We spent last week getting to know Yahweh. Yahweh is God’s name. It is not a characteristic or a title.
What did you learn about Yahweh this week?
When I started the week, I was unsure how I would write a daily devotional thought about a name, not a characteristic. But I prayed every day that YHWH would speak to me, and it seemed that He came through. I learned that there is power in the name YHWH. Just as if you walked into certain places and dropped certain names, if you speak the name of YHWH, anxieties cease, doubts resolve, and prayers get answered.
We are introduced to YHWH at the burning bush, where Moses’ reluctance to do what God asked is not hard to understand. Can you remember a time when you were reluctant to do what God was asking you to do?
For me, it was/is leading this class and writing a book. I’ll let you know how it all turns out in the end.
This week, we will be studying the name Adonay. “Adonay” is the Hebrew word that means “Lord.” This name implies a relationship. The name Adonay appears over 488 times in the Hebrew scriptures. The root word of Adonay is “adone,” which means lord, master, owner, meaning to rule, and sovereign.
Adonay is the proper name of God; it is often substituted for YHWH in scripture. The name Adonay designates authority and supremacy.
While the title “lord” is often a term that denotes human authority, in scripture, the title, when given to God, stresses his unrivaled rule, and when complied with, YHWH, it binds his divine sovereignty to his covenant faithfulness.
In the Torah/Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, Adonay is used for patriarchal narratives. In the historical books, Adonay is used for guidance and deliverance. In the books of wisdom and literature, his name is used for worship and confidence. In the major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, his name is paired with majesty and commitment. And in the minor prophets, Adonay is associated with eschatological hope and/or hope in the end of times. The most occurrences of the name are found in Ezekiel, where there are over 200 mentions of Adonay Yahweh, which blended transcendent authority with covenant intimacy.
We are first introduced to Adonay in Genesis 15:2 when Abram asked, “Adonay Yahweh, what will you give me? Since I’m going to die without children, Eliezer of Damascus will inherit my household.” Then God tells Abram for the fourth time that he will be the father of many nations. Shortly after this, Sarai took matters into her own hands and gave Abram Hagar, as we studied during the week of El Roi.
So if you are keeping count, this is now five names that are associated with Abraham that we have studied so far. Abram used this name to support the patriarchal narrative of God’s covenant.
We are going to jump forward a little bit to Exodus 4 and pick up where we left off last week with Moses talking to YHWH in the burning bush. YHWH has laid out what he wants Moses to do, and Moses starts his protest.
Remember, Moses grew up in a palace of privilege. He did not grow up with his people but was viewed as royalty who ruled over these people. He ran after killing an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite and has been gone ever since. Now God is appearing to him in a burning bush and telling him to go to the people that he once was over and say, “Hey, I talked to God in a burning bush, and he wants you to follow me.”
I am sure the tale of him killing an Egyptian is known throughout the camp, and that may have won him some favor among the Israelites, but not among the Egyptians.
Moses was an Israelite who was raised as an Egyptian, who turned his back on his Egyptian family when he murdered an Egyptian who was beating a fellow Israelite. I can only imagine the internal struggle and identity crisis Moses was having.
After he spoke to the Israelites, he was to take the leaders of Israel and go to the King of Egypt and say, “Let my people go and worship God.”
In protest to this assignment, Moses started, “They will never believe me; they will say YHWH didn’t appear to you.” Basically, he is saying that there is no way the Israelites would believe that he talked to God.
In an effort to instill in Moses that God was with him in this assignment, he told Moses to take the staff in his hand and throw it to the ground, and he did. Immediately, it turned into a snake, and Moses ran away.
I have to admit, I would be high-tailing it out of there right beside, if not in front of, Moses on this one.
God told Moses to pick it up by the tail of the snake. (Only the good Lord above would be able to give me enough courage to do that.) When he did, the snake turned back into a staff. (I wonder if he slept with that staff outside the tent that night.)
God explained that this would convince the people that what he was telling them was the truth, that Yahweh Elohim of their ancestors, the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had appeared to him. Again, calling on the covenant that was made with Abraham, and something the Israelites would and should know.
God gave Moses a couple of other signs to show the Israelites as more proof if they didn’t believe the snake staff. One was putting his hand into his coat and pulling it to show that it was diseased, and then putting it back in and pulling it out to show that it was healed. The other sign was to take water from the Nile and pour it onto the ground; it would turn to blood.
Moses still protested the assignment by saying, “Please, Adonay, I am not a good speaker. I’ve never been a good speaker, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I speak slowly, and I become tongue-tied easily.”
(I identify with Moses so much in this statement. Speaking in front of people is way out of my comfort zone.
Moses is calling on the relational name of God here, Adonay. He is appealing to him by recognizing his faults and how he might fail God in this assignment.
How often do we focus on how we will fail or fall short before we even start the process? How often are we already looking at what all can go wrong before we allow God to show us what all will go right?
Are we a Moses, relying on human frailties and not relying on our God-fidence?
If we would only realize that when God calls us to a Red Sea assignment, he has already given us the power to part the waters and walk through it on dry land.
When we call on the name Adonay, we are saying that we trust in his promises, we surrender to his sovereignty and rule, and we are waiting anxiously for his return. O LORD, you are our Lord. Oh YAHWEH, you are our Adonay.
If we move to the Psalms, we can see how the Psalmist used Adonay in both lament and praise. Adonay is used in a personal way.
Psalm 8:1 “O Yahweh, our Adonay, how majestic is your name throughout the earth!”
Psalm 16:2 “I said to Yahweh, ‘You are my Adonay. Without you, I have nothing good.”
Psalm 30:8 “I will cry out to you, Yahweh; I will plead to Adonay for mercy.”
Psalm 35:17 “O Adonay, how long will you look on? Rescue me from their attacks.”
Where YHWH is revered, Adonay is relational.
YHWH reminds us that He simply is. He is self-existent, eternal, and never changing. Adonay shows us that he steps into a relationship with us. He’s not just the God in the burning bush but the one who walks alongside a trembling, stuttering shepherd who was once royal but now labeled a murderer, someone who once commanded attention but who is now reluctant to lead.
Adonay is with the wildly unqualified and stands in the gap as they are called into service.
When Moses protested his calling, Adonay reminded him of his sovereignty. What Moses lacked in ability, Adonay supplied in supremacy.
Our faith is formed when we are moved from protest to obedience. When we step out in surrender, we rest in God’s ability, and we allow him to partner with our availability. It’s as simple as realizing that you know YHWH, who is your Adonay, and what your humanity lacks, God covers with his sovereignty.
Where is Adonay asking you to trust him?
What is your Red Sea moment? Are you ready to move from active protest to surrendered obedience?
Maybe you need an Aaron to walk alongside you while you take that first step into what God is asking you to do. If so, identify who your Aaron will be. Who will go alongside you and encourage you, give you guidance, and help you in your calling? Ask God to show you who that is, and then ask them to pray with you and encourage you.
I look forward to learning more about Adonay this week and how I can step into my calling with him.
Have a great day with Jesus!
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