June 19, 2026

Until I was about 40 years old, I called God, God. That’s not all that unusual. After all, that is what most of us learned to call him. It’s the name we use when we talk about him and to him. Several years ago, however, I learned a new posture toward God. I more often, now, call him Father or Dad. I have been captivated at the informal, intimate, and relational way by which Jesus approached his Father as well as how we taught and modeled for us to do the same. It has given me a renewed way to posture myself to Him and relate to Him.

God… Father… Heavenly Dad… those are all right and good names. But that’s not God’s name. None of those titles capture the actual name of God. None of these are the name that God uses to introduce himself to his people.

When God appears before Moses on Mount Sinai and sends him to free the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt, God gives Moses his name.

Exodus 3:13-14

¹³ Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

¹⁴ God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

“I am who I am.” In Hebrew, Yahweh. It means… the one who is being itself. John Mark Comer in his book, God Has a Name, talks about the impact of God’s name on how we read our Bibles. The translators of the Bible use the word LORD in all uppercase letters, in place of Yahweh. So, anytime you see the word LORD in the Bible, that is referring to the actual name of God: Yahweh.

Later in Exodus 34:5-7…

⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. ⁶ And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, ⁷ maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

God reminds Moses in v.6 of his name (Yahweh, Yahweh…) and then describes what his name means in the rest of vv.6-7.

You see, the truth is the name or word “God” is a generic title. Other people groups surrounding Israel and, most notably, the land of Egypt which they had just left, had many gods. So, when the God of Creation… the God who gives life to all things… the God who is the actual deity over the cosmos… when he makes himself known among his people, he is careful to distinguish himself from the many other “gods” of mankind.

This begs the question, what is the name of the God you serve? Is it Yahweh—the God of Creation… being itself. Or, is it the god of success, material possessions, marriage, parenting, the god money, sex, esteem, or morality? You see, as Christians, we get so used to referring to God with titles (even relational ones) that we can unconsciously distance ourselves from his actual name. He is the eternally existent One. He is Being above all other beings. This is why God is so jealous for his name! He wants each of us to know, and enjoy, and worship, and live in hope with Him!

Exodus 20:2-7

And God spoke all these words:

² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

³ “You shall have no other gods before me.

⁴ “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶ but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

⁷ “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

Over the next few weeks, I will use Comer’s book to explore Exodus 34:5-7 with you. We’ll look how Yahweh describes his name and how that insight into his character and identity should shape ours.

Seeking Yahweh,

Nathan

Nathan Hinkle

Lead Pastor

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