Essentials: The Name of God
Hello, friends!
As I said last week, I want to use this blog to discuss more of the theological side of our faith in combination with the beautiful invitation God gives us to experience Him and have a personal relationship with Him.
In order for us to have that personal relationship with God, it is absolutely paramount that we understand what sets the Christian God apart from the gods of other religions; because of this, I want to spend the next few weeks talking about a few essential characteristics of our God that set him apart. The first of those is that He has a name (and “God” is not it).
The term “God” is a title simply meaning “divine being”, and the capitalization of the g is supposed to make the distinction that it refers specifically to the Christian God. In the modern English-speaking Church, we almost exclusively refer to God as “God”, although we sometimes use adjectives to refer to Him such as “Almighty”, or even a combination of the two like “God Almighty”; however, we seldom actually use the divine name when referring to God. There are a few reasons for this, but in my opinion, the most prominent is that the divine name is not properly translated in English Bibles and therefore many Christians do not know what the divine name is.
Instead of translating the divine name, English translators write “LORD”. The reason behind this is actually really beautiful, as tradition says the divine name is too Holy to be written or spoken. Though I admire the heart behind this reasoning, I actually think it has done more harm than good for modern Christians. I know, I know, heresy, right? But I don’t think so, and here is why.
In the Old Testament alone, the divine name is used just under 7,000 times by the biblical authors to clearly specify that they are talking about the God of Israel, our God (I generally see a range of 6,500-7,200 depending on the source, and I have not counted for myself). The biblical authors were comfortable using the divine name because they understood its importance as an identity marker, a clear way of setting the Israelite God apart from the gods of the surrounding religions. Furthermore, the Israelites spoke and wrote the divine name up until about 500 BC when the tradition of not saying the divine name was developed. More importantly though, is that when God revealed His name to Moses at the burning bush, He commanded Moses to refer to Him by that name and declared that it is by that name that He will be remembered throughout all generations. This conversation is detailed in Exodus 3:13-15:
13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. (ESV)
When God reveals his name in verse 14, the word that is translated as “I AM” is the Hebrew word Ehyeh. This word is the Hebrew verb “to be” and has a past, present, and future element which literally means “I am and I will always be”. As God instructed Moses to speak on His behalf, it would have been inappropriate for Moses to say, “I am has sent me to you”, so God ordered him in verse 15 to use Yhwh which means “He is and He will always be” - this is the divine name that is translated in English Bibles as “LORD”.
Traditionally, Hebrew does not write the vowels of words, only their consonants, and as I said before, the tradition of not saying the divine name was established around 500 BC. Because of these factors, the Jewish people began saying Adonay (or, Adonai), which means “lord” or “master”, instead of saying the divine name. In order to remind the readers to say Adonai instead of Yhwh, the scribes inserted the vowels for Adonay into the consonants of Yhwh, creating Yahowah. This is the reason why it is translated as LORD in English Bibles. As time went on, the history of this word was lost and early Christian scribes (who were German) pronounced Yahowah literally which eventually morphed into the modern word Jehovah. It was not until earlier manuscripts were discovered, more Hebrew documents were found, and we were able to learn more about how the ancient Hebrew language was spoken that we learned the word was most likely pronounced “Yahweh”.
The beauty, profoundness, and intentionality behind the name Yahweh often brings me to tears. By using Yahweh as His name, God is making a statement about His character- He is making a statement about his consistency and His steadfastness- He is and will always be Who He is.
Later in the book of Exodus, after the people had turned away from God and constructed a golden calf, Moses asks God to show him His glory (His presence). God agrees to do this by saying He will make His goodness pass before Moses (which is such a profound statement and worth its own blog post), and commands Moses to come back the next morning. Exodus 34:4-7 says,
4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. 5 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (ESV)
I know that is a long passage of Scripture but stay with me because this is very important: what God is saying in this passage is literally, “Yahweh, Yahweh (I am who I am, I am who I am), a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness…”. God is declaring that His very nature is that He is and will always be a God who is all of those characteristics- He does not change. If that does not completely blow you away, I don’t know what will! What a declaration that is!
These verses, this declaration by Yahweh, became a sort of creed for the people of Israel because it perfectly encapsulates the character of God, especially when read in its original context. A few chapters before this passage, the people of Israel had turned away from God, just after He has delivered them from their oppressors in Egypt. His response to that was to remind them that He is compassionate, that He gives grace, He allows time for His people to repent, that He is dedicated to the covenant and His love for them, and that He willingly forgives them. However, I think it is really important to emphasize the last point He makes, that He does not clear the guilty. God is declaring to the people of Israel that He is a God of justice, and that sin has consequences, but that does not mean He abandons His people.
The reason I am so passionate about the name of God is because every time we proclaim His name, we declare His nature. It automatically brings perspective to any situation and any prayer. I want to be clear, however, that I am in no way advocating for irreverence toward God, I would never do that. The reason I believe that we, as Christians, have the freedom to use the name of God is first, because the biblical authors understood the importance of doing this. Second, and probably most important, we are under Christ. Christ came to bridge the gap between humanity and God and to allow us to have full communion with God. Furthermore, Christ is God Himself, and we freely use His name which is equally divine. If we are allowed to use Jesus’s name, the name of the Holy Messiah, why is using the name of the Trinity any different? I would argue that it isn’t, we have just made it that way.
By using God’s name, we declare the very nature of God, that He is unchanging: He is and will always be Who He says He is. That is truly incredible!
Well, that’s pretty much all I have for this week, I hope you liked it! As always, message me through the contact page with any questions you have or any topics you would like me to cover. Next week we will be looking into the Trinity, and I am really excited about it- I think you guys will really like it, so stay tuned. See you next Monday!
