Yahweh

Exodus 3:14-15 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15 Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’

When God revealed His name to Moses, He used what is called the tetragrammatron - or the four letters. Because Hebrew had no vowels, that name was Y-H-W-H...in our English alphabet, it’s spelled Yahweh. It carries the meaning “I am what I am, I am Who I am, I will be who I will be, and I will always be.” In other words, God is Who He is - and nothing will change that. He never needs to explain Himself or try to prove Himself. He is....period. We see that in Genesis 1:1, right? “In the beginning, God...”

When we speak God’s name, we’re saying much more than we realize. We're not saying His name to get His attention. This isn't about starting a prayer or letting Him know we're talking to Him. When we speak His name, we’re referring to His entire nature and character. When we speak His name, we’re putting everything He is into one word. Everything He was in eternity past, everything He is to us today, and everything He will be in eternity future is contained in that one name, Yahweh...”I Am What I Am.”

Because His name carries His nature, it is powerful when it’s spoken. This power isn’t because the word itself is powerful, it’s because of the God that word is naming. That’s why the Bible says in Joel 2:32 “And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of Yahweh shall be saved.” It isn’t the name by itself that saves, it’s the God whose name it is.


When God showed Moses His glory in Exodus 34:5, He connected His merciful and just nature to His name. “Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Yahweh.And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘Yahweh, Yahweh God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.’”

In Psalm 124:8, David declared that God's name brings help. “Our help is in the name of Yahweh, Who made heaven and earth.” The Creator of heaven and earth comes to help when his name is called! Proverbs 18:10 declares, “The name of Yahweh is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe.”

With all of His character attached to His name, it's no wonder that God told His people not to use it in a worthless way? Exodus 20:7 says, “You shall not take the name of Yahweh in vain.” Because this name is attached to God’s nature, His mercy, His justice, and His creative power - you should have a purpose for speaking it!

The  scribes of the Old Testament took this command to heart. Whenever they wrote the name Yahweh, they would first bathe themselves and get a new pen. Then, after the name was written, they would bathe themselves again. They knew the value of the name they were placing in that book! Our first english translators did something similar. Whenever they saw the name YHWH in the Old Testament, they wanted to reverence it. So instead of writing Yahweh in English, they wrote LORD - all in capital letters. Whenever you see this in your Bible, it is the name of Yahweh.

That name was so important to the Hebrews, that they often used it in their own names. Many Jewish names had the shortened name for God (YAH or JAH) inside them:
Elijah - “My God is Yahweh”
Isaiah - “Yahweh has saved”
Jonathan - “Yahweh has given”
Jeremiah - “Yahweh has appointed”
Jehoshaphat - “Yahweh has judged”
Joshua - “Yahweh is salvation”

The name Joshua was translated into the Greek word “Yeshua” in the New Testament. We see this Greek name in Matthew 1:21 “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Jesus’ name means “Yahweh is salvation”. It not only carries the entire nature of God in the name Yahweh, but now it also shows what He did for us. It was in the very nature of Yahweh to save us from our sin!