Elohim is one of the names for God in the Old Testament. Elohim is God the creator and most of the time in the Old Testament, Elohim is translated as God and Jehovah is translated as Lord (although there are exceptions to that). It is also significant because in Hebrew, Elohim is a plural ending. It speaks of the three different persons of a triune God.
Do you ever feel as if you are living circumstances that really don’t belong to you? That surely God didn’t intend this for you? This is precisely the time to remember Elohim, the God who created you.
The Most Successful Person I Know
I know a young man who is about my age, he’s 30. He still lives at home and does not have a job. He isn’t involved in formal ministry like the rest of us. . .he doesn’t run any clubs, doesn’t tutor children from the neighborhood, nor does he participate in any leadership roles in church. He is also the most successful person I know.
Ralph, is the adopted son of one of my pastors. He was born to a mother who drank too much alcohol when she was pregnant. He lives with the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome and he’ll never really be functioning past the level of a school aged child. But Ralph knows the God Elohim, the God who created him. Ralph loves God with every inch of his being and it radiates to all who are around him. Ralph is so excited about God that he, to the shame of the rest of us, was the first to greet the Buddhist temple when it moved in down the street telling the monks, “I just came to tell you how much Jesus loves you.”
So why do I say he’s the most successful person I know? He is doing exactly what he was created to do: to worship God and bring Him glory. The rest of us may be concerned with this temporary worry or that. . .but Ralph is stead fast in his faith that the God who created him, Elohim is indeed the one true God and is sovereign over the affairs of man.
The Sovereignty of God
I think the sovereignty of God is something that many Christians struggle with. It is easy to say God is sovereign when the world makes sense to us. Either things are going well for us or even when things are going badly and we can see God’s hand. But when the situation is incomprehensible to our minds, it is hard, but essential to see God as sovereign.
Consider the following:
In John 9:2-3, the disciples see a blind man and they ask Jesus, “Who is it that has sinned? This man or his parents? Jesus replied, “It is neither this man who sinned, nor his parents; but rather it was so the works of God could be displayed in him.
In Exodus 4:10-11, Moses pleads with the Lord, “Please Lord, I have never been eloquent. . .for I am slow of speech and tongue.” To which God replies, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him dumb, or deaf, or blind? Is it not I the Lord?”
Our loving creator hand crafted us–flaws and all–for a purpose! Regardless of our circumstances it is in Elohim that we can find a strong tower of safety.
Check out this thread for further discussion questions.