verb that sounds similar to it. The verb "haya" has a similar sound in its use to YHWH. The grammarians can't say for sure that the name of God came from this, but it does indicate a similarity of sound, and that is the play on words that you have here in Exodus 3 in God's answer to Moses. When God says, "Tell them that I Am has sent you," the verb "haya" is what He is saying. This is the verb "to be." You know how you conjugate "to be:" I am; you are; he is; and, so on. So, that's why God says, "You go to them and tell them that I Am has sent you." And the sound of that is related to your whole YAHOWAH (Yahweh, or YHWH), so that there was a play on words that expressed the concept of God in His specific relationships of the nation of Israel. He related Himself to the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and so on.

In Deuteronomy 28:58, this sacred Tetragrammaton is called "This glorious and fearful name." Abraham knew God by this name Yahweh, or Jehovah, as we say it. Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 12:8 indicate that it was Yahweh who spoke to him. It's the basis of God's dealing with the Jewish people. In Exodus 3:16-17, it says, "Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, 'The Lord God (and there you have 'Jehovah Elohim' in the Hebrew) of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob appeared unto me saying, 'I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt. And I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites sites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey." So, the promise of releasing them is based upon the facts of God's name. Now, why would that be important? It is because of the significance of this name. This is the name that indicates the fact that God is eternal; that God is immutable; and, that He is indeed God. It's a sign, really, of deity. That's why God said, "Tell him that I Am has sent you." And they would tie that in with His name, Yahweh. That's a sacred statement. That's a sacred name: I Am.

I remember quite a few years ago, there was a man out east who was one of these religious operators, and he called himself the Great I Am. I remember reading about him in the paper. He would stand up before his followers and present himself as the I Am, and they would call him the Great I Am. In all of his publications, you would read about the Great I Am. Well, one day, the Great I Am died, and he became the Great I Ain't, when he came into the presence of the real I Am.

That is the point of this name. God says that: "This is the most sacred name. This is the highest name that I can give you to identify Myself." He pointed out to them that He is identifying Himself with the same name that He identified Himself to their fathers: Abraham; Isaac; and, Jacob.

This word of the name of God has some interesting additional uses. This word is sometimes shortened in poetry and in names. For example, you know the name Elijah. It looks like this in the Hebrew: "Eliyyah." You can see that end of that first part of the name of God. "Eliyyah" actually means "Jehovah is God."

You have another name of that famous fellow who foolishly got himself involved with Ahab and his wife Jezebel. His name included the abbreviated part of the name of God: "Jehoshaphat." And that means "Jehovah judges."

There is another name that we use today in an abbreviated form: "Yehonathan." It also has the sacred name of God. Again, remember that these names are set apart because they have these sacred letters from the name of God. To the Jew, somebody who carried this name carried a very significant name. We have shortened this name such that it comes out to us as the word "Jonathan." And Jonathan means "Jehovah has given."

Here's one that all of you know: "Hallelujah." It looks like this in the Hebrew: "Halleluyah." There you see the "yah" part again – that "yh" indicating the first two letters of the sacred name of God. This means "praise Ye Jehovah."

You may wonder why God said to Mary, "I want this boy to be named Jesus." This was for the same reason. Because in Hebrew, here's what they were told to call the boy: "Yeshua." "Yeshua" means "Jehovah is salvation." "Yeshua" translated is "Joshua." That was the name of Moses' right-hand man. Joshua was "Yeshua." And this word "Yeshua" comes into the Greek as "Iosias," and it is transliterated into the English as "Jesus." So, the name Jesus was "Yeshua" in the Hebrew, because He came to be the Savior.

Here is a little comparison. Numbers 13:16: "And these are the names of the men who Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua." He called him "Yehoshua." That is one of the men he sent to spy out the land. Compare that to Acts 7:45: "Which also our fathers, that came after, brought in with Joshua into the possession of the nations whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David." This verse is referring back to the fact that Joshua is searching out the land, and is leading the people into it, and removing the evil ones from it. The word "Joshua" there in Acts 7:45 is what is interesting to us, because in the Greek Bible, this is the word: "Iosias."

It's what we read in the gospels that Mary was told to call her boy. The Greek says "Iosias." Mary was told was in the Hebrew, "Call your Son 'Yehoshua." And here in Acts, in referring to the Joshua of the Old Testament, the Greek calls him "Jesus." So, the name "Jesus" is significant because of what "Yehoshua" meant. And "Yehoshua" meant "Jehovah is salvation." Specifically, Matthew 1:21 tells us that this was why this child was called Yehoshua: "And she shall bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." It is his role as Savior.

So, the first thing we have, Isaiah 11:2 tells us, is that the coming Messiah had the "ruach YHWH" (the Spirit of Jehovah), referring to the Holy Spirit. He is the member of the Godhead who indwells every church-age believer, and He is the Spirit of Jehovah. He bears the most sacred name of Almighty God. He is the One who bears the awesome and glorious name of "YHWH." And the one who bears that name, because you and I are permanently indwelt by Him, is the one who is constantly our companion and observer. That's kind of scary, isn't it?

What I tried to do in this session was to give you a little feeling of awe for the word "Jehovah," or "LORD" (written in capital letters) – "YHWH", with a variety of ways to pronounce it. We should have respect for what that name means, and how God, when He was making His covenant with the Jews, and when he was making his arrangements with this people, presented Himself by this – His most sacred name.

This person, the "ruach YHWH," the Spirit of the Lord, the living God, is the one who is our constant companion and observer. That makes it a little bit of a problem going through life, doesn't it? The next time you say something that you know you shouldn't say, remember that the "ruach YHWH" is there present. It's amazing, isn't it, how nice we will act when there are strangers in our home, over how we will act when there are not strangers around. It is amazing how you will act when you are in esteemed company, over against how you act when you're with your buddies. It is a great thing to remember. It is a great thing for a young person to grow up, being impressed, as a believer, that there indwells him the Spirit of the Lord. He is not an impersonal force. He is the living God. We Christians, like the Lord Jesus Christ, have been anointed for our life ministry by the spirit of "YHWH," even as Isaiah tells us was the case for the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Isaiah 61:1, we have this statement: "And the Spirit of the Lord God (the 'ruach YHWH') is upon me, because the LORD ("YHWH") has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted; to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to those who are bound; and, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn." Isaiah 61:1-2 is an interesting passage, because when Jesus was reading in the synagogue in Nazareth, on one occasion, He read, and stopped at an odd place. He spoke about: "Opening the prisons of those who were bound, and then to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Then He stopped, because "The day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn" was yet ahead. So, He indicated that He was going to be rejected, and that He was not going to come and bring in all the things that He could have brought in. But the thing that was upon Him was the Spirit of Jehovah.

So, we have seen the first flaming torch. We're going to see that what John actually sees here is going to be a series of flaming torches. It's going to be rather interesting because it's going to end up like the menorah – the sign of the Jews of the lamp which was in the holy place.

When I was in Rome, I saw, on Titus's Arch, where is carved the captives coming back, carrying some of the items from the temple after Titus had conquered Jerusalem. There is the menorah in this very shape, carved right out there on the side of that triumphal arch monument, indicating that that is the shape of what they brought back from that temple. Each one of these points, that we're going to add now, stands for another flame that's burning in your life as a believer. Point number one is that the center is God the Holy Spirit, who bears the sacred Tetragrammaton name of Jehovah.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1982

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