Today, as we continue our series FOUNDATIONS FOR LIFE”, I’d like to continue our discussion on what it means to know God; particularly His name. What does it mean for us to know the God of the universe; our Creator and our Redeemer not just by majestic titles, but by His very name? And I’d like to start by reading of the first time God’s name is given, which we find in Exodus chapter 3. Moses has been settling down in his old age when God appears to Him in a burning bush and tells him that he...
Today, as we continue our series FOUNDATIONS FOR LIFE”, I’d like to continue our discussion on what it means to know God; particularly His name. What does it mean for us to know the God of the universe; our Creator and our Redeemer not just by majestic titles, but by His very name? And I’d like to start by reading of the first time God’s name is given, which we find in Exodus chapter 3. Moses has been settling down in his old age when God appears to Him in a burning bush and tells him that he is going to be the instrument through which He (God) will deliver His people. And one comic I read recently showed Moses (exasperated) saying, “So much for the golden years.” God still had great things He wanted to do through Moses. And that just goes to show that you are never too old for God to do something fresh in and through you; and use you to do great things. Now Moses doesn’t like the idea. He starts to beat around the burning bush, so to speak. It says in…
Exodus 3:13-20 (ESV)-- 13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”[a] And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord,[b] 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 thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
The Scientific Name-- [A patient told his doctor, “If there’s anything wrong with me, Doctor, just tell me in plain English.” “Well,” replied the doctor hesitatingly, “to be perfectly frank, you’re just plain lazy.” “Thanks, Doctor,” muttered the patient, “Now I would appreciate it if you would give me the scientific name so I can tell my family.”]
A First-Name Basis-- It’s funny what truth can be hidden behind a name. And this is never more true when we talk about the name of God. Have you ever thought about how significant it is that God revealed to Moses (and us) His personal name? Why does that matter? Well, to know someone’s name makes the relationship with that person more intimate and personal; there is a closeness that is brought into the relationship. Furthermore, when you give your name to someone, you are actually giving to that other person a certain degree of control over you in that now they have the power to get your attention. Well, God apparently saw fit to give us His name for that very reason; so that we might have that closeness with Him and so that we might (at any time we choose) call on His name and receive His full attention. This was something revolutionary in the world of ancient religions. God wanted to be on a first-name basis with mankind. And God wants to be on a first-name basis with you as well. The Bible says He knows you by name. And He wants you to know Him by name as well.
The Loss of The Name-- But in our English Bibles, we don’t find the name of God. Instead we come across the word “Lord”. And sometimes just the first letter is capitalized and other times all the letters are capitalized. Why the variation? Well (as Dr. Dennis Kinlaw explains best) it is because [the first one is an honorific title whereas the second one is standing for God’s personal name. As you read through the Psalms, notice how many times that capitalized Lord appears. Every time it is standing for the personal name of God. Why does the Hebrew bible do this? Why not just spell out his personal name?
{Well,} The answer to these questions is found in a Jewish idea called “fencing the Law.” That is, after the Babylonian exile the returned Judeans were very concerned that they never break God’s law again and suffer such a terrible fate. In order not to break the laws they put more laws around them. It is a though, if the speed limit were sixty-five miles per hour, you would put a governor on your car so you could not go over forty-five miles per hour {I remember when we were moving here, driving in that moving truck all the way from Ohio, there was such a governor on that truck. Not a fan of that governor, as it made for very slow going. But…}. That would guarantee you would not break the speed law. So, how can you be sure that you never break the Old Testament law that forbids boiling a kid in its mother’s milk? Well, if you never eat a hamburger and drink milk at the same time, you will not break that law. So to this day an orthodox Jew will not eat meat and milk together. Now, the Jews spread that concept rather extensively so that when they came to the commandment, “Though shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,” they said, “You know, if we never pronounce His name, we won’t break that commandment.” Whenever they came to the name of God, they said the word that means “lord” instead. They did this so thoroughly that eventually they, the people of God, lost the pronunciation of the name that was given to Moses at the burning bush. They lost their greatest treasure.
