The Name of God Proclaimed by Himself 2
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The benediction was that which you read in Numbers 6:24-26, where the name Jehovah is thrice repeated in the Hebrew, "Jehovah bless you, and keep you: Jehovah make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you: Jehovah lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace." When this venerable name was pronounced upon this occasion, we are told by the Jewish Rabbis, "that all the vast congregation then present bowed the knee, and fell down in the humblest prostration, crying out, Blessed be his glorious name forever and ever!" They supposed this name had a miraculous virtue in it, and that by it Moses and others wrought such wonders: nay, so great was their superstition that they thought it a kind of charm or magical word, and that he who had it about him, and knew its true pronunciation and virtue, could perform the most surprising things, and even shake heaven and earth.
I do not mention these things with approbation—but only to show that there is something peculiarly significant, important, and sacred in this name, from whence the Jews took occasion for such extravagant notions; and this will appear from its etymology.
You know that it is not my usual method to carry a great quantity of learned disquisition with me into the pulpit, or to spend your time in trifling, pedantic criticisms upon 'words', which may indeed have a 'show of education', and amuse those who admire what they do not understand—but can answer no valuable end for a God-fearing audience. However, at present I must take the liberty of showing you the original meaning of the name Jehovah, that I may thoroughly explain my text, and that you may know the import of a name that will occur so often to you in reading your Bibles; for, as I told you, wherever you meet with the word LORD in large letters, it is always Jehovah in the original.
The name Jehovah is derived from the Hebrew verb, 'to be'; and therefore the meaning of the word Jehovah is, The existent, the being, or, He who is. Thus it seems explained in Exodus 3:14. "I AM THAT I AM," or, "I am because I am;" that is, I exist, and have being in and of myself without dependence upon any cause; and my existence or being is always the same: unchangeable and eternal. John well explains this name by the "Who is, who was, and who is to come;" or, as the passage might be rendered, "The present Being, the past Being, and the future Being;" or, "The Being that is, the Being that was, and the Being that will be." That is, the perpetual, the eternal, and unchangeable Being.
I shall only observe farther, that Jehovah is not a relative name—but an absolute name: there is no pronoun or relative word that is ever joined with it; we can say: my Lord, our Lord, our God, etc.—but the Hebrews never say or write: my Jehovah, our Jehovah, etc.; so that this name represents him as he is in himself, without any relation to his creatures, as he would have been if they had never existed. He would still have been the Being, the absolute, independent existent, in which view he has nothing to do with his creatures, and can sustain no relation to them.
From this name, thus explained, we learn the following glorious, incommunicable perfections of God; that he is self-existent and independent; that his being is necessary; that he is eternal; and that he is unchangeable.
While I am about to enter upon these subjects, I seem to stand upon the brink of an unbounded, fathomless ocean, and tremble to launch into it! But, under the conduct of Scripture and humble reason, let us make the adventure; for it is a happiness to be lost and swallowed up in such an ocean of perfection!
1. The name Jehovah implies that God is self-existent and independent. I do not mean by this that he produced himself, for that would be a direct contradiction, and suppose him to exist—and not to exist at the same time. But I mean that the reason and ground of his existence, is in his own nature, and does not at all depend upon anything besides. Being is essential to him. He contains an infinite fullness of being in himself, and no other being has contributed in the least towards his existence; and hence with great propriety he assumes that strange name, 'I Am'. He is Being throughout, perfectly and universally vital; and the reason of this is entirely within his own nature.
How gloriously is he distinguished in this respect from all other beings, even the most illustrious and powerful! Time was—when they were nothing. Angels and archangels, men and beasts, sun, moon, and stars; in short, the whole universe besides, were once nothing, and had no being at all! And what was the reason that they ever came into being? Certainly it was not in them: when they were nothing there was no reason at all in them—why they should ever be something: for in not being, there can be no reason or ground for being.
The mere pleasure of God, the fiat of this self-existing Jehovah, is the only reason and sole cause of their existence! If it had not been for him, they would have continued nothing as they were! Their being therefore, is entirely precarious, dependent, and wholly proceeds from a cause outside of themselves.
But Jehovah glories in an unborrowed, undercover, independent being. Whatever he is, it is his own: he owes it only to himself. What a glorious Being is this! how infinitely different from and superior to the whole system of creatures! Are you not already constrained to bow the knee before him, and wonder, adore, and love! But,
2. Hence it follows that his existence is necessary; that is, it is impossible for him not to be. His being does not depend upon anything outside of him, nor does it depend upon his own arbitrary will—but it is essential to his nature. That he should not be—is as great an impossibility as that two and two should not make four. It is impossible that anything should be more closely connected with anything—than being is with his essence; and it is impossible that anything should be more opposite to anything—than he is to non-existence. Since he received his being from nothing outside of himself, and since the reason of his existence is not derived from any other—it follows, that unless he exists by the necessity of his own nature, he must exist without any necessity: that is, without any reason at all, which is the same as to say that nothing is the cause or ground of his existence; and what imagination can be more absurd! His being therefore must exist by an absolute, independent necessity!
