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| The Hebrew spelling for "Yahweh" |
As I've stated before, I am a writer; shaping my words into fiction or trying to put the musings of my mind into tangible material is one of my favorite hobbies. But, I have a favorite type of word, if it can be called that. One of my absolute favorite parts about writing is the study of names. In fact, during my free time, you might find me surfing the web for the most obscure names I can possibly find or combing through a thick volume entitled,"100,000+ Baby Names", for hours on end.
So, when I discovered the significance of names in Jewish
culture and how it relates to my faith, I was pretty thrilled.
See, back in Bible times, people would name their
children according to their current circumstances, inspiration from God, or
hopes for their child's future. It was more than just a combination of letters
or something that sounded nice; it was a hint into the rest of the child's
life. A few examples of names and their correspondences to the destinies of
their owners include...
Isaac- "he laughs" (since Sarah laughed when she
was told about his birth), Moses- "to draw out" (since he was drawn
out of the river as a baby), David- beloved (he was a man after God's own
heart, according to scripture), Paul- humble (he discusses humility A LOT in
his letters and proves his own humility through his actions throughout the
Bible).
Isn't that amazing?! God would inspire the parents of these
Biblical heroes to name their children such meaningful, relevant names.
It's cool, yes, but you're probably wondering, what's the
point of this, anyway? How does this relate to a relationship with God?
Well, this morning at church during our worship service, I
began to think about all of the names given to God Himself. We say them day
after day (in good and bad ways), read them over and over in the Bible, and
hear them from the mouths of other people; eventually, they just become average
words in our Christian-ese vocabulary.
But, since God's character is often reflected in the ways of
His chosen people and the Jewish people value names so highly, why wouldn't
God's names be significant as well?
So, today, I'm going to list three of the more
frequently-used names of God and a few amazing things about each of them...
1. "LORD"- this is a generic word, yes. I remember when I first learned terms for social classes in medieval days and came across this word. Yes, the "lords" were a medieval social class! But, we need to realize that this is a very different word from what we picture alongside fearless knights and ladies wearing poofy dresses and cone-shaped hats. Whenever we see the word "LORD" printed in the Bible in all caps, that means that it's directly translated from the word "Yahweh" in Hebrew. Yeah, that sounds familiar, doesn't it? We use that in Sunday school culture sometimes, but we often neglect to realize the gravity of the word. Recently, I learned that "Yahweh" isn't even pronounceable in Hebrew! It was spelled Y-H-W-H. We just added in the vowels for clarity. This inability to pronounce YHWH meant something important to God's people; it demonstrated that God was so holy that his name couldn't even be said out loud! The literal translation of YHWH makes God's character even more cryptic than this. It closely means, "I am."
The name "I am" was first introduced after Moses
receives the ten commandments and he asked God how he should introduce Him. God
simply responded, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the
Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" (Exodus 3:14)
Wow. Pretty mind blowing. God has such a unique, holy, and
matchless character that a name can't even be given to define His glory! It
would be like trying to find the end of pi. It just can't happen.
2. "Father"- we see God called this about a million times in the Bible and probably know it as a normality. But, when it was first introduced to the disciples, I'm sure it was a strange concept. In Matthew 6:9, Jesus actually has to TEACH his disciples to call God this name as he says the Lord's Prayer for the first time. It's the most paradoxical contradiction from YHWH, isn't it? Our God is somehow too holy to be defined, but personable enough to be called a term of endearment. The word "Father" brings a beautiful image to my mind. It reminds me of a comparison I heard from Mike Donehey, the lead singer of Tenth Avenue North, while at one of their concerts a few weeks ago. He explained that the reason why we some of us raise our arms during worship became fully evident to him when he himself became a father and saw his little girl raising her arms up to him. It was an unspoken request that meant, "carry me."
By telling us to call Him "Father", God wants us
to know how much He cares for us and loves us and won't ever hesitate to carry
us when we need help. Psalm 91:4 illustrates this so well:
"He will cover you with His feathers and under His
wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart."
3. "Jesus"- Jesus translates to mean something like "savior" or "to save". While many people may make the argument that Jesus is an overused name that was given to hundreds of Hebrew boys back in the day and therefore has no significance, I think that it has more power than that. Of course, I need to make another Narnia reference at this point to explain why...
An incredible moment in this series occurs as the Pevensie
children hear the name of "Aslan", the allegorical character for
Jesus, for the first time. Here, let me quote it for you...
"And now a very curious thing happened. None of the
children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had
spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes
happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don't
understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous meaning -
either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a
lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful
that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into
that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the
children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of
mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if
some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by
her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and
realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of
summer."
~Chapter 7, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
In the same way, the name "Jesus" has an
inexplicable connection underneath it. While the words "God",
"Lord", or even "Savior" can sound generic and unobtrusive,
"Jesus" narrows down and defines our faith, shows that we identify
with the incarnation of our God and His sacrifice for us.
In fact, Philippians 2:10 tells us, "that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and under the
earth."
Notice that it doesn't say that we will bow to
"God", "Lord", or even "I am" or
"Yahweh". This mere fact shows that the true "Author and
Perfecter of our faith"(Hebrews 12:2) is Jesus Christ.
So, in the end, what does this mean for us? Well, it simply shows us how huge and matchless and mysterious our God is. He is YHWH, the inexplicable and glorious One, Father, the loving and personable One, and Jesus, the One on whom we build our faith, our salvation, and our lives.
After learning all of this, I hope and pray that we'll all
see the significance of God's name differently than ever before. Sometimes,
it's easy just to minimize the importance of His name into nothingness or just
see Him as a tiny genie in a bottle or an unapproachable, angry judge. But,
He's neither of those things. His names tell us all about His real character.
(all information about names comes from the "So That the World May Know" curriculum from Focus on the Family and behindthename.com)
