The Names of God #3 - Yahweh—Part 1

By Fred R. Coulter

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We're going to cover about 'Yahweh.' In the Bible You will see that the word 'LORD,' in all capital letters, is used in many cases. Being in all capital letters means that it comes from the Hebrew word, Yahweh or YHVH. This is where you get what is called the 'tetragrammaton,' which means: four letters—Y-H-V-H or Y-H-W-H—spelled and pronounced:

• Yah-wah (long 'a')
• Yah-weh (long 'e')
• Yah

In the Concordant Version of the Bible the book of Genesis says: 'We are the experts and we can tell you the names of God better than anybody else.' They phonetically spell it: 'Ieue' pronounced with a long 'e' sound.

Some say that you have to have the proper name of God—Yahweh—or you're not going to be saved. No one knows the true, real pronunciation of the names; YHWH or YHVH:

• Yahweh
• Yahwah
• Yah
• Ieue

What we studied last time was the name 'God,' which is translated from the Hebrew word: Elohim. In the Concordant Version, they pronounce/spell that: Alohim. There again, any word that you pronounce is going to be just a touch different than other's pronunciation somewhere along the line. If you had to say the exact right name in order to have contact with God, no one would have contact with God.

Remember what happened in Gen. 11 in relationship to languages? God confounded all the languages! Therefore, the names of God in all of those different languages was different.

Let's focus in on the Bible you're reading, and you come to the book of Jeremiah and you want to know, when you read about God, is it Elohim? Or you read about Lord, is it Yahweh? There's a way you can tell. When the word is spelled:

• G-o-d—Elohim, the One Who always loves because of oath and relationship
• L-o-r-d—Adonai
• LORD GOD:
• L-O-R-D—Yahweh
• G-O-D—Yahweh Elohim
• L-o-r-d G-O-D—Adonai Yahweh
• The other ones are:
• Lord of Hosts
• the Almighty God
• the Most High

Those are different names, but when you're reading through, you just pass over it a little bit, and you can lose some of the meaning of what's being told you because of the way that the Bible does it. There's a reason why:

• you have LORD all in caps
• you have Lord with only the first letter capitalized
• you have God with only the first letter capitalized
• you have GOD in all caps

The KJV of the Bible did it this way so you would have some semblance of knowing which Hebrew word was a derivation of Lord or God.

Before we cover too much about the word 'Yahweh,' I want to remind you of something: Elohim means the covenant God Who is always in a love relationship. Because of His covenant and His love, He will always remember that. That's why in the New Testament we're talking about what God is. 1-John 4 is the one that people like to quote because:

• it's good
• it's comfortable
• it's nice
• it's fine
• and there's nothing wrong with it
• it should be good
• it should be comfortable
• it should be nice
• it should be fine

1-John: 4:8: "The one who does not love does not know God because God is love." That's what God is! We, as human beings can have love, but we are not love; it is not what we are.

That's not the only way to describe God. The names that we will go through from here on in, describe qualities of God. Therefore, these names are not names in the sense that it is some secret thing to understand about God to be able to know these names.

Yahweh is the expression of quality of love! There's a quality of love, or the intensity of love, or the kind of love. If there is God—which there is, and there is righteousness—which there is, then righteousness demands something. What is righteousness?

• All Your commandments are righteous!
• Your statutes are righteous!
• God is righteous!

Righteousness is a standard of perfection. If you have a standard of perfection then you also have a standard of what is right and what is wrong. When the name Yahweh is used, we come into the quality of love, or relationship, as determined and demanded by God. That's why when we talk about Elohim, there is no standard set there.

• God loves!
• God is Creator!
• God has made!
• It is very good!
• It is marvelous and wonderful!

That's why when we come to Gen. 1 and it talks about God creating, it is Elohim Who creates. It is Elohim Who made it very good.

We come to Gen. 2 and we find something different. God made the heaven, the earth and created everything that there is. Elohim made it. He made male and female. What is God going to do with it? He's made man in the image of God! He's:

• given him a mind
• given him a language—created with an internal built-in language
• given him choice

If you're God, why make a robot? Think about it for a minute. What good is a robot going to do? There's no feeling, no choice, no love.

