Message Two

The Revelation of the Lord Jehovah, the Eternal God

Scripture Reading: Isa. 1:2, 4; 25:8; 40:28;
45:15; 29:16; 54:5; 12:2-3; 66:2

Isa. 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and hearken, O earth, / For Jehovah has spoken: / I have brought up children, and I have raised them; / And yet they have rebelled against Me.

Isa. 1:4  Alas, sinful nation, / A people heavy with iniquity, / Seed of evildoers, / Children acting corruptly! / They have forsaken Jehovah; / They have despised the Holy One of Israel; / They have become estranged and have gone backward.

Isa. 25:8  He will swallow up death forever; / And the Lord Jehovah will wipe away the tears from all faces; / And the reproach of His people He will remove from all the earth; / For Jehovah has spoken.

Isa. 40:28  Do you not know, / Or have you not heard, / That the eternal God, Jehovah, / The Creator of the ends of the earth, / Does not faint and does not become weary? / There is no searching out of His understanding.

Isa. 45:15  Surely You are a God who hides Himself, / O God of Israel, the Savior.

Isa. 29:16  You turn things upside down! / Shall the potter be considered to be like the clay, / That what is made should say of him who made it, He did not make me, / Or what is formed should say of him who formed it, He has no understanding?

Isa. 54:5  For your Maker is your Husband; / Jehovah of hosts is His name. / And the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; / He is called the God of all the earth.

Isa. 12:2-3  God is now my salvation; / I will trust and not dread; / For Jah Jehovah is my strength and song, / And He has become my salvation. ³Therefore you will draw water with rejoicing / From the springs of salvation,

Isa. 66:2  For all these things My hand has made, / And so all these things have come into being, declares Jehovah. / But to this kind of man will I look, to him who is poor / And of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.

I. Elohim is the name of God in relation to creation, whereas Jehovah is the name of God in relation to man—Gen. 1:1; 2:4; Isa. 1:2, 4:

Gen. 1:1  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Gen. 2:4  These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created. When Jehovah God made earth and heaven,

Isa. 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and hearken, O earth, / For Jehovah has spoken: / I have brought up children, and I have raised them; / And yet they have rebelled against Me.

Isa. 1:4  Alas, sinful nation, / A people heavy with iniquity, / Seed of evildoers, / Children acting corruptly! / They have forsaken Jehovah; / They have despised the Holy One of Israel; / They have become estranged and have gone backward.

A. Jehovah means “I am who I am,” indicating that Jehovah is the self-existing and ever-existing eternal One, the One who was in the past, who is in the present, and who will be in the future forever—Exo. 3:14; Rev. 1:4:

Exo. 3:14  And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. And He said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.

Rev. 1:4  John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,

1. Jehovah is the only One who is and who depends on nothing apart from Himself, and we must believe that He is—Heb. 11:6.

Heb. 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to Him, for he who comes forward to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

2. As the I Am, He is the all-inclusive One, the reality of every positive thing and of whatever His people need—John 6:35; 8:12; 10:14; 11:25; 14:6.

John 6:35  Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst.

John 8:12  Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

John 10:14  I am the good Shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me,

John 11:25  Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live;

John 14:6  Jesus said to him, I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.

B. Jehovah in the Old Testament is the Jesus in the New Testament—Matt. 1:21:

Matt. 1:21  And she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.

1. Jesus means “Jehovah the Savior,” or “the salvation of Jehovah”; hence, Jesus is not only a man but Jehovah, and not only Jehovah but Jehovah becoming our salvation—v. 21.

Matt. 1:21  And she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.

2. As the great I Am, the Lord Jesus is the eternal, ever existing God who has a relationship with man; anyone who does not believe that Jesus is I Am will die in his sins—John 8:24, 28, 58.

John 8:24  Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

John 8:28  Jesus therefore said to them, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am, and that I do nothing from Myself, but as My Father has taught Me, I speak these things.

John 8:58  Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham came into being, I am.

