This is a story that absolutely has to be written because all my attempts to write it have been thwarted so far. And usually this means that the enemy does not want the powerful truth to get out! So I will not give up and I will try for the umpteenth time to reconstruct my story and hopefully inspire you, just as our small group of worshippers were so beautifully inspired.
Last Wednesday was our worship Wednesday – this happens on the middle Wednesday of each month. The Lord had given me the word ‘blessings’ for the theme. My obvious reaction to this was that we should have an evening of talking about our blessings rather than our struggles.
But as I began searching for songs that would encapsulate this topic, I began to see that it wasn’t actually meant to be about our blessings at all, although these will always be a wonderful part of our Christian life.
It was rather meant to be about us offering up a blessing of worship to the Lord.
It was meant to be an experience where the blessings would burst forth from our mouths and radiate from our entire being. I could feel my excitement grow as I set out on the journey of preparation.
It didn’t take long before I had my list of songs sorted. Now, I just needed to find one of the songs on YouTube, so that I could bring in a bit of audio visual for a greater impact. Crazy I know, because when God moves, he has a greater impact than any YouTube clip could ever have.
And then sometimes, He uses YouTube too!
The song Yahweh, by Hillsong, was the most modern song that I had selected so I assumed that this would be the best place to start. It was also going to be the first song of the set. The song itself does not have the most beautiful lyrics, but it has such a sweet sound. A melody that would take us right into that sweet spot of worship.
When I began to play the YouTube clip, my whole body burst out in goose bumps. Before the song began, there was a message. An extremely unexpected and powerful message. About declaring our worship to Yahweh.
I knew right then that this had to be a part of our evening. Until my husband dropped the bomb. The TV in our large open plan lounge, which is most suitable for our worship meeting, was not yet linked to the WIFI and therefore we would not be able to watch the YouTube clip as an introduction to our worship. At this point, I was about to abandon the clip completely. After all, my word for the year is ‘flow’ so instead of stressing about it and trying to make another plan, I thought maybe I should just go with the flow. I must stop trying to make the evening perfect. The evening would be a blessing to the Lord and to us, either way. But I just could not stop the niggle. I knew that the message had to be played. So I launched into the God Plan – I call it that because I know it was God inspired. We would watch the message and the song in our small lounge before having dinner together and then end off the evening with our set of 5 songs.
And in hindsight, that was EXACTLY how the evening was meant to be. Our awe and understanding of God was enlarged 100-fold as the message started with an explanation for the name YAHWEH.
In the bible, there are over 270 names that are used for God, each name describing a different facet of his character and a different dimension of his love. He is so glorious and so enormous that one name could never begin to describe him.
One of the most commonly used names is El or Elohim. This name is found in El Shaddai which means God Almighty and Bethel which means House of God and also Emmanuel which means God with us.
But Yahweh is completely different.
The Hebrew names Elohim and Adonai are sometimes used to describe other deity besides the’ true and living God’. But the name Yahweh is entirely unique to the God of the Bible. It is never used for any false gods.
In the Old Testament, this divine name is LORD and in the English bible, the name is always written in capitals if it is a translation of the Hebrew name Yahweh. The Latin equivalent of this name is Jehovah.
This name, Yahweh is personal.
It is the name that God used when He made us, humanity.
Genesis 2:21 New Living Translation (NLT)
21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs[a] and closed up the opening.
It is the special name that God used for His people. He is Yahweh only to those who have a relationship with Him.
YAHWEH is the name that God used when Abraham climbed Mt Moriah – the place where eventually a temple was built and later where our Lord Jesus Christ died. These three significant moments are all about humanity. They are all intimate. They are all personal.
Another reason why this message was so captivating for me, is that I have been reading Exodus and really chewing on the story of the Israelites journey out of Egypt, through the desert and into the promised land. The magnitude of this epic adventure, the disloyalty of the Israelites and the extreme mercy and patience of God hit me anew every day as I advanced through the scriptures.
And yet this whole adventure began with God revealing himself to Moses as YAHWEH, the great I AM. This beautiful revelation of God’s character and references the fact that God has always existed and will always exist. Although that is a very basic summery of o the meaning of Yahweh, it is important to understand that in the ancient world, names communicated something about a person’s character, so a name carried significant meaning with it. And that is why God in His infinite sovereignty chose to reveal Himself in the name Yahweh to Moses at this time.
I never would have realized this if I had not heard this message. The Lord was really trying to bring this truth home and make his picture complete.
This is what God said to Moses through the burning bush.
Exodus 3:14 New Living Translation (NLT)
14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.[c] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,[d] the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.
In this miraculous interaction with Moses, God refers to himself as ‘I AM WHO I AM’. The self-existent, eternal God.
He refers to himself as Yahweh / Jehovah / Lord.
And he refers to himself as the Covenant Keeping God.
All three are definitive of the divine name ‘Yahweh’. So the name Yahweh is God’s covenant name between God and His people.
God reminded Moses of the covenant (promise) that he made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And He proclaimed that his covenant still holds true for now and forever, from generation to generation. This is how God revealed himself to Moses when he was commissioned him to go to the Israelites and lead them out of slavery and into the promised land. Moses could completely depend on Yahweh, the covenant keeping God.
Exodus 6:2 New Living Translation (NLT)
2 And God said to Moses, “I am Yahweh—‘the Lord.’[a] 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty’[b]—but I did not reveal my name, Yahweh, to them. 4 And I reaffirmed my covenant with them. Under its terms, I promised to give them the land of Canaan, where they were living as foreigners. 5 You can be sure that I have heard the groans of the people of Israel, who are now slaves to the Egyptians. And I am well aware of my covenant with them.
6 “Therefore, say to the people of Israel: ‘I am the Lord. I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt.
The name Yahweh / Jehovah / LORD is used throughout the Old Testament in conjunction with compound words that describe something else of His character.
He is the LORD Who Provides – Jehovah Jireh
And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide (Genesis 22:14).
He is the LORD Our Peace – Jehovah Shalom
Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it, The LORD is peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites (Judges 6:24).
He is the LORD our Shepherd – Jehovah Raah
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want (Psalm 23:1).
He is the LORD Our Righteousness – Jehovah Tsidkeru
Now this is his name by which he will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (Jeremiah 23:6).
And, He is the Lord who is Here – Jehovah Rapha
He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
He is ‘I AM WHO I AM’
He is our covenant keeping God.
He is the LORD of His people
And then Jesus Christ came to earth.
The name Jesus means ‘Savior’
The name Christ means ‘Anointed One’
But he wasn’t just Jesus Christ. He was the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was the Messiah for whom the world was waiting!
John 8:58 New Living Translation (NLT)
58 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I am![k]” 59 At that point they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden from them and left the Temple.
They wanted to stone him because he was declaring to them that He was Jehovah God.
He was proclaiming to be the Covenant Keeping God of his people.
He is Jehovah Rapha – the LORD who is here.
As we worshipped during the song, each of us were shifted into a place of love and intimacy and greater confidence in our faith. God really met with us and buried all these truths in our hearts.
At the end of the song, we eased into a comfortable time of prayer, until my sweet, shy sister began crying and sharing her very personal and very intimate experience with God. If any of you know her, you would know that she is not one to pray out loud and not one to share, so this was a huge revelation for her.
God, in His compassion and consideration, had revealed His character to her, through these names in the bible, while she was preparing for her daughters dedication. And now he revealed these names to her again in the Yahweh message and in doing so, made himself alive to her and very real in her life situation.
Each one of us, were touched by her experience and by how God expanded each of our knowledge and understanding of Him.
A very personal and very intimate God.
How blessed we are!