Name Above All Names

The Hebrew name of God consists of four characters, “YOD”-“HEY”-“VAV”-“HEY”. You might have seen it spelled YHWH, the unpronounceable name.

Characters in the Hebrew language are as interesting as some of the real Hebrew characters in the Bible.  First, there are no vowels in the written language so sounds have to be added by annotations called “nikkud” or just added when the text is read based on knowing how each word should sound.  This makes it very difficult for a non-Hebrew speaking person to learn to speak Hebrew. Hebrew is not designed to be learned from a book, but rather from a teacher.

Aside from that challenge, in fact some characters in the Hebrew language can function as vowels or consonants depending on the word in which they are used. It happens that God’s name has two of these vowel/consonant characters, “VAV” and “HEY”. VAV can sound like a “V” when used at the beginning of a word, or like a “U” or “O” when used in the middle of a word. HEY can sound like an “H” or like “ha” when used at the beginning of a word, or like “ah” when used elsewhere. It can also be silent in some cases.

So now we get to the point – how to pronounce the name of God. Well, that’s even trickier because the ones who know won’t say, for fear of using the name of God in vain. And the ones who don’t know are all over the map. Jehovah and Yahweh are two commonly used pronunciations. There is also evidence that Yahu’ah could be the correct pronunciation. The translators of the Bible just avoid the whole issue by translating it “LORD” in all upper case.

One night I was thinking about the name of God and had this inspiring thought. If I were to attempt to say “Yahu’ah” around a Jewish priest he would probably say “shhhh!” Ya-shhh-hu’ah! That’s the Hebrew name for Jesus.

Yes, that is the name of my LORD! Lord you and the Father are one, Yeshua, yes you are!

Now why is God reluctant to be called by name? A name is used to distinguish one from another. In the case of God, there is only one and thus no need to identify Him. However, His name is also powerful, and at the sound of His name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. This goes back to holiness; we are not allowed to regard Him as one among many.

Speaking of Yeshua, what did he call God? Simply “Abba” or “Father”. That is really special; you only have one father and using that name identifies the love, respect and uniqueness that is due His name. I’m so thankful that He is willing to be called Father; that means that He is willing to call me son!