C. The Lord Jehovah is the Lord Jesus Christ; the Lord Jehovah is the Old Testament Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the New Testament Lord Jehovah—Isa. 25:8; Eph. 1:2.

Isa. 25:8  He will swallow up death forever; / And the Lord Jehovah will wipe away the tears from all faces; / And the reproach of His people He will remove from all the earth; / For Jehovah has spoken.

Eph. 1:2  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

II. The Lord Jehovah is the eternal God—Isa. 40:28:

Isa. 40:28  Do you not know, / Or have you not heard, / That the eternal God, Jehovah, / The Creator of the ends of the earth, / Does not faint and does not become weary? / There is no searching out of His understanding.

A. In Hebrew the eternal God is Elohey Olam (cf. El Olam, Gen. 21:33):

Gen. 21:33  And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and there he called on the name of Jehovah, the Eternal God.

1. El, meaning “the Mighty One,” is one of the names of God; Olam, meaning “eternal” or “eternity,” comes from a Hebrew root meaning “to conceal, to hide.”

2. The full meaning of this title indicates that the Lord Jehovah is the mysterious Mighty One in eternity.

B. The divine title El Olam implies eternal life (John 1:4; 3:15); by calling on the name of Jehovah, the Eternal Mighty One, Abraham experienced God as the ever-living, secret, mysterious One, who is the eternal life—Gen. 21:33; John 20:31.

John 1:4  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

John 3:15  That everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life.

Gen. 21:33  And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and there he called on the name of Jehovah, the Eternal God.

John 20:31  But these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name.

III. The Lord Jehovah is the only God—Isa. 40:18; 44:6, 8, 24:

Isa. 40:18  To whom then will you liken God? / Or what likeness will you compare to Him?

Isa. 44:6  Thus says Jehovah the King of Israel, / And his Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts, / I am the First and I am the Last, / And apart from Me there is no God.

Isa. 44:8  Do not tremble and do not be afraid. / Have I not related to you from that time and declared it? / And you are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? / Or is there any other Rock? I do not know of any.

Isa. 44:24  Thus says Jehovah who redeemed you / And formed you from the womb, / I am Jehovah who makes all things, / Who alone stretches out the heavens, / Who spread out the earth (Who was with Me?);

A. Jehovah is the unique Creator—the majestic, exalted One, who inhabits eternity—Gen. 1:1; Rev. 4:11; Isa. 42:5; 45:18; 57:15; 2:10-21; 10:34.

Gen. 1:1  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Rev. 4:11  You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, for You have created all things, and because of Your will they were, and were created.

Isa. 42:5  Thus says God Jehovah, / Who created the heavens and stretched them out, / Who spread forth the earth and what springs up from it, / Who gives breath to the people upon it / And spirit to those who walk on it:

Isa. 45:18  For thus says Jehovah, / Who created the heavens— / He is the God / Who formed the earth and made it; / He established it; / He did not create it waste, / But He formed it to be inhabited: / I am Jehovah and there is no one else;

Isa. 57:15  For thus says the high and exalted One, / Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: / I will dwell in the high and holy place, / And with the contrite and lowly of spirit, / To revive the spirit of the lowly / And to revive the heart of the contrite.

Isa. 2:10-21  Enter into the rock, / And hide in the dust, / From the dread of Jehovah, / And from the splendor of His majesty. ¹¹Man’s haughty look will be abased, / And the loftiness of men will be humbled; / But Jehovah alone will be exalted / In that day. ¹²For Jehovah of hosts will have a day / Over everything proud and lofty, / And over everything lifted up that it may be abased; ¹³Over all the cedars of Lebanon, / Which are lofty and lifted up, / And over all the oaks of Bashan; ¹⁴Over all the lofty mountains, / And over all the hills that are lifted up; ¹⁵Over every high tower, / And over every fortified wall; ¹⁶Over all the ships of Tarshish, / And over all their pleasant artifacts. ¹⁷And the haughtiness of the ordinary man will be humbled, / And the loftiness of the men of distinction will be abased; / But Jehovah alone will be exalted / In that day. ¹⁸And the idols will vanish completely. ¹⁹And men will go into caves in the rocks / And into holes in the dust, / From the dread of Jehovah, / And from the splendor of His majesty, / When He arises to make the earth tremble. ²⁰In that day a man will cast / His idols of silver and his idols of gold, / Which they made for themselves to bow down to, / To the moles and to the bats, ²¹So that they may go into the crevices of the rocks / And into the clefts of the cliffs, / From the dread of Jehovah, / And from the splendor of His majesty, / When He arises to make the earth tremble.

