Satan has caused an unsuspecting church to adopt his days and names of false gods to keep them from coming to know the true God intimately by learning His covenant names and their meanings (Read more about this in the upcoming book, Bible Code Broken! — The Truth about the Christian Sabbath, soon available at Mill City Press, Minneapolis). God’s covenants and His names are closely related. The Sabbath opens the door to understanding His covenant names and to intimacy with Him.
Moses is a good example of a man of God with a literal mountaintop experience of intimacy with God. The circumstances of His calling at the burning bush demonstrate a principle that explains why the Sabbath allows us to know God intimately through His names. We can read the story in Exodus 3.
Like many who have not yet walked on holy ground, Moses was in a fleshly attitude when he saw the famous bush. He did not perceive at first that this miracle was from God (Ex. 3:3).
Then Jesus spoke to him from the bush and told him to remove his sandals since the area around the bush was holy ground. God’s presence permeated that ground, just as His presence fills the Sabbath day. The sandals represented walking the way of the world. Taking them off meant disposing of the outside world to come into the presence of a holy God.
The Christian world has not yet been blessed to understand that the Sabbath is holy like that ground in which God’s presence dwelt. We have been walking like the world and trampling down God’s holy Sabbath (Isa. 58:13).
When Moses took his dirty sandals off his feet, he began to be aware of God’s presence and holiness and to be in awe of this holy God (Ex. 3:6). Something wonderful happened that will also take place when we cease treating the Sabbath as an ordinary day. God is calling us to holy ground, as it were, to share a holy time with Him so He can reveal Himself to us. As we stand in awe of Him on that holy ground, we will open the door to the kind of awesome revelation Moses received.
What was that revelation? It is the same described in Exodus 31:13. The Sabbath was to be a perpetual covenant, the first one revealed to Adam, and a sign between God and the believers that “you may know that I am [the Eternal, the I AM] who sanctifies you [makes you holy].”
God’s words to Moses when he took his shoes off holy ground were quite similar. He told Moses: “I AM WHO I AM…” (Ex. 3:14). He revealed many other of His names to Moses, but YHVH or Yahweh or Yehovah was His “memorial-name” that showed He was the Eternal One who dwelt outside of time and could do anything we required of Him according to His covenants.
The knowledge of God’s ten covenants and His many names has eluded a church who has broken His Ten Commandments by profaning the fourth one (James 2:10). The church will only gain the intimacy and power it desires when it begins to recognize what God calls holy ground or holy time.
Makkadesh (“the [Eternal] who sanctifies you”) is not the only name God reveals in His Sabbaths. It is only representative of all His names that connect us to a holy God on His holy day. The Sabbath connects us to all God’s covenants and all His names that we can call on to make us more like Him — the goal of our existence and the reason for the Sabbath.
In the healing book we discussed some of the redemptive names of God. His covenant names are a vast subject on which we will only touch briefly here. We discovered many of these names by keeping the Day of Trumpets, an annual Sabbath that we will cover in the next book. While these names have greater power when used with the rod of Jesus released on that day, we can still claim these names in claiming our covenant rights in prayer.
Names of Intimacy and Power
The words written in many of the verses of Exodus 3 to Exodus 14 reveal names of God that we can use to call on His help in time of need. The combination of calling on God to remember His covenants with us and claiming the appropriate name of God for our situation is a powerful way of invoking God’s aid. These claims do not have near as much power when disconnected with the Sabbath covenant, the first covenant with man that opens the power of all the others. The names intensify that power.
We must first understand that in Genesis God reveals Himself as a Family called Elohim, a Family of Creator Gods into which He calls us (Gen. 1:26-27). That is the family name and the church name, the church of God. The personal names of God, however, are more powerful, intimate and anointed.
The three members of the Triune Godhead have three distinct personalities and are separate Beings. The word echad (“one” — Deut. 6:4) denotes unity, not one Being. All three, the Father Agape (Love), Jesus the Word who became the Son and the Holy Spirit are all eternal and thus all can be called Yehovah or the Eternal One, the I AM. Using their personal names, however, allows us great intimacy and anointing.
