Day 15
"God said moreover to Moses, "You shall tell the children of Israel this, 'Yahweh, 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, and this is my memorial to all generations" (Exodus 3:13-15).
Prayer
Heavenly Father, as I have read the Bible over the decades I wanted to know your name. Scriptures seemed to indicate that Your name is "LORD" (e.g. Exodus 15:3). This seemed odd to me because "LORD" is not a name. Lord is a title which, in centuries past, many men were commonly addressed by. Nebuchadnezzar and Esau were called lord in Genesis 32:4 and Daniel 4:24.
Some said that Your name was Jehovah. Then I heard that most modern scholars believe that Your name should be pronounced as Yahweh. But my English Bible didn't have Jehovah or Yahweh. A "Principles of Translation" section at the beginning of my Bible explained why Your name was not in Your book.
I wanted to walk by Your Spirit, to know You intimately, to know Your name.
Though Your personal name is written in the original Hebrew texts, translators have replaced Your name with the title "LORD".L But in the above verse, You told Moses "tell the children of Israel... Yahweh... has sent me to you." You have explicitly stated that You should be called Yahweh.
I have come to learn that Your name in the original Hebrew is the name of four letters, YHWH... the Tetragrammaton. It occurs nearly seven thousand times in the Old Testament... eight times per page.
Eight times per page... Amazing!
Almost one third of all the verses of the Old Testament had Your personal name, Yahweh, in the original text.Y
One verse out of every three verses... Wow!
Deuteronomy 4:2 says "You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you take away from it." But religious leaders took Your personal name out of Your book so that I didn't even know Your name.
... I didn't even know Your name!
Yahweh, You said that You wanted Your name to be proclaimed throughout all the earth (Romans 9:17, Exodus 9:16). So, You liberally placed Your name through the Bible, eight times per page in the Old Testament. But, I fear that English speaking Christians don't even know Your name. Astounding!
They DON'T KNOW YOUR NAME!
You said that Yahweh was Your name "forever... and to all generations" (Exodus 3:15). But instead of proclaiming Your name through the earth, many modern translations have removed Your name from Your holy book, the Bible.
The result of this replacement has been to present You as more distant and dramatically less intimate than You have presented Yourself. I praise You, Yahweh! You want us to know you personally and intimately. You have revealed Your name! We can walk with You and talk with You. We can call You by name...
Yahweh!
I thank you for The Emphasized Bible, the World English Bible, The New Jerusalem Bible and the Proper Name Version of the King James Bible. These all render the name of four letters as Yahweh. I also thank you for the American Standard Version, Young's Literal Translation and Green's Literal Translation. They translated the name of four letters as Jehovah.
I thank you that Jesus (Yeshua) has not be removed from the New Testament. His name means Yahweh saves. So, Your personal name is presented in Your Son's name in the New Testament.
It appears to me that Your name, Yahweh, (YHWH) is the name of You as Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
For YHWH is Father in Psalm 110:1
"Yahweh (LORD) says to my Lord (Adoni), "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet."
Hebrews 1:13 shows Psalm 110:1 as the Father (the LORD, or YHWH) speaking to
the Son (the Lord, Adoni,i.e. master). So Hebrews 1:13 reveals YHWH as Father. But,
when Hebrews 1:8-12 quotes Psalm 102: 25-27, we see that Hebrews 1:10 is talking
about Jesus (Yeshua). So, YHWH is Jesus, the Son. Hebrews 10:15-16 then quotes Jeremiah
31:33 as being a direct quote from the Holy Spirit. So YHWH is the Holy Spirit. YHWH is Yahweh, so...
Yahweh, please guide Your people to translations of Your word which honor Your name and spread Your name over the entire earth, according to Your expressed desire.
Some say that we don't need to know Your name. But, with the exception of words like "a", "the" and "and"...
YOUR NAME IS USED MORE THAN ANY OTHER WORD IN THE BIBLE!
But before religious leaders hid Your name, You made Yourself known BY NAME, to be a PERSON, rather than a thing, a SPOUSE, rather than an entity (Isaiah 54:5, 2 Corinthians 11:2, Jeremiah 31:32).
It is Your desire that we walk with You as a personal God... to know You by name... to walk with You in intimacy... to walk by the Spirit!
I praise Your name! (Psalm 69:30)
Praise to Your name, Yahweh!
Amen.
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