What a glorious Being is this! how infinitely distant from nothing, or a possibility of not being! What an unbounded fund of existence, what an immense ocean of Being is here! Alas! what are we, what is the whole universe besides, in comparison to Jehovah! They are nothing, less than nothing, and vanity. Our being is not only derived but arbitrary, depending entirely upon the mere pleasure of Jehovah. There was no necessity from our nature that we should be at all; and now there is no necessity that we should continue to be. If we exist, it is not owing to us. "He made us, and not we ourselves;" and if we shall continue to be forever, it is not owing to a fund of being within ourselves—but to the same God who first formed us.
It is but a short time ago—that we sprung from nothing, and how near are we still to the confines of nothing! We hang over thedreadful gulf of nothing by a slender thread of being, sustained by the self-originated Jehovah. Remove him, take away his agency, and universal nature sinks into nothing at once! Take away the root—and the branches wither! Dry up the fountain—and the streams cease. If any of you are such fools as to wish in your hearts that there were no God, you imprecate annihilation upon the whole universe; you wish total destruction to yourself and everything else; you wish the extinction of all being. All depend upon God, the uncaused cause, the only necessary Being.
Allow me here to make a digression. Is this the God whom wicked men so much forget, dishonour, and disobey? Are they so entirely dependent upon him—and yet careless how they behave towards him, careless whether they love and please him? Do they owe their being and their all—entirely to him? And are they wholly in his hand? What then do they mean by withholding their thoughts and affections from him, breaking his laws and neglecting his gospel? Can you find a name for such wicked conduct? Would it not be entirely incredible—did we not see it with our eyes all around us?
Sinners, what do you mean by this conduct! Let the infant rend the womb that conceived it, or tear the breasts that nourish it! Go, poison or destroy the bread that should feed you! Dry up the streams that should allay your thirst! Stop the breath that keeps you in life! Do these things, or do anything—but oh! do not forget, disobey, and provoke the very Father of your being, to whom you owe it that you are not as much nothing now—as you were ten thousand years ago, and on whom you depend, not only for this and that mercy—but for your very being, every moment of your existence, in time and eternity!
He can do very well without you—but oh what are you without him! a stream without a fountain, a branch without a root, an effect without a cause, a mere blank, a nothing! He indeed is self-sufficient and self-existent. It is nothing to him, as to his existence, whether creation exists or not. Let men and angels and every creature sink to nothing from whence they came—and his being is still secure! He enjoys an unprecarious being of his own, necessarily, unchangeably, and eternally existent!
Men and angels bow the knee, fall prostrate and adore before this Being of beings! How base are you in his presence! What poor, arbitrary, dependent, perishing creatures! What shadows of existence! What mere nothings! And is it not fit you should humbly acknowledge it? Can there be anything more unnatural, anything more foolish, anything more audaciously wicked—than to neglect or despise such a Being, the Being of beings, the Being that includes all being? I can hardly bear up under the horror of the thought!
3. The name Jehovah implies that God is eternal that is, he always was, is, and ever will be. "From everlasting to everlasting, he is God!" Psalm 90:2. This is his grand peculiarity, "He alone has immortality!" 1 Timothy 6:16, in a full and absolute sense. Men and angels indeed are immortal—but it is but a kind of half-eternity they enjoy. They once were nothing, and continued in that state through an eternal duration. But as Jehovah never will have an end, so he never had a beginning. This follows from his necessary self-existence. If the reason of his existence is in himself, then unless he always existed—he never could exist, for nothing outside of himself could cause him to exist. And if he exists by absolute necessity, then he must always exist, for absolute necessity is always the same, without any relation to time or place. Therefore he always was and ever will be.
And what a wonderful Being is this! A Being unbegun, and that can never have an end! A being possessed of a complete, entire eternity. Here, my brethren, let your thoughts take wing, and fly backward and forward, and see if you can trace his existence! FlyBACK in thought about six thousand years, and all nature, as far as appears to us, was a mere blank! There was no heaven nor earth, no men nor angels. But still the great Eternal lived-lived alone, self-sufficient and self-happy!
Fly FORWARD in thought as far as the great conflagration, and you will see "the heavens dissolving, and the earth and the things that are therein burnt up!" but still Jehovah lives unchangeable, and absolutely independent.
Exert all the powers of numbers, add centuries to centuries, thousands to thousands, millions to millions; fly back, back, back—as far as thought can possibly carry you—still Jehovah exists! Nay, you are even then as far from the first moment of his existence as you are now, or ever can be.
Take the same prospect before you, and you will find the King eternal and immortal still the same: he is then no nearer an end than at the creation, or millions of ages before it.
What a glorious being is this! Here, again, let men and angels, and all the offspring of time, bow the knee and adore! Let them lose themselves in this ocean, and spend their eternity in ecstatic admiration and love of this eternal Jehovah!
"The eternal God is your refuge!" Deuteronomy 33:27. Oh! what a glorious portion is Jehovah to his people! Your earthly enjoyments may pass away like a shadow; your friends die, you yourselves must die, and heaven and earth will vanish like a dream—but your God lives! He lives forever, to give you a happiness equal to your immortal duration. Therefore, blessed, blessed is the people whose God is the LORD!
