“Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, ‘I am Who I am;’ and he said, ‘Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:13-14).
This passage reveals the personal name of the God whom Israelites and Christians worship. The word God, and its Hebrew and Greek equivalents, are generic terms designating a divine being. The name revealed to Moses at Mount Sinai is a personal name referring to only one deity and distinguishing him from any other real or perceived being.
As the text implies, this name is virtually the same as the Hebrew verb for “being,” that is, “I Am.” It consists of four consonants since the Hebrew language did not yet possess vowels. Those letters are usually transliterated by the English letters Y, H, W, H by modern translators. Prior to the middle of the twentieth century the first letter was thought to represent J, and the third, V. By adding vowels, translations up to that time rendered the name of God as “Jehovah.” More recent translations use “Yahweh.”
The third commandment given through Moses is, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” (Exodus 20:7). Today we generally observe that by avoiding profane or casual use of the word “God.” Israel understood that prohibition to center on Yahweh, the actual name of the deity. So concerned were they that they might inadvertently violate that command that they would not speak the word aloud, even in the reading of Scripture. They devised a substitute which was pronounced whenever the name appeared. That was the Hebrew word for Lord. In most English translations today when LORD appears in all capitals it is the substitute for YHWH in the text. If the actual Hebrew word Lord appears it is either with only the L capitalized or in all lower-case letters.
Those comments above seek to clarify the use of the name of God and the generic word God in our Bibles. But there are more spiritual or theological points to be made. When God deliberately paired his name as a part of a “word play” involving “I Am,” he also established an essential characteristic of his nature. God is “the one who exists.” In arguments for the existence of God we sometimes state, “He is the uncaused first cause.” Paul said, “For in him we live and move and exist” (Acts 17:28). God is that from which all else proceeded. He Is!
This fact also leads to the absolute reality of God. God is true (John 14:6; Titus 1:2). This is not just an affirmation of his honesty; it is a description of his nature. That which is true is real. It exists; if a principle is true, it works and is consistent. There is nothing hypothetical about Yahweh. Even his name declares him to be the “living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9). When we read or say “the LORD” we are calling upon his name, addressing him personally, and recognizing his awesome nature.
by Michael Brooks