Ask Pastor Mike Fabarez

Speaker 1

Well, today on Focal Point, Mike Fabarez tackles a weighty question from a listener. What exactly is God's real name? Have you ever wanted to raise your hand in the middle of church in the midst of learning more about God and growing in your faith? We have questions that need to be answered.

Well, today on Focal Point, we've set aside some time for Pastor Mike to address those pressing questions. If you'd like to ask Pastor Mike something, stay tuned. I'll share our contact information in just a bit.

But right now, let's join executive director Jay Wharton inside the pastor's study for this edition of Ask Pastor Mike.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Dave. Pastor Mike, a very interesting question from a listener today. They write, I've heard people call God Jehovah, Yahweh, Adonai. What's God's real name?

Speaker 3

Well, it's a great question.

Speaker 4

There are so many names in the Bible that are ascribed to God because in the Bible, names mean much more than they do today. When we name our kids, they carry so much weight. It describes something of who he is, something in terms of what he does. There's just so much in the Bible regarding God's name. So certainly it warrants a study, which I think we're going to hear later in this broadcast. But the idea of names is important for us to recognize as something much richer than most of us understand in the modern era.

The name of God, the proper name of God, is Yahweh. This is what's called the tetragrammaton, these four Hebrew letters in the Old Testament. And we put some vowels with those Hebrew characters, those Hebrew consonants, and we pronounce it as best we know, we pronounce it Yahweh. Jehovah, by the way, is just a conflation of some of the vowels of a different Hebrew word for God, Adonai. Anytime you see the word Jehovah, maybe in old translations, what we're really dealing with is the word Yahweh. Yahweh is mentioned almost 7,000 times in the Old Testament as the proper name of God.

The other names that surround that name are names that describe who he is. My name, my proper name, is Mike. And some people call me Pastor Mike because that's what I do. That's the role I serve in. And so, you know, there are words like Adonai, which means Lord, over 400 times in the Old Testament. The Old Testament speaks of him as the Lord. Sometimes you see those words together, that he is Yahweh, Adonai, his Name, meaning from the verb "I am," and Adonai is what he does. He's the Lord. He's in charge, in charge of everything.

So, I mean, there are so many names: El, Elohim, the combination of Yahweh and Elohim. We see that in the scripture over 100 times. El Shaddai, El Elyon. I mean, just the list goes on and on and on. But these are rich names that the scripture tries to express, something about the greatness of God through the use of those names.

Speaker 2

Now, Pastor Mike, I've heard you in your preaching, when you're reading through the Old Testament and you come to the capital letters L O, R, D, you always pronounce it Yahweh. Is that something that we should be pronouncing that way?

Speaker 4

Well, it's something interesting. In English translations, they've taken the word in the Hebrew text, the tetragrammaton, those vowels that we pronounce Yahweh as best we know how to pronounce it. And they've kind of tucked that under the English text with those capital letters.

When you read a capital L, small cap O, small cap R, small cap D, usually it's a little bit smaller, but they are capitals that right there. You know, we're dealing with the word Yahweh. So I just want to make the distinction between that and adonai, because adonai is the normal Hebrew word for Lord.

So when you read the word in the Old Testament, Lord with a capital L and then small O, R, D, you're dealing with a different Hebrew word. And so, you know, in my reading, I made it a pattern since I learned Hebrew back in school, my school days. I just. Every time I see those capital letters in the English text, I know we're dealing with God's proper name. And I usually do pronounce it Yahweh.

Speaker 2

Is that a name that God would prefer us to use for him?

Speaker 3

Well, sometimes you're talking with Jehovah Witnesses.

Speaker 4

Who like to slam evangelicals for not using God's proper name, which they unfortunately use as the word Jehovah. That's unfortunate, I suppose, but certainly not an accurate depiction of the Tetragrammaton.

So I'm not saying I'm using his name in response to that, but I've just made it a pattern to refer to what I see there in the Hebrew text. But what matters is that we address God in a biblical way, and by that, in our language, we translate Yahweh, Lord.

Nothing wrong with that. We call him Lord, we can call him Yahweh since he describes himself with so many names. I mean, he certainly would have us use a variety of names in our praying.

Speaker 2

What's the biblical pattern of what we see of the apostles and others in how they pray to God? What do they use to address God?

