We have our purpose, to glorify our Abba Father. We know how the Holy Spirit works in us through our GCS, but we still have to know our Abba Father truly. But to bridge the gap between our Almighty God of the Heavens and our human life, he did a fantastic thing. He put his glory in his names so we could relate to and know him.
Names in ancient times were different from today. A name was an information packet. Today a name is a label; we only have fun looking up the meaning. Names in the Scripture are the information packet of the word. Names play an essential role in the Old Testament. We cannot understand our Abba Father to the best of our ability until we understand how his name is related to his existence and how his existence is related to us through his name. Our generic reference to God in ELB as simply “God” is monumentally limiting our relationship with him, and changing that is the first step to growing our faith.
What follows is a journey I have tried to simplify. Prayerfully, you will find this journey enlightening and, even better, a life-changing experience. My point is our relationship with our Abba Father, not biblical name trivia. We must study the revelation of our Abba Father’s name in the Scripture to know him because the Scripture is what we have to work with.
Names in the Scripture are rich in meaning, none more so than our Abba Father’s. I use the story of Nabal and his wife Abigail often to illustrate our Abba Father’s confidence in strong women, but it also illustrates the use of names to add meaning. In 1 Samuel 25:25, Abigail says, “Let not my LORD regard this worthless fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.” Nabal means “fool,” and Abigail means “father’s joy.”
The man Father’s Joy is talking to also has some serious issues, even though his name means “beloved.” Father’s Joy is talking to Beloved because her husband, Fool, disrespected Beloved. Therefore, Beloved needed to gather some of his armies and completely wipe out Fool’s family, including Father’s Joy and all their possessions.
Beloved’s name still prevails because we know him as King David. Father’s Joy succeeded in saving both families from Beloved’s temper. That story is an excellent example of our Abba Father using a woman to advance his plan. Exodus 2:10 has another example, “And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, and said, Because I drew him out of the water.“
The book of Daniel also describes essential name changes to change identity. Four young boys were sent to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel (the future prophet), Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, were all named to honor our Abba Father. Their names were changed with the hope of them worshipping the Babylonian gods. Daniel means “God is my judge,” and it was changed to Belteshazzar, meaning “(the god) Bel protects his life.” Nebuchadnezzar tried to connect Daniel to a new god. Also, El, at the end of a Hebrew name, means God.
Hananiah, meaning “God has favored,” was changed to Shadrach, meaning “royal or great scribe.” The “ah” at the end of Hananiah means Yahweh. Mishael, meaning “who is what God is,” changed to Meshach, meaning “guest of a king.” Azariah, which means “helped by God,” was changed to Abednego, which means “servant of (the god) Nebo.”
Our Abba Father’s name changes with Abram (exalted father) to Abraham (father of multitudes) and Jacob (cheater) to Israel (prince with God) are well known after our Abba Father changed their life’s purpose. Cheater was not a good name for our Abba Father’s chosen people.
I reviewed elohiym and Yahweh in S2M3, and I also reviewed them here. As discussed above, the first five words of Scripture are, “In the beginning elohiym created . . .” (Genesis 1:1). I included the Hebrew word “elohiym” for God because that is the Scripture, not the English word “God.” Elohiym is translated as “God” in our English Holy Bibles and means strength, power, and might. It is used thirty-five times in the first thirty-four verses of the creation. Creating a universe requires strength, power, and might.
Moving on, Genesis 2:4 NKJV reveals, “This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD (Yahweh) God (elohiym) made the earth and the heavens.” Notice “Yahweh” is translated as the LORD, and God is still elohiym. In Genesis 1, we see God; in Genesis 2, we see LORD God. What is that about? And what does Yahweh mean?
Before I get into what Yahweh means, I want to point out what it is, our Abba Father’s personal relationship name in the Old Testament, used when our Abba Father, Yahweh, is acting in relationship with us. Genesis 1 is about elohiym using his might and power to create the universe. In Genesis 2, Yahweh starts to build his relationship with his people using his relationship name. Please pray on that.
