One of my favorite things to do is to walk quietly through the woods and take in the beauty of God’s creation. To arise in the morning and look up at majestic mountains bathed in the dawn of a new day. To stroll among cactus and lizards, listening to the birds call out to each other in the cool of the desert morning. To brush my hands over the tall grass of the prairie and to walk down towering rows of corn all tasseled out. To gaze up at the majesty of the Milky Way on a clear moonless night far away from the city. These are the times when the awesome presence and power of God comes alive to me.
But God is more than just the all powerful creator of the universe. Such a God could have just created it and then set it on his desk like a knick-knack pausing to admire the beauty of His handiwork from time to time. But God did far more than that. Because of His desire to know me, to know you, He came and lived among us as one of us. And through His sacrifice and resurrection He stands ready to pour His very life into you and me if we are willing to accept the gift. When I pause to contemplate the implications of what the all powerful creator of the universe did for you and me, I am filled with wonder and amazement that eclipses my admiration of his handiwork.
The Old Testament word for God is Adonai. Literally it means “my Lords” – it was made plural to emphasize His majesty. The Hebrew Old Testament scribes used the vowel markings for the name Adonai when writing the name Yahweh, or Jehovah, so that when anyone saw the word Yahweh they would say Adonai instead, in order to avoid using God’s name in vain.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adonai is the plural of Adon, meaning “Lord, Lord, LORD, master, or owner” (the word Adon derives from a Ugaritic word meaning “lord” or “father”). In the Tanakh, the word Adon can refer to men and angels as well as to the LORD God of Israel (e.g., Exodus 34:23). God is called the “Lord of lords”(Deuteronomy 10:17) and Psalm 8:1 mentions God as “YHVH our Lord.”
The plural form Adonai, like the plural form Elohim, is regularly used with singular verbs and modifiers, so it is best to construe the Name as an “emphatic plural” or “plural of majesty.” When the plural is formed using a singular possessive ending (“my Lords”), it always refers to God, and occurs over 300 times in the Tanakh in this form.
The Masoretes ensured that the sacred Name of the LORD YHVH would not be taken in vain by putting the vowel marks for Adonai under the letters in the running text (ketiv). They did this to remind the reader to pronounce Adonai regardless of the consonants in the text (qere). However, Adon and Adonai also appear as Names of God in the Hebrew Masoretic text, …”[1].
[1] http://www.hebrew4christians.net/Names_of_G-d/Adonai/adonai.html
