In this self-same chapter we have, in such a fundamental matter as the nature of God,

a most remarkable use of the singular and the plural verb. Quite apart from the fact of

inspiration, we should expect that Moses would not use language that was in any way

misleading on such a vital subject. He evidently seeks to express the fact that Elohim

stands for a unity. This unity, therefore, may be sometimes said to act in the singular

number or in the plural, a feature of divine revelation that meets us on the very threshold,

and warns us that there is no possible way of understanding the nature of God by human

means. We must believe what He says of Himself, and all that He says of Himself, even

though (as in the case of the use of both singular and plural verbs, pronouns and

adjectives) the matter does not come within our experience nor can be made to conform

to our reasoning. The Elohim Who created in such a way that it demanded a singular

verb to explain the truth, nevertheless can be said to take counsel at the creation of man:--

Moreover, while the O.T. teaches that God is One, we have the remarkable passage in

Eccles. 12: 1, which reads: "Remember thy Creators" not "Creator".

The idea that God took counsel with angels, or received assistance from any creature

is repudiated by Isa. 44: 24. There is no alternative, therefore, but to bow before the

revelation of truth, and confess that the title Elohim is taken by God to reveal to man

a Unity, and not a Being of solitary and absolute one-ness.

If the reader will glance at the diagram on page 64 once more, he will see that both the

names Elohim and Jehovah are not in the realm of pure Being (that is expressed in the

words "God is Spirit"), but are in the realm of manifestation, creation, redemption or

relation. All that we know of God is relative, not absolute, and it is a fallacy to attempt

to reason back from either the word Elohim or Jehovah into that realm where neither time

nor space have any place.

Now, instead of this fact causing the simple believer to shrink back from such a

theme, the very fact that God, Whom no man hath seen nor can see, Who recognizes

neither the limits of time nor space, Who cannot be found out into perfection by

searching, the very fact that He has revealed to us, His creatures, as much as can be

grasped, by minds like ours, of His Person and attributes so far as they relate to the ages

and their purpose, should fill us with abounding thanksgiving.

With this introduction to these two great titles, let us here conclude, and be prepared in

our next article to examine as fully as time and space will permit the meaning that

Scripture attaches to them:--

"This God is our God."