The Sovereign Lord

Adhonay or as it may be more familiar to us, Adonai, is a word for God that is attributive. In other words, it describes one of His attributes. In this particular case it points to the sovereignty of God. Unfortunately, when it comes to translations it is very difficult to capture the original intent of the writer and so in many translations some of the names for God become interchangeable. In this case, Adhonay become possessive as in my Lord as opposed to simply Lord.
God is Lord. God is Sovereign. This is an incredibly strong name for God in that it puts all the power on His side. He is completely in charge. There can be no discussion as to His rule and reign. Whatever He says goes.
The New Testament parallel is Kurios. It represents both Yahweh and Adhonay and it is used upwards of 600 times. In fact, any time the Old Testament is quoted in the New Testament Kurios is how those two words are translated in the Greek.
It is the title of dominion.
It is used not only of God the Father, but it is also used to describe the Lordship and Sovereignty of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. For those who struggle with the Trinity, it is clear that in the Greek the Name for God is attributed equally for all three persons of the Trinity making them equal in title and name.
In fact by calling Jesus, Kurios or Adhonay the Scriptures show us that the Messianic hopes conveyed by the name Yahweh were for New Testament writers fulfilled in Jesus Christ; and that in Him the long hoped for appearance of Yahweh was realized.
Sovereignty does not leave room for discussion. It is the be all and end all. What he says goes. That is why the following exchange is one of more curious one in the Bible:
Acts 11:7-10 Then I heard a voice telling me, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.'  8 "I replied, 'Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' 9 "The voice spoke from heaven a second time, 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.'
The words Lord and no simply do not go together.
I think that it is important to get to know the Names of God in their original languages because in English the word God is differentiated from the names of other gods only by capitalizing His Name. It is therefore easier to say no to Him because we don’t completely understand who He is. To those of us who have grown up in a democratic society the idea of a sovereign lord or of dominion is lost. It is when we begin to understand that our God is the great I AM or the Lord of Lords and King of Kings that we begin to get a glimpse of whom our God really is.
Adhonay; absolute lord and master of all that was, is and is to come. Before Him every knee will bow and we will all lay down our crowns before Him.
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!" Rev 5:13

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