What is your Name?

This is essentially the question that Moses asked of the Creator when he was commissioned to be the agent of deliverance for the Children of Israel. See Exodus 3:13-22. This was a question that had to do with the authority in which Moses would walk and minister. Moses was asking the Almighty for a credential that he could carry with him. The response from our Heavenly Father was intended to change the very course of mankind! He said, "Tell them THE ETERNALLY EXISTENT ONE has sent you." In the Hebrew, this explanation is very descriptive of the Proper Name of our God. {Note: This blog does not support True Type Fonts, so I can't show actual Hebrew.} The four-letter proper name of the Almighty is used no less than 6,528 times in the Old Testament alone!

The third commandment reads: "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. (Exodus 20:7) This is possibly the most misunderstood command of the ten. (The fourth command is not misunderstood, it is simply disobeyed.) A literal rendition of verse 7 could read: "You shall not let the name of Yehuweh your Elohim come to worthlessness, for Yehuweh will not hold him innocent who allows this to happen."

Pronunciation: The Oxford English Dictionary states that the Name is best transliterated as IaHUeH. The first three letters in the Hebrew represent YAHU and the final letter represents EH or WEH.

It is no accident that Judah or Yehudah has the same four letters as Yehuweh with a Dalet (D-sound) right in the middle. Every Hebrew letter has a picture or symbol associated with it and the letter Dalet's picture or symbol is a door. We know Yehudah means "Praise". This concept puts together a word picture that states: 'The doorway to Yehuweh is praise.'

There are obviously differing opinions on how the Name should be pronounced. If we are sidetracked at this juncture, we will again be guilty of neglect of the Command by arguing over it. There is a reformation principle at stake here. If this name is used over 6000 times in the Old Testament alone, how is it that modern Christians are not taught His name? King Solomon penned, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe. (Proverbs 18:10). In the original Hebrew, this verse uses the Name, "Yehuweh" i.e. The name Yehuweh is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe. Question: How can the righteous run to the Name if they don't know the Name?

I have taken the following Scriptures from the New King James Version and inserted the Proper Name where it appears in the original:

Jeremiah 16:19-21 ; O Yehuweh, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of affliction, The Gentiles shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say, "Surely our fathers have inherited lies, Worthlessness and unprofitable things." Will a man make gods for himself, Which are not gods? "Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know My hand and My might; And they shall know that My name is Yehuweh.

Isaiah 52:6 Therefore My people shall know My name;

Zephaniah 3:9 "For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, That they all may call on the name of Yehuweh, To serve Him with one accord.

Zechariah 13:2 "It shall be in that day," says the Yehuweh of hosts, "that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered.

Zechariah 13:9 They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘Yehuweh is my Elohim.’"

Joel 2:32 And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name Yehuweh Shall be saved.
For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As Yehuweh has said, Among the remnant whom Yehuweh calls.

Ezekiel 39:7 So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name anymore.

Psalm 44:20,21 If we had forgotten the name of our God, Or stretched out our hands to a foreign god, Would not Elohim search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.

Psalm 83:16-18 Fill their faces with shame, That they may seek Your name, Yehuweh. Let them be confounded and dismayed forever; Yes, let them be put to shame and perish, That they may know that You, whose name alone is Yehuweh, Are the Most High over all the earth.

And finally look at our Messiah's prayer in John 17 : "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." (emphasis mine).

Shalom