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In the Name of the LORD

"In the Name of the LORD" is a phrase that is used throughout God's Holy Scriptures, in both the Old and New Testaments. The times it first appears in Genesis is often when someone is offering sacrifice at an altar.


This last passage may be the first time we are told God's name. It is a very curious reference, though, for it seems that the Lord God is telling Moses that His Name is "I AM". The footnotes in the NIV Study Bible point out a very interesting relationship between the verb "to be" and the original Hebrew for the word LORD. LORD is in all caps because it has a special meaning. It is a devise used in most English versions for rendering the divine name YHWH, commonly referred to as the Tetragrammaton. When Lord is not in all caps, then it is a rendering of the Hebrew word Adonai. The Hebrew word for "I AM" in verse 14 is hayah. Its definition is "to exist, i.e. be or become".


Quoting from the online Thelemapedia encyclopedia regarding the Tetragrammaton, according to one Jewish tradition the name comes "from three different verb forms sharing the same root YWH, the words HYH ... 'He was'; HWH ... 'He is'; and YHYH ... 'He will be'. This is supposed to show that God is timeless."¹ So this interpretation of the name for God expresses the past, present and future tenses of the verb "to be". This article in the encyclopedia also offers the interpretation "He Causes to Become." The Irish Preacher Leslie Hale concurs with the three verb tenses of "to be" and offers the overall meaning of "The Becoming One".²

So we see that one name for God is "I AM" and that it tells us something about His nature. God's Name is sacred and should not be called out unless we are serious about wanting to communicate with Him, as we are told in one of the Ten Commandments.


Over the centuries, Jewish tradition has surrounded the name of God with some misconceptions primarily due to this commandment and the fear that one may say God's name incorrectly and thereby take it in vain. One misconception is that there is only one name for God and that we must say it in the original language the way it was said. To begin to break this down, let's start with the following which gives more than one name for God.


Here we have another name for God, Jealous, and it expresses a different characteristic of God. The issue here is not just a matter of knowing God's Name but it is also a matter of representing God presence. When you call God's Name, it is also an acknowledgment that you are in covenant relationship with Him and thereby expected to follow the covenant.

God calls Himself by many names. Let's look at other examples where Scripture directly tells us a Name of the Creator.


As we can clearly see, the Lord God has many names which express different aspects of His nature. Let's summarize the Names we have encountered so far.

English	Hebrew
I am who I am	hayah hayah
I AM	hayah
LORD	YHWH (Yahweh)
Lord your God	YHWH elohiym
Lord of Hosts	YHWH tsaba
Lord God of Hosts	YHWH elohiym tsaba
Lord our Righteousness	YHWH tsedeq
God of Hosts	elohiym tsaba
God of your Fathers	elohiym ab
God of Abraham	elohiym abraham
God of Whole Earth	elohiym kol erets
Mighty God	gibbowr 'el
Holy One of Israel	qadowsh yisra'el
Jealous	qanna
One	echad

It is very important to note here that while the Tetragrammaton, YHWH, is the most frequently used name for God in the Bible, and that it is part of other names for God, it is NOT part of every name for God; therefore, it can not be considered the ONLY name whereby God recognizes that you are addressing Him.

God's Name is sacred and He does not want us to profane it. But profaning it is not a matter of saying it incorrectly, it is a matter of disrespecting the Name by not observing the covenant. We are to represent God's Name and when we fall into sin, we profane His Name.

There are some who say that because of the above passages in the Law and the fact that it was written in Hebrew means that unless you say God's Name exactly as the Israelite High Priest did when he entered the Holy of Holies, then you have profaned God's Name. (Despite the fact no one knows for sure which vowels were used.) This form of extremism could not be further from the truth. The Master himself makes this abundantly clear in the following passage where the Tetragrammaton is referenced.


The Master said he never knew them. This is because they did not do the will of the Father despite the fact that they used the sacred name YHWH. Most poignantly, this is directed toward people who believe they represent the true covenant. (This passage seems to be written specifically to guard against this form of extremism of the Sacred Name.) To further drive home the point, Jesus himself tells us exactly how to address the Father.


Here Jesus acknowledges that the Father's Name is sacred, yet he does not use some special Hebrew word. He simply addresses Him conceptually as the "Father". Jesus also reminds us that how we are judged and forgiven by the Father depends exactly on how we handle the same with others ("For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:"). When God sternly warns through His Word about profaning His Name, His is specifically concerned about your behavior and not about how you say the Name. Focusing on how to say the Name is just another way to exercise control over another and to deflect and avoid the real heart of the issue: facing one's sin!