Isa. 10:34  And He chops away the forest thickets with an iron ax; / And Lebanon falls at the hands of a majestic One.

B. As the holy and righteous One, Jehovah deals with people according to what He is—51:8; 17:7; 29:23; 24:16:

Isa. 51:8  For the moth will eat them up like a garment, / And the worm will eat them like wool; / But My righteousness will be forever, / And My salvation from generation to generation.

Isa. 17:7  In that day man will look to his Maker, / And his eyes will behold the Holy One of Israel.

Isa. 29:23  But when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst, / They will sanctify My name / And sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, / And hold the God of Israel in awe.

Isa. 24:16  From the ends of the earth we hear songs: / Glory to the righteous One! / But I say, Leanness to me! Leanness to me! Woe to me! / The unfaithful deal unfaithfully! / Indeed the unfaithful deal most unfaithfully!

1. Righteousness is the base for holiness, and on this base holiness is exhibited; with His righteousness as the base, God shows Himself as the holy God, in righteousness exhibiting His holiness—5:16.

Isa. 5:16  But Jehovah of hosts is exalted in judgment, / And the holy God shows Himself holy in righteousness.

2. God’s chastening and disciplining is to uplift us from righteousness to holiness—Heb. 12:5-11:

Heb. 12:5-11  And you have completely forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when reproved by Him; ⁶For whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” ⁷It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom the father does not discipline? ⁸But if you are without discipline, of which all sons have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. ⁹Furthermore we have had the fathers of our flesh as discipliners and we respected them; shall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? ¹⁰For they disciplined for a few days as it seemed good to them; but He, for what is profitable that we might partake of His holiness. ¹¹Now no discipline at the present time seems to be a matter of joy, but of grief; but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised by it.

a. In His salvation He first justifies us to make us righteous in Christ, and then He sanctifies us to make us holy—Rom. 3:24; 6:19, 22.

Rom. 3:24  Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

Rom. 6:19  I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to uncleanness and lawlessness unto lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness unto sanctification.

Rom. 6:22  But now, having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end, eternal life.

b. To be righteous is to match God’s way of doing things outwardly, but to be holy is to match God’s nature inwardly; hence, holiness is higher than righteousness—Phil. 3:9; Heb. 12:10, 14; Rev. 19:8; 21:2; 22:11.

Phil. 3:9  And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is out of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is out of God and based on faith,

Heb. 12:10  For they disciplined for a few days as it seemed good to them; but He, for what is profitable that we might partake of His holiness.

Heb. 12:14  Pursue peace with all men and sanctification, without which no one will see the Lord;

Rev. 19:8  And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints.

Rev. 21:2  And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Rev. 22:11  Let him who does unrighteousness do unrighteousness still; and let him who is filthy be filthy still; and let him who is righteous do righteousness still; and let him who is holy be holy still.

c. While the Lord is chastening us, we should wait for Him in the path of His judging in order to learn the lesson that He would give us; God’s judgments always teach us lessons in righteousness—Isa. 26:8-9.

Isa. 26:8-9  Indeed in the path of Your judgments, / O Jehovah, we have waited for You. / Your name, that is, Your memorial, / Is the desire of our soul. ⁹My soul desires You in the night; / Indeed my spirit within me seeks You at the dawn; / For when Your judgments are in the earth, / The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

IV. The Lord Jehovah is triune—6:8; 11:2; 42:1; 61:1; Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14:

Isa. 6:8  Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us? And I said, Here am I; send me.