Speaker 4

Well, talking about apostles, we're talking about the New Testament then. And in the New Testament, the most common word for God is Theos. We get the word theology from that, the study of God. Theos is used over a thousand times and that usually is the word the Bible uses in the New Testament for God.

But we also see the word kyrios, which is the Greek word for Lord, and a lot of quotes from the Old Testament that are quoting a text that has the word Yahweh in it. They will utilize the word kyrios in those texts.

Of course, father is a word that is used 260 times. Even Abba, which is the Aramaic more intimate word, household name for dad or father. So overwhelmingly it's the word theos, which is just the general word for God.

Speaker 3

And Lord.

Speaker 4

Kurios, the Greek word often used in describing God as well. And speaking of his position, certainly referring to Christ, we have that description often in the New Testament. Lord, God, even the combination.

Speaker 2

Well, thank you, Pastor Mike. This has been a very eye opening conversation. Let's look at this a little bit more with a message you gave from studying God series called the Names of God.

Speaker 3

You ever noticed how important people seem to have really long names? I was reading a book in my study today. It said on the title page, the Most Reverend Thomas Cranmer, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. It's true that our names and all the titles we put on our names are supposed to speak to something about who the person is, the appellations, the titles, the designations. And if that was true and is true in our day, it was even more so in Biblical times. Of course, no one more important in the Bible than God. And as we might expect, he reveals himself in his Word with dozens and dozens and dozens of names. And we can learn so much from them.

Biblical names are meaningful. When names were being picked out, they didn't have those little books at the checkout stand at the supermarket, you know, baby names, you know, boy names, girl names. They didn't pick names that sounded cute. And the names were always instructive. And you know that. Think through the names in the biblical record that, you know, Moses, what does Moses mean? Plucked out, drawn out because his life was spared. He should have died. But he was snatched not from the fire, but from the river. Abram. Abram meant what? Great father, right? Problem with Abram, the great father is he had no kids. That was a problem. God shows up and adds to the profundity of his name and the contradiction of his name and says, no longer will you be called Abram, you'll be called Abraham. What does Abraham mean? Father of many, a multitude. Names of biblical characters are always significant, more than just sounding nice.

And if biblical names are meaningful, divine names are didactic. They become instructive. They teach us, they do something for our minds to help fill in the gaps. And we learn all these attributes of God and who God is. But then we get his many and varied names and we say, now I get it. You've got names like God and Lord and the I am. And these have to do with who he is, the monarch, the king, the boss. Then you have names related to relationship. And there are many names, sundry names in the scripture that relate to his relationship with the angels. Lord of hosts to us, Father. The Aramaic word creeps into the New Testament. Abba. We see a lot of names related to who he is. We see a lot of names related directly to attributes in scripture. The Lord God Almighty, the God who provides, the God who sees—all these things directly related to what kind of character, what kind of God that he is.

The first name here that is the most ubiquitous and the most frequently used in scripture is the name Yahweh. Yahweh. And we need to spend a little time giving some background to this. This is a Phoenician, ancient Semitic language expressed in various forms of cuneiform writing and depictions. And the reason this is important is because this ancient Phoenician designation of God, which preceded the 1445 exodus of Israel back to the 13th century BC is...

Speaker 4

A name that survived.

Speaker 3

It survived in this form right here, which is what we call Proto Hebrew. Proto Hebrew, Proto Hebrew language. And the script of Hebrew is one that survives into the period of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which is around the first, second, and third century BC Before Christ. This word for Yahweh is what we call the tetragrammaton. Tetragrammaton. Tetra, right? Is what? Four. Right. Tetragram. Right, Tetragram, the four consonants, the four letters that represent God's name.

But those four consonants here are what you're normally going to see if you crack open a Hebrew Old Testament or even read today in Israel, the name of God, Yahweh. How's it translated in your Bibles? Most English Bibles translate it L O R D. Note though carefully the small caps; every time you see capital L, small cap O, small cap R, small cap D. What the translators are signaling is this is the word Yahweh. It's really not the word Lord, but we're masking it under the word Lord and we're giving you capital letters so that you know that what's under this English translation is the Hebrew word Yahweh.