It's like this movie I saw. They had this robot that they made; it had no choice. It just went around and did things once it was programmed. It had lenses for eyes. I thought, that's the way humans will do things.

God—Elohim—has made all of this vast, wonderful creation! What is He going to do with it? He's made man in His image. What are God's responsibilities? This is where we get Yahweh, the understanding of God through the name Yahweh, or LORD, with all capital letters.

Standard of Righteousness & Judgment

Genesis 2:7: "Then the LORD God..." Yahweh Elohim, same God, different name. Why? Because Yahweh Elohim has a different message and function!

"...formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God [Yahweh Elohim] caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The Tree of Life also was in the middle of the garden, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" (vs 8-9). We have a standard! We have choices! Didn't have that before. In Gen. 1:

• God made it
• God declared it
• it was so
• it was good

Now we're coming to something totally different. I want to interject a couple of other things into this before we go on. If you're going to have a standard of righteousness—here we had the Tree of Life, perfect righteousness—there is the standard, the goal.

Then we had the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Something different! If you have perfect righteousness, then you must also have judgment against those things that are not righteous.

Have you ever wondered about this? Mal. 1 tells us a little bit about Yahweh: that He will make these kinds of judgments and still be God and still be a God of love. This helps answer the question: If God is love and always loves, why does He judge? Because you have to have a standard! If you have something that is perfect, then anything that assaults that perfection has got to be dealt with.

Can you have the perfection of God assaulted to the point that it becomes evil? No, of course not! You would not have a Holy, righteous God. You would not have someone Who is true, Who would absolutely uphold righteousness. If there were not the forgiving and mercy aspect of it, then it would be just like the Old Testament churches have it today: 'do or die.' That's why the Jews cannot understand God. They want:

• all of His blessings
• all of His love
• to do what they want to do
• to tell God what to do

That isn't the way it's going to work. God is going to tell the people what to do.

God also, in loving and this quality of love, has something that you also feel: How do you feel when you see something evil? You get upset! The worse that it is the more angry you get. Then you come to yourself and think, 'I shouldn't think that way; I need to have loving thoughts.' You're not necessarily thinking wrongly.
Malachi 1:1 "The burden of the Word of the LORD [Yahweh] to Israel by Malachi. 'I have loved you,' says the LORD. 'But you say, "In what way do You love us?"….'" (vs 1-2). They forgot all about the good things that God had done. God loved them because of 'My covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I bound Myself to all the descendants of Israel. I've loved you. I've given you the choicest and best parts of the earth. I have blessed you in every way.' And they said, 'God, when have you loved us?'

Don't we have the same thing today? We're people living in the best land in the whole world and don't believe in God. God said:

• I sent you the rain
• I sent you the food
• an abundance of plenty
• you lived off the whole world
• you sucked in all the raw materials of the world
• 6% of the population using 70% of the raw materials of the world
• it came pouring into you

—and you say, 'God, You loved us?'

Verse 2: "'...Was not Esau Jacob's brother?' says the LORD. 'Yet, I loved Jacob. And I hated Esau...'" (vs 2-3). How can God, Who is love, hate?

• Have you ever had that question thrown up in your face?
• Have you ever tried to answer that?

Hate is also part of love. He hated Esau for what Esau has done and did do; and for the very nature the he himself helped develop through his own choices, and that he passed on to his inheritance.

That's why you have the bloody scourge that you have over there in Israel today. I feel sorry for any Jew living in Israel today. They're in the midst of a bloody, hateful, terrible, miserable thing, and it won't go away until Christ returns. Maybe they'll calm it down just a little bit.

"'...and made his mountains a desolation, and his inheritance to be for the jackals of the wilderness'" (v 3). How would you like to live in the area around where Petra is?

• mountains
• rocks
• heat
• misery
• wretchedness
• The children of Israel lived in plenty!
• nice climate
• lots of food
• easy

I remember one minister one time saying that if you lived in the San Joaquin Valley, that's not working in the sweat of your brow to eat your food out of the dirt as it was with Adam:

• you plant the plants
• you sit back in the summer shade
• you watch it grow
• you sip a little lemonade
• you go out and harvest it

—not so with Esau. Every time you see some these documentaries on desert people, you think about that, because God said that Esau would be far from the dew of heaven, far from the blessings—and it is! He's a bloody man.