Our Father calls us all by name, and even has a special new name prepared for each of us (Rev. 2:17). He expects us to call Him by name, which the title “Lord” or “the Lord” does not allow us to do. While we are to honor Jesus as Adonai or Kurios or as Divine Master and Supreme Commander, he wants us to be intimate with Him by calling Him by His name, Jesus. Calling Him by His Hebrew name at times opens up all the conceptual meanings of that name, Yeshua — much more than simply the concept of salvation or Savior.
While we may hear at times the Father’s voice or the voice of Jesus in our spirits, our principle teacher is the Holy Spirit. While He is called Yahweh or the Eternal, He is not our Divine Master in the way Jesus is. Today many use the generic title “Lord” to refer to all three members of the Trinity. They confuse Yahweh, the Eternal, with Adonai, both incorrectly translated “LORD” or “Lord” respectively in most translations of the Bible.
In our songs of praise and in our prayers, the three members of the Godhead love to hear their names. By using their personal names, we show our desire to be intimate with them. Those names have special significance in the context of the day of intimacy, the Sabbath.
The Names Revealed in Exodus
A loving, intimate God reveals His redemptive love and power in the Sabbath, which pictures Him rescuing us out of our “Egypt” or time of sin (Deut. 5:15). It is no coincidence therefore that He reveals His names, including His redemptive ones, in Exodus. In Exodus 13 and 14 seven names of God emerge: the Eternal God my Shalom, my Shabbat or Rest, Yeshua, Savior, Salvation, Accomplisher, Defender, Vengeance.
Beginning in Exodus 3, more names are revealed to describe Yehovah, or the Eternal One: my Holy God (Ex. 3:5); my Creator Father and my Covenant (3:6); my Prosperity and my Adjudication, which means God will personally defend us in His righteous judgments in the court of heaven (3:7); my Deliverer, Power and Answerer (3:8); my Relief (3:9); my Supreme Commander (3:10); my Sustainer, True Sign (3:12); my Fullness, Answer to all my needs, Supplier (3:14 paraphrased — “I am whatever or whoever you need Me to be”); my God of Forever, Guide (3:15); my God of Inheritance (3:17); my Anointer (3:18, giving us the words to say and the power to say them); my Hand of Correction, Tower (3:20); my Enricher (3:21); my Plunderer of Enemies (3:22).
Exodus 4 gives more: my Belief, my One who comes, my “Empowerer” (4:5); my Chooser, Seer (4:22-23).
Chapter 5 adds the name, my Celebration (5:1), but how can we call Him that if we do not celebrate with Him at His times of celebration?
“I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments,” God says in Exodus 6:6. We can thus call Him “my Redeemer and my Administrator of judgments.” As we will see more powerfully in the sequel, Jesus is our Burden-lifter (6:7). He is also our Rewarder (6:8).
Exodus 7 continues the revelation: my Eternal God of hosts (7:4); my Revealer of Truth (7:7); my Commander of Serpents (including snaky Satan) and King of kings (7:9-12); the Eternal God of the Hebrews (7:16); the Water of Life, Giver of Life, Commander of Death (7:17).
In chapter 8, we see the God of serving, increase, restraining and binding (8:1-2); My God of boundaries (setting limits and limiting Satan, 8:22); God of the walls (8:23).
Another aspect of God’s character is highlighted in Exodus 9. He is the God of distinction, wanting His people to be the same (standing out above the others, higher, set apart, honored, majestic, the God of gods and High Priest of priests, 9:4); My God of health and healing, Controller of pestilence and consuming plagues, (9:9; 15:26; Yehovah Rapha, Healer); Controller of weather (9:18); God of punishment (9:19).
God then reveals Himself as the Breaker of pride, stubbornness and selfishness (10:3) and the Controller of the movement of plagues and diseases (10:4-20); God of light and darkness (Definer of good and evil, 10:21); God of heights and depths (10:21).
Our God is the Eternal God of restoration, promotion and compensation (Ex. 11:2); God of the firstborn (11:5).
