The Name of God

Exodus 3:14-15

By Carl O. Cooper

            In today’s world there are seldom any questions among Christians about the name of God. We have the Bible to identify God. The Holy Spirit has given us the name of God and we do not have to guess what we are instructed to call our God.

            Now this is not true with the religious world in general. Non-Christians are still confused as to the correct name for our God. There are many false religions in the world today and many have names for their gods that we don’t find in the Bible. A case in point would be “Allah”, and although Muslims would tell you that this is the name of the same God, Christians know this is not true. There are many names for the gods of the false religions in the world. None of them is the name of the God we read about in the Bible.

            The same is true with the names of the Gods in the Old Testament. False gods were everywhere and each with their own name. Is it any wonder that Moses needed God to tell him what name He wanted to be called when He was introduced to Pharaoh? The all powerful God who created the universe and had the power to demand that Pharaoh release the Israelites from slavery needed a name that identified who He was. And, what’s more, even Moses needed to be taught God’s majesty as well. Moses knew about the God of the Israelites and he knew He was the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. But by what name should He be called? God cleared that up in no uncertain terms. “I AM WHO I AM” was the reply. Just this statement alone infers the great power of God and I can almost feel the terror generated in Moses with this reply.

            Now there are scholarly explanations for this name “I AM” and they do give additional information that teaches facts about God’s name. For instance this term “I AM” is generally referred to as the “Tetragrammaton”. It is said to appear more than six-thousand times in the Bible. And yet I dare say none would identify with this terminology at all. And there are other translations of these terms. The most common would likely be “Yahweh” and “Jehovah”. Sometimes Yahweh is spelled YHWH and translated into English as LORD. Note that all the letters are capitalized in these spellings. Now this is information that a Bible student would want to know, but somehow it seems that the terror Moses faced when he encounters God is lost with this scholarly explanation.

            When God gives a name for His people to call Him it conveys His dominion over all things. It shows the source of His power, and His eternal nature. “I AM” is the self-sufficient, self-sustaining God who was, who is, and who will be. This is the God who is the all powerful creator of the world and everything in it. He has the power to demand that His will be done and the power to see that it happens just as He wills it to be.

Carl O. Cooper