Lesson 11What is Christ Like? |
This lesson brings the study of the last name that God revealed to the Jews in the Old Testament. While there are more than 200 names of God through which He revealed Himself and His character, we will not study all of them in this series of lessons.
For Christians, this name continues a promise and the fulfillment of that promise. The name is Jehovah-Shammah (Je-ho′-vah Sham′-mah) which means Jehovah is there. Where is there? First, let us look at some things as they relate to this name. These are when and why this name was used. Again, this was the last name or attribute God reveals in the Old Testament.
The name, Jehovah-Shammah, was given to Ezekiel around 572 BC. Based on this time period, we know that the nation of Israel had been divided into two kingdoms and that the kingdom of Israel had been taken into exile. The kingdom of Judah had 14 more years left of being a kingdom. The nation of Israel had forgotten about the true God and what He meant to them. Yes, there were times when they remembered, but for the most part, they had forgotten Him.
You may ask how they could forget God. Well, just look at us as Christians. How soon after God does something for us do we forget? Or do we even tell our children, grandchildren, other relatives and friends about what God has done for us? Many of us do just as the nation of Israel did. We even start wanting things like the rest of the world. We go after those things, even if it means that we put God on the back burner. We make excuses like, “it will be for the good of the family if I do this or that.” It is in this kind of thinking that the problem lies. If God is Adonai (owner or master), Jehovah-Jireh (the Lord will provide), Jehovah-Rophe (the eternal healer), Jehovah-Nissi (Jehovah my Banner), will He not give us the things we need to take care of our families? Not only did Israel change its focus, but they also changed their god(s). They even worshiped these false gods in the house of God. Israel’s sinful actions caused God to move out of the house that was built for Him. He even left the city of His house.
The nation of Israel was at its lowest point as a nation and in its relationship to God. In Ezekiel 48:35, we see God giving this name to Ezekiel. Jehovah-Shammah is given in reference to a time to come in which God will no longer dwell in the temple and city made by human hands. In fact, if you look at the dimensions that Ezekiel gives and compare them to the size of the temple that Solomon built in 1 Kings 6 and 2 Chronicles 3, you will see that he is talking about a new temple and city. So what is God telling His people with this name? God is saying that He will no longer be confined to a man-made temple. God tells us that He will dwell “there.” Where is “there”? God is omnipresent. He is everywhere at the same time. He is in heaven and in the earth. He dwells in every believer all at the same time, no matter where we are.
Jesus Christ is the promise and the fulfillment of the promise in Jehovah-Shammah. In Jesus Christ we see the invisible God coming to walk in this earth in the form of man. The atoning work of Christ reconciles redeemed mankind to the Father. Remember that God promised to walk among His people and to have His tabernacle among His people in Leviticus.
Leviticus 26:11 - 12
11. And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.12. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.
In John 14 Jesus promises believers that the Father will give to us the Holy Spirit to live within each of us. Through God the Holy Spirit we will know that God is “there,” wherever His people are.
John 14: 15-20
15. If ye love me, keep my commandments.16. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
The followers of Jesus Christ are indeed the temples in which the Holy Spirit dwells; we are the temples of God.
1 Corinthians 6:19 - 20
19. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?20. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
2 Corinthians 6:16
16. And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.Jesus Christ also confirms that He will be “there” with us in eternity in the new heaven and the new earth. John describes the glorious new city of Jerusalem descending from heaven onto the new earth. There will be no temple in the Kingdom of God, Jehovah-Shammah is there. The “Lord God Almighty and the Lamb” are the temple. God fulfills His promise to His people.
Revelation 21:22-27
22. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.23. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
24. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
25. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
26. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
27. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
|