אֵ֥ל עוֹלָֽם – El Olam

Alex Chew

Names of God • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

Isaiah 40:28–31

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MPP : We can trust in the God because of his eternality

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Sermon Title : אֵ֥ל עוֹלָֽם – El Olam

Occasion : English Sanctuary Service

Location : Paya Lebar Methodist Sanctuary

MPP : We can trust in the God because of his eternality

<pray>

Good morning/afternoon,

A few months ago, I attended a Christian men’s retreat that was organised by the Methodist Church called the Emmaus Walk…

How I found myself there is another story all of its own and perhaps I’ll share that story some other time… but not today…

The point is that at the retreat,

most of the attendees do not know each other,

since we came from the various Methodist churches in Singapore…

So, when we were gathered into groups,

One of the first things we did was to chit-chat

To try to get to know each other a little more…

And I’m not sure whether you have the same experience as me…

But when you put a bunch of Singaporean men together who are not familiar with one another,

but forced to talk to one another,

we will try to look for something common to talk about…

For Christians, other than sharing their names, the ministries they are serving in,

The conversation will almost indivertibly go back to an experience that every Singaporean Son born after 1949 would go through…

That’s right…

National Service… NS…

Almost every conversation that a group of Singaporean males engage in when you don’t know what to say, other than politics of course…

Will end up in a discussion on their NS experience…

This is true no matter where you are in the world,

Or your background…

No matter whether you’re in London or Lausanne,

Hawaii or Hong Kong,

Even in Timbuktu

It is the same…

after exchanging names,

and occupations,

How bad the weather is,

It will end up about how bad your sergeant is for making you do stand-by bed…

How you had to starch your uniforms until it could be placed upright without support…

How you had to be confined over the weekend because your rifle wasn’t clean enough…

Well, the point is this was exactly what happened at the retreat as well…

And one of the things we talked about was how instructional methods have evolved over the years,

Specifically, with regard to how new recruits were taught to swim…

One of the more senior members of our group

(let’s call him Boon) said

“you know ah… you guys have it so good nowadays…

Nowadays there’s so much emphasis on safety and lesson plans…

Everything is so well planned out…

Do you know what was swimming lesson like for us or not?

We will be divided into two groups…

The swimmers and the non-swimmers…

Turning to the swimmers the instructor will say ‘ok… you whole lot go ahead and swim 20 laps then when you’re done, you guys can go for canteen break…’

Then he will turn to the non-swimmers like Boon,

He said ‘ok… you all jump into the pool now’

Boon then said he and the rest of the recruits started walking towards the shallow end of the pool…

To which the instructor say…

‘no lah… jump in here…’

‘Here?’ <B>

‘yes, here…’ <I>

‘but we can’t swim’ <B>

‘that’s why you need to jump in’ <I>

Boon then shared with us that obviously it didn’t make sense to him…

But as you know lah…

In the earlier days, we all recruits don’t ask questions one…

Instructor say jump, we jump first then think later…

So that’s what happened…

Boon was asked to jump… he jumped…

And into the pool they went and because they all couldn’t swim, they were all struggling…

Then what happened?

The instructor threw a rope to them…

Wah… at least this instructor has a heart…

At least this instructor was able to pull the rope to safety…

So Boon grabbed the rope desperately,

And pulled on the rope…

He pulled and he pulled

And you know what happened?

<pause>

Before he knew, he realised that he was holding on to the end of the rope…

<pause>

The rope wasn’t tied to anything or held on by anyone…

The rope was just that… a rope…

To someone struggling to stay afloat in the water… it was quite useless…

The rope was finite and wasn’t connected to anything else…

And with the finiteness of the rope, accordingly, there was a finiteness of the hope, and dependability…

The rope was only an illusion of safety and dependability…

Well, in case you need closure from the story,

Boon managed to get to the side of the pool eventually and eventually climbed out of the pool gasping and coughing…

At least point of time, I would like to assure you two things…

One is that the standard and methodology of military training for our recruits had improved leaps and bounds since then…

No more Hokkien 兵instructors…

So parents… 放心 (don’t worry)