How many times does the word Yahweh appear in the Hebrew Old Testament? 6,828 times. That's a lot. It is all over the place. By far the most frequent use and designation of God's name throughout the Bible. For instance, turn in your Bibles if you would, to Exodus 3:15. God also said to Moses, say to the Israelites, the what's the word here? Yahweh. Right. We don't need the anymore. We don't need the definite article. That's Yahweh's name. Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

Now again, some people say, wow, that's a bummer because it doesn't even come through in our translations. That's true. That's why I say it from the pulpit. So I have no objection. No, no. Well, let's see. No, I have no strong objection to English translations not using it because the New Testament Greek doesn't use it. But God did say here, this is my name. It is my proper name. And I want this name to be the name by which I'm remembered from generation to generation.

Now what does it mean in context here? He's revealed himself as the I am. That is our best linguistic guess as to what this means. And I hate to even say guess because it's a pretty sure bet that the word Yahweh is so closely related to the word I am that that's what we understand the word to mean. It is based on the root of the verb to be. Therefore, what does it communicate? It is that he's saying I'm the self-existent one. It is the words that Jesus uses in the New Testament in the Book of John to say before Abraham was born, ego a me. I am, right? The point is he's referring to this passage in Exodus 3 where God reveals himself to Moses and says, "Hey, I am the I am. I am the existing one, the always existing one, the self-existing one."

This word was not uttered by rabbinic Jews for most of the post-Christian era. The next name that we need to understand about God is the word Adonai. Adonai. We've heard all these. Let's try and make some sense of these. How's this translated in your Bible? How do you like this for confusion, Lord? Different word also translated Lord. The distinction though is small caps. Yahweh translated Lord. Adonai translated Lord. You can always tell the difference by whether or not you have a small case O, small case R, small case D.

How many times does the word Adonai show up in the Old Testament? 442 occurrences of the word Adonai. You're in Exodus 3. Let's look at Exodus 5, Exodus 5:22. Moses returned to. What's that word? Yahweh and said, oh, it's not Yahweh. Now we know. Our best guess is, even though we don't have our Hebrew text here, what? Adonai. Moses returned to Yahweh and said, "O Adonai, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me?" And things weren't going so well for him at this particular time.

Now what we can note about this, taking notes in the margin there, is that this is the generic word for God. This is the generic word that most Jews through the post-Christian era were comfortable using and saying. It means in its base and its root, one who is in charge, the leader, the sovereign one. That's what the word Adonai means. It is, as I've often said and analogized, it is like a combination when we see this, and a distinction between my position and my proper name. This is his position. Coach Jim, Pastor Mike. See, those are a combination of a proper name and a title, right? The generic role that he plays, Adonai is the role that Yahweh serves in. Yahweh is who he is. And his role is he's the sovereign one. He's the one in charge. He is the leader. He's the boss.

Okay, number three. Jehovah. Jehovah, which is not a translation, but a transliteration. How many times does Jehovah occur in the Hebrew Old Testament? Zero. I'm confused. Examples? Well, there are none. Jehovah. When you add Yahweh with Adonai, you incorrectly and erroneously arrive at Jehovah. Here's the divine name, okay? Yahweh, Yoth. Hey, vav. Hey, Yod. Hey. Vav. Hey. That's the word Yahweh. Tetragrammaton. It is written as most Hebrew is, without vowels.

But when the Masorites, who put the vowel pointings, because all Hebrew characters are consonants, right? They're all consonants. There are no vowels. Vowels are placed into Hebrew with points and dashes all around to help grade school children vocalize Hebrew words. The practice became whenever a Hebrew scribe was reading the text, and in the text, he hit one of the 6,800 times where God's name was in the text. He didn't read the word Yahweh; he read the word Adonai, which got quite confusing, right? Or is for us, at least, we're new initiates to this.

But whenever the text said Yahweh, they didn't read Yahweh; they read Adonai. Now, to prompt this, the Masorites began to put the vowel pointings from Adonai onto the consonants of Yahweh, which made no sense, right? It was a code for them to know, don't read Yahweh. It's a sacred name. We don't utter it because we don't want to break the commandment of taking the Lord's name.

Speaker 4

In vain or blaspheming the Lord, as.