In chapter 12 we see the God of the Passover and the God of redemption (Yehovah Gaal; 12:3); the God of mercy (12:8); God of cleansing and purifying (12:9); God of completeness (12:10); God of holy convocations and feast days (12:11); God of destroying the power of sin (12:15); God of commencing and finishing (12:16); God of permanent ordinances (12:17); God of issuing forth holiness (12:18-22); God of the circumcision (12:48).
God has declared the Sabbath to be holy, and He sets aside other things as holy. He is the God of sanctifications (13:2); God of the covering shade and the flaming pillar of fire (13:21).
More Names to Claim
The above are only a few of the names of God we can claim in the diverse circumstances and challenges of our lives. The power these names have when connected to the Sabbath covenant is exponential in its scope. When we connect the challenge we face with the proper covenant and the appropriate name of God, claiming the same in prayer, the results of this combined claim of covenant promises and God’s specific names are powerful. Our problem melts away like homemade peach ice cream in the sun on a smothering, 97-degree South Carolina day.
In communion for release from trauma, we give other names for Jesus that we can use in different circumstances. We repeat together, addressing Jesus with every name, “Jesus, You are my ……God, High Tower, Savior, Support, Rock, Deliverer, Avenger, light, Path, Love, Bridegroom, Hope, Eternal Life, Substitute, Peace, Fullness, Delight, Thankfulness, Anointing, Sustainer, Partner, Friend, Strength, Power, Authority, Sabbath, Wholeness, Vindication, Helper, Claim, Redeemer, Blessing, Promise, Teacher of skills, Jealousy, Contender, Jerusalem (King of Peace for all my affairs), High Priest forever, Priestly King.”
In the book on healing, we gave some of Jesus’ redemptive names, preceded by His name Yehovah, the Eternal, Self-existent One. When we take apart the individual letters and combinations of letters in a Hebrew word, we add to the conceptual meaning of the term. In the case of YHVH, we see the word havah in the last three letters, literally that which comes from the nail (that secures or establishes) or exists. The first letter means “hand,” so the Eternal is the One whose hand brought all things into existence.
YHVH also suggests “to become known.” This shows a God who continually reveals Himself. He revealed Himself to Moses when Moses respected the holy ground. He reveals Himself to His people when they honor His holy Sabbath.
While many claim to be gods or elohim, and God even calls His sons and daughters elohim on the earth (Psalm 82:6; John 10:34), Yehovah is the triune Godhead that brought all things into existence. As the Creator Family, They do call themselves Elohim, yet when Jesus formed Adam, He called Himself Yehovah. It is a more intimate name and it indicates His special relationship with His people. Interestingly, no other commandment but the Sabbath commandment identifies the true God, the one who made all things. In a psalm often considered to be a Sabbath psalm and quoted in the Sabbath rest discussion in Hebrews, God refers to Himself as Yehovah Osenu, the Eternal our Maker (Ps. 95:6).
God’s Names Find Their Fullest Meaning in the Sabbath
Can we begin to see how connected God’s names are to His Sabbath? None of His names take on their full meaning unless we are keeping the day that identifies the real Jesus and those who are set apart as holy by Him.
God is the El or one true God above all others who aspire to Godship. The first letter aleph, literally meaning “ox,” with the idea of strongest and first, combines with the second letter lamed, literally “cattle goad” or “rod of authority,” and can mean “control, authority, or tongue.” God is indeed the first and foremost authority of the universe, the Creator of all things. Jesus is the One whose tongue speaks the authoritative law and Word of God. It was Jesus, as we shall see, that spoke the Sabbath commandment on Sinai.
Jesus is El Shaddai. In ancient times for a king to take a city he had to destroy the door that led into the walled fortress. Shaddai literally means “destroy the door.” Jesus is a King who takes every other kingdom by force, destroying every door, including the door to Satan’s kingdom. If we want to see Satan under our feet, we must keep the day of the Kingdom, the Sabbath. Shaddai also has the meaning of “many-breasted one,” a picturesque way of seeing God as both all-sufficient and self-sufficient.
The word shem is the word “name,” and when used for the name of God, it literally means “destroy chaos.” The word shalom, exemplified in the peace of the Sabbath day, literally means “destroy the authority (Satan) that causes chaos.” And Shabbat means “repent or return to the covenant or cross of Jesus (who defeated Satan by His blood).”
