The Names of God: YHWH

What’s in a Name?

William Shakespeare’s famous line from Romeo and Juliet poses the question:

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

The general idea being that a person’s name does little to define the person themselves. And that does seem to run true in our day and age. For example my name literally means ‘gravel homestead’ or ‘man from the grey valley’, as far as I’m aware I wasn’t raised in a gravel homestead.

“Stop giving kids Bible names without Bible lessons. Yesterday I was robbed by Abraham.” - Unknown

However in ancient times someones name was truly thought to be an expression of their very nature. To know someones name was to know about them.

Adam - from Adamah (earth) meaning son of the earth.

Moses - Taken from the verb Mashah meaning to draw out. Moses was drawn out from the water.

David - It means beloved, and we know that God said David was special to Him, a man after His own heart.

Jesus - Or Yehoshua in Hebrew means The Lord is Salvation.

So especially in the Bible, a name means something, it tells us a lot about the nature, character and even attributes of an individual. So when we study the names of God in scripture, and there are many, something of His very nature and character is being revealed to us.

Pagan’s believed that by knowing the name of their God’s they had a certain power over them to call on them and get them to do their bidding. When someone tells you their name it’s a way of relating to them, of becoming more familiar with them. I remember bumping into a former teacher in a pub once, it was years after I had left school! And I think I said, hello Sir, and he said ‘ah don’t call me that, call me Huw.’ Knowing someones name is one thing, but them giving you permission to call them by their name is about familiarity, it’s what friends do, it’s how we relate to people we love and want close to us. So when God reveals His name to us, His people it’s not only revealing something of His nature and character but it reveals something of His relationship to us His people.

At the same time, I’m using human instances to try and show you what all this means but we have got to remember we’re not dealing with a human, we’re dealing with God. The God of the Bible in His Divinity is not like we are;

Isaiah 55:8–9 ESV

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

So it shouldn’t suprise us that God has many, many names in scripture. Too many to cover in one series, so we’re going to have to be selective. Why is it that God has many names? Because He is God. Why is it that He made sure to reveal Himself to us through many names? Because He loves us. He condescends to us and uses our languages to help us know Him more. God could never be summed up entirely by one name, His infinite essence can’t be fully and comprehensively explained by human languages, so He is revealed by many names. Some that speak more to us of who He is, and some that speak to us more of what He does.

Judges 13:18 ESV

18 And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?”

So just the mere fact that God has communicated His names to us tells us that He is a relational, He wants us to know Him, to understand about Him. He’s not aloof or uncaring about us, He wants to be known by us.

He also chose to reveal Himself to His chosen people at first through the Hebrew language. And so, we are going to study some of the various Hebrew names of God found in the Old Testament of which there are many. Some of those names like Elohim, or Adonai are also used in scripture to refer to other things, like false gods, or angels or even human rulers, but there is one divine name that God gives His people in the Old Testament that He and He alone is called by. This name is considered so Holy that the Jews will not even read it aloud. It’s the one word that I’m not allowed to read out in a Hebrew lesson, instead I must say Adonai, which means Lord.

In fact that tradition of saying Adonai in place of the Divine name is so ancient that it has led to the creation of a name for God which isn’t actually in the Bible; Jehovah. You see, the Hebrew scribes, to remind the rabbis not to say the divine name but say ‘Adonai’ instead inserted the vowels of the word Adonai underneath the consonants of the divine name (Hebrew has no vowel letters, only consonants), and so German theologians began to translate it as; Jehovah. Now in actual fact, there is no letter J in Hebrew and the divine name given to Moses in Exodus 3 almost certainly wouldn’t have sounded like Jehovah.

Christian theologians however, have not typically been fearful to use the name that God gave to His people and most people pronounce this four letter Hebrew word YHWH as Yahweh. This name for God is used over 6000 times in the Old Testament, way more than any other apellation, and your Bible tells you every time this name is being used by printing LORD in block capitals.

God revealed His name, YHWH to Moses at the burning bush, let’s read the passage together:

English Standard Version Chapter 3

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.

