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p404 * * * There is, I think, no difficulty in Exodus 6:3. If we* compare Exodus 3:14, 15, we find there, "Jehovah, the God of your fathers." It was the personal name of God as having to do with men, and particularly with Israel - man in the flesh set in relationship with God. It is His abiding name as to this world, either who was, and is, and is to come, if we take Him historically, or more perfectly as in Revelation who is ( ὁ ὢν ), and was, and is to come, the ὁ ὢν, the existing one (atta hu), and past in time, and to come. But in Exodus 6:3 it is different. It speaks of the character in which He revealed Himself in order to their walking before Him. And note, when the revelation of Shaddai, as the name to be owned in walk took place, it is said Jehovah appeared unto Abram; and the word was, "I (Jehovah) am El Shaddai; walk before me." Hence, in Exodus 6:3, "I am Jehovah; and I appeared unto Abraham (ב) as El Shaddai: (in) my name Jehovah was I not (made) known to them." This refers to the appearing to put them according to the nature of that revelation in relationship with Himself: so to Jacob (Gen. 35:11), as soon as God revealed Himself to him. To Isaac, who stands connected with Rebekah, the risen head of the church, He is not revealed by any name.

{*'I have difficulty as to the exact meaning of Exodus 6:3. The word Jehovah occurs 195 times until Exodus 6:3. In 144 times there seems little difficulty, it is Moses shewing Israel their Jehovah was Elohim, and therefore it is always in the form of reported speech I have classified the 49 [remaining] different passages. First, where persons speak of Elohim as Jehovah, not in reported but in direct speech, as Genesis 28:21; 32:9. If they used the word Jehovah, then Elohim was known to them by that name. Secondly, men calling on the name Jehovah, not on Elohim as if at that time they began to know Him as Jehovah, this, however in the form of reported speech, does not present the same difficulty. Thirdly, angels using the name Jehovah directly to men. Fourthly, God Himself using the name directly to Abram and Jacob. Gen. 15:7; 28:13.) If "Jehovah" was known before its formal revelation, without knowing its meaning, is this analogous to the other [names]: namely, Shaddai not known till Abraham; Abba not known till HE declared it and sent forth the Spirit into our hearts? Is Jehovah exceptional?'}

The historical name is always Jehovah or Elohim. The One who appears is always Jehovah; but He appears to Abraham as El Shaddai, and so reveals Himself as the ground of, and that which gives its character to, his walk before Him. But it is always Jehovah who appears, as in chapter 12:7. In chapter 15:7 it is no appearing. The word of Jehovah came to Abraham and said, "I am Jehovah that brought thee out of Ur." And in Psalm 91, the title of Shaddai is used as the expression of almighty protection; the Messiah says as knowing the true secret of who the Most High is: "I will say of Jehovah," etc. And so He is kept by the power of Shaddai. Thus, I judge, that though Jehovah, as the expression of the constant being of God, was taken as the specific covenant name of Israel's God - the God of man in the flesh who had to say to God - yet it was, as the name of constant being, the abiding historical name of God. Almighty and Father are special names of character and relationship taken with those to whom God is so revealed. The name of the one true God, the name of the being, is His abiding name, in relationship with the earth - the name. The Israelite had "blasphemed the name." Most High is another relative name taken. Hence it is only in the millennium fully. But it is still Jehovah who is the Most High. Hence you would not have 'the angel of Shaddai' or of the Father, or Elion, because he represents His power as such, not a name of relationship; but he took His name, as the name of relationship with Israel.

It was not that the name of Jehovah was not known as the proper name of the true God, but that His making Himself known to them, as the One before whom they were to walk was in another specific name. He did not take His name, His own name so to speak, as the name by which He was to be in relationship with them. It is a very important circumstance as to Israel that God's own name, what I may call His personal name, at least in connection with man on earth, "the name" became the name of relationship with that people. Hence in celebrating that name, even in the wide extent of the unopened glory, in the past which belongs to earth, we have (Psalm 8), "O Jehovah our Adon, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!" He had set in that His glory now above the heavens. Elohim is the One who stands in the position of the divine being. Jehovah is the personal name of Him who truly is so He became the Elohim of the Jews as a nation who had been called out of the world to and by Him when idolatry had come in. (Josh. 24) Jehovah, He is Elohim. And now we say Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent; but withal of the Son, He is the true God and eternal life. When it is said "then Jehovah shall be my Elohim" (Gen. 28:21), we must refer to verse 13, whence Jacob drew that which he then said, and so verse 16. But in Exodus 6:2, we have equally, "I am Jehovah." But in Genesis 35, when Elohim reveals Himself to Jacob as the present God with whom he had to do, it is again (ver. 11) El Shaddai. Jehovah is found in chapters 31:3; 32:9. In a word, Jehovah was not unknown to their own thoughts or in intercourse, but it was not the name He took in relationship to the patriarchs in their character as such: it was with Israel after the bush.

[53295E]

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