"And in their days, even of those kings, the God of heaven shall set up A KINGDOM which shall never perish, and A DOMINION that shall not be left to another people. It shall grind to powder and bring to an end all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever."—DANIEL.

JOHN THOMAS, Editor. NEW YORK, AUGUST, 1854—

Volume 4—No. 8

It has been well remarked that "there is in the original an appropriateness, a wonderful exactness, in the use of the many names of God, which in our version is almost entirely lost. These it is one of the chief offices of an interpreter to restore." "The Lord, the Lord of Hosts" is one of these names. Here "Lord" is twice repeated, as though there were but one and the same word in both the places of the original text. But this is not the case. There are two, which are as distinct as existence and supremacy. Ha-Adon, Yehowah tzevaoth, is the original phrase, from which the reader will perceive that "Lord" is there represented by Adon and by Yehowah; so that the personage referred to is "The Adon, the Jehovah of hosts," or armies, who "shall lop the bough with terror; and cut down the thickets of the forest with iron"—Isaiah 10: 33-34.

In Genesis 24: 14, Adon is applied to Abraham as the superior of "his eldest servant of his house that ruled over all that he had." This ruler of Abraham’s estate was Eliezer of Damascus, whom he had thought to make his heir, in the absence of children. It is also applied to Potiphar as Adon to Joseph, whom he had purchased for twenty pieces of silver. Hence, the word implies sovereignty and ownership, and is therefore applied to God as the Adon kol-ha-eretz, the sovereign and owner of all the earth; and to his representative Image as Adon ha-adonim, Sovereign Possessor of the sovereign possessors of the world.

Jehovah is the name which the chief of ha elohim, the angel-gods, announced as the memorial of Him "who only hath deathlessness, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen nor can see"—1 Timothy 6: 16. The historical origin of the name is this. "An angel of the Lord," styled by Moses ha-elohim, the of gods, a particular one preeminent among the rest, and in the common version "God," appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush—Acts 7: 30. When he drew near, "the voice of the Lord came to him." The way Moses relates this is significant. He says, "when Jehovah saw that he turned aside to see, Elohim, or Gods, called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I!" He then goes on to tell us what "he (Jehovah) said;" or, as Stephen has it, what "came to him in the voice of the Lord." A voice coming to a person is a message sent; which is the reason why Stephen styles him in the bush an angel of the Lord—he brought the voice, word, or message, from "THE BLESSED AND ONLY POTENTATE," whose angel, or messenger, he therefore was. So that what is contained in that voice must be referred to "the Invisible God," and not absolutely to the speaker who conversed with Moses.

After the angel had delivered his message, Moses inquired, in the event of his conveying it to Israel as coming to them from the God of their fathers, and they should ask his name, what he should say unto them? The angel replied that his name was, ehyeh asher ehyeh. These are the letters of the name, Masoretically pronounced. The verb ehyeh is the first person singular of the future, and should therefore be rendered, I shall be. In the common version, ehyeh asher ehyeh is translated "I am that I am;" but this incorrect. It should be, I SHALL BE WHOM I SHALL BE. This is the name of Him who sent the angel in the bush to Moses, given in answer to the question, "What is the name of the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?" Reduced to a single word, and expressed in plain English, EHYEH, or I SHALL BE, is their God, or Elohi, who sent Moses to Israel in Egypt. "This is my name for ever," or to the Age—Zeh shemi le-olahm—saith the "HE-WHO-IS, God of the fathers"—Yehowah-Elohi, "and this (name) is my memorial to the generation of the age—we zeh zikri le-dohr dohr."

Exodus 3: 14, must therefore be read thus, "And Elohim said unto Moses, I SHALL BE WHOM I SHALL BE; and he said, Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, I SHALL BE hath sent me unto you. And Elohim said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, HE-WHO-IS, God of your fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name to the Age; and this is my memorial to the generation of the age."

