Names and Attributes of God – Jehovah

As I mentioned in The Evolution of a Blog, I have been encouraged to broaden my scope of posts and be a “light” in my little corner of cyber space.  One way I hope to accomplish this is by sharing some of the things I’ve learned or have been studying. Keeping with the “food” theme, these posts will make up a new category called “Food for Thought”.  

At the beginning of this year (2017) I decided to do a study on the Names and Attributes of God.  After a quick Google search I came across 30 Days of Praying the Names and Attributes of God on the Navigator’s website.  I found this a great place to start.  They even have a handy printable calendar.  While this is not a comprehensive list, like I said, it is a great place to start.  

The first name I want to talk about is “Jehovah” or “Yahweh“.  This is the name God calls Himself when talking to Moses in Exodus 3:13-15.  

 Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them: The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask    me,  “What is His name?” what should I tell them?                                                                                                              

God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.”  This is what you are to say…. I AM has sent you….Say Yahweh…has send me….This is my name forever: this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.

This is called the Personal Name of God.  It was so sacred and holy to the Israelites (also known as the Hebrews or Jews) that they would not speak it or even write the whole word.  They would write it leaving out the vowels so it looked like this, “YHWH”.  It is for this reason that we really don’t know exactly how the name was pronounced.  It is translated in most Bible versions today as, “LORD” or “Lord”.  But, fortunately, the pronunciation and English spelling are much less important than the meaning. 

What does it mean?

“I AM WHO I AM” (Jehovah/Yahweh) means the ONLY self-complete, independent being that exists.

It’s that simple…. God is complete in Himself, sustains Himself and exists independently of anyone or anything else.  A being that has no creator and is all-sufficient in and of Himself.  Anything else would make Him less than God.  

What should our response to this be?

Our proper response to this, the personal name of God, should be to fall on our knees before Him in recognition of His power and authority over us.  It is a humbling thing to see ourselves in light of an awesome God.  

The Good News for Us:

Unlike the Jews, we can, do and should call God by His name.  He, because of the reconciliation provided to us by the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, has provided a way and allows us (actually more than that… desires us) to approach Him boldly, call Him by name and bring our every thought, concern, care and emotion to Him, no matter what.  

We find this in Hebrews 4:14-16

Seeing then that we have a great high priest….Jesus the Son of God…Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

It’s an awesome thing to think about the fact that we, no matter who we are or how “insignificant” we may be, can approach the One-And-Only, All-Powerful, Self-Sustaining, Holy God of the Universe …anytime, anywhere and talk to Him about anything!  He is a loving God who seeks a relationship with us.

Did you get that?  This is powerful so I’m going to say it again….The Creator of the Universe, who is complete in Himself, wants to have a personal relationship with you!  And that’s where it all starts, with a relationship.  I would encourage you to meditate on that today.   

My Personal Take-Away:

The biggest thing I learned from studying Jehovah, the Personal Name of God is…. He is God, and I am NOT and for that, I am thankful!  He doesn’t NEED a relationship with me, but He WANTS one.  

*The information shared in these posts is a compilation of my own study drawing from multiple websites, books, authors and most importantly, God’s own words…. the Bible*