Do you know God's name?

Day 2

“What is His name?”

Exodus 3:13 “Then Moses asked God, ‘If 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?’ what should I tell them?”
(Holman Christian Standard Bible)

There is a special significance to God’s name in our sacred scripture. In the accurate Hebrew understanding, to speak God’s name was much more than simply saying a mere word, to speak the name was to literally bring about a Divine manifestation… to speak the name was to actually bring God into one’s presence.

God knows, hears, and responds to his name.

When we want to get someone’s attention we speak their name, “Judy!”… and when Judy hears her name it gets her attention… the same is true of God.

As the Hebrews grew to fear God they also grew to fear saying the name since they feared being in his presence. For hundreds and hundreds of years the name of God was never breathed through human lips…. thus… we began to substitute “titles” for God’s name.

Our unfortunate reality is that English bible translators have done the same in our English translations. The supposed reasoning was something like, “We are not going to actually print God’s name out of ‘respect’ for the name.” This is a misplaced ‘respect’ that is actually the product of fear… a tragic loss.

It is time to reclaim the name.

Yahweh.

We will pronounce it as Yah-weh… two syllables. I like to say the name in this manner… inhale as we say ‘Yah’… and exhale as we say ‘weh’.

Would you practice saying the name this way, and meditate on the Glory of our Great God as we learn to speak the name… without fear.

xtnyoda, shalomed