Isa. 11:2  And the Spirit of Jehovah will rest upon Him, / The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, / The Spirit of counsel and might, / The Spirit of knowledge and the fear of Jehovah.

Isa. 42:1  Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, / My chosen One in whom My soul delights; / I have put My Spirit upon Him, / And He will bring forth justice to the nations.

Isa. 61:1  The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon Me, / Because Jehovah has anointed Me / To bring good news to the afflicted; / He has sent Me to bind up the wounds of the brokenhearted, / To proclaim liberty to the captives, / And the opening of the eyes to those who are bound;

Matt. 28:19  Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

2 Cor. 13:14  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

A. The Lord Jehovah—the threefold yet one unique God—is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; this implies that He is the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—Exo. 3:6, 14-15; Matt. 28:19.

Exo. 3:6  And He said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Exo. 3:14-15  And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. And He said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. ¹⁵And God also said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial from generation to generation.

Matt. 28:19  Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

B. The words I and Us in Isaiah 6:8 indicate that the One speaking here is triune, that He is not merely Christ but Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God—Col. 2:9; John 1:1, 14; 12:41.

Col. 2:9  For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,

John 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:14  And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.

John 12:41  These things said Isaiah because he saw His glory and spoke concerning Him.

C. According to the entire divine revelation in the Scriptures, the Triune God is for God’s dispensing: the Father as the origin is the fountain, the Son as the expression is the spring, and the Spirit as the transmission is the flow—John 4:14; 7:37-39; Rev. 22:1-2; Isa. 12:2-3.

John 4:14  But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.

John 7:37-39  Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. ³⁹But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Rev. 22:1-2  And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street. ²And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Isa. 12:2-3  God is now my salvation; / I will trust and not dread; / For Jah Jehovah is my strength and song, / And He has become my salvation. ³Therefore you will draw water with rejoicing / From the springs of salvation,

V. The Lord Jehovah is a God who hides Himself—45:15:

Isa. 45:15  Surely You are a God who hides Himself, / O God of Israel, the Savior.

A. Although our God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and full of forgiveness, He is also the hiding God, as the book of Esther indicates; He created the universe and then hid Himself within it, until we do not know where to find Him—Job 23:3-9.

Job 23:3-9  Oh that I knew where I might find Him, / That I might come to His seat! ⁴I would present my cause in order before Him, / And I would fill my mouth with arguments. ⁵I would know the words which He would answer me, / And I would understand what He would speak to me. ⁶Would He contend with me in the greatness of His power? / No; but He would give heed to me. ⁷There the upright man can argue with Him; / So I would be delivered forever from my Judge. ⁸Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; / And backward, but I do not perceive Him; ⁹To the left, where He acts, but I cannot look on Him; / He hides Himself on the right, so I cannot see Him.

B. We need to realize that the omnipotent God whom we are serving is still hiding Himself, especially when He is helping us—John 14:26; Rom. 8:26:

John 14:26  But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and remind you of all the things which I have said to you.

Rom. 8:26  Moreover, in like manner the Spirit also joins in to help us in our weakness, for we do not know for what we should pray as is fitting, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

1. We cannot see Him, and apparently He is not doing anything; actually, in a hidden way He is doing many things for us—vv. 28, 34; Esth. 4:14.

Rom. 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Rom. 8:34  Who is he who condemns? It is Christ Jesus who died and, rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Esth. 4:14  For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from some other place, and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

2. Silently, secretly, and ceaselessly, the God who hides Himself is working within us—Phil. 2:13.

Phil. 2:13  For it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.

VI. The Lord Jehovah reveals Himself by speaking—Isa. 40:5, 8:

Isa. 40:5  Then the glory of Jehovah will be revealed, / And all flesh will see it together, / Because the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.

Isa. 40:8  The grass withers and the flower fades, / But the word of our God will stand forever.

A. Without His speaking, God is mysterious, but He has revealed Himself in His speaking, and now He is the revealed God—Heb. 1:1; Isa. 40:5, 8.