Verse 4: "If Edom says, 'We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places'..." We are going to have the inheritance of God. That's what the whole Middle East problem is all about today.

"...thus says the LORD of hosts, 'They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall be called the border of wickedness, and the people with whom the LORD is indignant forever'" (v 4). Obviously, that's until the return of Christ. Those are heavy words. How would you like to be an Edomite? How would you like to know for sure, in you own mind, that Esau was your progenitor and you picked up the Bible and read this? Those are tough words! Only God can handle that. But it tells us something about God.

Hebrews 1:8: "But on the other hand, of the Son He says, 'Your throne, O God, is into the ages of eternity; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.'" Righteousness!

• no sin
• no evil
• no shadow or variable of turning at all
• total, Holy  perfection

Verse 9: "'You loved righteousness and hated lawlessness...'" That's why Yahweh has to set the standard, and He does! He sets the standard of what is right and what is wrong; then He lets human beings choose what they're going to do!

There's something else with Yahweh. Don't feel all burdened down by it. We're not done, yet. We have to understand the whole thing. Maybe this will help you feel better. If something really goes wrong and you get angry over it, then once you vent your anger, it's over with. Don't carry it forward to the next day. Let it lie! It says that God is angry with the wicked every day!

Psalms 45:6: "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of justice is the scepter of Your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness... [He is loving righteousness and hating wickedness.] ...therefore, God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows" (vs 6-7).

What is demanded by righteousness? Judgment! You must have judgment! If you have righteousness and say that this is the standard of perfection and goodness, anything away from that is sin and wickedness in varying degrees, then you must have judgment. Hence, we have the blessings and cursings:

• here is the quality of relationship
• here is where judgment comes
• here is here is where, with righteousness, you have blessings

It's the quality of love. Your love of God is expressed in keeping the commandments of God. It's not the only expression, but it's anexpression.

• Does God honor that when you keep His commandments?
• Has God bound Himself to honor you because you keep the commandments?
• Yes, He has!

That's not saying you don't have sin in your life.

• Does He look to it?
• Will He bless because of it?
• Yes, He will!

That's what we have in Deuteronomy 28:1: "And it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD [Yahweh] your God [Elohim] to observe and to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you on high above all nations of the earth." Yet, Jacob said, 'How did you love us, God?' Ridiculous!

Verse 2: "And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you..."—but the quality of your love must be obedience! God says, 'If the quality of your love toward Me is a quality of obedience and doing good, I will bless you because of that.'

God said, 'I'm going to do this good to you if you do certain things,' then He also has to say, 'If you don't do those certain things, I will not be good to you. If you have that quality of love and obedience, you'll have blessings. If you don't have that quality of love and obedience, you're going to have cursings.' Either way, it must be a judgment!

Verse 15: "And it shall come to pass, if you will not hearken to the voice of the LORD your God to observe and to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you." Those are bad curses! Those are terrible! When these curses overtake a nation, as it is today, guess who foots the bill? The upstanding citizens! That's the part that comes upon them.

Let's see how that the consistency in Yahweh's dealing with humankind has always been the same. Let me read a small quote comparing the different love between Elohim and Yahweh:

From: The Names of God in Holy Scripture by Andres Jukes.

pg 37—If we think of it as its expression...

That is, the relationship with God.

...we shall see how variously it acts and changes, or seems to change, in virtue of certain qualities or conduct in the one loved. A father's, and still more, a mother's unchanging love, illustrates the first: A love [Elohim] cannot change in spite of faults and failings in the loved one.

That is true. I know when I first saw on television this horrible, ghastly AIDS patient, and his mother was still there saying, 'We still love our son.' I thought to myself: How on earth can you? Then afterwards, I thought to myself: What if it were one of my children?

They had on this talk show a man who left home, went to Colorado and came back 'a woman.' He/she surprised his mother at the door. They sat on this talk show and the mother said, 'Oh yes, I still love him!' Unending love!

However, that's not all there is to life and that's not all there is to God; there's quite a bit more. There's that unending love. That unending, unchanging love is what keeps you through thick and thin. If you have a deformed child, you still love, care for and want him/her. If you have a son or daughter that may be blind or lost a limb or whatever, you still love them; that is unchanging love!