By comparing the two following words, the English reader will be able to see the external relation between Ehyeh and Yehowah without the points. Ehyeh is aeie, and Yehowah is ieue. The latter is the third person singular, present participle, eue, or Masoretically, howeh, HE IS, with i or y, called Yood, prefixed, and pronounced ye. This prefix converts howeh into a proper name called a verbal noun, as Yehoweh or Jehovah: aeie I SHALL BE, an ieue, HE WHO IS, are the phrases which express the etymological relation of these words of the "memorial," or name by which an invisible one is kept in remembrance by the faithful.

The fathers did not know God by this name, consequently the mystery it unfolds was concealed from them. This appears from Exodus 6: 2. "And Elohim spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I, the HE WHO IS, even I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by (the name of) EL-SHADDAI, God Almighty; but by my name YEHOWAH was I not known to them." Abraham "was fully persuaded that what God had promised he was able to perform," because when he was ninety-nine his friend had announced himself as "God Almighty"—Genesis 17: 1. But Abraham did not know from that name, that the God who is, SHALL BE the Seed promised to him. If we can apprehend the significancy of the Memorial, we may understand the allusion of Jesus when he said to the Jews, "Before Abraham was born, I am." Of the God who spake to Moses it could be said, he was in Abraham’s time, he is in Moses’, and he shall be in the Age to Come, the Almighty. This doctrine is taught in the voice that came to Moses, and in the memorial—"I, who was known to Abraham as God Almighty, do now exist; and SHALL BE WHOM I SHALL BE, even Abraham’s Seed." "I SHALL BE WHOM I SHALL BE" was nothing less than a declaration that He would manifest himself in the Flesh as the Woman’s Seed who shall bruise the Serpent’s Head. The Common Version fails entirely to bring out this prophetic signification of the name Jehovah, which is almost everywhere rendered "Lord" in common with Ahdon; but converts it into a simple memorial of self-existence. Ehyeh asher ehyeh, "I shall be whom I shall be," they have rendered, "I am that I am," as if it were, ani howeh asher ani howeh. The Israelites in Egypt were looking for a deliverer on account of which they were suffering reproach. The answer to their inquiry of Moses, "What is his name who sends you to us?" would have failed to meet their hopes if the reply had been simply, One who exists: but to tell them it was the He who shall be—the One who is to come—their attention would be gained, and the highest expectation and enthusiasm excited.

It is worthy of remark that "the Blessed and Only Potentate" did not say, "I AM he whom I shall be;" but "I shall be" that personage. He was the "I" dwelling in unapproachable light; but the "He who shall be" is the image of that ever-invisible "I." It is this "I" that existed before all things, and that created all things; and whose Spirit exhaling in grateful incense said, "O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." It was this "I" concerning whom Jesus said, "Thou Father, art in me, and I in thee:" "The words that I speak, I speak not of myself: but the Father who dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." It was "THE WORD" by whom all things were made; and without whom was not any thing made that was made. "In him was life, and the Life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

When the "HE whom I shall be" was conceived in Mary’s sinful flesh by the formative power of the Holy Spirit, the time had come for the "I" to manifest himself as THE FUTURE BEING. "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among the Jews, (who beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." The father appears in the son; so the "I" appears in the "Whom I shall be," as God in Christ reconciling the world to himself. The physical generative union of the Blessed and Only Potentate with "sinful flesh," or human nature, had never occurred till the Word became flesh; so that the Word-Flesh, or "Whom I shall be," is fitly styled, "The Only-Begotten of the Father." Something more, however, was necessary than generative union for the manifestation of the "I" or God-Word-and-God-work manifestation through the Flesh. This necessity was supplied by "THE ANOINTING"—Isaiah 10: 27, by which the Ehyeh, or I shall be, was filled with the Yehowah, or He who is. The descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a Dove upon the head of Jesus, was the filling of the Ehyeh with the Yehowah—of the I shall be with the He who is. Thus, the anointing taken as interpretative of the Memorial paraphrases it after this manner: "I, the Blessed and Only Potentate, who send you, Moses, to Israel, through the anointing of my Spirit, shall be whom I shall be"—"God manifested through flesh," called Christ, or THE ANOINTED ONE.

