God's Gift to us...Language

One of the marvelous gifts of language is that we can describe with words what we see, hear and feel. How marvelous is the gift that God has given to us. The English language however is unable to adequately describe many words such as love. We have one word whereas the Greek has three, phileo = friend; agape = true love, and eros which is a love of intimacy. The Hebrew language used in the OT gives us the beauty of the Hebrew language which far outweighs our English. Hebrew evokes the imagery of the words that English strives to depict but often falls far short. Take for example the name of God. In English we use God alone to describe Him. But in the Hebrew language we find that God's attributes are given by the names the authors of the OT books used. For example: Jehovah Jireh = God my Provider, El Roi = the God who sees, Jehovah Sabaoth = Lord of the heavenly armies, in English it is Lord of Hosts. He goes before His people to pave the way and to provide and protect them with His outstretched arm. Which name is your favorite? Mine is Jehovah Sabaoth. It is found in all of the OT and first in the book of Samuel. Today in Jeremiah 50:34 we are given the description of Him as He comes to redeem His people from captivity. Their Redeemer "ga'al" means to redeem, act as kinsman-redeemer, avenge, revenge, ransom.He is their kinsman who is strong; the Lord of Hosts "Jehovah Sabaoth" or Jehovah "tsaba'" means that which goes forth, army, war, warfare, host is His Name. As you read a verse like this you want to stop and ponder what all of that brings to mind. What vision do you have? We have been reading Jeremiah and the Babylonian conquest. The Judahites have been in captivity and will be there for 70 yrs. Think of yourself being in captivity and then hearing this verse. What a picture. What thoughts come to mind? God has not forgotten me! He will avenge the wrong, He will ransom me from my captors, and He will fight for my release. What a beautiful picture this gives us as we know the meaning of those words and phrases. Do you know this Redeemer? Do you know Jehovah Sabaoth? If not, send me a note and let's chat.

Jehovah Sabaoth, thank you for being my Redeemer my ga'al, my Lord of Hosts. I never need to fear ..for You are with me. Thank you for revealing Yourself to my precious granddaughter in her own words: " I believe You're my healer I believe You are all I need I believe You're my portion I believe You're more than enough for me Jesus, You're all I need " That sums it up beautifully better than I could say....Truly God is all we need. He is all we need because He is all in all.