Yahweh ~ LORD

This week we have been learning about Yahweh, the most common name of God found in the Bible. You’ll remember last week we studied Adonai, which is translated from ‘Lord’ and means Master.  God’s name Yahweh is also translated from ‘LORD’ (with all capitals) but has an entirely different meaning that will surely bless you!

What I Learned in Class

Today in class the lesson focused on the passage in Exodus 3 when God appeared to Moses in the burning bush. Let’s look at Exodus 3:13-14, “Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “I AM has sent me to you.”  

‘I AM WHO I AM’ is derived from the Hebrew word havah which means to be or to exist. From this word we get YHWH. Vowels were later added to get the name YAHWEH. (This is also translated as JEHOVAH.)  So what does this tells us about who God is? 

Here are just a few renderings: I AM Who I AM, I will be Who I will be,  I cause to be what is, I AM the One Who is, I AM being.

Does this make your head spin like it did mine? At first glance it may seem that what God is telling us about himself is very vague but this is not so. Some attributes of God are shared by people, i.e. kindness, faithfulness, mercy. The attributes the LORD has revealed by His name I AM belong to Him alone. Let’s look at five of these attributes:

1) God is self-existent. This means He was not created. Everything else has come into existence by God’s hand. He alone exists outside of creation. “For as the Father has life in Himself” (John 6:26).

2) God is self-sufficient. God does not depend on anyone or anything. “And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, He himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:25).

3) God is self-directed. He is free to do as He pleases. “Who has prescribed His ways for Him” (Job 36:23).

4) God is eternal. He has lived and will life forever. “He Who was and is, and is to come” (Rev. 4:8).

5) God is consistent.  He is who He is. He is true and unchanging. “But you remain the same” (Psalm 102:27).

What I Learned from the Homework

One of the focuses of the homework this week was that Yahweh is a Covenant God.  In the Old Testament when God referred to himself it was almost always as LORD (Yahweh).   Although God does not reveal Himself as ‘I AM’ until Moses, it was Yahweh who made a covenant with Abram.  “The LORD said to Abram “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:1-2). God choose Abram and his descendants to be His people and to have a relationship with them. 

In Genesis 28 Yahweh also appeared to Jacob (Abraham’s grandson); “There above it stood the LORD, and He said, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth” (Gen. 28:13-14a).  God reminded Jacob of the covenant He had made with his forefathers and reassured him that He would be faithful to His promise.

We also looked at Exodus 3. When God appeared to Moses and revealed himself as Yahweh, He came with specific intent. “The LORD said , “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land, into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:7-8a). God was (and is) personal. He saw their suffering, He heard their cries, He was concerned!! He appeared to Moses to let him know that He was faithful and that He would be the one to rescue them!

Wrapping it All Up

I was so moved by the indescribable nature of God!  Yahweh is so much bigger than our minds can grasp.  It is easy to take for granted what we know about Him. There are things that I am sure He will never reveal to us but what an awesome thing to think that He does choose to reveal Himself to us. In all His might, power, and holiness He choose to have a relationship with the Hebrew people. He made them His own.  He desires to have a very personal relationship with us as well. If you are looking to have a closer relationship with God and want to know what this means please email us and lets us know. Yahweh, the Covenant LORD of the Israelites, loves you and wants you to know Him!!

“We dare not think that God is absent or day dreaming. The do-nothing God. He’s not tucked away in some far corner of the universe, uncaring, unfeeling unthinking…uninvolved.  Count on it-God intrudes in glorious and myriad ways.”  Joni Eareckson Tada