Out of Zion

Dr. Susan Michael: Who is God, and what is He like? In ancient times, a person's name was considered a prophetic declaration of their character or destiny. When God named Himself, it was a description of who He is. When studying God's character, we must start with the name that He gave Himself.

Welcome to this week's Shabbat Shalom devotional, where I seek to share a little inspiration and bring a little peace to the close of your very busy week. After the Lord freed the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, He took them into the Sinai desert, and there He began to reveal to them who He was. The children of Israel really had lost touch with their God. First, He describes to them His character, which I covered in last week's Shabbat Shalom devotional. He also shared with them His name, and that's what I want to talk about this week.

There are many names ascribed to God in the Bible, and each describes a certain aspect of His character or a reminder of His great acts. In Exodus 3, Moses asks the Lord how he should answer the children of Israel when they ask him, "Who is it that sent him?" God responds by giving Moses His name. This name is the premier name above all the other names of God in the Bible. It is all-encompassing of who He is.

I'm not going to try to pronounce it because the pronunciation was actually lost way back in the Babylonian exile. Because of that, today a religious Jew will not attempt to pronounce the name of God because they want to revere that name. They don't want to mispronounce it, and the Ten Commandments say not to take His name in vain. In order to be very careful, they do not pronounce this name. They do refer to God as "The Name," or HaShem.

In respect for my Jewish listeners, I'm not going to attempt to pronounce it either. The name is made up of four Hebrew letters: Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey. In academic circles, it's known as the Tetragrammaton. In the Bible, it is often shown as the word "LORD" in all caps. If you see that in your Bible, it means that in the original Hebrew, that word is the Tetragrammaton. The word "LORD" is not a translation, but a replacement for the four Hebrew letters.

What does the name mean? Let's first read in Exodus 3:14 what God says about His name: "And God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.' And He said, 'Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.'" This translation, which is the New King James translation, has it in all caps. "I AM WHO I AM" is a translation of those four letters that are not to be pronounced. It's even been debated what the accurate translation is.

In many of our translations, it is translated as "I AM WHO I AM." Therefore, tell them, "I AM has sent you." However, it's more of an ongoing tense. It's not just present tense that God is who He is; He always will be who He is. Another translation is, "I will be who I will be." A popular idea going all the way back to the time of Christ is found in the Book of Revelation. The translation is a tense that involves past, present, and future.

The translation would be, "I am the one who was, who is, and who will be." We see this in Revelation 1:8, where it says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." This is the eternal God with no beginning and no end, and this is what His name teaches us.

As you take a break this weekend, reflect upon the eternal God as revealed in His name: the one who is, who was, and is to come. Next week, we're going to talk about God revealed through other descriptive names. Until then, I wish you Shabbat Shalom.