Jehovah Shammah

Ezekiel 37, 48:35, Acts 2:1-4, Revelation 22:1-5

Jehovah Shammah means the Lord is there. That feels so loving and comforting to know that our God is with us. Yet, it is so much more than feeling loved or for our greatest comfort. The other day I was having a conversation with a friend about God’s motivation. “Is it not his love for us?” Yes, but more so it is his glory! God’s greatest desire is that we would know that he is Yahweh, the LORD. Reading Ezekiel 37 today we read four different times God said, “then you will know that I am the LORD.” But what does God’s glory have to do with his name Jehovah Shammah? A lot. Ezekiel and Revelation both reveal that God’s presence and his glory are one - that He cannot be there without his glory. When we have a deep longing to dwell in his presence we are also longing to dwell in his glory. God’s glorification is our deepest satisfaction, the very thing we long for the most whether we acknowledge it or not. 

The Lord cares most about his glory, about us knowing that he is “I AM” and that we bow down in worship to him. Would we not settle for the comfort in his presence but press into deeper worship? God is so much more than we tend to make him out to be, would we shed the lens of God for us and become people who acknowledge that we are for him, to know him, and to worship me. Now and forever.