Heb. 1:1  God, having spoken of old in many portions and in many ways to the fathers in the prophets,

Isa. 40:5  Then the glory of Jehovah will be revealed, / And all flesh will see it together, / Because the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.

Isa. 40:8  The grass withers and the flower fades, / But the word of our God will stand forever.

B. Jesus was sent by God for the purpose of speaking the word of God for God’s expression—John 3:34a; 7:16; 14:24:

John 3:34  For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for He gives the Spirit not by measure.

John 7:16  Jesus therefore answered them and said, My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.

John 14:24  He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

1. The word of God is actually Christ, the embodiment of God—Isa. 40:8; Col. 2:9.

Isa. 40:8  The grass withers and the flower fades, / But the word of our God will stand forever.

Col. 2:9  For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,

2. In the word—the speaking—of Jesus, God is unveiled and presented to men so that they may see God—John 14:7-10.

John 14:7-10  If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and henceforth you know Him and have seen Him. ⁸Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us. ⁹Jesus said to him, Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how is it that you say, Show us the Father? ¹⁰Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works.

3. The Son, as the Word of God and the speaking of God, has declared God with a full expression, explanation, and definition of Him—1:1, 14, 18.

John 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:14  And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.

John 1:18  No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

VII. The Lord Jehovah is the Potter—Isa. 29:16; 64:8; Jer. 18:6; Rom. 9:20-21:

Isa. 29:16  You turn things upside down! / Shall the potter be considered to be like the clay, / That what is made should say of him who made it, He did not make me, / Or what is formed should say of him who formed it, He has no understanding?

Isa. 64:8  But now, Jehovah, You are our Father; / We are the clay; and You, our Potter; / And all of us are the work of Your hand.

Jer. 18:6  Am I not able to do with you, O house of Israel, as this potter does? declares Jehovah. Indeed, as the clay is in the hand of the potter, so you are in My hand, O house of Israel.

Rom. 9:20-21  But rather, O man, who are you who answer back to God? Shall the thing molded say to him who molded it, Why did you make me thus? ²¹Or does not the potter have authority over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?

A. Jehovah is the Potter, and we are the clay in His hand—Jer. 18:1-6.

Jer. 18:1-6  The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, ²Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear My words. ³So I went down to the potter’s house, and he was there doing work at his wheel. ⁴But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand; so he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good for the potter to make. ⁵And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, ⁶Am I not able to do with you, O house of Israel, as this potter does? declares Jehovah. Indeed, as the clay is in the hand of the potter, so you are in My hand, O house of Israel.

B. As the Potter, God is sovereign and has absolute authority over us; He has the right to do whatever He desires—Rom. 9:20-21:

Rom. 9:20-21  But rather, O man, who are you who answer back to God? Shall the thing molded say to him who molded it, Why did you make me thus? ²¹Or does not the potter have authority over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?

1. If He wills, He can make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor; this does not depend on our choice—it depends on God’s sovereignty—v. 21.

Rom. 9:21  Or does not the potter have authority over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?

2. It is of God’s sovereignty that He, the Potter, makes the riches of His glory known by creating vessels of mercy to contain Himself—v. 23.

Rom. 9:23  In order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory,

VIII. The Lord Jehovah is our Husband—Isa. 54:5:

Isa. 54:5  For your Maker is your Husband; / Jehovah of hosts is His name. / And the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; / He is called the God of all the earth.

A. The entire Bible is a divine romance, a record of how God courts His chosen people and eventually marries them—Gen. 2:21-24; Rev. 19:7; 21:2, 9-10.

Gen. 2:21-24  And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. ²²And Jehovah God built the rib, which He had taken from the man, into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³And the man said, This time this is bone of my bones / And flesh of my flesh; / This one shall be called Woman / Because out of Man this one was taken. ²⁴Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Rev. 19:7  Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.

Rev. 21:2  And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Rev. 21:9-10  And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, Come here; I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. ¹⁰And he carried me away in spirit onto a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

B. Both the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets speak of God as the Husband and of God’s chosen people as the wife—Isa. 62:5; Hosea 2:16, 19.