And this is love in it's being... [God is love] ...but the expression of this love varies in virtue of certain qualities of the beloved, as shown to us through Yahweh…. [it'll vary] …If, therefore, a child who is loved, rebels, or a friend deceives, or a wife becomes unfaithful, there is a breach of that love.

How could you do that?Isn't that the first thing said when it's found out? Your opinion and love for that person has had the gate closed at a certain point. That relationship is no longer the same. That's the way it is with God.

You must, much as it pains you, part from them, judge the evil; for if you do not, you countenance their evil doings.

That's why many times when dealing with children, before they are disciplined, you say, 'You know that daddy and mommy love you,' but you spank them. They look up and cry. You're expressing the same kind of love. 'We always love you but what you did was rotten and you're going to pay for it!' You must be firm, unrelenting!

What happens when you run a Church or organization that way only and you have no unending love and you have no grace or mercy? Think on that!

But there is in the second view, as to the expression of love, mainly love in its relation to certain qualities of the loved one. And this it is, which the name Yahweh so wondrously reveals everywhere; showing that God, Who is perfect love, and must be a God of Truth, that in all the truest love, there must be righteousness. And with creatures such as we are, the result is plain. If in God there is perfect love, such love in its expression must regard conduct and quality.

In other words, if there is in His love an element of righteousness, there may also arise a breach between Yahweh and His creation.

If there is a breach, or what is called sin, then there must be something else that will happen, which is judgment.

If the creature sin, there must be a breach and separation.

We're going to see that God is 'the same yesterday, today and forever.' In Isa. 59 it says, 'The Lord's hand is not shortened that He cannot help, nor His ears stopped that He cannot hear; but your iniquities have separated between you and your God.' There's the breach—separation!

Genesis 2:15: "And the LORD God [Yahweh Elohim] took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded..." (vs 15-16). If you're going to have righteousness, you have commands.

• He didn't suggest!
• He didn't ask!
• He commanded!

That's what people don't like. They like the love. The one who's always loved in spite of the fact that he's a dirty, rotten scoundrel, he likes that and takes advantage of it. That's how con men work. They are experts at working on people's acceptance and wanting to continually do loving, kind and good things.

There was a rascal arrested who conned at least 11 different women out of over $240,000 and he was known as the 'wide-eyed, soft-eyed, nice little man.' Apparently he married four or five of them—loving, regardless of the circumstances.

God is not that way. When it comes down to something to do "...the LORD God commanded the man, saying... [Here's righteousness. Here's choice. Here is a standard of Truth.] …'You may freely eat of every tree in the garden, but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it in dying you shall surely die'" (vs 16-17). Righteousness, judgment, separation,all right there. If you eat of it, you go against Me and you will die! That's final! That's a tough saying.

Verse 18: "And the LORD God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone...'" He sees something in man that is not good. Man is not complete because God is going to create humanity, not men alone, but humanity. So, he creates a woman, who is of the man. Together, the two being one, are humanity!

We're not going to get into a big thing about men and women and who's supposed to be what. I'm just trying to get us some broad definitions. That's why even though we're all human, we're still different. Same way with God—Elohim—more than one.

In Genesis 3, I want you to especially notice the use of the words 'God' and 'LORD God' as we go through. G-o-d—Elohim—the One Who always loves. He has not demanded; He has not commanded. Yahweh demands and commands; Yahweh sets the standard—that part of God.

It's just like trying to define any person. If I ask you what one word will describe a person you know, you would have to go through a dozen words before you said, 'This one would best do it, but not quite! There is so much about them that it cannot be said in one word.'

The same way with God. If I ask you to define God in one word, you'd have to say, 'Love.' That doesn't say it all because there's more to it.

Genesis 3:1: "Now, the serpent was more cunning than any creature of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, 'Is it true that God [Elohim; not Yahweh] has said, "You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?"' And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may freely eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God [Elohim; not Yahweh] has indeed said, "You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die."' And the serpent said to the woman, 'In dying, you shall not surely die! For God [Elohim] knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like God... [Elohims—Gods, same word] ...deciding good and evil'" (vs 1-5). You know the rest of the story: They ate and their eyes were opened to understand evil.

