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There was a day when Father told me to get up and write my name on a little chalkboard I had hanging on the wall. So I did, I wrote my name.
Then Father said “Now write the Name ELOHIM at the end of your name.” Which as you could imagine, is not something that I wanted to do.
But I knew it was Him, so I did what HE said.
And, in that moment, our Father gave me understanding on a Bible verse that makes most people very uncomfortable.
Psalm 82, verse 6 says “you are gods” and YASHUA quotes this verse in the book of John. Those words are actually nowhere near as wild as they sound and they have everything to do with the heart of our Father.
The Simple Explanation
When you read “you are gods” in John and in Psalms, the words are actually “you are ELOHIM.”
ELOHIM, as you probably know, is the one and only Creator of Heaven and Earth and we certainly did not create heaven and earth, so what is Father saying here?
The pattern is actually right there in the Bible for everyone to see. And the pattern is that the children carry the name of their father.
Israel for example was a man who used to be named Jacob, he wrestled with GOD, he had 12 sons, and he died in Egypt. That was the man Israel.
But Israel is also the name of the people who walked in the wilderness for 40 years.
Israel is the father. And the children of Israel are Israel.
The same goes for many nations in the Bible. Esau is the father of Esau. Mizraim, who we call Egypt, is the father of Egypt, and when you read prophecies about Egypt, it’s not talking about Egypt the man, it’s talking about his offspring.
ELOHIM – our GOD – is a Father and the children of ELOHIM are ELOHIM. So, when the Scriptures say you are ELOHIM, it doesn’t mean you are GOD the creator of Heaven and Earth – it means your Father is GOD, creator of heaven and earth.
You can think of ELOHIM as the last name that we do not deserve, but that HE gives us anyway when we become adopted into His household. And that’s what HE explained to me that day at the chalkboard.
How ELOHIM is used in the Bible
1. ELOHIM is used as our Creator’s singular name
As our When the Scriptures mention ELOHIM, in most cases it’s a singular Name referring to our Creator. If you’ve heard that ELOHIM is plural, we disagree – it’s obvious from the Hebrew that His Name ELOHIM is singular. Some say it’s quote unquote “plural in majesty” but if that were the case, then one question would be – why aren’t all of Father’s Names plural? They’re not because our GOD is One.
In the Original Hebrew script, His Name ELOHIM means the Chief Shepherd of Men, Maker of the Waters. ELOHIM is His creation Name.
Just so it’s clear who we believe ELOHIM is, in Isaiah we read:
“Thus says YHVH, the King of Israel and his Redeemer… “I am the first and I am the last; besides Me there is no ELOHIM” and “I AM EL there is no other, “Every knee will bow before Me, every tongue will swear allegiance” Isaiah 44:6 & Isaiah 45:22-23
When we hear those words, we clearly hear the voice of YASHUA.
So, in it’s most common use in the Bible, ELOHIM is our Creator’s Singular Name.
2. Elohim is a plural word describing false gods worshipped by fallen men
There are other cases where elohim is not a name, but a plural word that’s used to describe the many false gods that men have taken upon themselves. These so-called gods aren’t really gods, they are demons and idols as the Scriptures teach.
3. Elohim is a name given to ELOHIM’s children
In the same way the children of Israel are Israel, the children of ELOHIM are Elohim, as we’re about to see in Psalm 82 and John 10.
Psalm 82 “You are ELOHIM”
This version of Psalm 82 is a literal translation, taken directly from the Hebrew.
The Psalmist Asaph wrote:
ELOHIM takes His stand in the congregation of EL.
The first ELOHIM in that verse is a singular masculine name – ELOHIM takes His stand. It’s talking about GOD.
And it says HE takes His stand in the congregation of EL.
When this psalm was written, the congregation of EL consisted of the people of IsraEL who Father had adopted as His children – “My son, My firstborn is Israel” were the words that Father had Moses speak to Pharaoh back in Egypt.
The next part says:
Among Elohim HE renders judgment.
This ELOHIM is speaking of the household of GOD – the ones who have ELOHIM as their family Name. Peter said that in his day, the time had come for judgment to start at the house of GOD (1 Peter 4:17), and here it is prophesied in the Old Testament: Among ELOHIM – that is among Israel, the children of ELOHIM – HE (YASHUA) renders judgment.