Isa. 62:5  For as a young man marries a virgin, / Your sons will marry you; / And with the joy of the bridegroom over the bride / Your God will rejoice over you.

Hosea 2:16  And in that day, declares Jehovah, / You will call Me My Husband / And will no longer call Me Baali.

Hosea 2:19  And I will betroth you to Myself forever; / Indeed I will betroth you to Myself / In righteousness and justice / And in lovingkindness and compassions;

C. The crucial emphasis of the revelation released by all the prophets from Isaiah to Malachi is that God wants to have an organic union with His chosen people—Isa. 62:5; Jer. 2:2; 3:14; 31:32; Ezek. 16:8; 23:5; Hosea 2:7, 19:

Isa. 62:5  For as a young man marries a virgin, / Your sons will marry you; / And with the joy of the bridegroom over the bride / Your God will rejoice over you.

Jer. 2:2  Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Jehovah: / I remember concerning you the kindness of your youth, / The love of your bridal days, / When you followed after Me in the wilderness, / In a land that was not sown.

Jer. 3:14  Return, O apostate children, declares Jehovah, for I am a Husband to you; and I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and will bring you to Zion.

Jer. 31:32  Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by their hand to bring them out from the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was their Husband, declares Jehovah

Ezek. 16:8  Then I passed by you and saw you; and then was your time a time of love. And I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness; indeed I swore unto you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord Jehovah, and you became Mine.

Ezek. 23:5  And Oholah committed fornication instead of remaining with Me, and she lusted after her lovers, after the Assyrians, who were close to her,

Hosea 2:7  And she will pursue her lovers / But will not overtake them; / And she will seek them but not find them; / And she will say, I will go / And return to my first husband, / For it was better for me then than now.

Hosea 2:19  And I will betroth you to Myself forever; / Indeed I will betroth you to Myself / In righteousness and justice / And in lovingkindness and compassions;

1. In this union God is His people’s life, and they are His expression.

2. In this way God and His chosen people become a universal couple; this is God’s intention in His eternal economy—John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 22:17.

John 3:29  He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine therefore is made full.

2 Cor. 11:2  For I am jealous over you with a jealousy of God; for I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

Rev. 22:17  And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say, Come! And let him who is thirsty come; let him who wills take the water of life freely.

IX. The Lord Jehovah is our salvation—Isa. 12:2-3; 17:10; 1:18:

Isa. 12:2-3  God is now my salvation; / I will trust and not dread; / For Jah Jehovah is my strength and song, / And He has become my salvation. ³Therefore you will draw water with rejoicing / From the springs of salvation,

Isa. 17:10  For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, / And the Rock of your stronghold you have not remembered. / Therefore you plant plants of delight / And set them with plant cuttings to a strange god.

Isa. 1:18  Come now and let us reason together, / Says Jehovah. / Though your sins are like scarlet, / They will be as white as snow; / Though they are as red as crimson, / They will be like wool.

A. Isaiah 12:2 clearly reveals that salvation is God Himself; in the New Testament Jah Jehovah, who is salvation, is Jesus, the incarnated God—Luke 2:30.

Isa. 12:2  God is now my salvation; / I will trust and not dread; / For Jah Jehovah is my strength and song, / And He has become my salvation.

Luke 2:30  For my eyes have seen Your salvation,

B. As the eternal Rock, Christ is the God of our salvation—Isa. 17:10.

Isa. 17:10  For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, / And the Rock of your stronghold you have not remembered. / Therefore you plant plants of delight / And set them with plant cuttings to a strange god.

C. In God’s full salvation He not only forgives our sins, exempting us from the penalty of our sins and removing the record of our sins from before Him; He also washes away the traces of sins in us, making us as white as snow and white like wool—1:18:

Isa. 1:18  Come now and let us reason together, / Says Jehovah. / Though your sins are like scarlet, / They will be as white as snow; / Though they are as red as crimson, / They will be like wool.

1. The washing that makes us as white as snow is a positional washing from without through the blood of Jesus Christ—1 John 1:7; Heb. 1:3b; Rev. 1:5.