Verse 8: "And they heard the sound of the LORD God... [God was not coming as Elohim, He was coming as Yahweh Elohim] ...walking in the garden in the cool of the day.... [Yahweh is going to demand] …Then Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. And the LORD God [Yahweh Elohim] called to Adam and said to him, 'Where are you?' And he said, 'I heard You walking in the garden, and I was afraid...'"(vs 8-10). Why? Because Yahweh is going to judge righteously, that's why he's afraid.

That's why if you're driving along and all of a sudden you see those red lights flashing in the back, you're going to have a surge of adrenalin, you're going to be afraid and your heart's going to be pounding a little bit, because there's judgment coming, maybe even a fine!

Here's judgment coming: God asked Adam and Eve questions about the quality of their relationship and behavior. 'Did you eat of the tree…?'

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Then the woman said, 'It was the serpent, Lord.' What does God have to do? Does He come in and say, 'Oh well, you know, I'm love; that's fine; it's cool; do whatever you want, that's okay'? No! God had to judge! There was a breach in the relationship and there was separation.

Is that not the way that God always deals in the situation with people. If He brings you into a relationship and says 'you are Mine,' but there are conditions for that relationship: if you breach that relationship that is sin, and there must be separation until you come to your senses! However, with this separation there is also hope given.

Verse 14: "And the LORD God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this you are cursed above all livestock, and above every animal of the field. You shall go upon your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed...'" (vs 14-15)—then hope: God shows there's going to be restoration out of the breach, but there must be separation first.

Verse 16: " To the woman He said, 'I will greatly increase your sorrow and your conception—in sorrow shall you bring forth children….'"

Verse 17: "And to Adam He said, 'Because you have hearkened to the voice of your wife….'" You are going to work the ground, you're going to till it in the sweat of your brow and thorns, thistles and all of this will come along until you die.

Verse 19: "…until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return." God's judgment! Then they were kicked out of the garden.

Let's project way forward from here and we'll see the exact same thing. What happened to Israel? God brought them into the land and He blessed them.

What did they do? They sinned!

What did God have to do? Send them away!

When they repented, God brought them back. Each time that He brought them back, there were conditions for their coming back. That's how it goes through the whole Bible.

God has to, above all, be what He is. That's why when you read about Who God is, He does not say, 'I am Elohim.' He does not say, 'I am Yahweh.' He says this:

Exodus 3:14: "And God said to Moses, 'I AM THAT I AM....'" In other words, God is everything that He is:

• righteousness
• truth
• love
• judge
• creator
• always true to Himself

That's why God cannot sin! Hard for us to really grasp.

Let me get just one other quote (From: The Names of God in Holy Scripture):

pg 40—For these words, I am that I am, are the expression of what God is and this, if I err not, is the special and exact import of the name Yahweh. Yahweh is the expression of God's being and because He is "true being," though He is love, He must be just and holy also; for evil is not "true being" but the negation or privation of it. If we do not see, we may yet believe that "I AM that I AM" involves all of this for touching Yahweh, the cherubim and seraphim continually cry, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God!"

Holiness of God

Let's see a little bit about the Holiness of God. If God is 'true being,' which He is, and if God does something in love and in favor for someone, there are always requirements for that, there are always judgments that go along with that.

Leviticus 11:44: "For I am the LORD your God [Yahweh Elohim], and you shall sanctify yourselves, and you shall be Holy... [you be righteous; why?]: ...for I am Holy...." If 'I am your God and you are My people, you will be Holy by what I say.' This is the standard of your conduct. Do we have that today in the New Testament? Sure wedo! We're going to see the requirements of that when we get through all the names of God.

"...Neither shall you defile yourselves with any kind of creeping thing that creeps on the earth; for I am the LORD Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall, therefore, be Holy, for I am Holy" (vs 44-45)

Deuteronomy 14 is another chapter that has to do with clean and unclean meats but I am not going to cover that aspect of it. I always have ringing in my mind what a lady told me when she had to have a blood test and the doctor looked at her blood and said, 'My, you have clean blood!' I think that is a fantastic statement, because 'the life is in the blood.' If the blood is unclean the life is unclean and diseased. If the blood is clean and you're following what God wants, you'll be healthy. That doesn't mean you won't have a cold or something come along. But that's how even modern science defines a healthy body, by clean blood.