While some don’t like the idea of keeping the law, we must understand that Jesus is the Law or Torah, which in the word picture in Hebrew means, “what comes out of the man who was nailed to the cross.” That’s Jesus. He gave the law and He is the Law, which is love.
Jesus is our Sabbath or Rest. Shabbat means we rest by returning to the covenant, the first one God made with man. Returning or repenting means choosing God’s Kingdom over Satan’s. Satan has established Sunday as his day, while Jesus made it clear that His Sabbath pictures and explains the names and ways of the true King and His Kingdom. We cannot rest in Jesus, our Sabbath, if we do not rest on Kingdom day.
Jesus is also Yehovah Shalom. We cannot destroy the authority that causes chaos in our lives if we choose to “rest” with Satan on his day. How many Sunday keepers experience a true rest? Jesus says, “Come unto Me and you will find Shabbat shalom, for I am Your Shabbat and Your Shalom.”
He is Yehovah Shammah, the God who is always there for us or present with us. Yet Jesus says He made the Sabbath holy, so He is present in a special way with us on His day. His covenant promise says He will never leave us or forsake us. A covenant works both ways, however. When we find out about His Sabbath, He doesn’t want us to forsake the assembling of ourselves together with Him on His day. We must not forsake Him.
Jesus is our Raah or Shepherd, and He makes His sheep lie down in green pastures with Him on His day of rest. Satan wants us to keep his Sunday so we will not be able to be still and know that God is God and that He is Love. We can only know the true Creator when we rest at the exact time He did, being still on His Sabbath, getting to know Him.
Raah is literally the “man of the eye (letter ayin),” the one who watches out for the sheep. A similar concept is found in Yehovah Yireh (Jehovah Jireh). God sees ahead and knows our every need, already having devised His plan of provision for us. As you will see in this book, God’s perfect will of provision for us is impossible without keeping the day of provision, the Sabbath of “mannafold blessings.”
In Jesus’ ministry more dramatic healings occurred on the Sabbath than at any other time. Healing ministries are discovering inadvertently the Sabbath healing anointing. It is to be expected. After all, Yeshua Rapha, Jesus our Healer, has poured Himself and His healing power into His day.
Our Mighty, Jealous Warrior
Jesus is Yehovah Nissi, the Banner we rally around and seek refuge in so that He will lead us to victory. The word nes (noon samech) has a picture meaning of “life support,” yet its true meaning is an ensign, standard of identifying flag of the warrior that we follow and who protects us. The same word is used for Jesus as the serpent of sin that was lifted up for us and thus later became our standard of righteousness. Since He is our Sabbath, and the Sabbath was a sign between Jesus and us that He is our God and we are His people (Ex. 31:13), He is our Ensign, Our Identifying Banner of Identity and Victory. We take refuge in Him every Sabbath, being strengthened in Him, the Captain of our Salvation, our Mighty Warrior and Champion (Isa. 19:20; Jer. 20:11).
Jesus is the “Mighty One of Jacob…the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel…” (Gen. 49:24). He is our “refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble” (Ps. 46:1). If we dwell intimately with Him on His Sabbath, even an atomic bomb on ground zero will not touch us.
Jesus is our Protector. He is the Captain of the “host of the [Eternal]” (Josh. 5:14) and the “[Eternal] OF SABAOTH [or Tseva’ot, Hosts or armies of heaven]” (Rom. 9:29; Isa. 1:9). While technically we are not the army, we are officers and commanders of the armies of heaven. When we speak out the Word of God, angelic armies are released (Ps. 103:20). We can even call on Jesus Himself to fight for us. We officers meet for instruction from the Supreme Commander and Divine Master on His Sabbath. How can we benefit from the fullest protection if we do not dwell in God’s secret place of intimacy (Ps. 91:1) on the Sabbath and get our marching or commanding orders from our Righteous Captain on His day?
It is impossible to fully understand and be established in the righteousness of God without keeping the day that Yehovah Tsidkenu inhabits. The Divine Master of the Sabbath is Jesus our Righteousness.