The names elohiym and Yahweh adds more significant meaning to our reading of Scripture than we see with only “God” in English. When LORD is used in Scripture (all caps or Cap L & small caps), it means Yahweh, and he is getting personal with us. Many Christians see “LORD God” as “two names must be better than one,” right? Wrong; two meanings are better than one!
So what does Yahweh mean? That is a good question. Yahweh looks like this in ancient Hebrew, יהוה. Four consonants, YHWH (yodh, he, vav, and he) with no vowels because ancient Hebrew did not write vowels as we do in English. Scholars call the Hebrew name the Tetragrammaton (four letters), or they say the four letters by name (phonetically “yod hey vah hey”).
We cannot pronounce names without vowels, and in ancient times, they passed on pronunciation by word of mouth. For example, you can probably read this without vowels because you know the words: Lv th Lrd Gd wth ll yr hrt. What man and God have done to confuse יהוה is impressive because the ancient Jews stopped saying יהוה to make sure they did not ever take God’s personal name in vain. Please pray on that.
Instead, they verbally substituted a third name for our Abba Father when reading out loud or speaking יהוה. No one knows the correct vowels or how to say our Abba Father’s actual revealed name today. Most Christians know the name Yahweh, but Yahweh is simply a translation of יהוה determined from a different set of assumptions than Yahweh.
Yahweh is the Hebrew word from another conclusion drawn from another set of assumptions and has become the majority’s chosen word for most English Holy Bibles, including Catholicism. So, we will continue using Yahweh, knowing it is still a placeholder.
The critical point is that our Abba Father uses a personal, intimate name with us, Yahweh, in addition to an authoritative title, elohiym. And most of us do not know that Scripture tells us which name in every verse. God means elohiym (or some grammatical form), and LORD means Yahweh. With no caps, a lord refers to an earthly master, as shown above when Abigail speaks to Beloved.
There is no evidence that pronunciation is a deal breaker with Yahweh, Yahweh, or the other seven less common versions. If anyone tells you one is correct, smile because that is ELB. There is new research with previously unseen documents and the Dead Sea Scrolls, but most likely, we will have to wait until we are with our Abba Father and ask him.
Our Abba Father’s encounter with Moses at the burning bush reveals the meaning of Yahweh to us and the relationship our Abba Father created with us. That occurs when our Abba Father starts the next phase of his plan to move his people out of Egypt.
It is so common to isolate the Exodus story as “Moses leading the slaves out of Egypt” that we miss entirely our Abba Father’s plan to save Abraham’s family from the famine to keep his promise to Abraham and give the family a chance to grow to nation size. That is a crucial point. Up to that point, our Abba Father had parked Abraham’s descendants in their refuge in southern Egypt, which enabled them to grow and prosper with little outside threat from anyone.
God calls out to Moses in Exodus 3:6 NKJV, ”Moreover He said, “I am the God (elohiym) of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God” (elohiym).
Our Abba Father identifies himself to Moses through God’s references to Moses’ famous ancestors. Our Abba Father continues Exodus 3:7 NKJV, “And the LORD (Yahweh) said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry.” We see our Abba Father change from the “mighty creator” (elohiym) calling out to Moses, to the relationship LORD (Yahweh) hearing his people’s cry. At this point, it is essential to realize that Scripture is telling us God is speaking as Yahweh; Moses does not know the difference. Please pray on that.
We have to look at the whole sequence of our Abba Father with Moses to understand what he is saying about himself to Moses and us. Moses responds in Exodus 3:11-12 NKJV, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Our Abba Father answers Moses, “I will be (ehyeh) with you.”
That statement by our Abba Father sets the stage for what follows; it is all about our Abba Father being with us and attaching his power to his name, so we have a way to understand and approach him. It is not about the trivia question, God’s name, or pronunciation.
Then Moses asks our Abba Father his name, Exodus 3:13 NKJV, “Then Moses said to God (elohiym), “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God (elohiym) of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” Notice Moses, who is talking, still sees God here as elohiym; there is no relationship yet.
That strikes me as a very odd question to ask. It seems like Moses was saying, “which god is this talking to me?” Remember, there were no priests or any structure for worshipping yet, and Egypt and Midian, where Moses fled forty years before, had many gods. Those gods are central to the ten plagues our Abba Father inflicted on Egypt before the Exodus.