And the second is that there is a point in this story…

Which is that unlike a finite entity like the rope that is truly unreliable,

And really an illusion…

Our God is an infinite and eternal being…

And it is this nature of God as revealed to us through His name as

אֵ֥ל עוֹלָֽם (El Olam) Eternal God

That we are going to focus on today…

And to help guide our meditation this morning, let us now turn to Isaiah 40:28-31

and let us read these few verses together:

“Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God (אֱלֹהֵ֨י עוֹלָ֤ם [Elo-he-Olam]),

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

his understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. E

ven youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;

but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:28–31, ESV)

You know, the last time I had to spend a lot of time, trying to explain what the four letters יהוה was…

But thankfully, the word אֵ֥ל here is a lot easier to explain and I need only 2 sentences…

1. It is the shortened form of the word אֱלֹהִים (Elohim)

2. אֱלֹהִים (Elohim) simply means a divine being or god and hence is a generic name of God, and is not a specific name of יהוה (YHWH); so the Israelites were a lot liberated to keep the exact pronunciation of it, which allows us to be full confidence on what it means and how to pronounce it – which means our banners and the songs we sing using the words Elohim are accurate and there is no need to change banners and keychains and all…

Two sentences as promised…

That was the explanation for El…

But because Elohim is such a simple and generic word, it needs a qualifier,

Something to elaborate on what this El is…

which is what the word עוֹלָ֤ם (Olam) is and this is what we are going to explore for the rest of the sermon…

The word Olam עוֹלָ֤ם being a Hebrew word appears in the Old Testament 438 times, and is quite evenly spread out across the entire OT…

And the translation for the word in the NIV while varied,

Have relatively consistent meaning,

Namely being something that is there for a long period of time…

And the words used to translate it includes “everlasting, forever, perpetual, enduring…”

So when it is used to describe God, as it is used in the name El Olam,

It is describing God as the one who has been, is, and will be…

Unlike the rope that has a finite end,

God does not have a finite end…

He is the great constant in our lives…

And the first aspect about God’s eternal nature that we want to look into

Is that he had always been there…

He is the uncreated creator….

This was can see in verse 28b of our text today which reads

“The Lord is the everlasting God (אֱלֹהֵ֨י עוֹלָ֤ם), the Creator of all the earth.” (Isaiah 40:28, NLT)

This brings out the fact that our God and our world is not a cosmic accident and happened by chance…

Our God had always been there,

Wasn’t made the king of the cosmos because he had to fight a battle against evil and dark forces and win…

He was simply always been there…

And why is this significant?

Well, like how I explained to you the last time I spoke,

There are many prevalent worldviews and their versions of how the world began…

One prevalent worldview is that the world was actually quite chaotic,

And the current ruler was not the natural ruler but is just one of the many gods or deities out there…

it is after a cosmic battle that one person emerges victorious and hence becomes the legitimate ruler of the cosmic council and hence the god king…

another prevalent worldview of how the world began was simply to ignore the need to explain or to be definitive beginning…

And how this worldview tries to explain the world as it is,

Is that there is this cosmic energy that transcends everything…

And everything basically is essentially an energy source…

Everything you do is the result of something that was done before,

And everything you do will have an impact on you in the future…

So, in this worldview, after you die,

You don’t really die, but the various components of you just disintegrates for a short period of time,

But because of your actions, the various components come back again,

Perhaps in a different form, perhaps in a different personality,

in a different realm,

But it is still you…

And this form that you take in the next life,

and the realm you end up is inevitable,

and cannot be intervened by anything…

because it is like a perpetual machinery that started so long ago that no one can trace back…

but it will ultimately determine your destiny and deities are not able to do anything about it…

but whether there was a definitive causal event for this perpetuality of destiny,

the worldview refuses to address…

Now these are two worldviews that are still held by people today…

And friends,

This is not our God…

By the fact that our God declares himself as the El-Olam,

The one who not only was there in the beginning,

But had always been there, the everlasting God that is the uncreated creator…

In other words, the one who was not created by anyone or anything,

And yet created all things,

Means that unlike the first worldview we just visited recently,

In which the cosmic rulership came by virtue of him winning a battle, fighting a battle,

Our God has always been the rightful ruler of the world,

And it is not bound by circumstances or by happy coincidence or confluence of events and circumstances…

You see,

If our God is really like what was depicted in the first worldview,

Can you imagine how scary it is?

