Jehovah Sabaoth is one of God’s names as recorded in the bible. This name occurs about 270 times in the Old Testament and twice in the New Testament (Rom. 9: 29; James 5:4). While Jehovah or Yahweh means ‘The Lord’, the word ‘Sabaoth’ is a Hebrew word which means ‘Hosts’ or ‘Armies’.
Sabaoth or Hosts is therefore a military word which could then mean:
• A group of fighting men or an army (I Sam. 17: 45; Isaiah 13: 4).
• Angels of God i.e., hosts of heaven (Psalm 148: 2; I Kings 22: 19; 2 Kings 6: 12-18).
• Satan and the fallen angels (Rev. 12: 7-10).
• Celestial bodies and cosmic objects (Psalm 33: 6; 103: 22).
• Forces of nature: water, wind, fire, etc (Mk. 4: 35-41; Dan. 3: 10-27).
• Every individual life which are all subject to either God’s mercies (I Sam. 1: 10-20) or His wrath (Dan. 4: 29-35).
The name ‘Jehovah Sabaoth’ denotes the universal sovereignty of God over all armies whether natural or supernatural. The understanding is that whether it is human armies, the holy angels, the fallen angels or celestial objects, Jehovah Sabaoth has the ultimate control over all of them.
In I Sam. 17: 1-53, we have an account of how the Philistines engaged the Israelites in battle. The Philistine Armies and the Israelite Armies were camped on opposite mountains, and a valley was in between them. For forty days, the Hosts of Philistine had the upper hand as their own champion – Goliath of Gath who was about 10 feet tall kept taunting, threatening and insulting the Hosts of Israel, as well as insulting their God – Jehovah.
No one in the Israelite’s camp was able to silence nor challenge Goliath. God had to orchestrate David’s presence on the battlefield to glorify His name. Having witnessed the insults from Goliath, David took up the challenge to fight the giant in the name of Jehovah Sabaoth, amazingly and yet expectedly, he won. Goliath’s head was severed, and the Israelites enjoyed a moment of peace.
God has of recent impressed it upon my spirit that He has arisen for Everlasting Father’s Assembly as our Jehovah Sabaoth – The Lord of Hosts. He said He will disgrace and humiliate the ‘giants’ taunting, threatening and insulting us and our God. He will discomfit our physical and spiritual adversaries. He will command all terrestrial bodies, celestial bodies and cosmic objects to favour us. He will demonstrate that He is Lord over our lives by depicting His special mercies on us. He will enable us to enjoy greater dominion over natural and supernatural forces. He will also grant us seasons of rest, peace, joy and victory through this month and the months ahead. May the zeal of Jehovah Sabaoth bring all these to pass in our lives and in our midst in Jesus’ name.