The most common and the most important name for God in the Old Testament is a name that in our English versions never even gets translated. Whenever you see the word LORD in all capital letters in your English translation, you know that this name is behind it. In Hebrew the name had four letters - YHWH - and may have been pronounced something like Yahweh.
The Jews came to regard this word with such reverence that they would never take it upon their lips, lest they inadvertently take the name in vain. So whenever they came to this name in their reading they pronounced the word “adonai” which means “my lord.” The English versions have basically followed the same pattern. They translate the proper name Yahweh with the word LORD in all caps.
This is not a very satisfactory thing to do, because the English word LORD does not communicate to our ears a proper name like John or Michael or Betty. But Yahweh is God’s proper name in Hebrew. The importance of it can be seen in the sheer frequency of its use. It occurs 6828 times in the Old Testament. That’s more than three times as often as the simple word for “God” (Elohim - 2600. El - 238). What this shows is that God aims to be known not as a generic deity, but as a specific Person with a name that carries his unique character and mission.
(Note: The word Jehovah originated from an attempt to pronounce the consonants YHWH with the vowels from the word adonai. In the oldest Hebrew texts there are no vowels. So it is easy to see how this would happen since whenever YHWH occurred in the text the word adonai was pronounced by the reverent Jew.)
The most important text in all the Bible for understanding the meaning of the name Yahweh is Exodus 3:13-15. God has just commanded Moses to go to Egypt and to bring his people Israel out of captivity. Look at what Moses says to God in verse 13.
Now notice that God gives three answers to the question, “What shall I tell them your name is?” Second, in verse 14 God says, “I AM has sent me to you.” Third, in verse 15 God says, “Yahweh…has sent me to you…this is my name forever.” So two facts persuade me that this text provides an interpretation of the name Yahweh.
One is that the name Yahweh and the name I AM are built out of the same Hebrew word (hayah). The other is that Yahweh seems to be used here interchangeably with I AM. “I AM has sent me to you” (v.14). “Yahweh…has sent me to you” (v.15).
I think it would be safe to say that God’s purpose in this meeting with Moses is to reveal, as he never had before (Ex. 6:2), the meaning of his personal name Yahweh. The key is in the phrase I AM and especially in the phrase, I AM WHO I AM. So here is where we ought to spend a lot of time meditating. What does it mean when you ask your God, Who are you? and he answers, I AM WHO I AM?
There are a number of implications that are apparent in the divine name, I AM WHO I AM. I hope to examine some of these in the days ahead.