Jesus is the “Holy One [Kadosh] of Israel [the believers]” (Ps. 71:22). He expects His saints or holy ones to meet with the Holy One, El Elyon (the Most High God), on His holy day. As we shall see, Makkadesh (or Mekaddishkhem, the Eternal our Sanctifier) sets us apart to be especially holy as we keep His sign between Him and His people (Ex. 31:13). The only other place where this name is used refers to God sanctifying us as we keep His statutes (Lev. 20:8). In the sequel we shall see that the annual Sabbaths and the laying down of long term burdens to Jesus on the new moons represent statutes of the fourth commandment (II Chron. 2:4).
Another of God’s names that applies to the Sabbath is Kannah, Jealous. As the church has unwittingly done today, Israel had made covenant with Baal instead of “the [Eternal], whose name is Jealous…” (Ex. 34:14). Respected prophets of God have come against the modern marriage of the church to Baal. They do not yet, however, understand that church as a who has been keeping the feasts of Baal without realizing it. Halloween is only one example. The others explained in the sequel may surprise you.
Jesus is a faithful Bridegroom who is jealous over His bride. He wants her to worship only Him on His day. He doesn’t like being stood up on His weekly date with His beloved. Through this book we believe He is beginning to woo His bride, weaning her from the day of Baal back to Him in Sabbath intimacy with the Bridegroom (Hos. 2:14-20).
While Baal is referred to as El-berith, the god of the covenant (Judges 9:46), that is a name that should apply to Jesus. When we keep a day other than the day He commands, we are in ignorance for the most part making a covenant with another god. We are in all sincerity breaking the very first covenant God made with man and thus sabotaging all the others. While not going against our free will, Jesus is jealous over us.
Jesus fights for us. He is called Ish Milchamah (Man of War; Ex. 15:3) and El Gibbor, the Mighty God, the Victorious or Mighty Warrior (Isa. 9:5-6; 10:21; Zeph. 3:17).
But will Jesus give His all for those who do not see Him as their Protection (Deut. 32:38, Sithrah) and Hiding Place (Sether, Ps. 32:7) in whom they rest on the Sabbath? In a great chapter to look for names of God, Moses spoke prophetic words even for the church today (Deut. 32:36-39). Jesus will indeed have compassion on His people when He sees their strength is gone trying to rest in the day He did not bless. Finally they will seek Jesus as their “hiding place.”
Jesus wants us by His side, learning from Him on His day. After all, He is King of Kings and High Priest. He wants to train us as kings and priests under Him on the day of the Kingdom. As Shepherd of the Sheep, He wants the sheep to show up when He calls them to assemble. As the Bishop and Guardian of our souls, He wants to renew our souls on the Sabbath, the day of refreshing. As Daystar and light of the World, He wants to shine the light of His truth on us every Sabbath.
How can Jesus be the Chief Cornerstone of the building that is the church if the church does not present themselves as lively stones on the Sabbath day to be built up spiritually? As the Firstborn and as our Elder Brother, would He not expect fellowship with His brothers and sisters when He calls them to meet with Him? He is Head of the Body. He must ask sometimes, “Where is My body?”
Restorer of Body and Soul
He is the Great Physician and the Sabbath is His healing day par excellence. He wants His people to come to Him for healing of soul and body on His day of healing. He is our Rock of Defense and Stability in the storms of life, and we need the strength and support He gives us to face the tempest of another week.
As Author and Finisher of our Faith, He wants to build up our faith through the Sabbath manna of His Word. As the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world for us, He wants us to remember the Sabbath in the redemptive sense: His blood brought us out of our spiritual “Egypt” of sin (Deut. 5:15). As Emmanuel, God with us, He wants to be with us and us with Him on His day.
As our Burden-bearer, He wants us to lay on Him at the beginning of each Sabbath our weekly load of cares and problems so we can come and rejoice with Him. His joy is our strength. That phrase was written in the context of an annual Sabbath celebration (Neh. 8:10). Our Sabbath songs of joy and our fellowship with God and our spiritual siblings renew our joy and strength in Jesus for the coming week.