Clearly, it is one's behavior that has an effect upon God's Name. When we belong to God, our behavior must reflect the One who we are to represent. It is our sin that profanes God's Name, not the way we say His Name. When one swears by God's Name, it is supposed to mean you will never break your vow for fear of the Lord. It is breaking one's vow, one's word, which profanes God's Name. When we are in covenant relationship with the Father, it is following and doing the covenant that honors and brings glory to God's holy Name. As the last passage makes clear, we can only achieve the righteousness that God expects of us if, and only if, we accept and are led by the Spirit of God.

To stay in covenant relationship with God, we are expected to follow the wisdom and guidance of God's law. This includes the call to daily sacrifice, daily communion with the Lord. This is a call to praise and worship of the Lord, and to bring our firstfruits as an offering to God and the congregation for use in worship and to help those in the community who are in need. When we are convicted of sin, this same law shows the way to peace and reconciliation. The blood of the lamb pays the price, for which we give thanks, but we must still accept responsibility for restitution. Confession to those sinned against is the sacrifice that keeps one on the road to salvation. Facing one's sin, rather than running from it, denying it, burying it under anger or blaming it on others is the true mark of being in covenant with God.

Doing what God expects of us is a daily struggle. Sometimes we stumble. God understands. What's important for God is not being perfect, but admitting when we are wrong once we have stumbled. And this we know by allowing the Holy Spirit to point it out. Will you be stubborn and rebellious? Will you remain stiff necked and go your own way? Or will you be led by Spirit, a bond slave to God, willingly submit to divine will, sacrifice your pride, and admit you're wrong to the one to whom you have sinned?

To offer sacrifice in the Name of the Lord is to honor this understanding. That understanding is not a matter of just knowing who God is. To honor the Name means to know AND practice the covenant one has entered into. The covenant is not just some kind of general pledge. It has detailed procedures. To know them, one must know the law. When we are led by the Spirit of God, we honor the covenant by following the spirit of the law. When we rebel and turn our back to God and His Spirit, we dishonor our covenant agreement and profane God's holy Name. This web page began with examples of people who offered sacrifice and called upon the Name of the Lord. Some were accepted by God and some were not. The story of Cain and Abel is a good example.


Notice very carefully the difference in the offerings of the two brothers. God's law says we are to bring the firstfruits, the best, that which is without spot or blemish, of all that God has given us. Abel brought the "firstborn of his flock" whereas Cain brought "some of the fruits" of his crop. This did not get by God. He noticed it and made a point about it. The second sin happened when Cain did not accept God's judgment but got angry instead, and further, rather than take responsibility for his own actions, he blamed his brother and directed his anger at Abel instead of looking within.

Finally, after the Lord God had warned Abel to master his anger, he did not, but allowed it to control him to the point of murder. For once one starts down the path of avoiding one's sin, the consequences compound. Even after committing the sin and being confronted by God, Abel remained in denial. His anger now controlled him and he had become a slave to the beast within him. To master his anger, he would have to confront his sin in humble surrender to the Spirit of God, which is the call of the daily sacrifice.

When we decide to run and hide from our sin, then the concept of sacrifice perverts into appeasement rather than the sacrifice of our pride and time. The epitome of this extreme is expressed in the following passage from Scripture where some Israelites went so far as to sacrifice their children to a foreign God.


From the beginning many have understood the proper way of sacrifice, such as Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac & Jacob. These sacrifices were offered in high places on natural stone altars and were accepted by God. This is the freedom we had at first, to build an altar of stone anywhere we would want to praise the Lord. This instruction was given to Moses immediately after he received the 10 Commandments:


Moses was a man who honored God's covenant. Therefore wherever Moses was, God's Name was honored. But with freedom, man often takes advantage and losses his way. As the passage above from Jeremiah 7 states, God's original intention was twisted into something He never intended. This occurred through pagan influence and man's choice to pursue his own will and selfish desires, following any idol allowing one to avoid facing one's sin.

So it became necessary to exercise more control over the situation. A change was instituted. By centralizing the core activity of offerings to the Lord, God could better ensure that the proper procedure was being followed and make it less likely that variations would creep into the daily practice. The faithful were still encouraged to attend their local congregations for praise, worship, study and helping those in need, but the offering of sacrifices was to be done solely in the dwelling where God would choose to put His Name. This, of coarse, became the temple in Jerusalem.

While God made a change commanding that the sacrifices would be done in one place, notice also that the same part of the law allows for worship in local congregations. If there is only one place for all worship, then as the nation grows there will be times when it is just impractical to make it to this one temple. God understand this, so He made provision for it.  If the dwelling for His Name is to far, then one may worship at the local congregation. While many things are permitted at the local congregation, the law states that the offerings to the Lord, the sacrifices to God, were to be done only in the one place.