Deuteronomy 14:1: "You are the children of the LORD [Yahweh] your God. You shall not cut yourselves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead, for you are a Holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a specially treasured people to Himself, above all the nations that are on the earth" (vs 1-2). That makes all the other nations jealous but that's the way that it works out.

Someone was saying that the problems that we are having with all of the racial strife—from whatever quarter—is because people are jealous. What happens when you're jealous?

• you grasp
• you take
• you demonstrate
• you bring to yourself

Not so that you can be what the others are, necessarily—some cases, yes—but because of envy and jealousy, they take it to destroy. They don't care!

That's part of the failure of the people who have been chosen by God to show them what to do in their own lives and in their own country, so they won't have to be jealous. Realizing that the peculiar people that God has called as a nation, to bring to the whole world the blessings of God. If they would have done that, they wouldn't have had the penalty come back on them by the strangers rising in their midst to tear them down. Quite a thing! This has been really enlightening for me.

In Psa. 99 we're going to see almost all the elements of Yahweh:

• righteousness
• holiness
• power
• judgment
• penalty

Psalm 99:1: "The LORD reigns; let the people tremble. He sits between the cherubim... [Which say, 'Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.' Let the earth quake.... [at it's presence] ...The LORD is great in Zion, and He is high above all the people. Let them praise Your name as great and awesome; Holy is He" (vs 1-3). You know why it is terrible and awesome? Because Yahweh will extract the judgments! Yahweh will come in power and wrath!

Verse 4: "The strength of the King also loves justice; You established uprightness; You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the LORD our God and worship at His footstool, for He is Holy" (vs 4-5). Perfect absolute standard of righteousness, truth and power—everything about God.

Verse 6: "Moses and Aaron were among His priests, and Samuel among those who called upon His name; they called upon the LORD... [He's reciting and rehearsing what they did in their time.] ...and He answered them. He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept His testimonies and the statute that He gave them. You answered them, O LORD our God; You are a forgiving God to them, though You took vengeance for their deeds. Praise the LORD our God and worship at His Holy mountain, for the LORD our God is Holy" (vs 6-9). There is God judging.

In Gen. 4 Yahweh is dealing with Eve, Abel, Cain, etc. I'll just summarize it: Abel brought the offering that was acceptable. Obviously, it was according to as God commanded. Cain brought what he wanted, not what God commanded. If you do what you want that's not righteousness, not satisfactory to God. That's a tremendous argument for the Sabbath if you really think of it. That's a powerful argument for the Sabbath! That is what God has commanded. You want to be accepted of God? Do what He commands you!

What did God tell Cain? Yahweh talked to Cain and made a judgment. He also told Cain, v 6: "...'Why are you so angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, shall you not be accepted? But if you do not do well, sin lies at the door.…'" (vs 6-7). If you don't overcome sin, it's going to overcome you.

Instead of Cain taking this the way that he should have, he said, 'Yeah, God, You know that's right. I'm going to change. I'm going to do what You want. No! He got mad! Same thing happens today—right? What did he do? Kills Abel! Sin again!

• What happened?
• What did God do?

Yahweh judged! He came to Cain and said, v 9: "... 'Where is your brother Abel?'...." Cain answered. 'I don't know. I'm not my brother's keeper. You're demanding too much of me, God. Why should I watch out for my brother?'

And Yahweh said: v 10: "'...The voice of your brother's blood cries to Me from the ground....'" You killed him! Judgment, righteousness, vengeance—all of those right there! We've gone through this many, many times but we haven't thought of it with the fullness of all those things that are there.

What did Cain do? Verse 13: "And Cain said to the LORD, 'My punishment is greater than I can bear.'" He thought for sure that God was going to destroy him. God said, 'I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to put a mark on you. You're going to be:

• a wanderer
• a vagabond
• the 'off-scouring' of the earth

—you and your descendents.' That was a judgment! And if anyone raises a hand to kill you'; now, there's a life sentence—isn't it?