Some people think that the ELOHIM in this verse is not Israel, but instead it’s a divine council of demi-gods, however there is no such thing as demi-gods in the Scriptures or in reality. We also know that this verse is not talking about angels because of what it says in the next few verses:
Verse 2 thru 4:
How long will you judge unjustly and lift up the faces of the wicked?
Selah. Judge for the weak and the fatherless, for the oppressed and needy bring about justice. Rescue the weak and needy from the hand of the wicked and deliver them.
Being good to the fatherless and needy are not instructions for angels, they are the instructions that Father gave to Israel.
Verse 5:
They do not know and they do not understand.
In darkness they walk about.
This verse is in agreement with the prophet Isaiah who said the people of Israel were living in darkness and in the land of the shadow of death, but that they would one day see a great light when YASHUA came – you’ll find that in Isaiah 9:2.
The next part of the Psalm says:
All the foundations of the land are shaken.
Some translations will put the word earth there instead of lane which leads people to believe it’s talking about some type of cosmic disturbance, but the word for earth in Hebrew is the same as the word for land. And what I believe Father is saying here is that the foundations of the land have been shaken, meaning, in Hebrew, that they have been shaken and moved and slipped because all the rules and instructions that Father had set forth as foundations for how things should work in His Land had been broken by His people Israel. This points back to the verse from before about how Israel wasn’t rendering justice for the fatherless and the needy.
This next verse is the controversial part:
I said you are ELOHIM and sons of THE MOST HIGH all of you are
When Israel became sons and daughters of THE MOST HIGH it was simply because GOD said so – Father made a declaration – HE said to Israel “you are ELOHIM” and it was so – Israel became His children at the time of the Exodus.
Next it says:
Surely as a man you will die and as one of the princes you will fall.
If you understand who GOD is, you know that HE has the heart of a Father. HE wants His kids to always be with Him and because HE lives forever, HE wants them to live forever. But HE is also a judge and HE is just and HE will not immortalize evil. He’s saying here that those who do evil in Israel will die like ordinary men instead of living forever like the sons of GOD that HE made them to be.
The last part of the Psalm says this:
Rise up ELOHIM and judge the earth
With this final mention of ELOHIM, we’re back to singular masculine form. This verse is a call for YASHUA ELOHIM, to whom all judgment has been given (John 5:22) to judge the land.
for You have an inheritance among all the nations. The You in this verse is YASHUA ELOHIM. This is a prophecy that ELOHIM’s Household will one day be from all nations as they are today in YASHUA HA MASHIACH. “Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance” is the prophecy from Psalm 2:8.
“You are ELOHIM” in the New Testament
When YASHUA came, John records that the Jews wanted to stone Him because HE said HE was the Son of GOD. Although GOD was their Father, the concept of sonship seems to have become foreign to the Jews at the time. We see this earlier in John too, where YASHUA admonishes Nicodemus for not being able to understand the whole concept of being born of the Spirit even though Nicodemus was a teacher.
When YASHUA quoted Psalm 82 and said “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are ELOHIM?’” it should have been a reminder to the Jews that ELOHIM was their Father and that HE has children, so they shouldn’t have been so violently opposed to the Son of GOD.
YASHUA makes it clear for us that the ELOHIM in Psalm 82 is indeed the people of Israel by His very next words – HE says “HE called them ELOHIM to whom the word of ELOHIM came.”
The Word of ELOHIM, without question, came to the people of Israel – at Sinai, and also as the Word of GOD that was standing right there in front of them on that day.
Why this matters today
All of this matters for us because since the days of YASHUA, the Name ELOHIM is no longer given to Israel as a birthright as it was in the days of Moses. YASHUA is now the door to our Father’s House. For those of us who go thru Him as the door, we are all ELOHIM. We are not GOD, but ELOHIM becomes our family name.
If you are His:
You have your family here on earth
You are grafted into Israel,
You become children of Abraham in YASHUA,
And your greatest adoption is into the House of ELOHIM as His son or His daughter.
For that, we praise His glorious Name.
One Final Note
We recently uploaded a video on this topic to our YouTube channel and a viewer had a great comment to share. They said the info brought the following Scriptures to mind about how His people will bear His Name:
Numbers 6:26 “THE LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put My name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.”
Deuteronomy 28:9-10 “THE LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto Himself, as HE hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of THE LORD thy GOD, and walk in His ways. And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the Name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee.”
Revelation 22:4 “And they shall see His face; and His name [shall be] in their foreheads.“
