Names of God – Part 11

Elohim Macheslanu

God is our refuge

For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant plants
and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,
Isaiah 7:10 ESV¹

Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.

Psalm 62:8 KJV

Important plurals

The name of God Elohim Macheslanu, meaning God is refuge or God is our refuge is plural in two ways. I have used the King James Version of the Bible from the Psalm above because unlike other translations it makes the plural in the Hebrew obvious. Ye People: Ye is the plural you, equivalent to the you all of the Southern United States, people is also plural, and to hammer it home it says God is a refuge for us. Yes us, not me.

God does relate to individuals, El Roi, the God who sees, was a personal revelation of God to Hagar. But here the context is plural. God is the God of the people. The people of God are being asked to trust God as a people. Saint Paul said that the  Church of God have been grafted in to be the people of God, this verse relates to the church. Are we trusting in God?

Here the name of God is also plural, Elohim rather than El. The God of the people relates to them in plural also, our refuge is in the fullness of God. Though the Church finds her refuge in God, it may vary from place to place, from time to time, the context is relational. There are more Christians being persecuted in the church now than at any time in history, when one part of the Church hurts it hurts us all. Let us pray for those whose only refuge is to call on God and for him to strengthen them. A refugee is just that, someone who seeks refuge or asylum. Let us pray for them, but also go beyond prayer and call on governments to move against persecution because of faith, and ask our own government to boycott those regimes that sanction persecution.

¹The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.