Names of God – Elohim

“In the beginning, God…”  We are introduced to God in the very first verse of the Bible.  The name used here for God is the word Elohim (appearing over 2500 times in the Bible), the plural form of the word Eloah (appearing 55 times in the Bible).
The word Elohim was a word used in the ancient world to describe any number of pagan gods.  This is the word the serpent used to tell Eve that she and Adam would be as gods if they ate the fruit in Genesis 3:5, the word that Laban used to describe his household idols in Genesis 31:30, and the word the Lord used in the first commandment about having other gods in Exodus 20:3.
The singular Eloah is also used to describe any god in comparison to another.  This is the word used by Sennacherib’s servant to warn the Israelites that no god of any other nation has protected them in 2 Chronicles 32:15, the word Nehemiah used to describe God as a God of grace and mercy in Nehemiah 9:17, and the word used by Daniel to describe the “foreign god” in Daniel 11:39. 
Here is the amazing part!  When used as a name of God, the word always appears in the “plural intensive.”  This is when the definite article is used along with the plural Elohim.  So in this name, two aspects of God’s person are revealed.  First, the used of the definite article shows that He is THE one and only God.  Second, the use of the plural Elohim shows that there is a multiplicity of persons in THE one and only God.  It is no mistake that this is the first name God chose to use of Himself in the pages of Scripture, and no mistake that it appears 32 times in the opening chapter alone, the most occurrences by far in any single chapter of the Bible.  
God, in revealing Himself to us, took care to show us one of the greatest mysteries about Himself right at the start of His Word.  He is the great Three-in-One, One and Only God!

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