Praise His mysterious name

It is the Christmas season, and Christmas carols have been heard over the loud speaker systems of stores since before Halloween. The Christmas carols reminded me of the many songs we sing in church that use the phrase, "Praise His name."  I recently heard a song, performed by Jeff and Sheri Easter:

When everything falls apart, Praise his name; When you have a broken heart,  Raise your hands and say, "Lord, you're all I need,  You're everything to me,"  And he'll take the pain away.  When you feel you're all alone, Praise his name; And you feel all hope is gone,  Raise your hands and say, "Greater is he that is within me,"  And you can praise the hurt away,  If you'll just praise his name.

A most beautiful song played this time of year is O Holy Night. The words of the second verse are:

Truly He taught us to love one another,  His law is love and His gospel is peace.  Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.  And in his name all oppression shall cease.  Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,  With all our hearts we praise His holy name. 

If one were to ask, “What name?” the answer you would get would probably be either “Jesus,” or “God.” Those answers are wrong.

All who have considered His name at all know that Jesus is not His name, God is not His name, Lord is not His name, Christ is not His name, Jehovah is not His name, and even Yahweh is not His name. We do know that His name, when He came to earth as a man, was Yeshua, or something very like Yeshua, because that is the name that means Salvation – “for he shall save His people from their sins.”

Somehow we have thought that His name before He lived here as a man was probably something different, a more god-like name. Even at this point some might think that Yeshua, Salvation, was His man name, and YHWH was the god-name of the Father, with the name of the Son not revealed at all. Study of the scriptures, however, reveals the presence of Yeshua, the Son, in the Old Testament. If He was present in those stories (creation, Moses on mountain, Jacob at his midnight struggle, for example), it is very likely He was present in many more of the actions of God in dealing with his human family. I believe Yeshua, the Son, was the main person who has involved Himself in our lives through earth's history.

God did not mean for his name to be mysterious. It is a name He wants us to know, as I have been sharing for the last couple of posts, and will continue after this brief musical side trip.  Lacking other proof, there appears to be evidence that the mysterious name YHWH could, in fact be Yeshua. What an amazing thought, to see that Yeshua, Salvation, was present all through history, covenanting with us, and finally coming in person so save us!