Thus, by the proclamation of the Memorial and Name of the Blessed and Only Potentate to Israel, was their redemption from bondage introduced. He was announced to them as the "Who is, and who was, and who shall be"—as the "Who is" by Yehowah; the "Who shall be" by Ehyeh; and the "Who was" by El-Shaddai. This did not represent to their minds three Gods; but, on the contrary, ONE ONLY. Hence the celebrated passage in Moses, "Hear, O Israel; Jehovah our Elohah is One Jehovah!" The literal English of this is, "Hear, O Israel; He who is our Strength is One." This is true. But the manifestation of that "One" to Israel was an element of "the mystery of Godliness" which "the darkness comprehended not."

The identity between the Who is and the Who shall be is also seen from the fact that the sender of Moses to Israel styles himself both Who is and Who shall be in Exodus 3: 14-15—as, "Thou shalt say, I shall be hath sent me unto you;" and again, "Thou shalt say, Who is hath sent me unto you"—not two senders, but one only.

It is worthy of remark that the Memorial Ehyeh asher ehyeh, "I shall be whom I shall be," and the Name Yehowah, "He who is," are to be the remembrancers of the Strength of Israel until a certain generation of the nation, styled dor dor, a generation of the race. The particular generation is indicated by the phrase le-olam, to the Age. They are God’s name and memorial till the manifestation of that generation of Israel existing at the commencement of the Age of which Messiah is the founder. They are not his remembrancers "for ever," or throughout all generations, or "to all eternity;" for then the "I shall be whom I shall be" would never be, being always in the future tense. When the thing declared is fully accomplished to the extent originally purposed, the name, Jehovah, ceases to be a remembrancer of the future. Hence, the generation and the age indicated as the "unto," must be those contemporary with the shall be, merging into the have been, or the am; that is, with the accomplishment of the prophecy contained in the name.

But, one might inquire, "Were not the Age and Generation referred to, those contemporary with the Incarnation and the Anointing?" I should answer in the negative. The reason will appear from the testimony. On Moses complaining that Jehovah had failed to deliver Israel while he had provoked Pharaoh to make their bondage worse and worse, the Angel of the Bush, in renewing the promise of deliverance, resumed the subject of the Name by which the Deliverer was henceforth to be known. Connected with that name, Jehovah, certain things are defined as things to be accomplished by Him who assumed the name. When he said, "I shall be whom I shall be," his manifestation in the "whom" was for the accomplishment of what is noted in Exodus 3: 6-8, 13-22; and in Exodus 6: 2-8. In the latter place it is written, "I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by the name of God Almighty; but by my name, Jehovah, was I not known to them. And I have also established my COVENANT with them"—For what purpose? —"to give them the Land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. . . .And I have remembered my covenant." Here then is the reason why God assumed the name of Jehovah—as a memorial that he remembers his Covenant concerning the Land until he has put Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in possession of it by the "whom," indicated in the name "I shall be whom I shall be." When the reader, therefore, hears or sees the word "Jehovah," it reminds him, not only of the Incarnation and the Anointing, but of the great purpose to be accomplished by them in the fulfilment of the promises covenanted to Abraham and David, as elsewhere appears. God in Christ the Fulfiller of his promises to the fathers is the name "by which he was not known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;" for "they all died in faith not having received the promises"—Hebrews 11: 13.

Such is the testimony of Paul, delivered many years after the Anointing and Ascension to "the right hand of power." The Lord Jesus, then, did not "give them the land of Canaan" in the sense in which it was covenanted to them by El-Shaddai. Hence the Age and the Generation contemporary with the Incarnation, Anointing, and Ascension, are not the termini of the Name Jehovah in the true sense of the Memorial; and as they have not received the Land of Canaan since, the Age and Generation are still among "the things that shall be hereafter;" unless, indeed, the present generation of Israel continue till the appearance of the Lord. The accomplishment of the promises to Abraham marks the epoch styled in the text before us, le-olam, eis ton aiona, and le-dor-dor, so improperly rendered "for ever," and "unto all generations," in the English Version of the Bible.

