Yahweh. What a name.
At the beginning of the week, I was struggling with how I was going to get a week’s worth of devotional thoughts from this name. Not because this name doesn’t have significance, but because it’s God’s name, not a character trait that I can tap into. However, what I have learned this week will stay with me for a lifetime.
What is in a name? At the beginning of this study, I asked you to look up what your name meant. I also asked you to remember that we are all made in the image of God, Elohim, so what we are learning about his names is what we should be learning about ourselves. Yahweh is no different.
In my personal study, I am reading in Leviticus. Leviticus is one of those books that you are just gonna have to muster through (at least for me). God is laying out his laws for his people; it talks about being clean versus unclean and instructions for offerings. There’s no “storyline” to really follow. You aren’t looking forward to what’s next in the journey as you would when you read about Abraham. However, what Leviticus is telling us is that we are God’s chosen people, and we are set apart.
And because we are set apart, we need to act differently than the world, we need to worship differently than the world, and we need to be different than the world.
We are different because Yahweh is different. He isn’t of this world; he isn’t man-made. He is the one who made man. We give to the poor and hurting because he is Yahweh. We help and love our neighbor because he is Yahweh. We obey his laws because he is Yahweh. We serve him only because he is Yahweh. (Leviticus 19)
He is Yahweh, our Elohim, our El Shadday, our El Roi, our El Olam, and our Yahweh Yireh. He is all those things because he is YHWH. We are holy because YHWH is holy. We are called to be different because he is different. We are loved because He IS love.
Proverbs 3 tells us to Trust Yahweh, Fear Yahweh, Honor Yahweh, and Do not reject Yahweh, and Yahweh will be your confidence.
What a blessing and honor it is to know Yahweh and to be able to call him by name.
Maybe the next time “I Know a Name”, “What a Beautiful Name it is”, or “There’s Just Something About That Name” is sung or played on the little black dots in your home, you will stop and realize, “Hey, I DO know his name!”. I know I do, and a tear almost always forms in my eye.
I am honored to be on this journey with you.
Have a great day with YHWH!
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