WORD STUDY:  LORD GOD
Exodus 34:6: “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.”
Lord God: Hebrew – Jehovah El

In reading the Bible we are constantly running across the phrase “Lord God.”  This verse should give us some pause.   In this verse it states, “The Lord (Jehovah)” is The Lord God “Jehovah El.”  The repetition of the word Jehovah is important to notice.   The syntax would suggest that the word “Jehovah El”  is not a repetition of the name but is part of the series that follows.   In other words Jehovah has the following attributes: Lord God, Merciful, Gracious, Longsuffering and Abundant in Goodness and Truth.   These are all names of God.  A name in Hebrew is more than just a title it describes one attributes, what one is, it defines that person’s character, life and experience.

The ancient Jewish Sages point out some interesting things with regard to “Lord God” in the Hebrew.   The word Jehovah or “YHWH” is in a feminine form. It has the feminine ending of Qammits, Hei.  To be sure, in Hebrew, just because a word has a feminine ending it does not make it a female.  It does however, suggest that the noun that has a feminine ending, has feminine attributes.   Traditionally, we attribute the characteristics of compassion, mercy, nurturing, tender heartedness, etc. to women.
The word Elohim, which we translate as “God,” is in a masculine form.  The sages teach that when the name Jehovah is used, it is in the context of the mercy and forgiveness of God.  When the word Elohim is used it is in the context of the justice or truth of God.  When used together “Lord God” it is a reference to both.

But the sages do not stop there, because there is something much more to this.   They narrow this down to Jehovah representing mercy “chesed” and  Elohim representing truth “emet.”   Mercy and truth have a numerical value of 513.  The attributes of Jehovah, the female aspect of God and Elohim and the male aspect of God total 513.  Kalah and hatach have a numerical value of 513.  Kalah and hatach are bride and groom.  When you merge a bride and groom merge you have the two most important qualities of the Almighty.

Take the first letter of bride “Kap” and the first letter of groom “Chet” and it spells the word “ko’ah” which means strength and power.  A bride and groom put together are the strength and power of the home and church. They have the strength and power to make each other happy.   The numerical value of groom is 458.   The numerical value of “beloved of soul” is 458.  A groom loves his bride’s soul before her body.  That is why the word “kidushin” for engagement or betroth, has no real English translation or an English word that can do justice to it’s meaning, for the betrothal period is a year when the couple are actually married, but do not consummate their marriage physically.  They must first learn to love each other’s soul, before their  bodies. Kidushin has a numerical value of 470.  Kenafshekha (as your own soul) has a value of 470 which the sages believe teaches that a bride and groom must first learn to love each other’s soul before they get all feely and touchy and enter into a physical intimacy.

And so we arrive at a sort of milestone on the road to God’s heart.  We must first learn to not only know the heart of God but to love the heart of God before we can truly enter into an intimacy with Him.  In fact the Hebrew word for worship is the same word in the Ugaritic that expresses a physical intimacy between a goddess and a human man.   This may mean that we can not truly worship God until we know and love the heart of God. Until we complete our kidusihin with Him. I wonder if that is not what Jesus meant when He said we will worship God in “Spirit and in truth?”

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