The Name of God

Last week we continued our series on Genesis to Revelation by looking at Exodus 3. We looked at the question of God's name. God's name is not God. That is a title or a description. In Exodus 3, God reveals his name as I Am from which we get YHWH (Yahweh or Jehovah). This speaks of God's eternal nature, the one who exists and who is not dependent on creation, the one who will always be there. In the New Testament there was an additional revelation of the name of God. The baptismal formula is the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We can understand God as Father but his role as Son was surprising. So was the revelation of the Spirit as a person within God and not just a force. In human relationships learning true names speaks of the intimacy of the friendship. As God revealed himself, first as I Am, and then as Father, Son and Spirit, he was taking the steps to create a deeper relationship between humanity and himself.