Series 2 - Lesson 3 - Annotation 4
Who or what is Jehovah, the Lord God of the Scriptures?
4. Jehovah, the Lord God of the Scriptures, is the name that is given to spiritual man, the image of God. "Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26). The Lord God, or Jehovah, is God individuated in man as the creative power of God, the law of man's being. The Lord God, or Jehovah, is the creative life principle that originates and sustains all life, all consciousness, from the highest to the lowest levels of intelligence. The Lord God, or Jehovah, is the one Presence and one Power individuated in man as his spiritual nature, his power to express and manifest his perfection as the image of God.
The man that God created in His own image and likeness and promounced good and very good is spiritual man. This man is the direct offspring of Divine Mind, God's idea of perfect man. This is the only-begotten Son, the Christ, the Lord God, the Jehovah, the I AM. In the 2d chapter this Jehovah or divine idea of perfect man forms the manifest man and calls his name Adam (Mysteries Of Genesis 12).
In the Scofield Reference Bible, page 6, we find this definition of Jehovah or Lord God:
The primary meaning of the name Lord (Jehovah) is "the self-existent One" ... But Havah, from which Jehovah, or Yahwe, is formed, signifies also "to become," that is, to become known, thus pointing to a continuous and increasing self-revelation. Combining these meanings of Havah, we arrive at the meaning of the name Jehovah. He is "the self-revealing One" who reveals Himself.
The people of the Old Testament times did not recognize Jehovah, the Lord God, as the creative, executive, and causative power, the law of their being. They did not recognize this very Presence and Power of God working in and through them to bring to them the very highest good that was possible for them to have at their level of consciousness. They thought of Jehovah as their special tribal God, somewhere apart from them. They attributed to Him the power to bless and to curse, to send happiness, peace, and prosperity, and also to send floods, fires, and other forms of destruction. Sometimes we find Him pictured as a God of vengeance, visiting His wrath upon mankind; sometimes we find Him pictured as a God of lovingkindness. Sometimes He is pictured as a punisher, sometimes as a deliverer. This same concept is prevalent among many people today.
Unity's explanation of these varied concepts of the Lord God, or Jehovah, is that in the evolving soul of man, the human being, the creative power of God becomes a causative power as it works in man's mental realm, the realm of cause and effect (the realm of man's thinking and feeling). It produces for man that which accords with his thoughts, feelings, and words. "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he" (Prov. 23:7 A.V.) in manifestation, or in other words, as he thinks and feels so is he in his everyday experiences.
The writers of the New Testament had evolved in soul growth and had come to the place in consciousness where they caught a glimpse of the perfect working of this causative power in man, and they called it the Christ.
The Christ is the name of the perfect working of the creative and causative power of God in man's spirit, soul, body, producing only good. The Christ is this self-revealing One, revealing Himself to man in all His power, in all His fullness, working and producing the image of God in the likeness of God.
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Preceding Entry: What evidence have we in the Bible that this is an ideal and not a manifest creation?
Following Entry: Explain the difference between ideal man and manifest man.
