Name of God: Elohim

First name to look at is referred to in the first verse of the first book of the Bible: Genesis 1:1. ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’. Turns out, that word ‘God’ is Elohim. Even more interesting, that word ‘Elohim’ is apparently only used in Hebrew scripture.

‘El’ means mighty one, strong one, one of many supernatural beings, one more powerful than all the rest, and mythology / creation stories often discuss conflict across the gods. However, ‘Elohim’, being used for its single purpose in Scripture, annotates harmony and peace. There is no conflict when there is only one. (Note: Elohim is actually a plural, reflecting the multiple persons of God although pulling them together into one entity/name; Wikipedia indicated it can also be examined as ‘Hebrew grammar allows for this nominally-plural form to mean “He is the Power (singular) over powers (plural)”, or roughly, “God of gods”.’. There is also reference to ‘elohims’ in other verses [looking for citations] – messiness in my own brain ensues, though apparently the form of the verbs used in combination with the nouns helps clarify the intent.)

This concept of singularity expose attributes or means of reflecting upon God.
* He is personal : He (single, Elohim) created everything. He can’t create something greater than Himself, He created us, we are personal, and therefore some aspect of Him must be personal.
* He is perfect: because he stands alone, nothing can be great enough to influence, change or corrupt him.
* It is for his purpose we are created, or we wouldn’t be here. (single God created, ergo his purpose(s) are what cause us to come into being)
* Some discussion of the eternal reality being harmony

Interesting sermon, though as I reflect back over my notes, looks like I’m somehow missing threads to tie this all together well for myself (which would, of course, also mean it’s probably not tied well together for anyone reading this). I’ll look for the sermon to be posted to the spepchurch.org site and relisten to it / see where my notes don’t follow. Will also post the URL in a comment here. It’s usually a few weeks until the messages are posted.

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