We hear our Abba Father’s answer to Moses in Exodus 3:14 NKJV, “And God (elohiym) said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” The Hebrew is “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh” and I will let the Torah.com website explain this phrase better than I ever could.
“This enigmatic phrase, evasively formulated in the first person imperfect form of the root “to be,” rather than the third person of the name itself, has provoked an endless stream of translations, interpretations, and scholarship, from the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation, to the twentieth century philosopher Martin Buber, and beyond. This contentiousness itself attests to what I believe is its deliberate ambiguity and irresolvable open-endedness.”
The problems are that “asher” does not fit the phrase grammatically, and the Hebrew word translated as “I AM” is “ehyeh,” which we saw above translated as “I will be.“ There are three very similar examples of ehyeh as “I will be” in the Prophets. In 1 Samuel 7:14 NKJV, our Abba Father’s covenant with David, “I will be (ehyeh) his Father, and he shall be My son.” Jeremiah 11:4 NKJV, “you will be My people, and I will be (ehyeh) your God (elohiym).” Ezekiel 11:20 NKJV, “and they shall be My people, and I will be (ehyeh) their God (elohiym).”
The Old Testament is written in the ancient temple Hebrew, and I go with what the Jewish scholars say about Hebrew translation. Judaism has an enormity of official writings about what the Hebrew means. Most scholars suggest that the best translation of “ehyeh asher ehyeh” is “I will be who I will be.”
But our Abba Father is not saying his actual name here; he is making a covenant promise to his people. And he is also telling his people for the first time they will have to experience our Abba Father to know him; he is looking into the future. Exodus 3:14 NKJV ends with, “And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM (ehyeh) has sent me to you.’” Or, “I will be has sent me to you.”
God is still not announcing his personal name here; it is not ehyeh; he is making a promise. God then makes his point emphatically with his name in Exodus 3:15 NKJV, “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.”
Notice how you completely missed God’s name when translated as “the LORD.” That is profound to me and theological malpractice in ELB. Also notice how God changes from elohiym in Exodus 3:14 to Yahweh in Exodus 3:15. Yahweh (יהוה) is the personal, covenant name of our Abba Father in the Old Testament.
The Scripture in English makes this seem so simple, יהוה means “I AM, or I WILL BE.” Got it! But what is our Abba Father really saying to us? The Israelites did not know what Yahweh meant, so why would a stranger named Moses telling them the name mean anything to them? Raise your hand if you have ever wondered about this.
Let’s keep going with Moses and our Abba Father. He connected Moses with his brother Aaron to help and visit the Pharaoh. They made their demand; the Pharaoh said no, and the people were unhappy with Moses because the Pharaoh punished them.
Moses speaks out to our Abba Father, and he answers in Exodus 6:2-3 NKJV, “And God (elohiym) spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the LORD (יהוה). I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD (יהוה) I was not known to them.”
We were told this back in Genesis 17:1 NKJV, “When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty . . .” It was not until Israel was ready to be our Abba Father’s portion delivered to the Promised Land that he made his desire for a relationship with them (and us) known to them. That revelation is essential for us to understand our Abba Father.
Our Abba Father is explaining to Moses that the meaning of his name, Yahweh, was not known to Abraham’s ancestors. They knew elohiym was there, but he had not done a lot of explaining. Our Abba Father then repeats his covenant, hearing their cry, and repeats what his name means. Exodus 6:6-7 NKJV, “Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the LORD (יהוה); (the God who relates to his people, my addition) I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the LORD (the God who relates to his people) your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”
Our Abba Father continues with his promise in Exodus 3:16-17 NKJV, emphasizing his doing, not his existence. Our Abba Father reveals himself through his works, demonstrating his faithfulness, sovereignty, and infinite mercy. Our Abba Father is the Almighty because he is the creator of an infinite world, not just the biggest God. Man cannot truly fathom our infinite Abba Father, which needs to be our starting point in our relationship with him, and then find a pathway from there to us and vice-versa. Otherwise, we remain stuck in ELB.
