The Names of God: YHWH
YHWH, the Tetragrammaton traditionally transliterated as YAHWEH[1] and translated in Scripture as “LORD,” “GOD,” “JEHOVAH,” and “JAH”[2] is the most used name for God and especially sacred. It assumes a developing covenantal significance during redemptive history in Exodus 3:13-15; 6:1-8—there rendered “I AM.”
Robert Reymond summarizes its meaning as “self-existence” and “faithful presence.”[3] He writes, “ … God in his yahwistic character is the self-existent, self-determining, faithful God of the covenant.”[4] Herman Hoeksema agrees: “ … he is the eternal and unchangeable I AM … in Exodus 3:14, 15 the application of the name is such that it emphasizes God’s immutable truth and faithfulness to his people.”[5]
As completely independent, God’s covenant dependents will find Him continually dependable. YHWH confirms in Exodus 3 and 6 that, just as with the patriarchs, He will continue to take care of each generation of His people because He always can and has so covenanted in Himself. Responding to the worrying of Moses, God reveals this name to reassure him of Egyptian deliverance.
In Exodus 3:13-14, God says to tell the Israelites “I AM” sent Moses, which is based on the Hebrew verb “to be.” The LORD always was there for His church and so He always will be. This truth won’t change, for God never changes.
Exodus 6:3 explains that, though God had already technically been known as YHWH, yet not so experientially until now in that the promise to the patriarchs was being more fully realized with God using Moses to make Pharaoh let His people go.[6]
Exodus 6 came before the 10 plagues, where the LORD then proved He is the only true God over all nations. Hoeksema explains that “Yahweh” distinguishes God from all other heathen deities as actually existing per His own self-existence.[7]
How awesome then that Isaiah 6:1-3 is applied to and identifies Jesus in John 12:41 as the Holy, Holy, Holy YAHWEH! For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself (John 5:26). Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and this is why verse five assures He will never leave nor forsake His sheep. In fact, besides His seven “I AM” sayings, Jesus declared, before Abraham was, I Am (John 8:58).[8]
Christian, the self-sufficient God can preserve you. Though things may often appear out of control, God is in control. You cannot trust in yourself, but You Can Trust God.[9]
The Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC) Q&A 4 teaches that God is infinitely, eternally, and unchangeably His “being.” He is existence. Essentially, “essence” is God’s name—YHWH.
Herman Bavinck instructs that the use of YAHWEH ascribes viewing God
… as absolute reality, the sum-total of all essence, most pure and simple actuality[10] … absolute essence[11] … the real, the true essence, the fulness of essence, the sum-total of all reality and perfection, the totality of essence, to which all other essence owes its origin, an ocean of essence … who has the ground of his existence in himself[12] … Because he exists of and through and unto himself, he is fulness of essence.[13]
This is why the WSC 4 asks not, “who,” but “what” is God.
In Revelation 21:6; 22:1, we see the river of life flowing from the Trinity’s throne.[14] This is the essence of YHWH and often is called God’s “aseity,” which means from-self. The Lord our God is eternally of Himself and from Whom everything and everyone else comes into existence and has their being and sustenance maintained.[15]
Paul thus marvels in Romans 11:36, For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
Louis Berkhof emphasizes, “He is not only independent in Himself, but also causes everything to depend on Him.” [16] All people know this truth, per Romans 1:19-20.[17]
Paul said to the superstitious Greeks on Mars Hill who ultimately kept a monument to YHWH, For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring (Acts 17:28).
Thus, how utterly ridiculous for anyone to question whether God exists, to deny His existence, or to assume His existence needs apology!
God is existence. We only exist because He is the great I AM. We should question our existence without acknowledging YHWH!
YAHWEH needs no proving—He bids proclaiming. HE proves we exist![18] For, God is Gloriously Himself.[19]
[1] For a more detailed analysis of this name, see learn.ligonier.org/devotionals/yahweh: “Ancient Hebrew does not have written vowels, even though the ancient words were pronounced with them whenever the text was read aloud. Vowels were not reflected in the texts themselves until the medieval period. In Hebrew, Yahweh appears as four letters (YHWH), also known as the tetragrammaton [from the Greek for “four letters”]. The English word Jehovah derives from a German transliteration that traces back to the 1500s ad. It is a combination of YHWH and the vowels from Adonai, the word for ‘Lord.’ … Yahweh is related to the verbal root ‘to be,’ as seen in the phrase ‘I Am Who I Am’ (Ex. 3:14). Yahweh thus means ‘I Am.’” It is interesting to consider a comment in this article that YAHWEH is better for contemporary use than “Jehovah” in juxtaposition to this one discouraging the same by Terry Johnson: reformation21.org/what-is-the-name.
