Names of God: YHWH

 

Do you have a nickname? My parents gave me the nickname of Bobbie, or Rob and sometimes, Bob-a-lu. My late husband called me Bobby Sue or Bob.

Some of us go by Sis, Bro, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, (or the like). Often we are referred to by terms of endearment: Honey, Baby, Love, Sweetheart, Friend, you get the idea.

You may be a senior or junior or the first, second, or third. Is there a fourth or fifth?

My middle name, Lorenda, has been passed down from generations and I gave it to my daughter who in turn named her daughter, our cherished middle name.

Names are important. But there is no name more important than God’s name.

God owns many names and most of those names represent an attribute of His. His essence is expressed in His names. One name represents His Lordship and holiness. In fact, His name is so holy that it wasn’t uttered. The name I’m referring to is Y H W H.

Technically this term is known as the Tetragrammaton meaning 4 letters that make up the divine name.

There are no vowels in written Hebrew only were understood to be there. Vowels are pronounced but not written. The vowels from the name Adonai were placed between the consonants of YHWH to remind them they were there. So, Y H W H is pronounced Yahweh. Since the name Yahweh is so sacred and holy, back in ancient times, the name was avoided all together, and the scribes and scholars started using Adonai, meaning Master or Lord. The English word Jehovah comes from Latin and was derived from Adonai. Many English speakers refer to Yahweh as Jehovah.

We first see Yahweh in Exodus 3:15 and it appears over 6,000 times throughout the Old Testament. This is where Moses met the Lord in the burning bush and God wanted him to lead his people out of Egypt. Moses wanted to know what to call God and what to tell the people. The NLT (New Living Translation) uses the name Yahweh. Exodus 3:15 says, God replied to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.”

And you probably know the rest of the story. Moses took Yahweh at his word and led the multitude away from captivity to the Promised Land with Yahweh leading the way.

The most famous and pointed verses are Deuteronomy 6:4-5 I’ll read it from the NKJV (New King James) “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Adonai from Yahweh is used there.

One of the ways we show love to the Lord is through our prayers. Jesus, God the Son, showed us how to pray and what to say in Matthew 6:5-15.

A clear example of how we should pray and view God’s name is in Mathew 6:9 nlt “Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.” Jesus reminds us that His name is Holy.

Holy. God’s name is Holy. Yahweh is Holy. Set apart. Complete. Perfect. Sinless.

The Deuteronomy passage tells us to Love the Lord, Adonai, Jehovah, YHWH. Yahweh is to be loved completely with every part of our being. He should be the most important person in our lives. We need to honor his name and never be flippant with His name. Any of His names. We need to reverence Him, yet walk and talk with Him, every day all through the day. Pray to Him as we go about our day. In our work. In our play. In trials. In rejoicing. Sometimes we need to take a dive into our thoughts and actions. Are we reverencing God? Do we think of God as Holy? Yahweh as Holy?

We need to ponder and think about things we may need to get into alignment with the word of God.

Learn more of God’s names HERE