Yhwh Series

The name that God gave Moses is what’s known as a “tetragrammaton.” Oh … that’s a mouthful, isn’t it? “Tetragrammaton.” Well, when you break it down … ‘tetra’ means ‘four’ and a ‘grammaton’ is a letter. “Tetragrammation” is just a fancy way of saying “four letters” in Greek … but the four letters that we’re going to be talking about today are the four most important letters ever put together. The four letters are the Hebrew symbols for “YHWH.”

If you remember, I explained last week that whenever you see the word “God” in all capital letters it is referring to the “tetragrammaton” or the name of God that is made up of the four Hebrew letters “Yod – He-Waw-He” … which we translate into the English letters of “Y-H-W-H.” The “tetragrammaton” or four-letter name for God is used over 6,800 times in the Old Testament … three times more than the name of “Elohim.” This name was considered to be so sacred that when the scribes would write it down or copy it, they would take a bath beforehand and then destroy the pen afterwards because the pen could not be used to write profane or common words after writing a name that was so sacred … so powerful … so divine … so holy.

Observant Jews hold this name in such high honor and immense awe that they have come up with different ways of writing it down so that they would not speak it or say it to themselves while they are reading. For example, they may write it as “G-d” or they may refer to God as “Ha Shem” … which means “the Name” … with a capital “N” or they may write or say “Hakadosh Baruch Hu” … which means “The Holy One, Blessed Be He.” I love “Hakadosh Baruch Hu” because they found a way to bless God without speaking His name … “The Holy One, Blessed Be He.”

The “tetragrammaton” of YHWH was so sacred and holy and revered that it was only spoken out loud once a year on the Day of Atonement … and then only by the high priest in the Holy of Holies after going through a rigorous and prescribed process of ritually purifying himself.

Part of our problem today is that we’ve become too casual with God. Instead of hesitating to even pronounce His name, we use His name flippantly. God’s name has even become part of our slang and is used more often in swearing than supplication. The Third Commandment, found in Exodus 20:7, commands us not to take the name of the Lord in vain. “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.” In Hebrew, the Third Commandment literally translates as: “You shall not attach the LORD’s name to emptiness.” God’s name is not just some name or some word. You don’t treat it as casually as you would my name, for example. It is to be spoken with deep reverence and profound respect … even fear.

In His classic book called “Your God is Too Small,” author J.B. Phillips wrote: “The trouble with many people today is that they have not found a god big enough for modern needs” (Phillips, J.B. 2004. New York: Touchstone; p. 28). He goes on to explain that our view of God hasn’t changed much since we were little children. Some of us still carry around the image of God as some kind of celestial policeman who is constantly on the look out so that He can bust us for our bad behavior … or we go to the other extreme and believe that God is some kindly old gentleman who merely winks at our wrong doing. He is either the managing director who micro-manages and controls everything … or He’s the meek and mild God who looks the other way because He loves us. In other words, says Phillips, we have stuffed God into a box … and our box, quite frankly, is way, way too small. We have shrunk Him down so much that our thoughts about Him are nowhere close to what the Bible teaches about Him. Some of us have made God into our own image instead of fully living out what it means to be made in His image, amen?