No 1

(Jehovah)

This is the first of several studies that we will be doing on the names of God. In this study, we will look at the name of JEHOVAH, a very familiar name of God that we have come to use on a regular basis. But, in the original Hebrew text, it is actually YHWH and it was so sacred that it was never pronounced; vowels were added in the 12^th century AD to read Yahweh. The meaning of this particular name is significant in pointing out God’s lack of origin. Jehovah means “to be” or “to live” or “self-existent” and it is a proper name, not a title. Strictly speaking, it is the only name of God and we first encounter this name in Genesis 2 : 4. It is the name by which the Patriarchs knew Him; Jehovah is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When Abraham built an altar, he built it in the name of Jehovah : “…and there he built an altar unto the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD” (Gen 12 : 8b). When Moses inquired by whose name was he sent to deliver the Jews out of bondage, God replied : “Thus thou shalt say to the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me to you” (Exod 3 :14). This is the inner part of the name of Jehovah; it was the name of God that Moses already knew. He is the self-existent one and if we take this a step further, everything else relies on Him for existence as well.