{Then Kinlaw says this:} Sometimes I think the the real effect of the work of those of us who are professional religious people has been to put distance between people and God. So the book of Psalms and indeed, the entire Old Testament in our English translations, can only speak of God in one of his roles, “the Lord,” and never in the richness of His person, as conveyed in His name. My wife’s name is Elsie Blake Kinlaw. I knew a preacher once who always referred to his wife in public as, “the wife.” I hear him do it in the pulpit. If I had ever done that to my wife, when I got home my bags would be packed sitting on the front porch. Elsie is not a role, she is a person. When I was president of Asbury College many people would call me “Mr. President.” It was not about me but about my business role. What you do with names determines relationship, doesn’t it? I want you to notice how prominent the personal name of God is in Psalms. In fact, the book of Psalms is about Yahweh*, yet He never appears by name in our translation. {*We know that the consonants of God’s personal name were y-h-w-h, but we do not know what the vowels were. This is so because when the Jewish scholars were adding vowel markings to the text, which had originally contained only consonants, the vowels they inserted in the divine name were the vowels of the word for “lord” -a-o-a. Using evidence from personal names that include parts of the divine name (like “Abijah,” “my father is Yah”) scholars have conjectured that the name was pronounced “Yahweh,” which would mean “He Causes to Be.” Because this is not certain, most English translations continue to use “Lord.”—JNO} {But in Psalms like Psalm 121 and 146}…Notice how many times God’s personal name occurs, how common it is. I think that is one of the reasons for the Incarnation. God was wanting to overcome the distance that had crept in between Him and His people in the loss of His name. There is something about the name “Jesus” that has a closeness that the term “God” does not have.] Look at what Jesus says in…
John 17:6 (ESV)-- 6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
I want to ask you today: When you think about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (and pray to them), what title(s) do you most often gravitate towards? And how does that title shape the way that you think about God? Or even more importantly, does that title diminish the level of intimacy that scripture reveals is God’s central desire for each of us. And in light of our discussion today, what ought the name of Jesus to mean to you and to me as the One in whom God restores to us His personal name?
You know, it can be funny how we often times approach scripture. It is something we can read to feel spiritual; to increase our Biblical learning; or even to prepare sermons or nice Facebook posts, Tweets and Instagram posts (which are all great things). But when we separate the Word of God from God Himself; from using scripture as an actual means of coming into the presence of God, we miss the central reason for scripture, which is to encounter God. But if we do keep encountering God through His Word our central aim, there is no telling what God can do in and through your life. And His Word will become not just a textbook, but one of the chief means God uses to speak to you. And when He truly speaks to you through His Word and reveals Himself to you in greater and greater measure, God will use His Word to transform not just your life, but the lives of those around you.
Otto Piper and The Reformation— Once, in an Old Testament class taught by the highly esteemed Dr. Otto Piper, [a student asked him a question: “Dr. Piper, many of us are going to be graduating in a few weeks. We will be going out into the ministry. Is there a list of ‘must’ books for every pastor? Is there a list of books that every pastor should have read?”…And he…said, “I know of only one ‘must’ book.” And then he waited a moment and said, “You know, we make a mistake. Somehow in our Reformed tradition we think that Luther and Calvin produced the Reformation. It wasn’t Luther or Calvin who produced the Reformation. What produced the Reformation was that Luther studied the Word of God. And as he studied, it began to explode inside him. And when it began to explode inside him, he didn’t know any better than to turn it loose on Germany. And it was the Word of God that transformed Germany. Now,” he said, “the same thing was true of Calvin. You knew what Calvin was going to preach on next Sunday. He would start with the verse after the one where he had stopped on the last Sunday, and he preached his way right through the Bible. Now, the tragedy of the Reformation was that when Luther and Calvin died, Melancthon and Beza edited their work. And so all the Lutherans began to read the Bible to find Luther and all the Calvinists began to read the Bible to find Calvin. And,” he said, “the great corruption was on its way.” He said, “Do you know there is enough undiscovered truth in the Scripture to produce a Reformation and an evangelical awakening in every generation if we would simply expose ourselves to it until it explodes within us and then we turn it loose?”]
This morning, settle for nothing less than knowing God in a personal relationship. If you’re like me, you can easily fall into the trap of learning about God and not ever truly knowing God. But if you and I will have a relational communion with God AS we study His Word, He can cause that Word to explode inside of US and transform OUR lives and the lives of those around us. But we have to lay hold of Him. And so right here right now, do it. Pray to Him and say, “Lord, I don’t want to just know about You. Lord, I want to know You.” If you open yourself to Him like that, I promise you He will respond. James says in…
James 4:8a (NKJV)-- 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Draw near to Him today. Amen.
