Sermon Central
-
Lord Of Hosts Series
Contributed by Rick Stacy on Nov 23, 2003 (message contributor)
Summary: 4th in serices. Lord of Hosts - Yahweh Sabaoth is a God who is not easy to ignore... although many try
The Many Names of God help us see God…
We are gaining an image of God through his many names…
Yahweh – God’s First Name
Personal and omniscient and omnipresent
We get a sense of his presence and participation in our lives
El Elyon – God Most High
From El Elyon we get a sense of his worthiness as a focus of our lives. He is worthy of our time. He is worthy of our service. He is the only real source of our blessings. He is worthy to be worshiped.
El Shaddai – God Almighty
As El Shaddai, He is our All-sufficient God
No matter what our circumstances – he is there to take care of us. He guided Abraham. He took care of Naomi and Job. He will take care of you and me.
Today we learn of another name of God – Yahweh Sabaoth
Yahweh Sabaoth is a God who is not easy to ignore... although many try
Lots of people try to ignore God, either by the diminishment of His presence or by the outright denial of his existence. This week we’re going to learn about a name of God that reveals a part of his nature that is tough to disregard - and in the end will not be ignored.
God is the head of a great army of heavenly host. The world has never seen a conqueror like him. There has never been a king, an emperor, a dictator, potentate, general, or marshal like him. He leads angels more numerous than can be counted. They act at his word. They live to serve and save human kind.
When you experience God the result is that you become a new creature, renewed, cleansed, forgiven and purified. You become one of His Holy ones. It’s not easy to ignore such a God.
Yahweh Sabaoth – Lord of Hosts
I want you to get a picture of God in your head that is most likely quite different than any of the pictures you currently have
Some picture God as a tired old man that is passively watching the world go by.
Some see God as a sweet kind of Santa Clause than hands out treats on request – if we’ve been good!
Some see God as a mythological figure that only the intellectually deficient hold onto because they just don’t know better.
When you understand that God, “Yahweh Sabaoth”, The Lord of Hosts you get a whole new picture of God.
It is an image of unlimited power, unbridled might, and untarnished glory.
He is impossible to describe and incredible to imagine.
Lord of Hosts
Isaiah 6:1-3 (The Message)
6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Master sitting on a throne—high, exalted!—and the train of his robes filled the Temple. Angel-seraphs hovered above him, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew.” And they called back and forth one to the other,
Holy, Holy, Holy is GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies.
His bright glory fills the whole earth.
Yahweh Sabaoth – God of Hosts
Yahweh Sabaoth. This compound name, ‘Lord of Hosts,’ which occurs 279 times in the Old Testament, depicts God as the commander of armies. Originating in holy war, the expression became a polemic against astral cults: Yahweh rules the heavenly armies. The name was eventually understood as a plural of intensity, ‘Lord Almighty,’ thus neutralizing the existence of the celestial gods.
Sabaoth — the transliteration of the Hebrew word tsebha ‘oth, meaning “hosts,” “armies” (Rom. 9:29; James 5:4). In the LXX. the Hebrew word is rendered by “Almighty.” (See Rev. 4:8; comp. Isa. 6:3.) It may designate Jehovah as either (1) God of the armies of earth, or (2) God of the armies of the stars, or (3) God of the unseen armies of angels; or perhaps it may include all these ideas.
The Heavenly Hosts
The hosts referred to seem to be the celestial beings we call angels. These servants of God are real spiritual beings who cruise the world doing His work.
The “Hosts” of the Lord are not seen
2 Kings 6:16-17 (NCV)
16 Elisha said, “Don’t be afraid. The army that fights for us is larger than the one against us.”
17 Then Elisha prayed, “LORD, open my servant’s eyes, and let him see.”
The LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
We are spiritual beings poured into physical containers in a finite existence…
It limits our vision…
We simply cannot see the full spectrum of all that there is. It is no different that the light waves our eyes can detect vs. the ultra-violet and infrared waves that we cannot see.
