Name of God - Jehovah-Go’el: Redeeming God
Jehovah-Go’el: Redeeming God
Daily Verse: “I will feed your enemies with their own flesh. They will be drunk with rivers of their own blood. All the world will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel.”
☆ Isaiah 49:26 NLT
Let's Talk About It: Before we dive deeper, I would like to share what I’ve come to learn when studying the names of God. I’ve read through many credible sources on the topic of Jehovah and YHWH and which is the true name of God. Not wanting to go too deep at this time, I will first tell you that the statement I’m about to share is the most agreed upon by scholars and theologians concerning the name Jehovah and YHWH.
In a previous post, I mentioned how it is forbidden for Jews to say what they believe to be God’s true name or to even write it. Adding to that, quoting from Wycliffe Bible Dictionary and the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, the Hebrews came to avoid pronouncing the tetragrammaton (four-letter name) YHWH and substituted ‘Adonai’. In recent centuries, Jehovah (an artificial English reconstruction of the Hebrew YHWH) has often served as the equivalent of Yahweh in English literature, hymnody, and Bible translations.
Hebrew text shows the evidence of scribe’s efforts to prevent others from pronouncing the divine name by combining consonants of Yahweh and vowels of Hebrew word ‘adonai’ (Lord) so readers would pronounce ‘adonai’ rather than risk blasphemy by improperly pronouncing the divine name. The Names that Crystal and I post will occasionally have the English translation, nevertheless, the meaning is still synonymous.
In today’s verse, God is speaking to His people about the affliction they have suffered. He calls Himself by the name Redeemer. If we look in previous chapters, Isaiah 47:4; 48:17 HCSB, we see Isaiah talking to God’s people and referring to/calling God by the name Jehovah- Gō’ēl “Redeemer” in English translation). In Isaiah 49:26, God is speaking to the people and letting them know who it is that’s speaking to them.
He does this by mentioning the name that they know Him by while at the same time reassuring them of what He can and will do (for His namesake). Redeem means to pay a price to guarantee the release of something or someone. Wycliffe Bible Dictionary states that there is only one Hebrew word that is translated as “redeemer” in the KJV…gō’ēl.This word means “kinsman-redeemer”. It is used to refer to the actions by which a person or property were bought back or restored from isolation to the rightful person, position, or relationship.
Back in 2003, I was given orders to attend a required course due to a promotion. At the time, I was on a combat deployment. An incident happened, while I was going through the course, that was out of my control. I notified my supervisor and he informed me not to worry. Well, he lied to the commander of the school, without me knowing at the time, to cover for me (I guess he thought the lie would be easier to accept than the truth). The next day I was called into the commander’s office with my supervisor. The only problem was that my supervisor was conveniently unavailable so someone I didn’t know stood in his place.
The commander said he checked out “my story” and had found it out to be a lie. After being scolded and not being able to tell him what actually happened, I was kicked out of the course. I was sent back to my deployed unit, demoted, and assigned to another company (that was also deployed) within the Battalion’s area of operation. Humiliated and extremely sad, I continued to serve the best I could and did not let the situation get the best of me.
A little over a year later I received not only my rank back and section leader status, I also had an even stronger brotherhood bond with the soldiers and command in the new unit than I had in my previous unit. This is one of many times, God has redeemed me. I can say that I join with Isaiah in knowing God as Jehovah- Gō’ēl. Do you have a situation in your life where now you know and can call our Heavenly Father, Jehovah-Go’el…Redeeming God? – Kevin