1 John 1:7  But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin.

Heb. 1:3  Who, being the effulgence of His glory and the impress of His substance and upholding and bearing all things by the word of His power, having made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Rev. 1:5  And from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood

2. The washing that makes us white like wool is a washing of our nature metabolically from within by God’s Spirit and by His life—1 Cor. 6:11; Titus 3:5.

1 Cor. 6:11  And these things were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

Titus 3:5  Not out of works in righteousness which we did but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit,

X. The Lord Jehovah has become the divine water—Isa. 12:3; 55:1:

Isa. 12:3  Therefore you will draw water with rejoicing / From the springs of salvation,

Isa. 55:1  Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, / And you who have no money; / Come, buy and eat; / Yes, come, buy wine and milk / Without money and without price.

A. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament show that God’s practical salvation is the processed Triune God Himself as the living water—12:2-3; 55:1; Rev. 7:10, 14, 17; 21:6; 22:1, 17.

Isa. 12:2-3  God is now my salvation; / I will trust and not dread; / For Jah Jehovah is my strength and song, / And He has become my salvation. ³Therefore you will draw water with rejoicing / From the springs of salvation,

Isa. 55:1  Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, / And you who have no money; / Come, buy and eat; / Yes, come, buy wine and milk / Without money and without price.

Rev. 7:10  And they cry with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb.

Rev. 7:14  And I said to him, My lord, you know. And he said to me, These are those who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Rev. 7:17  For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and guide them to springs of waters of life; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Rev. 21:6  And He said to me, They have come to pass. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give to him who thirsts from the spring of the water of life freely.

Rev. 22:1  And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street.

Rev. 22:17  And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say, Come! And let him who is thirsty come; let him who wills take the water of life freely.

B. In the book of Isaiah God considers that He is our salvation as living water—12:2-3; 55:1:

Isa. 12:2-3  God is now my salvation; / I will trust and not dread; / For Jah Jehovah is my strength and song, / And He has become my salvation. ³Therefore you will draw water with rejoicing / From the springs of salvation,

Isa. 55:1  Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, / And you who have no money; / Come, buy and eat; / Yes, come, buy wine and milk / Without money and without price.

1. To be our salvation, the Triune God was processed to become the life-giving Spirit as the living water, the water of life—1 Cor. 15:45b; John 7:37-39.

1 Cor. 15:45  So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul”; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

John 7:37-39  Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. ³⁹But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

2. The waters in Isaiah 55:1 and Revelation 22:17 are the redeeming God, the very God who accomplished redemption for us through His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection.

Isa. 55:1  Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, / And you who have no money; / Come, buy and eat; / Yes, come, buy wine and milk / Without money and without price.

Rev. 22:17  And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say, Come! And let him who is thirsty come; let him who wills take the water of life freely.

3. In totality, what Christ is and has accomplished is just the divine water, which is the consummated Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God for us to drink and enjoy—Isa. 55:1; John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 12:13.

Isa. 55:1  Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, / And you who have no money; / Come, buy and eat; / Yes, come, buy wine and milk / Without money and without price.

John 7:37-39  Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. ³⁹But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

1 Cor. 12:13  For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.

XI. The Lord Jehovah will deal with His enemies—Isa. 14:12-15; 24:21; 27:1:

Isa. 14:12-15  How you have fallen from heaven, / O Daystar, son of the dawn! / How you have been hewn down to earth, / You who made nations fall prostrate! ¹³But you, you said in your heart: / I will ascend to heaven; / Above the stars of God / I will exalt my throne. / And I will sit upon the mount of assembly / In the uttermost parts of the north. ¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; / I will make myself like the Most High. ¹⁵But you will be brought down to Sheol, / To the uttermost parts of the pit.

Isa. 24:21  And in that day Jehovah will punish / On high the host on high, / And the kings of the earth on the earth.

