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El Olam, Everlasting God
Last Forever
Some things seem to last forever:
- waiting for a dearly loved one’s last breath
- morning sickness
- nights, days, with a colicky baby
- hospital stays
- your son’s baseball games
- your daughter getting ready to leave
- months preceding baby’s birth
- the week a bride waits to walk down the aisle to her groom
- a child’s Christmas Eve
- flights back home
- mandatory work meetings
- the road, in a full car, heading to family vacation
- school days between New Years and spring break
…just to name a few.
Forever
But have you ever really considered the idea, lasting forever, to its fullest meaning? Like, forever?
This thought has baffled my mind since I was young. I often sit and think about being with Jesus in the realm of eternity. No end? That’s forever, but I still don’t quite get it and never will until I’m living it. By then, I figure it will no longer be perplexing my finite mind. Praise the Lord.
There’s another side of forever, and it’s forever past. Oh, don’t start me with those movies that go back in time and pretend it’s all happening in the present; I can’t wrap my head around those, either. Something about my very logical and visual way of thinking, I’m sure. Ironically, back to the topic at hand: forever past.
Forever Past
While I admit to thinking about forever, it’s usually by way of the future, of my eternal life, and not forever ago. Forever past is a different thought, and El Olam is exactly that: Everlasting God, from forever past.
El Olam
Eternal God, from everlasting to everlasting.
O LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting You are God.
Psalm 90:1-2
There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, Who rides the heavens to help you, And in His excellency on the clouds. The eternal God is your refuge, And underneath are the everlasting arms.
Deuteronomy 33:26-27
Our God Eternal
Can we just stop a minute and think about El Olam (el o ‘lom’)? Our God eternal. We’re not here on this earth to set up home. If I didn’t know this ever before in my 56 + years, and I sure did, I know it now as my dad’s body was put in the ground just a week ago.
Friends, if we live as if this world is our home, it will destroy us, both in our living and our dying. As followers of Jesus, we’re just passing through.
For our citizenship is in heaven; from where we also look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
Philippians 3:20
We belong here only for a short time. This world is broken. It is continually at enmity with those who follow Christ, because we are not of this world.
Had the Lord left us to fight our battles alone, we would surely lose. Not only does He fight for us, He gives us a safe dwelling place in Him. And because He is El Olam, we can always count on Him being right there for us, now and forever.
If we live as if this world is our home, it will destroy us- both in our living and in our dying
tamara henion
Always Been
Before the mountains were born
Psalm 90:2
or you brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Before creation was El Olam, the everlasting God. Praise His Name!
At Creation
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God,
Isaiah 40:28
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
At creation, El Olam; everlasting God was there!
Always living, Eternal King
But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King.
Jeremiah 10:10
When all the other gods of time perish, El Olam is eternal.
From Ancient prophets to Apostles
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished in His glorious presence, with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all time, and now, and for all eternity.
… But now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God….”
Jude 1:24-25 & Romans 16:26
God from Everlasting to Everlasting
Eternal God, written about for thousands of years before from the ancient prophets, then revealed to New Testament apostles. And yet, He was there before and after each mention of His name in these verses, and at those times. God from everlasting to everlasting!
Eternal King
“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
1 Timothy 1:17
I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
Revelation 1:8
We use the term, last forever, tongue in cheek more often than not, but looking through these scriptures it is clear, El Olam has always, does, and will always last forever. He is eternal God, from everlasting to everlasting.
I’ll still be one telling myself something is seeming to last forever, but when I do, may the Lord remind me He is El Olam. He is my dwelling place on earth and with Him I will forever be, because He is MY Eternal King.
Today is Temporary
That puts life in perspective, today is temporary. Friends, whatever else it is today won’t last forever, but our God will. If you need an escape from your own little place in the world right now, head straight to Him, shelter with your eternal God where you are safe. Trust Him, Sisters.
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, You are my refute and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.
Psalm 91:1-2