It is like our human kingdoms and empires that rise and fall,

Subject to how the battles and wits of the ruler turn out…

But it is never stable, never permanent…

As long as there is someone else who by the turn of events were able to temporarily have the upper hand, than the incumbent ruler wouldn’t be able to rule anymore…

And no matter how good the current king is,

No matter how kind hearted and loving the king is,

The policies is subject to change…

Because with the change of leadership,

The promises of the previous leadership are no longer valid…

It is just like the rope in the beginning of the sermon,

No matter how comforting the rope was to Boon in the pool,

It was finite, and with its finiteness, the hope was equally finite…

But our God is not like that…

When God said that he is the everlasting God, the creator of heaven and earth,

He had always been there in the beginning,

and with him, his promises have always been there and will always been there…

And this is captured in this what is called the Nicene Creed that many churches still recite and proclaim the truth therein,

Namely the part that says

“We [I] believe in ONE GOD THE FATHER Almighty,

Maker of heaven and earth,

And of all things visible and invisible.”[1]

And this my friends is significant because he is the original cause of all things…

And because of that, he is not subject to anyone or anything…

He is the one that seats firmly on the throne and does not need to answer to anyone or anything but himself…

This is captured in Exodus 15:18 which says

“The Lord reigns for ever and ever.” (Exodus 15:18, NIV)

And again in Psalms 10:16 which says

“The Lord is King for ever and ever; the nations will perish from his land.” (Psalm 10:16, NIV)

And because of that, we have the full assurance that since God is on our side,

There is nothing we need to fear…

And this, we read in Romans 8:38-39

“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38–39, NLT)

That’s what we meant when we read the Nicene Creed…

Which is when God creates things seen and unseen,

Seen of which refers to the world,

And unseen refers to angels and demons

and the assurance friends,

is that our God stands above all these things…

and Colossians 2:10 tells us that he is

““who is the head of all rule and authority.” (Colossians 2:10, ESV)

And again in Col 2:15

“He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” (Colossians 2:15, ESV)

And the epistle goes on to tell us in verses 12 to 13…

That we who are believers of the risen Lord Jesus Christ,

Who had always been there and was there in the beginning,

That just as Jesus had been raised from the dead,

We have been raised from our death,

Had been and can continue to be liberated from the sin and death

Because our God is the supreme and undeniably ruler over the entire universe…

Of all things seen and unseen,

The uncreated creator who is not subject to anyone or anything

The El-Olam…

The God that was there in the eternity past…

And because of His credentials,

When He said and declared His love for you,

It cannot be taken away from you…

So my first point today is to:

1. Rest upon the Supremacy of El-Olam – our Eternal God

So friends, no matter how bleak your future looks…

No matter how dark the clouds are upon the horizon…

No matter how bad the economy is…

Do not uncertain your future looks…

Despite losing that contract, despite losing that deal…

Despite failing that test, despite losing that friend…

Despite losing that job…

Your future is still secured in the hand our eternal God…

Find peace in the fact that our God is the supreme and unshakable rock in our lives,

And all powers and authorities are subordinate to him…

Rest upon the supremacy of our eternal God…

Well, now that we know our God is supreme…

And will always be so,

But there is another aspect of El-Olam that goes beyond this idea of God being there for a long period of time and hence is there first and hence supreme over all things…

It is this idea of perpetuality or unchangeability of God,

Or to use a theological term, this is called the immutability of God…

That his nature never changes…

And this is because of time as we know it and eternity are in reality contradictory concepts that shouldn’t exist together…

True eternity, according to one of the greatest Christian minds – Thomas Aquinas – cannot be measured by time,

For things that are “measured by time… have a beginning and an end in time, [and] in everything which is moved there is a beginning, and there is an end…

But because [true] eternity is indeterminate (i.e. cannot be defined or established) [and true] eternity has no succession” it cannot be meaningfully measured by time…

And because God is a true eternal being, that “is his own uniform being” and “is of own eternity, not subject to any duration but his own… as is his own essence”

Cheem?

