A God of Power and Perfection!

I was just thumbing through my Bible this morning and found some very interesting facts that I thought were worth commenting on. Did you know that the word "God" appears 4379 times in the Bible. Also the word "Lord" appears 7738 times in the Bible. I use the New American Standard Bible so there may be some slight differences depending on which version of the Bible that you use.

As I was looking at these facts this morning (naturally I didn't do the counting but rather am depending on a "factual" portion of my Bible to give me accurate information), these two simple facts seemed to have stood out for a reason.

I learned a lot of years back in the Old Testament that the word "God" (used the very first time in Genesis 1:1 had the Hebrew translation "Elohim" which means "a God of Power"! Then Moses continued to use that Hebrew word for God throughout the first to chapters of the Bible and on up to chapter 2 verse 4 when he refers to God as "Lord God" and understood that the phrase "Lord God" carried a different meaning in the Hebrew language. The phrase "Lord God" was translated in the Hebrew language as "Jehovah Elohim" which means "a God of Power and Perfection; or a finishing God"!

These two translations seem to work perfectly through the Bible as "In the beginning" God started, with His power to create the "Heavens and Earth" and all the things in the earth. and then upon completion of His task, Moses saw fit to refer to our Father in Heaven as a "God of power and perfection, and added "a finishing God".

If you look very closely you can see that the phraseology doesn't change until after the 7th day of creation when in chapter 2 verse 3 it says, "Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." And then in verse 4 He becomes the "Lord God" (Jehovah Elohim, the God of power and perfection, a finishing God).

Why do I bring this up. A little known fact for which I am not trying to surmise some fantastic "theological" correlation but it made me think of the last time that Jesus, the Son spoke on this earth as the embodiment of a man when He said, "Father, into thy hands I commit My spirit" (Lu. 23:46). Again I am not trying to develop some GREAT THEOLOGICAL recognition for this thought only to say that it seems to be with very emotional greatness, that Jesus' last words as the God Man would be "Father"! For literally centuries God has been know in the Hebrew dialect as a "God of power and perfection, a finishing God" and here on the Cross at Calvary, Jesus sees fit to refer to this entity of the Godhead as "Father". More intimate than a "God of Power!" More explosive than a "God of power and perfection, a finishing God" but as a "Father", an intimate and close relationship that can only come from God Himself.

What I saw here was the intimate development throughout the Bible of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son and finally, as soon revealed, God the Holy Spirit.

I claim no theological basis for the above statements but rather appeal to the emotional side of mankind to look at the "Father" that Jesus saw and see Jehovah Elohim, A God of power and perfection, a "finishing" God. And as trials and troubles come your way, as they will, you can remember that Your God, had the ability to "Finish" the task.

Dave