Exodus 3:14–15 BHS

14 וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה וַיֹּ֗אמֶר כֹּ֤ה תֹאמַר֙ לִבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה שְׁלָחַ֥נִי אֲלֵיכֶֽם׃ 15 וַיֹּאמֶר֩ עֹ֨וד אֱלֹהִ֜ים אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֗ה כֹּֽה־תֹאמַר֮ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵל֒ יְהוָ֞ה אֱלֹהֵ֣י אֲבֹתֵיכֶ֗ם אֱלֹהֵ֨י אַבְרָהָ֜ם אֱלֹהֵ֥י יִצְחָ֛ק וֵאלֹהֵ֥י יַעֲקֹ֖ב שְׁלָחַ֣נִי אֲלֵיכֶ֑ם זֶה־שְּׁמִ֣י לְעֹלָ֔ם וְזֶ֥ה זִכְרִ֖י לְדֹ֥ר דֹּֽר׃

God says that this name is His name forever, it is the name by which God wants to be remembered throughout all time.

God explains to Moses more of the meaning of His name to Moses here, I AM WHO I AM, some scholars translate this name as I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE. It comes from the Hebrew verb hiyah or ‘to be’. Either way, God’s eternal being is in view here. He is not ‘I was’ or ‘I can be’ but ‘I am.’

YHWH is the one who IS. His existence isn’t contingent upon anything else, He didn’t need any one or anything to bring Him into being but He exists in and of His own power, He always has existed this way, He always will exist this way. Mountains rise and fall, seas grow and shrink, stars are birthed and burn out but God remains the same, undimmed, ever powerful.

It is because He exists that anything at all exists. His existence is the source of everything in the cosmos, and yet here in this part of the world the existence of God is treated in culture as a matter of fantasy.

To me, one of the greatest testaments to the truth of Romans chapter 1, about mankind’s willful supression of the truth, is the popularity of atheism in well educated circles. It is one of the most foolish and self-refuting worldviews out there but is believed by some of the worlds cleverest men and women.

It believes that something came from nothing, life came from non-life, matter came from non-matter, mindless processes produced intelligent beings, purposeless events somehow gave rise to objectively purposeful beings, amoral physical events gave rise to objective standards of right and wrong.

“The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.” - Richard Dawkins

Yet despite these glaring contradictions atheism mocks at the very existence of a God. Claiming - ‘there’s no evidence!’

RC Sproul once said that one of the greatest maxims of all science is Ex Nihilo, Nihil Fit, which means ‘Out of nothing, nothing comes.’ You can’t get something from nothing (no thing), because nothing can’t create, it can’t explode, it can’t do anything, because it is nothing. An atheist once asked him for proof of God’s existence, so Sproul took off his shoe, shook it at the man and said ‘here’s your proof’. If anything at all exists now, then there never could have been a time when there was nothing. If there was ever a time when there was nothing, then the only thing that could ever be (or not be as the case may be!) would be nothing. So there always had to be something, something that had the very power of being in itself, or nothing could possibly be here today.

“Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It's like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can't trust my own thinking, of course I can't trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God.” - CS Lewis

So what does the name YHWH tell us about our God? It tells us that He IS God, there is no other being like Him. That all other gods do not have life within themselves but are simply inventions of mankind. This name gives us the reason for the existence of anything.

But there’s more. This name doesn’t just speak about God’s existence, or about His nature, it tells us more about His faithfulness! Let’s read that passage again.

Exodus 3:13–15 ESV

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.

God revealed His name to Moses in order to convince the people of Israel to trust in Him. He’s not just saying I AM WHO I AM, but rather, I AM WHO I AM to you just the same as I was to Abraham, just the same as I was to Isaac, just the same as I was to Jacob. I am just the same now as I was then, I have the exact same love towards you that I had towards them, just as I provided a Ram to rescue Isaac, so I can provide for you, just as I have been faithful in my promise to Abraham I will be faithful in all my promises to you!

And this name is also a promise to you, that YHWH, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the God who Christ revealed, who Paul preached is also your God, He is your I AM. Just as He worked constantly to save, heal and deliver His people in scriptures, just as He has loved them throughout the ages with an unfailing love, He works constantly today to save, heal and deliver you, His child from every trial and snare. He has loved you, He does love you and He will love you for all eternity because it’s who He is, He cannot change.

The name yhwh is the description and guarantee of the fact that God is and remains the God of his people, unchanging in his grace and faithfulness. - Bavinck

Ministry/Prayer