Should we even call God…. God?
Have you ever wondered why we called God, “God?” If pagan worshipers refer to their idols and mythological gods as “god,” then why is not disrespectful for us to call Yahweh by the same name? After all, our God and their “god” are NOT the same! Sure, the word “god” can be a bit arbitrary, but also why doesn’t the creator of EVERYTHING have a proper name?
Well, it all starts with our own stupidity. How can we, as human beings, think that we have the ability with our own words and languages to properly call upon the God of the universe? Wouldn’t his “name” be bigger and more complex than we could ever understand or pronounce? Perhaps even, if we could speak the actual name of Yahweh properly, we would instantly die because of its immense power and might. It may seem a bit crazy at first....
We are not alone with this thinking! Even the authors of the Bible had their ways of dealing with this problem. You might be thinking, “Didn’t God reveal his name to Moses in Exodus 3:14?” Well the answer is yes.... but also... NO!
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14).
Time for a quick Hebrew lesson! God’s response, “I AM WHO I AM,” is directly translated from the Hebrew words ehyeh asher ehyeh. The Hebrew word ehyeh is translated “to be” but it does not carry any tense! (If you are bad at English – the verb has no “past, present, or future” designation.) Essentially God tells Moses, “I am who I was, who I currently am, and who I forever will be!”
Are you ready for a short history lesson? Good!
Throughout scripture, we commonly see God referred to in all caps as “LORD.” In fact, we see this over 6800 times in the Bible! You may not know this, but every time LORD appears in the Bible, it is being translated from the Hebrew word, “Yahweh.”
Ok.... so “Yahweh” is the name of God? Yes! But also... no.
“Yahweh” is translated from “Ehyeh” in the third person. But to top it all off – ancient Hebrew text had NO VOWELS! Essentially, our version of “Yahweh” is just a random attempt at guessing the phonetic pronunciation of YHWH.
All we know for certain are the four Hebrew characters that we refer to as the “tetragrammaton,” or.... YHWH. Traditional Jews are not allowed to speak the name YHWH, as it was only spoken by early Priests within the temple. However after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, the actual pronunciation of the name of God was lost.
Throughout history, scribes did not know how to pronounce YHWH, so every time they came across this “name,” they wrote “Adonai” underneath! Instead of doing dishonor to the name YHWH by mispronouncing it, they would simply say “Adonai” which is the Hebrew word for... Lord.
The Jewish people would eventually attempt to combine YWHW with the vowels found written underneath in Adonai. The combination of these two words gave us “Jehovah!” (YeHoWaH)
So what the heck is the point in all of this?
Well, maybe after all of the confusion, just referring to YHWH as “God,” isn’t so bad! In the end, He is who He was, who He is, and who he forever will be! It is your responsibility, and mine, to worship Him regardless of what He is (or isn’t) called.
So what about Jesus?
The main reason Jesus was put to death was because he claimed to be God (YHWH). There is power even in the name of Jesus! Did you know the ONLY time Jesus was referred to by name was by the criminal on the cross next to him at the crucifixion? Why is this important? Well, “Jesus” is the direct Greek translation of the Hebrew name “Joshua.” “Joshua” is a shortened version of the Hebrew name “Jehoshua,” which means “Yahweh (Jehovah) the Savior.” Even the Romans knew there was power in that name!
The name of our God is so revered, respected, and powerful, that only a few throughout time had the ability or even the courage to say it out loud. Whether you refer to Him as “God,” “Lord,” “Jehovah,” or “Adonai,” we ALL worship the one YHWH.