Speaker 3

Leviticus said, or Exodus 20. So we just try to avoid it. We don't say his name. But to know that you don't say his name, we're going to put the vowel pointings from Adonai onto Yahweh, which is a conflation, right? They just mix these two things here. Yodh. Hey, vav. Hey. Okay, there's the word. Okay, now I know what you have. If I'm going to be absolutely woodenly literal, I've got a Y E sound H O W, A H. That's not Jehovah. Well, it is, because Y sounds came through in Middle English to English as Js and still retained in most of the words like Joshua and Joab and Jacob. Right? But they're Y sounds in Hebrew.

Okay, the E sound H. Right. That one. That one works. O the whole. Even if when I read it vav, Modern Hebrew grammar spells that letter W A W. It sounds like a V, and when you pronounce it, it sounds like a V. So that came across into the modern word Jehovah with a V. Right. The pathic there's our A and the hey is an H that spells Jehovah, which is not a word. Did you follow that? It's not a word, it's a conflation. It's a scrunched together word which wasn't supposed to be said like that because Yahweh has its own way to say it, which Jews don't say. And Adonai has a way to say it. Adonai. Vowel pointings on Yahweh consonants. That was just to remind us, hey, scribes, don't say Yahweh, say Adonai.

Conflation came through into English in 1611. Thank you very much. In four passages in the King James Bible as Jehovah. And you'll find it in your Bibles. It's not a real Hebrew word.

Okay. All right. Number four. El. This is not a Spanish article. This is the name God. We haven't hit that name yet. Right. Lord, Lord, Sovereign Lord God. El. It means the powerful one, the mighty one, the one with all power, the one who can interface with the created world. This word El is used for false gods as well as the true God because it is the most generic word for God, the most generic word of all for God. And when you see the word God with a small G, you can pretty well bet we're dealing with the Hebrew word el. Genesis 31:13, it says, I am the El of Bethel. That's how that reads, translates God. I am the God of Bethel.

Elohim. Oh yeah, I've heard that one. Elohim. It's not L, but it's related to L because every time you see in a transliterated Hebrew word, I am on the end of it. Hebrew students, you know this. What is it? It's plural. I am at the end is plural. This is L in the plural. It's like putting an S on the end. Elohim. 2,606 times, this shows up as a reference to God. How many times for L? About 238. That's a lot. This is a whole lot more. 2,606. It is the second most frequent word for God in the Bible. Does it leave the door open for this whole thing called the Trinity? Yeah. And a lot of people point to the Trinity when they see the personal pronouns used in plural. Let us make man in our own image. Elohim.

And God has provided for our sin. My favorite of all, I saved this to the last. It's eschatological. It looks forward to the future. Yahweh, Shema, Yahweh, Shema, Yahweh. Is there one occurrence? It's the very last phrase in Ezekiel, the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel 48:35 and the distance around the city, it'll be 18,000 cubits. And the name of the city from that time on will be called Yahweh Shema. It'll be called Yahweh's there. That's so great on so many levels. Christ sends His Son and he calls him Immanuel. What does that mean? God with us. We know that one because the text translates it for us.

And in the end of the book, I mean, that's phase one at the end of the book when he's finally enthroned and he's taken his great power and he begins to reign. And here comes now, the city of God coming down like a bride prepared for her husband. That's us. We receive the city, it says, and the dwelling place of God is among men. That's a great final picture. And it's the last line in Ezekiel 48 and it's a great name of God. It's like on the arches of the city, Yahweh Shema.

Speaker 1

God is there. You're listening to Pastor Mike Fabarez here on Focal Point, explaining the significance of God's many attributes in a message called the Names of God. Now you can listen to the unabridged version of this message when you request it online at focalpointradio.org.

You know, among the names of our Lord, one that stands out is our good Shepherd. Now, sheep are notorious for getting lost, but an alert shepherd is there with the tools and skills, but more importantly, the love that compels him to even risk his very life for those that are lost. Explore just how integral a shepherd is to the well-being of his sheep in a book called *A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23*. Though it was first published in 1970, its content remains as fresh and eye-opening as ever. We'll send you a copy when you give a donation, large or small, to Focal Point. Today, ask for *A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23* when you call 888-320-5885 or go to focalpointradio.org.

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Well, would you like to ask Pastor Mike a question? We want to hear it. Post it at focalpointradio.org or connect with us through our online communities at facebook.com/pastormike or twitter.com/pastormike.

Dave Drury here, wishing you a restful weekend ahead. Join Pastor Mike Fabarez next week for more from our series in Psalms. That's Monday on Focal Point. Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.