JEHOVAH SABAOTH - The Lord of Hosts!

Baruch Ha Shem Adonai!
(Blessed be the Name of the Lord!)

This is the ninth in The CRIB's presentation of the Twelve Jewels of God ... a look at the wonderful, powerful, inspirational names of God.

The name before us is Jehovah Sabaoth, "The Lord of Hosts"; I believe this is the name Christ Himself referred to in Matthew 9:37, 38 (below; see also Luke 10:2), where He called upon the people to "pray to the Lord of the Harvest," where harvesting of souls and Jehovah Sabaoth are related (cf. James 5:4).

Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."

Are there any of us who've not felt overwhelmed by the trials of daily life? We see our enemy camped in the hills around us and we feel as if we're doomed. What we need is someone to deliver us from our hopelessness.

Then we remember the Commander of the Lord's Army promised to be with us even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20); O how that is a balm to the soul and spirit. This the none other than Jehovah Sabaoth - the LORD of the Armies of God!

Martin Luther wrote the following lyrics over about 500 years ago; the words of our hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God."

Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God's own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth is His name,
From age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

Noah knew this God, Abraham knew this God, Job knew this God, Joseph knew this God, Joshua and Caleb knew this God, Gideon knew this God, David knew this God, Nehemiah knew this God, Jeremiah knew this God ... as did all the prophets of God from Enoch to John the Baptizer.

The Hebrew for "host" is tsaba. Depending on the version you use, host is used about 400 times; most uses have something to do with warfare, armies or fighting. Generally, "host" describes a large body of men (e. g., army), angels (good or bad), or physical stars.

Whatever "host" means in any given verse, the important thing to recall is ultimately Jehovah is Lord over every and any host. This is the strong tower into which we may run, as a sovereign protector ... Jehovah Sabaoth a great comfort, a great reassurance.

OLD TESTAMENT USEAGE
Jehovah and Elohim occur with Sabaoth over 200 times; it is most frequently used by the prophets Jeremiah (5) and Isaiah (13).

Jehovah Sabaoth is first used in 1 Samuel 1:3 (see below), during a time of spiritual darkness in the land of Israel, a time of transition from wilderness wandering to building a theocratic kingdom.

And this man went up out of his city from year to year to worship and to sacrifice unto Jehovah of hosts in Shiloh.

1 Samuel 1:3

She made a vow and said, "O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on his head."

1 Samuel 1:11

Sabaoth (se bâ'ôt) means "armies" or "hosts." Jehovah Sabaoth can be translated as "The Lord of Armies." This name denotes His universal sovereignty over every army, both spiritual and earthly. The Lord of Hosts is the king of all heaven and earth. (Psalm 24:9-10; 84:3; Isaiah 6:5).

David said to Goliath, "I come to you in the name of the LORD of Hosts you ugly heathen, when He's through with you all of Israel will know how He delivers, for the battle is His, and He will give you to me!"

1 Samuel 17:45-47 [my paraphrase]

Here Jehovah Sabaoth's divinity and worthiness are pictured.

Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.

Isaiah 6:3

In the following God is seen as a warrior leader, a protector and savior. Pictured here is not a squad leader or a platoon leader; here is the Chief of Staff, the head honcho, the Big Guy!

For thus says the LORD to me, "As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey, against which a band of shepherds is called out and he will not be terrified at their voice nor disturbed at their noise, so will the LORD of hosts come down to wage war on Mt. Zion and on its hill. Like flying birds so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will passover (paach) and rescue it."

Isaiah 31:4, 5

God never misses an opportunity to drop a link to another passage of His; the Hebrew pacach points to the "Passover" prior to the Exodus.

Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: "I am the first and I am the last and there is no God besides Me."

Isaiah 44:6

Amos suggests God's attributes of creative sovereignty, omniscience, and omnipotence are implied by the majestic name, Jehovah Sabaoth.

For behold, He Who forms mountains & creates the wind & declares to man what are His thoughts, He Who makes dawn into darkness & treads on the high places of the earth, the LORD God of hosts [Sabaoth] is His name.

Amos 4:13

Haggai associates the name with a recurring theme in the first chapter ...

Thus says the LORD of hosts, "CONSIDER YOUR WAYS!"

Haggai 1:5,7

NEW TESTAMENT USEAGE
Aside from the two allusions to the Lord of the Harvest in the Synoptic Gospels the useage is minimal ...

And just as Isaiah foretold, "UNLESS THE LORD OF SABAOTH HAD LEFT TO US A POSTERITY, WE WOULD HAVE BECOME LIKE SODOM, AND WOULD HAVE RESEMBLED GOMORRAH."

Romans 9:29

Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

James 5:4

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

Revelation 22:13 (cp. Isaiah 44:6)

Comparing Scripture with Scripture we find Jesus identifies Himself as "the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the last." This clearly parallels the Isaiah passage. So Jesus is our Jehovah Sabaoth ... someone should let the Jehovah's Witnesses know.

David offered this as a consolation for all generations:

God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change
And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;
Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.
The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered; He raised His voice, the earth melted.
The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.

Come; behold the works of the LORD,
Who has wrought desolations in the earth.
He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
He burns the chariots with fire.
"Cease striving and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth."
The LORD of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.

Psalm 46

To summarize, the LORD of hosts, Jehovah Sabaoth, is the name of God used in Scripture when we reach the end of our rope, so to speak. Jehovah Sabaoth is the Strong Tower which God has made available for those times when we fail and feel powerless, when our resources are exhausted, when there's no other help.

Jehovah Sabaoth is God’s Name for man’s extremity, those times when we have reached our end, finding ourselves impotent, in turmoil, embroiled in real spiritual warfare & with no other source of help. So meditate deeply on the truth revealed in the magnificent, sufficient Name of Jehovah Sabaoth