My earthly father’s name is Herbert which means warrior, but I never looked at him as a warrior; Herbert was just the way people referred to him. His firstborn son is also named Herbert. But my brother is not my father. We should try very hard never to look at our Abba Father’s name that way but see all the majesty he revealed to Moses and realize our mighty elohiym and loving Yahweh is asking a weak human (us) to do an incredible task.
The actual meaning of the Hebrew root for our Abba Father’s name is “the self- existent, he who becometh, or the becoming one.” It tells us that God’s infinite power is innate to his very existence. Our Abba Father is telling Moses, “do not worry, I can and will do whatever it takes to rescue you from Egypt,” AND that we call the power of our Abba Father to us with his name.
Moses is very similar to David in terms of being the least likely person we would ever choose for the most significant job our Abba Father ever called a man to do. But that is what he does. Moses had difficulty talking, Exodus 4:10 NKJV, “But Moses said to the LORD (Yahweh), (notice Moses knows who he is talking to now) “Oh, my Lord (Adonai), I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”
In this verse, we see the third name of our Abba Father, Adonai (Lord), and knowing this name is an incredible experience. The root of Adonai means to own or enslave, having power, authority, or influence as a master or ruler. We see in Exodus 4:10 that Moses refers to himself as “your servant” (Adonai). The first meaning of the Hebrew word is “slave” or “subject.” The Adonai God is referenced 450 times in the Old Testament when a person appeals to our Abba Father. It is a name of great respect.
Exodus 5:22 NKJV, “So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people?” When knowing what the names mean, this verse comes to life! We know when Adonai is the word used because it is written with a single capital “L” only, as seen in Exodus 5:22 NKJV, which shows both LORD and Lord in use. When using Adonai, the person tells our Abba Father they are his slave and recognize him as their Master.
The biggest problem with ELB is that we see our Abba Father as the Almighty, but we do not see ourselves as his slaves; he is our rightful owner and master. If we thought “Adonai” to address our Abba Father when pleading, we would tell him that we have indeed surrendered to his absolute authority over us and our lives. Please pray on that.
Psalm 9:10 NKJV, “And those who know Your name will put their trust in You…” our Abba Father’s most important name in the Old Testament is who he wants us to know him as the most, Yahweh, the relationship God who will provide for us. Elohiym (God), Yahweh (LORD), and Adonai (Lord) are the three primary names of our Abba Father in the Old Testament, and knowing all three in translation will make a difference in our life.
I do not use God (elohiym) in speaking to the LORD (Yahweh) because it is so impersonal. I affirm to my LORD (Yahweh) that I also see him as Lord (Adonai) to affirm that he owns me and is my Master to obey, i.e., to confirm my surrender to him.
We cannot see our Abba Father, and we cannot even imagine him, which is why he made his name to be our connection with him. We can see his name, actually his many names, and see him in the names. But if we do not know, his name is just a means to identify who we are talking to or about, and our faith suffers because of it.
Let’s look at how Scripture uses our Abba Father’s name. Mathew 6:9 NKJV, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” (the LORD’s Prayer). Psalm 8:1 NKJV, “O LORD, our Lord, (notice how much more sense this makes as Yahweh and Adonai) How excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens!” Psalm 20:7-8 NKJV, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.” Psalm 9:2 NKJV, “I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.” Proverbs 18:10 NKJV, “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.”
Deuteronomy 26:58-59 NKJV, “If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the LORD your God, then the LORD will bring upon you . . .” 2 Samuel 6:2 NKJV, “And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, whose name is called by the Name, the LORD of Hosts . . ”
1 Chronicles 22:19 NKJV, “Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God. Therefore arise and build the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD and the holy articles of God into the house that is to be built for the name of the LORD.” Psalm 111:9 NKJV, “He has sent redemption to His people; He has commanded His covenant forever: Holy and awesome is His name.” It also happens that we are saved by calling on the name of the LORD. Joel 2:32 NKJV says, “And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.” The New Testament repeats this, Romans 10:13 NKJV, “For “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” Take this message to heart and you will feel the difference in your relationship with Yahweh.”
