Personal and Categorical
But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.” Isaiah 49:14
LORD, Lord – We also complain that God has forsaken and forgotten. We think that the desperation of our lives or the frustration in our efforts or the trials we face must mean that God does not, in some fundamental way, really care about us. After all, if He really cared, He would do something about it, wouldn’t He? Israel’s complaint is both personal and categorical. We need to see both aspects if we are going to understand the depth of God’s mercy, for we are just like Israel in the time of Isaiah.
Did you know that there are two Hebrew words translated “God?” One word is elohiym. Its proper translation is “God” and sometimes “gods.” This word is the noun for the category of all things that are gods. It is a category filled with but one person – God. But there is another word, the mysterious personal name of the person God. This is the word found in Exodus 3:14, “I AM WHO I AM” – God’s personal name (in Hebrew YHWH). The exact pronunciation of this name has been lost over time, primarily because the Jews substituted the Hebrew word Adonai (Lord) in fear of breaking the third commandment. In most English Bibles, we recognize this personal name by capitalizing all the letters in the English word LORD. And once you realize this, you see immediately that this verse uses two different words, both translated “Lord”. The first is YHWH, the second is elohim.
Why is this important? It’s really simple. Forsaking is the abandonment of a personal relationship. You can forget a fact, but you forsake a person. Zion complains that God has broken His personal relationship and failed to remember His covenant promise. God is culpable of both abandonment and mental failure. As the personal God, He left me. As the sovereign Lord, He forgot me.
Aren’t we capable of the same two-fold complaint? We raise a cry to God that somehow He does not understand our need. We are petulant children, claiming our Father no longer demonstrates His tenderness toward us. And at the same time, we act as though God has forgotten what He said about us, what He promised us. God is neither willing nor mindful.
How ridiculous! We’re talking about the LORD, God. Does God forget? No way! Does YHWH abandon His own? Never! Our complaint reveals our selfish pre-occupation, not our trust in the character of the One Who Is. God answers Zion just as He answers us. Not with the booming voice of judgment, but with the heart of a woman for her infant child (as we shall see).
What complaint have you raised to the personal LORD? What disbelief have you voiced to the sovereign Lord? What retractions do you need to make?
