* This name, "El Olam," first meets us in Abram's life, after his name is changed from Abram to Abraham, when the man of faith, long barren, has received the heir of promise, Isaac, and, as a consequence, the bondmaid and her son are cast out. "
* At that time the Gentile comes to Abraham, and a covenant is made with him at Beersheba, the "Well of the Oath," and "there Abraham called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God" (Gen. 21:10, 22, 33).
* The truth which this name teaches therefore belongs to a certain stage in the life of faith, when the life of sonship, which Isaac figures, is brought forth by Sarah, that is the Gospel (Gal. 4:22, 30), and the carnal seed, the fruit of law, is judged and cast out.
* For, as St. Paul teaches, all these are shadows of spiritual truths; the birth of Isaac of the "free woman," and the rejection of the "son of the bondmaid," being appointed figures of the change from law to gospel.
* We do not know at first, that, in God's dealing with His elect, there may and will be diversities of operation and a change of dispensation; and that though for a season law is needed, it must give place to gospel, and that grace itself will be succeeded by a fuller revelation of God's glory; each varied stage being needed for man's perfecting.
* As we advance this opens to us, and we learn, that, precious as are the truths revealed under the names "Elohim," "Jehovah," "El Shaddai," or "Adonai," there is yet more to be revealed, full of instruction for us, if like Abraham we will still walk with God.
* Now both the fact that in God's dealings with His creatures there are successive "times" or "ages" or dispensations, and that this is a "mystery," or "secret," which is only opened as we grow in grace, is involved and taught in the name "El Olam."
* For the word "Olam," which is rendered "Everlasting," contains in itself both the idea of a "secret," and also of "time," or of "an age." The "El," which we translate "God," here, as in the names "El Shaddai" and "El Elyon," expresses "Power," even the Power of Him, "who doeth as He will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth" (Dan. 4:35).
* The word "Olam" has two senses, though the connection between the two is obvious. Its first and original sense is to "conceal," or "hide," or something "hidden." (Note: See Lev. 4:13; 5:2; 20:4; 1 Sam. 12:3; Psalm 90:8 and many other places.
* In Eccl. 3:11, it is still a question how the word should be translated. Our Authorised Version translates it "world," as it translates αἰών in Matt. 13:39, and elsewhere: the Revised Version translates it "world," or "eternity:" the Septuagint render it by αἰών: while Parkhurst (see his Lexicon, on the word,) translates it "obscurity," reading the whole verse as follows:—"He hath made everything beautiful in its season, but He hath even put such obscurity (olam) in the midst of them, that man cannot find out the work that God doeth from beginning to end.")
* Hence it came to mean "time hidden from man," or "time indefinite." In our Version it is often translated "for ever," and in certain places it may mean "time unmeasured," "for an age," or "for ages." But that strictly speaking it expresses a limited time is clear, not only from many passages where the time referred to can only be a life-time, or till the year of Jubilee, or for the period of the Jewish dispensation, but from other passages, where the word is redoubled or used in the plural, (which it could not be if it meant "for ever,") where its meaning is "for ages," or "from age to age." (Note: For instances of the plural use of the word, עלמים, see Psalm 77:7, 8; Isa. 45:17; Dan. 9:24; &c.) A few examples of the varied uses of the word may shew us its real force, and how it throws light upon the name of God which we are now considering.
* The word "Olam" then is used of a limited time in the following places among many others, though our Authorised Version in some of them has rendered it "for ever;" as for example, where we read of the "Hebrew servant whose ear is bored," of whom it is said, that "he should serve his master for ever;" and again where we have the law respecting the heathen bondslaves, whom Israel shall possess, of whom it is written, that "they shall be your bondmen for ever:" in both which places the word can only mean "for life," or "until the year of Jubilee" (Exod. 21:6; and Lev. 25:46).
* (Note: In the former of these passages the word is explained by Josephus, (Antiqq. iv. 8. § 28,) and by the Rabbinists, (see the article on the word "Slave," in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, p. 1331,) to mean "until the year of Jubilee," partly from the universality of the freedom then proclaimed, and also because it was the duty of the servant, as a free-born Israelite, then to resume the cultivation of his recovered inheritance.) We find the word again in Hannah's utterance, where she says, "I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord, and abide there for ever;" words which she afterwards explains by saying, "As long as he liveth, he shall be lent unto the Lord" (1 Sam. 1:22, 28).
* So again Achish says of David, when he came to Gath, "He shall be my servant for ever" (1 Sam. 27:12). The same word is sometimes simply translated "time," as in the law of redemption of inheritances, where we read, that "the houses in their cities the Levites may redeem at any "time" (Lev. 25:32). It is also used in reference to the past, as in the words, "Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time" (Josh. 24:2); and again, "See, it hath been already of old time" (Eccl. 1:10); and again where the Lord by the prophet says to Tyre, "I will bring thee down to the pit with the people of old time" (Ezek. 26:20); and again, where the Psalmist says, "I remember the days of old" (Psalm 143:5; see too Gen. 6:4; Deut. 32:7).
* We find a kindred use of the word where Isaiah says, "I have a long time holden my peace" (Isa. 42:14); and again where the same prophet, speaking of the past, uses the plural form of the word, saying, "Awake, O arm of the Lord, as in the generations of old" (Isa. 51:9: Heb. עלמים). In one place the word is translated "world," as when the Psalmist says, "These are the ungodly who prosper in the world" (Psalm 73:12), meaning "in this present age," or "life-time."
* In all these places the word, "Olam," simply expresses "time." It has no reference whatever to what we call eternity.
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