Let me try to simplify…

Eternity is not really a time period… it is a concept…

And as soon as we start to think of the duration of eternity using our own human finite minds,

We would be totally off in our understanding of eternity and the closest thing I can think of when I think of the mathematical concept of infinity…

And what is the concept of infinity?

It is a theoretical number that is so big that it cannot be represented by number because as soon as you can think of a number, you can multiply it by number with 100 zeros, can continue doing it and still not come close to the theoretical number…

So you stop trying to represent infinity with a number, but just accept that there exists this theoretical number and understand that there is nothing that can really manipulate it but itself…

And there is this illustration by Hendrick Van Loon to try to explain what eternity is that goes something like this…

“It is 100 miles high and 100 miles wide. Once every 1000 years a little bird comes to this rock to sharpen its beak. When the rock has thus been worn away, [not even] a single day of eternity [has] gone by.”[2]

I guess I can continue to try to explain what eternity is, but I think I’ll take forever…

But the point is that the eternality is a concept so abstract,

So indeterminate…

So inconceivable,

No one is able to come close to understanding it but God Himself…

And why we are unable to understand it is because while we are in this nature of ours,

We are bound by finiteness of space and time,

Bond by finiteness of space meaning we cannot be at two places at the same time…

Bond by finiteness of time meaning we are bound by the linearity of time…

No matter how much moisturizer you put on your skin, or how much SK-II or Korean and Japanese skin product,

You cannot grow younger or go back in time…

We are bound to proceed forward in time…

But not God…

He is not bound by time as we are…

He has an omni-simultaneousness nature…

Omni meaning all…

Simultaneous meaning at the same time…

In other words, God is at the same time being at all time…

God is not bound by the rules of time as we are and hence he is timeless and transcendent (existing apart from and not subject to the limitations of the material universe),[3] being outside and without the influence of time…

And because he is timeless and transcendent,

He is not subject to influences of time as we are that makes us change our minds and vacillate in our decisions and character…

He is unchanging in His nature and in His character, which includes his essence, purposes, and promises[4]

This we read in Malachi 3:6 that says

““I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.” (Malachi 3:6, NIV)

And again in 1 Samuel 15:29 which says

“He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.”” (1 Samuel 15:29, NIV)

Or even in the New Testament, James 1:17 which says

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17, NIV)

Once again, it is Thomas Aquinas that explains s beautifully,

"The idea of eternity follows immutability, as the idea of time follows movement, as appears from the preceding article. Hence, as God is supremely immutable, it supremely belongs to Him to be eternal."[5]

Because our God is eternal – El Olam,

He is unchangeable as well…

And because He is eternal and unchangeable, His promises and covenant he has with us are also likewise eternal and unchangeable…

And with that we can take great comfort for while his unchanging nature means He is constant in His wrath against sin, He is equally constant in His forgiveness in response to faith and repentance.

His unchanging and constant nature grants us the assurance that “He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion”.

For while we have not yet achieved perfection,

For we are bound by time and space,

We can rest assure in God’s unchanging and nature that is not bounded by time who will constantly work with us towards perfection…

And in a world that is in constant change, the believer finds peace in a God who does not change, knowing that truth and values are grounded in the nature and character of an unchanging God.[6]

So, my second point for today based on the eternality of God – El Olam, is that we can

2. Rest upon the consistency of El-Olam – Our Eternal God

Friends, now that we’ve covered God’s supremacy and consistency based on His eternality,

I would like to cover just one more aspect that we can learn about God from this name…

And to do that, we would need to revisit the other worldview that we explored just now…

Which was how there is this idea of how everything we do is already pre-determined and how everything we do will continue to determine our future and even our future lives…

And in this worldview, even the deities and gods are unable to do anything about it…

Well, I’ve already covered the fact that our God is the uncreated creator,

Which means he is the Supreme being and hence all things are subject to him…

This covers the ability aspect part of it…

But is he even interested in us?

