What’s in a Name?

“Then God spoke to Moses, telling him, ‘I am Yahweh. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty [El Shaddai], but I did not reveal My name Yahweh to them’” (Exodus 6:2-3, HCSB).

Appreciating the great magnitude of God, rather than revealing himself all at once to his finite human creation, he has done so incrementally through the centuries. In the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God made himself known as El Shaddai, identified according to his power. Having indisputably established this aspect of his nature, the special significance of Yahweh was then revealed in the days of Moses in view of God’s ever-presence among his people (Exodus 6:2-8).

Later, in looking beyond the Patriarchal and Mosaic systems to a new arrangement, Yahweh declares, “I will be their God, and they will be My people … for they will all know Me …” (Jeremiah 31:31-34), indicative of a more personal relationship. This prophecy is fulfilled in the new covenant inaugurated by Jesus the Christ (Hebrews 8:6-13), who is known prophetically as “Immanuel,” meaning “God with us” (Matthew 1:22-23). He is our only access to the heavenly throne, and to know him is to know the one we now call Father (John 14:6-7). Now that God has highly exalted him and given him the name above every name, it is “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).

What’s in a name? When the name identifies, describes, and represents the one who wears it, whether El Shaddai, Yahweh, Father, or the Lord Jesus Christ, it is immeasurably significant.

--Kevin L. Moore

 

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Image credit: adapted from https://thefeministwire.com/2014/05/maiden-name/