Knowing His name

Knowing His Name 

Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?” 

God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob — has sent me to you. This is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations.” 

EXODUS 3.13-15 

We interact with a lot of people without ever knowing their names. But when we learn people’s names, they become more real to us as unique people, with their own unique personalities and histories. God wants us to know him — not in a generic or shallow way (as in “the Man Upstairs”). He wants us to know him personally. He wants us to recognise that he has his own personality and character and preferences. So he has told us his name. He doesn’t have a name like Joe or Christopher or Sarah or Emily. His name is unique and holy, just like he is. 

In fact, the Jewish people saw God’s name as so holy they didn’t say it out loud. The name used most often for God in the Old Testament (almost seven thousand times) is a name that is translated into English as “I AM WHO I AM.” You will see this name written as LORD in all capital letters in your Bible. In Hebrew this name had four letters — YHWH — and was pronounced something like “Yahweh.” Out of honour and reverence to how holy God is, Jewish people substituted the word Adonai, which means “my Lord,” rather than saying “Yahweh.” So when we read LORD in the Bible, it refers to God’s proper name. When we see it, it tells us that God wants to be known — not as a vague, distant deity, but as a person. And then he took another step toward us when he became a human in the person of Jesus, who said, “Come to me!” By covering us in his own holiness, Jesus made it possible for us to be known by a holy God.