[2] Or, YHVH. Psalm 83:18 closes its song with the call for all people to see how God has delivered His own from all nations over history with, That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth. And Psalm 68:4 proclaims, Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him … by his name JAH …
[3] Robert Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998), 157. He counts YHWH 6000 times in the Old Testament.
[4] Ibid, 158.
[5] Herman Hoeksema, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 1 (Grandville, MI: Reformed Free Publishing Association, 2004), 99, 101. So Herman Bavinck explains, “In Ex. 3:13-15 the meaning of the name Yahweh is clearly indicated … which signifies that he who now calls Moses and is about to deliver Israel is the same God who had appeared to the fathers.” Herman Bavinck, The Doctrine of God (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1977), 105. Louis Berkof writes, “ … the name points to the unchangeableness of God. Yet it is not so much the unchangeableness of His essential Being that is in view, as the unchangeableness of His relation to His people. The name contains the assurance that God will be for the people of Moses’ day what He was for their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It stresses the covenant faithfulness of God …” Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1946), 49.
[6] Bavinck, 106-107: “Ex. 6:3 does not tell us that this name was never used before the time of Moses, but that the Lord was not known to the fathers by that name … Ex. 6:3 must mean that the Lord now for the first time made known to Moses the significance and import of this name … From now on the name Yhwh implies and guarantees that God is and remains the God of his people, immutable in his grace and faithfulness. Before the time of Moses this full import of the name could not have been given: a long period of time was necessary to prove God’s unchangeable faithfulness: a person’s faithfulness is not proved at once but in the long run, especially in seasons of distress … Now God comes and says: ‘I am that I am, Jehovah, the One who keepeth faithfulness forever, the God of the fathers, your God also now, and your God forever.’”
[7] Hoeksema, 97.
[8] Remember Christ’s seven “I AM” descriptions in John: the bread of life; the light of the world; the door to heaven; the Good Shepherd; the Resurrection and the life; the way the truth and the life; and the True Vine. Also profound is this insight: “[In addition to the seven I AM descriptions are two declarations.] The second instance of Jesus applying to Himself the name I AM [the first in John 8:58] comes in the Garden of Gethsemane. When the mob came to arrest Jesus, He asked them whom they sought. They said, ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ and Jesus replied, ‘I am he’ [literally, “I am”: in Greek, Εγώ εἰμι] (John 18:4–5). Then something strange happened: ‘When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground’ (verse 6). Perhaps explaining the mob’s reaction is the fact that the word he has been provided by our English translators. Jesus simply said, ‘I am.’ Applying God’s covenant name to Himself, Jesus demonstrated His power over His foes and showed that His surrender to them was entirely voluntary (see John 10:17–18; 19:11).” Source: gotquestions.org/seven-I-AM-statements.html.
[9] To access a sermon by the author on this text and title on which this article is partially based, visit sermonaudio.com/sermons/1231853161877. For his entire “Names of God” sermon series from which this came, visit sermonaudio.com/series/71132.
[10] Bavinck, 123.
[11] Ibid, 125.
[12] Ibid, 126.
[13] Ibid, 127.
[14] Gregory Beale intriguingly points to Revelation 22:1 as an illustration of the doctrine of Filioque (that the Holy Spirit is sent both by the Father and the Son, per Western theology and the Westminster Standards). See his voluminous Revelation commentary on this text.
[15] Psalm 104.
[16] Berkof, 58.
[17] Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
[18] The author is indicating presuppostional apologetics as Scripturally correct—and confessional, per Westminster Confession of Faith 1:4, 5; 2:2; 4:2; 5:7.
[19] To access a sermon by the author on this text and title on which this article is partially based, visit sermonaudio.com/sermons/3242420252211; see also this playlist of video shorts from that sermon: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTHByEgU0Ni3f7qoipS2U8HCrsc85JlY8. For his entire “God’s Attributes” sermon series based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism Q&A #4 from which this sermon on Yahweh came, visit sermonaudio.com/series/188821.
