In the readings this week in Genesis, I was captured with a reminder for our learnings about the use of LORD versus Lord.  If you did not read it, you can peak at it here: “The personal God“.  The section that caught my attention was the chapter 18 just after Abraham is visited by the 3 angels.

In this section beginning in verse 22, Abraham begins to intercede and talk with God about Sodom.  In this whole section Abraham uses the title “Lord” (not all capitals) which in Hebrew is Adonai, not the personal reference of “LORD”, which is Yahweh.  In this context we can see that Abraham is approaching God as the ruler and judge of all the earth, as well as declaring his place of dust and ashes. In this section he is giving honor to the judge.

This is similar to the actions and honor we show to judicial judges today. We don’t call them by their first name on a personal basis, but reference them as Judge.  Same with a police officer, we don’t reference them as Mr. Smith, but rather Officer Smith. That is when we are showing respect to the authoritative position of a person.

I mainly wanted to point out how cool it was that we just learned about the difference of Lord and LORD last week and then right in the reading this week there is a fine example.  Might be a lot like when you talk to your spouse. Do you call her by her first name or do you call her by “wife”? If you really want to bow down, you just may want to address her as “Wife _____”. I am sure that will get her attention. Sure has a lot to do with how we approach someone.