The name Jehovah is, then, still a covenant-memorial of the future; and is borne by him who is "the Only Begotten of the Father." Gabriel was sent to Mary to tell her to name her son, Yehoshua; which is a word compounded of Yehov, or Jehov, and shua, powerful. Ptolemy’s seventy translators of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek express this name by Yesous, in that language; and we by JESUS in ours. The Hebrew name of the Lord Christ pronounced by Gabriel signifies JEHOVAH THE POWERFUL. This is the name of naitzer, "The Nazarene," and was given to Him "because He shall save his people from their sins"—Matthew 1: 21; and because "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David; and he shall reign over the House of Jacob for the ages, and of his kingdom there shall be no end"—Luke 1: 32. There was another reason why he was named Jehoshua, or Jesus. Matthew tells us that it was because of what Isaiah had spoken concerning him. Having related how Yehotzedek, or Joseph, the husband of Mary, was also commanded to call her son Jehoshua, he goes on to say, "Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a Virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name IMMANUEL, which being interpreted is, GOD WITH US." Well might he be called Jehovah the Powerful, being God in the midst of the Hebrews, to "put down the mighty from their thrones," and to "help his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy (as he spake to their fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed) for the Age." But has he done this? Unquestionably not: for when he appeared in Israel ten-twelfths of the nation were in vassalage to the Romans; and ever since their condition has been waxing worse and worse. He was Jehovah powerful for the Age and Generation to come, when the mercy promised to Abraham and to his Seed shall be possessed. God in Israel’s midst, he will then dethrone the Kings of the Gentiles; and, as a Horn of Salvation for them in the House of his servant David, save them from their enemies, and from the power of all them that hate them; and remember his Holy Covenant, the oath he sware to their father Abraham, that he would grant unto them, that they being delivered out of the hand of their enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of their life—Luke 1: 68.

The name Jesus, then, is God’s memorial of all this. It reminds us also that when he puts his hand to the work of national redemption, "he will save his people from their sins"—his people who have died in faith not having received the promises, as well as those who are yet alive, and waiting obediently for his appearing. No one is effectually saved from sin until he becomes immortal; because "the wages of sin is death." But Jesus is powerful for this; for God will raise us up by Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life.

The New Testament interpretation of what the Jews term "the incommunicable name Jehovah" sustains the exposition I have given. They may well style the meaning of "Jehovah" incommunicable. They who reject, or do not understand, the Incarnation, or "God manifested in flesh," are not able to communicate the signification of Ehyeh asher ehyeh, or Jehovah. But Christ has himself declared in the revelation given to him, that its signification refers to the future in connection with him. In the exordium, John writes to the seven congregations in Asia Minor, sending them the greeting of the Father, saying, "Grace unto you and peace from Him who is, and who was, and who is coming; and from the seven spirits which are before his throne;" and of the Son, saying, "and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the First-begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth." "He who is, and who was, and who is coming," or shall be revealed, is the Blessed and Only Potentate’s memorial delivered to Moses. It is repeated in these words, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, beginning and end, saith the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is coming, the Almighty," or El-Shaddai. After John heard this, a great trumpet-like voice behind him said, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last;" and on turning round he saw one like to the Son of Man, who continued, saying in addition, "also the living one; and I became dead, and behold I am living for the age of the ages." In these words, Jesus appropriates to himself the Father’s memorial, and so announces himself as the "whom" El-Shaddai, the "who was," said to Moses, "I shall be." Jesus is, then, the "who is, and who was, and who is coming, the almighty;" and therefore, Jehovah and El-Shaddai—Jehovah the almighty. This should be remembered; because the present gathering of the Gentile hosts, which has been initiated by the Eastern Question, is to be consummated in Armageddon, where the war of the Great Day is to begin. He who meets the world in arms there is "God Almighty," for the great day is his. That almighty one is Jehoshua, as his name imports. Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews—God in the midst of Israel.