But oh! let wicked men and devils tremble before him, for how dreadful an enemy is an eternal God! He lives forever to punish you. He lives forever to hate your sin, to resent your rebellion, and to display his justice! And while he lives—you must be miserable. What a dismal situation are you in, when the eternal existence of Jehovah is an inexhaustible fund of terror to you!
Oh how have you inverted the order of things, when you have made it your interest that the Fountain of being should cease to be, and that with him yourselves and all other creatures should vanish into nothing!
What a malignant thing is sin, which makes existence a curse, and universal annihilation a blessing!
What a horrible region is hell, where being, so sweet in itself, and the capacity of all enjoyments—has become the most intolerable burden, and every wish—is an imprecation of universal annihilation!
Sinners, you have now time to consider these miseries and avoid them, and will you be so senseless and fool-hardy as to rush headlong into them!! Oh! if you were but sensible of what will be the consequences of your conduct in a few years—you would not need persuasions to reform it! But oh the fatal blindness and stupidity of mortals, who will not be convinced of these things—until the conviction is too late! "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life!" Matthew 25:46
4. The name of Jehovah implies that God is unchangeable, or always the same. If he exists necessarily, he must always necessarily be what he is, and cannot be anything else. He is dependent upon none, and therefore he can be subject to no change from another. And he is infinitely perfect—and therefore cannot desire to change himself. So that he must be always the same through all duration, from eternity to eternity! He must be the same, not only as to his being—but as to his perfections; the same in power, wisdom, goodness, justice, and happiness. Thus he represents himself in his Word, as "the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," James 1:17. "The same yesterday, and today, and forever," Hebrews 13:8.
What a distinguished perfection is this! and indeed it is in Jehovah alone, whom immutability can be a perfection. The most excellent creature is capable of progressive improvements, and seems intended for it; and to fix such a creature at first in an immutable state, would be to limit and restrain it from higher degrees of perfection, and keep it always in a state of infancy.
But Jehovah is absolutely, completely, and infinitely perfect, at the highest summit of all possible excellency, infinitely beyond any addition to his perfection, and absolutely incapable of improvement! And consequently, and as there is no room for, so there is no need of, a change in him! His immutability is a perpetual, invariable continuance in the highest degree of excellency, and therefore the highest perfection. He is the cause and the spectator of an endless variety of changes in the universe—without the least change in himself. He sees worlds springing into being, existing a while—and then dissolving. He sees kingdoms and empires forming, rising—and then rushing headlong to ruin. He changes the times and the seasons; he removes kings, and sets up kings! Dan. 2:21.
And he sees the fickleness and vicissitudes of mortals; he sees generations upon generations vanishing like successive shadows; he sees them now wise—now foolish; now in pursuit of one thing—now of another; now happy—now miserable, and in a thousand different forms. He sees the revolutions in nature, the successions of the seasons, and of night and day. These and a thousand other alterations he beholds, and they are all produced or permitted by his all-ruling providence. But all these make no change in him! His being, his perfections, his counsels, and his happiness—are invariably and eternally the same!
He is not wise, good, just, or happy, only at times—but he is equally, steadily, and immutably so through the whole of his infinite duration! Oh how unlike the fleeting offspring of time, and especially the changing race of man! Since Jehovah is thus constant and unchangeable—how worthy is he to be chosen as our best friend! You who love him—need fear no change in him. They are not small matters that will turn his heart from you! In infinite wisdom, his love was fixed on you—and he never will see reason to reverse it! It is not a transient fit of fondness—but it is deliberate, calm, and steady. You may safely trust your all in his hands—for he cannot deceive you! And whatever or whoever fail you—he will not. You live in a fickle, uncertain world; your best friendsmay prove treacherous or cool towards you; all your earthly comforts may wither and die around you; yes, heaven and earth may pass away; but your God is still the same! He has assured you of it with his own mouth, and pointed out to you the happy consequences of it: "I am the LORD— Jehovah," says he, "I do not change—therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed!" Mal. 3:6.
What a complete happiness is this Jehovah—to those who have chosen him for their portion! If an infinite God is now sufficient to satisfy your utmost desires—he will be so to all eternity. He is an ocean of communicative happiness which never ebbs or flows, and therefore completely blessed will you ever be—who have a saving interest in him. But oh! how miserable are those who are the enemies of this Jehovah! Sinners, he is unchangeable, and can never lay aside his resentments against sin, or abate in the least degree in his love of virtue and holiness. He will never recede from his purpose to punish impenitent rebels, nor lose hispower to accomplish it. His hatred of all moral evil is not a transient passion—but a fixed, invariable, deep-rooted hatred! Therefore, if ever you be happy, there must be a change in you. As you are so opposite to him, there must be an alteration in the one or the other. You see it cannot be in him, and therefore it must be in you! And this you ought to labour for above all other things!
"Let us then have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire" to his impenitent and implacable enemies! (Hebrews 12:28, 29,)
(N. B. Mr. Davies has evidently not finished his subject. Yet I am publishing it, for its own substantial worth.)
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