So God made a change to respond to man's rebellious spirit, yet all the while He saw it coming and had prepared for it. In centralizing the sacrifices, He was preparing to point at His glorious son and his perfect sacrifice that made all other blood obsolete. The Lord God Almighty had placed the seeds in the law for Yahshua (Jesus), once fulfilling the perfect sacrifice, to show the way for the local congregations to now become the centers for following the spirit of the law of the daily sacrifice. For no longer is blood needed to be spilled, as we approach our High Priest through the altars of our hearts where he applies the blood to the altar by faith.

Where does God put His Name? When it comes to the place for the animal sacrifices, God placed His Name upon the house built by Solomon.


Does God put His Name any other place? Let's see what Scripture has to say.


This Scripture is clear. Wherever the faithful are, those in covenant relationship with God who observe the covenant, there also is God's Name.

Jesus knew that the temple, the center of the sacrificial system, would be destroyed. He made this prediction. But he also said it would be rebuilt. But to what type of building is he referring?


The temple was built as a dwelling for God's Name and thereby God's Spirit. The temple is intended as a path to the Holy Spirit. When Jesus sacrificed his life and was then vindicated by the Holy Spirit in being raised from the dead, it was proof that he is indeed a son of God led by the Holy Spirit. When Jesus said that after the temple is destroyed, he would raise it again in three days, he was indicating the change that would occur as to where the faithful could offer their daily sacrifice. After his sacrifice and resurrection, the temple is now the body of the faithful who have Christ, the Holy Spirit and the Name of God within themselves, for they have been marked with the seal of God, the deposit of the Holy Spirit from he who overcame.

Jesus is the living Law. He is the One who has demonstrated being in covenant relationship with the Father AND living by that covenant. The Father promised the One Chosen to fulfill the Law first. He has led the Way and provided the example to give us strength to carry on our own struggle within, to find the light and live by love, being in willing surrender to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. The Law was designed to point the way to allowing one’s temple to become the dwelling place for the Spirit of God. Jesus fulfilled this.

Because of this accomplishment, the Father has given His anointed son all power and authority over us. This includes the power to command the Holy Spirit. So the Messiah has opened the way to the inner sanctuary. The temple of the old way has been made obsolete by the provision of his blood for the purification of sins. Our Lord calls us to be holy people, to be priests, and in so doing has opened the inner sanctuary to us, but we must always remember that we are approaching our High Priest as priests, and so we must strive to be true to that calling and the trust that the Lord has placed in us.

Because of his accomplishment and authority, we have freedom in Christ. When, and only when, one accepts Jesus as Yahweh’s only Messiah, only Mediator and only High Priest, and as the fulfillment of the purpose of the Law, then our relationship to the Law changes. We do not ignore the Law, as many Christians practice, nor are we still bound by the letter of the Law as many Messianic Jews would argue. As Paul makes clear to those who are led by Spirit, when God’s Spirit leads you, then you have the freedom to follow the spirit of the Law.

This is a more challenging position than either extreme of the usual dichotomy: ignore the law or still be bound by it. When one takes the position that we have the freedom to follow the spirit of the Law, we must then interpret how to apply this principle. Paul gives a great example and guide for applying to all of Scripture, and that is the issue of circumcision. This was hotly debated then, and some today are so blind to their own pride that they will actually make Paul wrong on this issue in order to justify their literal position on the Law.

Paul explains that baptism is the outer act that demonstrates the inner act of circumcising one’s heart to the Lord. In the same sense, physical circumcision is the outer sign of the inner circumcision of the heart. Therefore, Paul got Peter to see and agree that baptism is following the spirit of the law of circumcision and so the newly converted Gentiles did not have to be physically circumcised. (Acts 15, Gal 2:1-10 & Col 2:11-12.)

As Paul states in Ephesians, Our Lord and Messiah is the cornerstone for the temple of the body of the faithful. He is our High Priest. The Lord God Almighty still expects us to follow His ordinance of the Daily Sacrifice; only in Christ we have the freedom to follow the spirit of the Law. And he showed us the way to follow the spirit of the law in this case, at the Last Supper. For communion embodies all the elements of the law when you see that the Lamb, his body and blood are the sin, grain and drink offerings of the continual burnt offering, a sign of total and complete commitment to the Father. The communal meal is the fellowship offering. And we honor the guilt offering when we face and confess our sins.