Isa. 27:1  In that day Jehovah will punish, / With His harsh, great, and mighty sword, / Leviathan the fleeing serpent, / And leviathan the crooked serpent; / And He will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

A. Isaiah identifies Lucifer with Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, thus regarding him as a figure of Satan, as one who was one with Satan; this unveils Satan’s kingdom of darkness behind the nations and his oneness with the rulers of the nations—14:4, 12-15; Ezek. 28:12; Dan. 10:13, 20; Eph. 6:12b.

Isa. 14:4  You will lift up this discourse concerning the king of Babylon and you will say: How the oppressor has ceased! / How the raging has ceased!

Isa. 14:12-15  How you have fallen from heaven, / O Daystar, son of the dawn! / How you have been hewn down to earth, / You who made nations fall prostrate! ¹³But you, you said in your heart: / I will ascend to heaven; / Above the stars of God / I will exalt my throne. / And I will sit upon the mount of assembly / In the uttermost parts of the north. ¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; / I will make myself like the Most High. ¹⁵But you will be brought down to Sheol, / To the uttermost parts of the pit.

Ezek. 28:12  Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, O you who sealed up perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty,

Dan. 10:13  But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me for twenty-one days; but now Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I remained there alone with the kings of Persia.

Dan. 10:20  Then he said, Do you know why I have come to you? And now I will return to fight with the prince of Persia; so I go forth, and the prince of Javan is now about to come.

Eph. 6:12  For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.

B. In Isaiah 24:21 the host on high refers to Satan and his angels in the air (cf. Eph. 2:2; 6:12); Jehovah’s reaction to the nations’ excessive action on Israel deals both with Satan’s army in the air and with the kings on the earth—Rev. 12:7-10; 11:15.

Isa. 24:21  And in that day Jehovah will punish / On high the host on high, / And the kings of the earth on the earth.

Eph. 2:2  In which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit which is now operating in the sons of disobedience;

Eph. 6:12  For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.

Eph. 2:2  In which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit which is now operating in the sons of disobedience;

Eph. 6:12  For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.

Rev. 12:7-10  And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels went to war with the dragon. And the dragon warred and his angels. ⁸And they did not prevail, neither was their place found any longer in heaven. ⁹And the great dragon was cast down, the ancient serpent, he who is called the Devil and Satan, he who deceives the whole inhabited earth; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him. ¹⁰And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now has come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ, for the accuser of our brothers has been cast down, who accuses them before our God day and night.

Rev. 11:15  And the seventh angel trumpeted; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.

XII. The Lord Jehovah desires to have as His dwelling place a group of people into whom He can enter—Isa. 57:15; 66:2:

Isa. 57:15  For thus says the high and exalted One, / Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: / I will dwell in the high and holy place, / And with the contrite and lowly of spirit, / To revive the spirit of the lowly / And to revive the heart of the contrite.

Isa. 66:2  For all these things My hand has made, / And so all these things have come into being, declares Jehovah. / But to this kind of man will I look, to him who is poor / And of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.

A. God intends to have a dwelling place in the universe that is the mingling of God and man, in which God is built into man and man is built into God, so that God and man, man and God, can be a mutual abode to each other—John 14:2, 20, 23; 15:4; 1 John 4:13.

John 14:2  In My Father’s house are many abodes; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.

John 14:20  In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

John 14:23  Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.

John 15:4  Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

1 John 4:13  In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit.

B. In the New Testament this dwelling place, this house, is the church, which is God’s habitation in the believers’ spirit—Eph. 2:22; 1 Tim. 3:15.

Eph. 2:22  In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.

1 Tim. 3:15  But if I delay, I write that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.

C. The ultimate manifestation of this universal building, this universal house, is the New Jerusalem; in this city God is in man, taking man as His dwelling place, and man is in God, taking God as his habitation—Rev. 21:3, 22; Gen. 28:12, 17; 2 Sam. 7:12-14.

Rev. 21:3  And I heard a loud voice out of the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His peoples, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.

Rev. 21:22  And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

Gen. 28:12  And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

Gen. 28:17  And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

2 Sam. 7:12-14  When your days are fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, which will come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³It is he who will build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴I will be his Father, and he will be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will strike him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the sons of men;