The Name God Gave Himself

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Well, who is God and what is he like?

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Well, in ancient times, a person's name was considered a prophetic declaration of their

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character or destiny.

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So when God named himself, it was a description of who he is.

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And when studying God's character, we must start with the name that he gave himself.

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So welcome to this week's Shabbat Shalom devotional.

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When I seek to share just a little inspiration and bring a little piece to the close of your

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very busy week.

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After the Lord freed the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, he took them into the Sinai Desert

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and there he began to reveal to them who he was.

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The children of Israel really had lost touch with their God.

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And so first, he describes to them as character, which I covered in last week's Shabbat Shalom

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devotional.

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But he also shared with them what is his name.

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And that's what I want to talk about this week.

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There are many names ascribed to God in the Bible and each describes a certain aspect

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of his character or a reminder of his great acts.

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But in Exodus 3, Moses asked the Lord how he should answer the children of Israel when

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they ask him, who is it that sent him?

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And so God responds by giving Moses his name.

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The name is the premier name above all the other names of God in the Bible.

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It is all encompassing of who he is.

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So what is the name?

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Well, I'm not going to try to pronounce it because the pronunciation was actually lost

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way back in the Babylonian exile.

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And because of that today, a religious Jew will not attempt to pronounce the name of

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God because they want to revere that name.

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They don't want to mispronounce it.

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And also in the Ten Commandments, it says not to take his name in vain.

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So in order to be very, very careful, they do not pronounce this name.

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But they do refer to God as the name or Hashem.

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In respect for my Jewish listeners, I'm not going to attempt to pronounce it either.

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But the name is made up of four Hebrew letters, Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh.

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And in academic circles, it's known as the tetragrammaton.

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So in the Bible, it is often shown as the word Lord in all caps.

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If you see that in your Bible, it means that in the original Hebrew, that word is the tetragrammaton.

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Now, it's...

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The word Lord is not a translation, but it's a replacement for the four Hebrew letters.

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So what does the name mean?

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Well, let's read first in Exodus 3.14 what God says about his name.

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And God said to Moses, I am who I am.

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And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you.

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Now this translation, which is the New King James translation, has it in all caps that

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I am who I am is a translation of those four letters that are not to be pronounced.

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So it's even been debated what is the accurate translation.

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And here, and in many of our translations, it's translated as I am who I am.

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Therefore, tell them I am sent you.

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But it's more of an ongoing tense.

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It's not just present tense that God is who he is.

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It's that he always will be who he is.

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So another translation is I will be who I will be.

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But a popular idea going all the way back, really, to the time of Christ, it's found

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and it's found in the book of Revelation.

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The translation is a tense that involves past, present, and future.

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So the translation would be I am the one who was, who is, and who will be.

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And we see this in Revelation 1 verse 8 where it says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the

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beginning and the end, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

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This is the eternal God with no beginning and no end.

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And this is what his name teaches us.

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So as you take a little break this weekend, reflect upon the eternal God as revealed in

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his name, the one who is, who was, and is to come.

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Next week we're going to be talking about God revealed through other names, descriptive

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names.

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Until then, I wish you Shabbat Shalom.