Or is the worldview accurate in depicting god as one who builds a machine sets it up,

get it going and then stop caring about it…

perhaps a good illustration is like a kid with an ant farm…

is our God like that?

Well, in verse 29 of our passage today,

We read of a God who is very much involved in the life of His beloved…

Listen to this…

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” (Isaiah 40:29, NIV)

Or in the Message version, this is what is written:

“He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts.” (Isaiah 40:29, The Message)

What a picture of direct intervention in our lives…

And this is even more amazing is in point two, we learnt that God is outside of time and space…

He is timeless and transcendent…

Meaning he exists outside our time-space domain…

Yet, the amazing thing is that he chose to subject himself into the timeliness and human limitations and bridged the divide between the eternal and the finite…

He allowed himself, the eternal God, the El-Olam to be finite…

And he did that through the incarnation of His son, Jesus Christ

And that is a reality that few of us can really appreciate and understand…

That is one aspect of the true reality of the miracle of the incarnation…

Once again, referring to the amazing works of Thomas Aquinas,

He said in latin “non sunt mensurae unius generis”[7]

Which means roughly, “Eternity… would lose its character as eternal in the very entering into relations with the changeful or becoming.”[8]

Yet, God did precisely that…

He chose to give up his eternality nature and subject himself to finite nature…

He who is perfect, took the form of imperfection…

He who is supreme over all, came down and subject himself to the inhumane torture of his creation…

He who is the life-giver, chose to subject himself to death on the cross…

He who is knew no sin, became sin for us so that we might come to know him…

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NIV)

He was the one that mediated for us, and was the intercessor…

The worldview just now was right in that we were so helplessly lost that we were destined for hell…

It was perhaps even right in the fact that the forces of the world is so strong that many cosmic beings were subject to the forces of destiny…

But it was deadly wrong in the fact that the forces of the world is not above God…

At least not above our God…

Who is the author and creator of our faith and salvation…

The one who is able to and is willing to bridge the gap between the infinite and eternal with the us, finite and the fragile…

3. Rest on the ultimate love of El-Olam – our eternal God…

Which is echoed through the entire Psalm 136,

That לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ (le-olam has-do) His love endures forever…

A love that caused him to come into our finite world to draw us back into His kingdom…

A love that draws us into a reconciliatory relationship with Him…

And that is our God…

The God of eternal in whom we can rest upon… because He is supreme, is consistent and loves us so much…

And in response, other than loving Him,

Friends, we have a mandate to share this love in whatever ways we can and to whoever we can…

And this is the call He gave to each and every one of us…

To go forth and spread the good news…

And not be the person who hid the one talent in the ground…

But be the servants who use what they had to multiple the treasures in the Kingdom of God…

And the treasures are not money my friends…

But souls…

Precious souls…

Be like the servants who had five talents who earned 5 more…

Be like the servants who had 2 talents who earned 2 more…

Go and use your talents in ways that will continue to win more souls for God…

And how we are able to do that?

Well you’re very fortunate because today, in the fellowship hall are many booths that had been set up by various mission agencies and partners which are able to provide you with information on how you can fulfil your mandate to make disciples of all nations…

And make our eternal God known to all…

There is information to help you pray for our missionaries and the work done in the various countries…

There is information to help you be involved in the various trips that are being conducted in those countries…

There is information to help you facilitate the great work done by various agencies in the world…

So go down and find our information,

And help to share with the world this wonderful God we have…

Our El-Olam…

To show them our God in whom we can rest upon because of his supremacy over all things… things visible and invisible, rest upon because of his consistency and rest upon because of his great love…

Our wonderful and eternal God…

Our El-Olam…. Amen!

[1] Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes: The History of Creeds, vol. 1 (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1878), 27.

[2] Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), 377.

[3] Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, eds., Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

[4] Walter Johnson, “Immutability of God,” ed. Chad Brand et al., Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 810.

[5] Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, n.d.).

[6] Walter Johnson, “Immutability of God,” ed. Chad Brand et al., Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 811.

[7] James Lindsay, “Eternity,” ed. James Orr et al., The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company, 1915), 1011.

[8] James Lindsay, “Eternity,” ed. James Orr et al., The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company, 1915), 1011.

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