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In sermons the terms 'Lord of Hosts' are mentioned fairly often, but rarely defined. There is more to the definition than a basic idea of the Lord hosting his creation.
I think the terms need to be defined more often, for clarity.
Jon Courson.com
In his July 21, 2016 sermon that I listened to today online, Reverend Jon Courson stated (paraphrased) that the Lord of Hosts, is the Lord and his armies.
Explains, T.E. McComiskey:
Yahweh Sĕbāʾôt (Lord of Host) is in translation: 'He creates the heavenly hosts' has been suggested. as a reasonable possibility. (465). In basic agreement with the Pastor Courson statement from the sermon, the word sĕbāʾôt means armies or hosts. (465). The name Yahweh is understood as a proper name in association with the word 'armies'. (465).
God and his armies
The Lord and his armies
These would seem to be reasonable translations into English.
Therefore, as Revered Courson was preaching on eschatology and end times events, it is not out of context to mention the Lord in a militaristic, biblical context.
Explains, W.R.F. Browning:
In regard to Lord of Hosts:
The God of Israel as commander of armed forces, both Israel and in heaven. God is the general of the armies of Israel...but God also has angels (1 Kings 22: 19) and the forces of nature. (178).
The terms 'Lord of Hosts' and related terms are a friendly, written, biblical reminder that God is a God of justice. God demonstrates love, especially to his people in both Old and New Testaments (Psalm 136, John 3, John 15 as examples). However, there is not only divine judgement for humanity (2 Corinthians 5, Revelation 20); there is also when deemed divinely necessary, lethal force used by God. This should be no surprise in light of Genesis 3 and the death sentence for human disobedience.
This is lethal force above that granted to governments for the maintenance of law and order in Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2.
The two concepts should not be theologically and philosophically confused, lest a state, overstep its power of governance, biblically mandated by God. Or a state-religion attempt to govern and rule on behalf of God. Rather, the state is to maintain law and order and no state or state-religion should attempt to exercise God's eschatological mission in presumption. Each state is finite in understanding and tainted in sin. Politics within both government and state-religion makes overly-politicized reasoning and actions, over the sake of truth and biblical truth, ever so possible at key points.
BROWNING, W.R.F. (1997) Oxford Dictionary of the Bible, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
COURSON, JON (2005) Application Commentary, Thomas Nelson, Nashville.
MCCOMISKEY, T.E. (1996) 'God, Name of' in Walter A. Elwell (ed.), Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Books.
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