The Great I Am - Pt. 3

 

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3 ESV).

 

Today, as we look further into the name of God, we can see the importance even great than before. The ancient Hebrew scribes considered God’s name too sacred to write or pronounce. When vowels were later added to the text, the scribes took the vowels from the word adonai, which means “lord” or “master,” and inserted them between the consonants. Instead of pronouncing Yahweh, they simply pronounced the word Adonai. Following this practice, most English versions of the Bible translate YHWH as “LORD” (all capital letters). When the Scripture speaks of the Lord YHWH, then the English versions will have “Lord GOD” with the word God in all capital letters. So, both LORD and GOD in English versions stand for YHWH. The pronunciation yäwā is our best estimate of how YHWH would have been pronounced. Since we do not have the original vowels, we cannot know for sure. However, the significance is in the meaning, not the pronunciation, just as Jehovah is still a sacred name, even if it is not a technically correct spelling.

 

Yahweh is the covenant name for the God of Israel. In Exodus 3:15, as Yahweh speaks to Moses, He says that He is also the God of the patriarchs. Then He says, “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them” (Exodus 6:3). This declaration drives us to further study, because both Noah (cf. Genesis 9:26) and Abraham (cf. Genesis 22:14) spoke of Yahweh by that name. Moses himself seems to suggest that the Hebrews were already familiar with the name Yahweh (cf. Exodus 4:1).

 

The answer seems to be that, whereas Noah, Abraham, and others knew the name Yahweh—and thus knew that God is eternal and faithful—they never experienced the full impact of that name. God had manifested Himself as ”Almighty” but not as “the absolute Being working with unbounded freedom in the performance of His promises“ (Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament). For those before Moses, the fulfillment of God’s promises remained distant, and their view of the character of God was murky. That was about to change with the exodus, as God delivered His people with great miracles and kept His promise to Abraham. Other names for God might be considered descriptive, but Yahweh is personal. It is by this name that He covenants with and leads the nation of Israel.

 

The greatest fulfillment of this covenant is seen in the Incarnation, the birth of Jesus. His work of grace through the cross and resurrection ultimately is God’s greatest fulfillment of the covenant. Greater is yet to come when Jesus comes again to restore all of creation to the glory before sin entered the world through Adam and Eve. We can know this will take place since we have already seen enough of God’s power in what He has already done on behalf of His promise. That is the basis of our hope!