Now, in the new way, we approach our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary to make confession through prayer at the altar of our hearts. Our bodies are the temple for the Holy Spirit, if we are in covenant relationship with God and allow the prayer time needed for His Spirit to lead us in knowing the right thing to do. When we keep our word, there we find God’s Name. So we are the dwelling for God’s Name, and when we set apart time for the Lord, the altar of our hearts is indeed the place to make our sacrifices and offerings to the Lord God Almighty through our High Priest.

Once Jesus offered himself as the Lamb of God, he became the perfect sacrifice and provided the blood necessary for the purification of sins (Hebrews 1:3). Any other blood is obsolete, so animal sacrifices for the purpose of blood atonement are no longer needed (Hebrews 9:13-14). When we make confession to our High Priest, he will at that time sprinkle the blood on the altar of our hearts to pay the price required by the law but also to open the eyes of the heart to the guidance of the Holy Spirit to see our responsibility in apology and any appropriate restitution (Heb 9:14; 1 Pet 1:1-2).

Jesus' sacrifice, by its very nature, changed the daily sacrifice in that it no longer depended on the one physical building. Jesus became our High Priest, but he was not of the tribe of Levi, so this was a change to the law (Heb 7:12). But it was a change to the law, not the end of the law of the daily sacrifice, as some would argue. We are still expected to set apart time for praise and worship of the Lord each day. When the curtain to the inner sanctuary was torn apart, it opened the way for all to approach the High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary through the walk to sanctification by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our Lord and Master is calling us to be priests. It is interesting to note that in the law and the sacrificial system, no one, including the priests, is to drink the blood. It is to be poured out as an offering. When Jesus refers to his blood as drink, he strictly means as a drink offering. When he invites us to drink in communion, it is a reference to wine and the cup of redemption. The main meaning is a challenge to follow in his footsteps in obtaining freedom from sin through confession and redemption. The other is a reference to the law in Deuteronomy 12 and thereby an endorsement of local congregations as the place to now follow the spirit of the law of the daily sacrifice.

We can see the ongoing obligation for confession in the following verses.


There is something curious here. This web site has taken the position that Jesus and the Father are separate persons and separate gods, with the Father being superior and eternal. At some point the Father created His son, Jesus, and later delegated power and the authority to forgive sins to him. Knowing this and knowing that Lord is a representation of the Tetragrammaton, why would the Father's Name, YHWH, be equated with His son, Jesus? I believe the answer can be seen in the following line of Scripture.


When Nehemiah was given permission from King Artaxerxes to return to Jerusalem in order to rebuild its walls, he asked the king for some letters. These would be letters addressed to the governors of the lands he would transverse giving him supplies and safe passage. By having the name and signature of the king on his person, the governors would have no doubt that Nehemiah came with the king's approval and authority.

In the same sense, when God places His Name upon someone, it is a sign of His holiness, power and approval. When someone comes in the Name of the Father, it is a sign of his or her commitment to the covenant and of God's approval of their commitment. The title Lord Jesus is a sign that Jesus comes with the Father's approval and that we acknowledge him as our Lord and Master.

Given this understanding, it is my opimion that when we say the title:


So in one sense, when we approach our High Priest in prayer through the temple of our bodies, saying the Father's Name, Lord (representing Yahweh), is a way to validate one's confession, for you are about to make your offering where God's Name is found.

Confessing the Lord Jesus Christ is not the end of one's confession but the beginning. For it asserts your commitment to the covenant, your recognition of the Father, and recognition of the authority given to His anointed son as our God and Lord. He is Lord over us. Then one is ready to proceed with the daily offering and confession of sin, if convicted. This can be seen in the following passage from Paul. The second reference to "confess" is not a repeat of the first idea but the actual confession of sin following the confession of one's faith.


Just as simply accepting the Lord intellectually without doing His will is not sufficient, just as the blood alone without confession can not make one righteous, there is no special personal name for God that simply by saying this name exactly as it once was said that will, of and by itself, prevent being cut off. No. There is only one way to the Father, and that is by being in covenant relationship with the Father through His only Mediator, our High Priest, Jesus. Only by doing the Father's will do we represent Him and thereby manifest the holiness of His Name. When we fall and stumble, the covenant says to confess and repent. Only by doing so in marriage with God's Spirit, do we remain in righteous behavior. Jesus is a living example of the Way. Where there is one who is such, there is the Father's Name.

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Footnotes

¹ Citation is from following Thelemapedia page: http://www.thelemapedia.org/index.php/Tetragrammaton

² Lesson #598. Leslie Hale PO Box 125, Tarpon Springs, Fl 34688. Website: http://www.lesliehale.com

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©2008 Collins Hamblen
First Posted: 7/05/08
Last Update: 7/25/08