By My name LORD I was not known to them

These blog entries, for anyone who might happen to stumble upon them, are a work in progress, and I really don’t know from one week to the next what I will write next. However, last time I did promise myself to report some of what I had found regarding the phrase, “my name.”

Up until very recently, I had considered the actual name of God to be unimportant. God was a sort of title or description, as is Lord. As long as we know who He is and understand that He hears us when we pray, and that we know who created us and saved us, the actual name is not important, is it? After all, there are so many languages in the world, with many different-sounding names for our God – so what does it matter what we call Him, so long as we call on Him?

Then I started the study that has started this blog, and the phrase “my name” jumped out as a phrase that is often used in the Bible. I decided to look at some of those verses.

2 And God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the LORD.

3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD* I was not known to them.

Exodus 6:2-3 (New King James Version)

 *LORD is the translation given us for the Hebrew, YHWH. YHWH is also traditionally, more correctly, but not completely accurately, translated as Jehovah; I plan to study “YHWH” in more depth at a future date. 

Very interesting verse, “by My name I was not known to them,” don’t you think, in light of the fact that we apparently don’t have the exact translation of YHWH? Therefore this verse comes to us as if God leaned over and said, “It’s very important that you know My Name, My name is… mumble mumble mumble.” Of course He didn’t say that. He wouldn’t have hidden His name when He obviously wants us to know it! But His name was hidden, I understand, by the Jewish scribes, who felt the name too sacred to be written in its entirety. Surely somewhere, by someone, it is known.

15 Now if I had stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth. 

16 But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.

Exodus 9:15-16 (New King James Version)

He wants us to declare His name in all the earth, but what is the purpose? Some say it is because God is a megalomaniac, wanting all the glory and honor for Himself. I believe it is because His name means something important, and when we know His name, it will add a richness and depth to our understanding of His interaction with us as His creation, and contribute so much more to our relationship with Him. 

This is only the beginning on "my name." More next time.