Verse 15: "'...vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold....'" We have:

• righteousness
• commandments
• judgment
• sin
• separation

He went so far that there was no hope given to Cain when he killed his brother. There was hope given before he killed his brother, because God said, 'Cain, if you do well, you'll be accepted.' That's hope in judgment. There was no more hope. Cain was kicked out—separation. You go from the Garden of Eden to outside the Garden of Eden; that's not too bad. But you go from there to wandering on the face of the earth and that's terrible; that's miserable.

God as Judge

We need to talk about God as being Judge; God is the Judge of the whole earth (Gen. 18:25). Therefore, when you get all upset, maybe God is getting upset at some of the things that are going on, too. Did you ever think of that? Think about it for a minute:

• if we have God's Spirit, which we do
• if we are partakers of the Divine nature, which we are; because we have God's Spirit

—we're not fully of the Divine nature, yet, because the resurrection hasn't occurred, but God's laws are written in our heart, mind and inward parts.

• How do we think?
• What makes us upset?
• Are we upset because of something to us as a person? No!

We're upset because of sin that's going on. Maybe it's to us because it's personally to us, but maybe that's also a reflection on how God feels.

We can be thankful God is God. If it were left to us, we'd come down and blow this thing to smithereens right now and get it over with! God's going to do it His way. God is not going to be mocked.

Psalm 50:1: "The mighty God, God, the LORD, [Yahweh] has spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun to its going down. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shined forth. Our God shall come, and He shall not keep silent; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous all around Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, so that He may judge His people: 'Gather My saints unto Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice'" (vs 1-5)

There's the comfort, the hope, the promise right in there. Whenever God comes down in judgment and in fire and in power to His people, He always gives hope. There is never a time that Yahweh makes a judgment that He does not give hope and hope of restoration!

Verse 6: "And the heavens shall declare His righteousness, for God Himself is judge. Selah. 'Hear, My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you; I am God, even your God. I will not reprove you for your sacrifices, or your burnt offerings, which are continually before Me. I will take no bull out of your house, nor he-goats out of your folds, for every beast of the forest is Mine and the livestock upon a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and all the fullness of it. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God thanksgiving; and pay your vows to the Most High; and call upon Me in the day of trouble; and I will deliver you, and you shall honor Me'" (vs 6-15).

Verse 16: "But to the wicked God says, 'What right have you to declare My statutes, and to take up My covenant in your mouth? Yea, you hate to be taught, and you cast My words behind you. When you saw a thief, then you were pleased to be with him... [sounds like our Congress] ...and you have taken part with adulterers. You give your mouth to evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit; you speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son. These things you have done, and I have kept silence; you thought that I was like yourself, but I will rebuke you, and set them in order before your eyes. Now, consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver... [Whew! Send the tigers loose!] ...Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and he who sets his conduct aright, I will show him the salvation of God'" (vs 16-23). Those are pretty powerful judgments.

Psalm 82:8: "Arise, O God, judge the earth, for You shall inherit all nations."

Revelation 19:11: "...in righteousness He does judge and make war." When evil gets to a certain point, the only way to stop it is destruction.

In Rev. 16, where the plagues of God are coming, the angels say, 'Holy and just and righteous are you judgments, O God!' These plagues are the most heavy, absolutely debilitating that you could possibly think of.

Psalm 83:13: "O my God, make them like the whirling dust... [the wicked, just completely unstable] ...like the stubble before the wind. As the fire burns a forest, and as the flame sets the mountains on fire" (vs 13-14). We're talking about volcanic action. We're not talking about just any little mean forest fire. We're talking about blowing apart the mountains: "…flame that sets the mountains on fire."

Verse 15: "So, pursue them with Your tempest, and make them afraid with Your storm."
Read Rev. 6:12, the sixth seal, where God rises to shake the earth terribly all the mighty men, the captains, the rich, the poor, the free and the bond are going to hide themselves. They're going to say, 'Hide us from the wrath of the Lamb.' There is not a living soul alive that, if you have a tremendous storm going, isn't going to be in fear.

Verse 16: "Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek Your name, O LORD. [Yahweh] Let them be confounded and troubled forever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish; so that men may know that Your name alone is the LORD [Yahweh]..." (vs 16-18) Because:

• He is judge
• He is righteous
• He is commandment- giver
• He is law-giver
• He must avenge the evil

"...that You alone are the Most High over all the earth" (v 18). With all of that power there's still something about Yahweh that is completely different.