Let’s Get Personal
God’s personal names carry great power and anointing and produce intimacy. While elder Brother Jesus sometimes plays the role of Father, our Father Love, Agape, Abba, is called the Father of glory and of lights, Father of the fatherless, Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He is the Ancient of Days, and His Fatherhood supercedes the fatherly aspect of Jesus: “Is not He your Father who has bought (kanah or qanah) you? He has made you and established (kuhn) you (Deut. 32:6).”
The conceptual meanings of kanah as used in this verse are manifold: procure, buy back; been jealous for you; recovered you from a worthless holder (death and Satan); made a plan for your life; given you a destiny; appointed you a time to exist in a certain place; planned for you; gave you authority; caused course corrections in your life so you could come to Him; assigned a program for you; enabled you to walk with Him; hindered your destroyer; given His Son’s life as surety for yours.
This same Hebrew word, also the word for jealous, is used when Jesus as Melchizedek refers to the Father as “God Most High, Possessor [Kanah] of heaven and earth” (Gen. 14:19). The conceptual meaning in this context is: create a contract for ownership; take away from one not qualified (Satan); receive from a worthless owner; redeem for a rightful owner; redeem in truth.
Melchizedek was one of Jesus’ names. It means King of Righteousness. Jesus in that human form was King of the city of Salem, peace, wholeness or perfection. Jerusalem was thus prophesied to be the city of the perfect King of Peace. Abraham added to the name Salem by declaring Mount Moriah to be called Yehovah Yireh, thus the Yeru or Jeru of Jerusalem. Yireh means “see” or “vision.” So the city and Jesus Himself are referred to as our Jerusalem, our vision of peace and perfection. The world will only know Shabbat shalom when Jesus returns to rule the world in peace from Jerusalem. He is the King of shalom for all our affairs and our Vision and Hope of Peace for the future.
“Your Father who bought you” is also “your Father who established you” (Deut. 32:6). The word is kuhn and includes: abide in you; gives you clarity of mind; continues with you through all trials; lifts you up; pitches a tent around you; raises His arm to defend you; becomes stirred up over you; causes you to succeed and upholds your righteousness; strengthens you.
While one description in the following verse applies more specifically to Jesus, praise to all members of the Godhead is evident: “For the [Eternal] your God is the God of gods and the [Divine Master over all masters], the great, the mighty, and the awesome God…” (Deut. 10:17).
The humble Holy Spirit, who inspired the Word of God, did not give us many of His personal names. He loves to shine the spotlight on Jesus and the Father. He nonetheless does give us a few of His names: Counselor; Comforter; Baptizer; Advocate; Strengthener; Sanctifier; Paraclete or Encourager; Teacher; Guide; Spirit of Truth, of Grace, of Mercy, of God, of Life.
Books could be written about the names of God. If you “google” the phrase “names of God,” you will discover some of the many names of our God.
God’s Names Come Alive in the Sabbath
When Jesus poured Himself into the Sabbath day, He had to include all of who He is — represented by His names. Without the understanding of those names as they relate to the Sabbath, we cannot truly know the real Jesus.
We are granted greater understanding and power to use God’s names as we keep the Sabbath. His names inevitably tie in with the meaning of the Sabbath. The shalom and sanctification we find in the Sabbath enable us to see Jesus as He really is (Heb. 12:14). As Hagar explained it and as God recorded it, “You are a God who sees [El Roi].” She named the well where she encountered Jesus as Beer-lahai-roi, well of the Living One who sees me. The implication is that God opens our eyes to see Him in His fullness and know His Word, which can only occur completely in the context of meeting with Jesus on His day (Col. 2:3).
As our Sabbath and as Divine Master of that day, Jesus has become a Stumbling Block to many, especially the believers. The good news is: you don’t have to stumble anymore.
The encouraging truth is that God is not a harsh, cruel God who loves to find us at fault so He can crush us. He is Love (I John 4:8). And He is, as I know well personally, Eloah Selichot, the God of Forgiveness (Neh. 9:17). He forgives us for being deceived about His day. The Good Shepherd welcomes us into the green pastures of Sabbath rest.