From what is now before the reader, it must be apparent that "Lord" is an exceedingly defective substitute for "Jehovah." There is nothing in the word "Lord," Hebrew, Greek, Latin, or English, that points to an incarnation, and a fulfilment of a Covenant. It ought, therefore, never to be used where the original is Jehovah. Adon, in the sense of sovereignty and ownership, is very well represented by "Lord," and quite an appropriate prefix, as Ahdon Yehowah tzevaoth, Adon-Jehovah of armies; in the most literal English, "Lord Shalt-be-whom-I-shall-be of armies." Ahdon prefixed to Jehovah indicates that "He who shall be," or "is coming," is sovereign and proprietor of the world; and being "Lord of armies," that he will be "Powerful"—shua. These explanations present us with the import of the New Testament phrase Lord Jesus; in Hebrew, Ahdon-Yehoshua. It is the same as Lord Jehovah of armies—the sovereign proprietor of the armies of Israel, because he is KING OF ISRAEL. Hence it is of the Lord Jesus the prophet speaks when he says, as quoted at the beginning of this article, "The Ahdon, the Jehovah of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror; and cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a Mighty One." By reference to Ezekiel 31: 3, it will be seen that "the bough" and Lebanon, are representative of THE ASSYRIAN. The prophecy, then, declares that Ahdon Yehoshua, or the Lord Jesus, shall prostrate the Assyrian. When did the Lord Jesus ever do this? Where was the Assyrian in the days of his flesh? Where is he now? Every one knows that there was no other form of the Assyrian power in his day than the Roman to conquer; and that Jesus did not prostrate him then. But where is the Assyrian now? He is manifesting himself on the prophetic area in his last form in the kingdom of men. In a few years, the territory of the old Assyrian empire lying between the Euphrates and Tigris, with Jerusalem and the region of Lebanon, will acknowledge the sceptre of the Czar. He will be a lofty cedar among the fir trees and "thickets of the forest." When he has attained to his full height, he will be a Colossus fitly represented by the Image Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. His fragile dynasty will be "the Clay" of its Feet and Toes; and will constitute a power, apparent for the first time upon Assyrian ground "in the Time of the End;" for never till then will there have been a Russo-Assyrian Autocrat in possession of Lebanon and the Holy City. This rising power is the Assyrian of the Latter Days, destined to fall on the mountains of Israel by the hand of Ahdon Jehoshua, the sovereign proprietor of the Land.

The Lord Jesus is to overthrow him "with terror," and "with iron;" that is, by terrible slaughter with the edge of the sword: for "by his sword will Jehovah plead with all flesh, and the slain of Jehovah shall be many." Read Micah 5: 2-6, where it is testified, that He that should be born at Bethlehem should be "Ruler in Israel," and "be the peace when the Assyrian should come into their land." "And they shall waste the land of Assyria by the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof; thus shall HE deliver from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders." This is yet future, not having been yet accomplished. Turn to Revelation 19, and you will there see the Lord Jesus equipped for war at the head of Judah and the Saints. What does that scene represent if not the preparedness of Jehovah "to punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the Kings of the earth upon the earth?"—Isaiah 24: 21. He rides Judah—Zechariah 10: 3—bow—Zechariah 9: 13—in hand, and commands the sword of Zion—Zechariah 9: 13—upon their foes.

What shall we say to these things? Who can prove the contrary? If true—and true they are unquestionably—what becomes of the scholastic theologies of our day? They are proved to be mere foolishness. This has been the nature of the world’s wisdom from the beginning. Let the reader awake, for it is high time; and free himself from it all. The pulpit speculations are mere thinkings of the flesh, which generate a "piety" and a "spirituality" that are faithless of the truth, and which, therefore, do not rejoice in it! Study the Name of the Lord, for it is a tower of strength into which the righteous run, and are safe. How much do we find in the names of God! Blessed be his name to the Age, even to the age of everlasting. Amen.

EDITOR.

* * *