• How does God feel when all this evil takes place?
• How does God feel when these things go on?
• Is He up there just like some heartless, cruel person just shooting down the wicked?
• How does God feel?
• Does it hurt God?
• Does God have feelings? Sure He does

How does God first reveal Himself? Love, Creator, etc.! This is what Paul is trying to do in the Epistle of 1-Corinthians. He's trying to appeal to the people at Corinth to look to:

• the love of God
• the love of Christ
• the grace of God

1-Corinthians 1:2: "To the Church of God that is in Corinth, the called saints who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, together with all those in every place who are calling on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: Grace and peace be to you... [not judgment, not separation, not correction—peace] ...from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God that has been given to you in Christ Jesus" (vs 2-4). He's appealing to them: Look to the love of God! Trust in the goodness of God!

He brings out some of their problems. Then he says, v 20: "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Did not God make foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its own wisdom did not know God, it pleased God to save those who believe through the foolishness of preaching" (vs 20-21).

Then it makes a statement, v 24: "But to those who are called—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God's power and God's wisdom because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men" (vs 24-25).

Weaknesses of God?

• What is the weakness of God?
• If God is all-powerful, how can God have weaknesses?

If you took a course in logic at the university you'd be kicked out because He's either all-powerful or He's not.

• Is God all-powerful? Yes He is!
• How then can God have weaknesses?
• What is God's weakness?
• God does what?
• Because people look to power:
• He calls the weak
• He calls the foolish
• He calls those things that are the 'off-scouring' of the earth that the world doesn't want
• He calls them to salvation

—so that none of the mighty can boast, and say: 'God, You had to call me because I'm so great, grand and glorious. I was president of this, that and the other thing. God, You just had to call me.'

What is the weakness of God? God does have a weakness! Not in the way that we think of weakness. Part of the weakness of God is that people mistake as license to continue in evil! That only compounds the problem and makes it worse.

Genesis 6:3: "And the LORD [Yahweh] said, 'My Spirit shall not always strive with man in his going astray, for he is but flesh...'" He is making a judgment.

Verse 5[transcribers correction]: "And the LORD [Elohim] saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Yet, out of love, God:

• made man
• made the world
• created everything that there was

Elohim looked down and He saw all this. Then what happened? God must judge!

Verse 6: "And the LORD [Yahweh] repented... [He was sorry, it repented God!] ...that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart." If there's any weakness that the Almighty God has, is that He suffers with sin!

God suffered for sin—didn't He? Yes, He did! Grieved Him at heart! There's the weakness of God—Yahweh. He has:

• all this power
• all this righteousness
• all this Holiness
• and to see His creation sin:
• hurts Him
• grieves Him
• repents Him

That's why Jesus said, 'What is it to you that want the Day of the Lord?' Even God doesn't want to bring it but He knows He must. He says it's a day of:

• clouds
• gloominess
• destruction
• wretchedness

God said He doesn't even delight in the death of the wicked! He doesn't!

All Scripture from The Holy Bible In Its Original Order, A Faithful Version by Fred R. Coulter.

Scriptural References:

1. 1-John 4:8
2. Genesis 2:7-9
3. Malachi 1:1-4
4. Hebrews 1:8-9
5. Psalms 45:6-7
6. Deuteronomy 28:1-2, 15
7. Genesis 2:15-18
8. Genesis 3:1-5, 8-10, 14-17, 19
9. Exodus 3:14
10. Leviticus ll:44-45
11. Deuteronomy 14:1-2
12. Psalms 99:1-9
13. Genesis 4:6-7, 9-10, 13, 15
14. Psalms 50:1-23
15. Psalms 82:8
16. Revelation 19:11
17. Psalms 83:13-18
18. 1-Corinthians 1:2-4, 20-21, 24-25
19. Genesis 6:3, 5-6
20. Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
21. Genesis 1
22. Isaiah 59
23. Genesis 18:25
24. Revelation 16; 6:12

Also referenced: Books:

Concordant Version Bible by Concordant Publishing Concern

The Names of God in Holy Scripture by Andrew Jukes

FRC:nfs
Transcribed 01-8-14
Proofed: 1-27-14