Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
I'm not familiar with these sayings, can you please explain?
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Adonai Elohim Zebaoth may be translated as:
(Psa 69:6) Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.
(Isa 1:24) Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:
(Isa 22:5) For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.
(Isa 22:12) And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
(Isa 22:14) And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
(Jer 2:19) Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
(Jer 46:10) For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.
(Jer 49:5) Behold, I will bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts, from all those that be about thee; and ye shall be driven out every man right forth; and none shall gather up him that wandereth.
(Jer 50:25) The LORD hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.
(Jer 50:31) Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud, saith the Lord GOD of hosts: for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee.
(Amo 9:5) And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
There are more references in Isaiah, but I gave a good sample. In the verses above "Lord" is ruler or king, "GOD" is JHWH the ever-existant one, and "hosts" is, variously, His kingdom, army, family, and/or house.
* However translated or understood, it seems clear that there is a rather large multitude with Him: God is not certainly not alone.
For NT references see e.g. Matthew 16:27 "For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done."
Matthew 24:30 "And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. 31 "And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other."
Notice that Matthew 24:30 has 'glory and power', and 16:27 has 'glory and angels', i.e. the 'heavenly host(s)'. God expresses His great power through nearly unlimited mediatorial agents who obey Him. And notice that 'glory and power' in 24:30 is immediately followed by 'sending forth His angels' in v. 31. The Roman centurian recognized this and gave the analogy of his own authority under Caesar, and Jesus marvelled at his faith, and said no one in Israel had such insight (See Luke 7:7-9).
Now, some may feel I am conflating "angels" (plural) with "the power of the Spirit" (singular), and so forth. But I am merely trying to make one simple point here: God was and is not some lonely bachelor pining for a companion who understands him. To characterize the narrative thusly is to fundamentally misread the God presented to us in the pages of the Bible. Jesus didn't present God thus, nor did Moses nor the prophets. Only Lee's insight brought us this so-called revelation. I believe that it was an attempt to create novelty for the masses in order to induce them to pull out their wallets.
There is an openness in the various readings of the Trinity, and of God enthroned among the "heavenly courts", which allow a number of readings, on various levels, of what we are seeing. In other words, you can take all the references and put together various composite pictures to explain to yourself (and others) what you are seeing here through the words of scripture.
I think we were comforted by Lee's reading because a) it was simple and b) he delivered it with certainty, which dispelled any vagueness or possible contradiction. In a sense his interpretation took the inherent tension out of the story, which tension I believe is necessary for our creation of new spiritual experiences. As
alwayslearning put it well, in Lee's story God becomes "cheapened", a mere commodity, or formula, to be dispensed to us by someone's ministry (assuming we are obedient to said ministry). Just go to the meetings, loudly repeat the outlines and banners, and "go with the flow" from Big Brother in Headquarters, and you will get more God in your being.
*If you think I am conflating "armies" with "family/household" look at Abraham for example. With what army did Abraham go forth to fight the kings who had captured Lot? Genesis 14:14 calls them "318 men of his household". Yes, the narrative does make distinctions between "his trained men", "goods", "relatives", "women", and "other people" (v.16), and in all this Abraham remains "childless" (15:2), but is Abraham alone? Definitely not.