I am Yahweh

If someone who had fallen into a ditch shouted up to you, "Hey, Bud, would you help me out of here?", you would undoubtedly help him out, even if "Bud" wasn't your name, and think nothing of it. But what if, after you introduced yourself and you became close friends, he kept on calling you "Bud"? You'd find it strange and a bit irritating, wouldn't you? Yet this is exactly the way our Creator is often treated. 

      "Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and the name of His son? Tell me if you know!" (Prov. 30:4b)

How can you really love someone whose name you don't even know? This connection is directly highlighted in Scripture's parallel poetry: 

       "Because he has set his love on me, I will deliver him; I will set him on high because he has known My Name." (Psalm 91:14) 

He is commonly known as "God" and "Lord", but these are just substitutes for the Hebrew titles Elohim. At best,  "God" and "Lord" are like calling Him "the Boss" or "Sir". That may be respectful enough in some situations; there is some Scriptural precedent. But when addressing Him directly, this could be as impersonal as calling Him "the man upstairs" or referring to your best friend as "that guy".

The ten commandments are actually called the "Ten Declarations" in Hebrew. The first is, "I am Yahweh your Elohim ". The very first thing He wanted to tell His people about Himself was His proper name. Why? Because it reveals much about who He is. Linguistically, Yahweh is a composite of several tenses of the Hebrew word "to be": Hayah, Hoveh, and Yihyeh—together meaning "the One who was, is, and will remain". 

At the burning bush, He commanded Moses to 

       "Tell the children of Israel [that] Yahweh... has sent you; this is My Name and how I am to be remembered for all generations." (Exodus 3:15)

The third Commandment says: 

       “You shall not bring the name of Yahweh your Elohim to nothing.” (Exodus 20:7)

We can bring His name to nothing by claiming to be His people yet practically denying that He really has any power by relying on other securities. But we can also nullify it by failing to use it when we should. Of course we must never use His holy Name flippantly. We've seen what has been done to the name "God". He kept His true Name from widespread use until we stopped mixing true Hebraic worship with paganism. But the Psalms show that ideally He wants us to use His real name. It was used every day (yet respectfully) in ancient Israel. Boaz greets his fieldworkers with "May Yahweh be with you", and they reply, "Yahweh bless you!" (Ruth 2:4)

       "You shall not profane the Name of your Elohim. I am Yahweh." (Lev. 19:12)

Profaning His Name is more than just using it as a "swear word". It can also include substituting it with foreign names that were once used for pagan gods. 

"I am Yahweh; that is My Name, I will not give My glory to another, or My praise to graven images." (Isaiah 42:8)

If idols have no power, the only way His glory could go to them is by our giving other deities credit for what He has actually done! And you might even be doing this without realizing it or intending to. 

What if your wife kept calling you by her former boyfriend's name? Yet that's what we do if we call our true Master by the name by which our old master was known! You see, "God" and "Lord" are not simply neutral translations for Yahweh's true Name. They actually came from pagan sources. 

       "My Name is continually blasphemed every day. Therefore My people will know My name." (Isa. 52:6)

That was a high priority to Yahshua (Jesus). When recounting to His Father in Gethsemane how He had finished the work He had given Him to do, He prayed, "I have revealed Your Name to those whom You have given Me." (John 17:6) If it needed to be "revealed" or "exposed", it must have been hidden. The religious leaders of His day had forbidden anyone to voice Yahweh's Name. Yahshua (Jesus) disagreed with this practice, which stemmed from a Babylonian taboo of not speaking the names of their deities, since they did not want the "gods" to pay them too much attention. 

There's some truth to that; Yahweh says that when His people "call on My Name, I will respond to them..." (Zech. 13:9) Why wouldn't we want our Elohim, who desires to bless us, to pay attention to us? So the Maccabees reinstated the usage of the Name. It became so widely used hat people were writing it even on business documents that ended up in the trash at times. So concerned leaders swung back to the other extreme and again forbade its use altogether, except by the High Priest on the Day of Atonement. 

The Talmud (a Jewish commentary on the Scriptures) says the rabbinic leaders declared that everything possible had to be done to obscure the true pronunciation of the Name. The 8th-century Masoretic text added a system of points under the Hebrew consonants that comprise the original Scriptures, to make pronunciation easier for people who no longer spoke Hebrew every day. But in the case of the Sacred Name, they deliberately added the wrong vowels, so that no one would accidentally pronounce it correctly! 

The common English rendering "Jehovah" actually results from translators being unaware of this substitution. In 134 cases they even substituted the name Adonai where the sacred text actually said YHWH. Adonai is acceptable elsewhere, but adding to or taking away from His Holy Word is directly forbidden. (Deut. 4:2; Rev. 22:18) 

       "If we have forgotten the name of our Elohim, or spread out our hands to a strange god, won't Elohim search this out?" (Psalm 44:20-21)

So the only way to repair this situation is to cause the name of Yahweh our Elohim to be remembered." (Psalm 20:7; compare Jer. 23:27) 

Orthodox Jews say that one reason His name was hidden was because Israel was in exile—a concept linked in the prophets with His hiding His face. 

So now we have a more positive reason to use His real name: it means the exile is nearly over! Scripture bears this out completely: 

       "You will call me, "My husband" instead of "my Lord" [Ba'al], because I will take the names of the Ba'als out of her mouth." (Hosea 2:16-17) 

       "This time I will make them familiar with My ...power, and they will know that My Name is Yahweh." (Jeremiah 16:21) 

       "They will be treating My Name as sacred." (Isaiah 29:23)

But if both Jews and the church stopped using the actual Name that is written with no vowels, how can we be sure we're saying it correctly? 

It can't be "Jehovah", because there is no "J" sound in Hebrew. (This also rules out the possibility of a Hebrew Messiah's name being pronounced "Jesus".*) 

Others say it should be Yahveh because of modern Hebrew pronunciation.** But transliterations into other languages from when ancient Hebrew was used daily all point to "Yahweh" being the way it was said in Biblical times.***  THen, like now, there were undoubtedly some variations in pronunciation, so while we must choose according to the best evidence, we should not fight over slight differences if they do not go so far afield as to sound like the names of other deities; that He forbids.

Yahweh has overlooked our ignorance and responded because of our need even when we used the wrong name. But once we know the facts... "To whom much is given, from him much is required." (Luke 12:48) 

Yahweh knows our hearts. He knows Us by name... He loves You. I do NOT believe that in any way your salvation depends on you calling him Yahweh or not. However if your prayer is to know "God" / Elohim more... to be drawn closer to him in your relationship... don't you think Calling him by his name in the actual pronunciation and language spoken by Yahshua (Jesus Christ) is a good place to start? Elohim Reveals himself to us in all sorts of ways... some times in life changing events that draw us closer.... and sometimes something as simple as calling Elohim by his real Name, Yahweh. 

Its between you and  Yahweh. 
He knows your heart. 

Where do you start? In a typical English Bible, wherever you see the word "LORD" (in all capitals) replace it with the correct name, Yahweh. Where you see "God", begin pronouncing it as Elohim, and when you see "Lord" with only a capital "L", begin reading it as "Adonai", which simply means "Master". Read "Jesus" as "Y'shua" or "Yahshua". 

This time, let's get it right, going to neither extreme of profaning His Name or "bringing it to nothing". 

Side Note:
Holy Spirit... pronounced "Ruach" when properly translated into english would not be Holy Spirit. Spirit was also a pagan word they adapted to the translation. But when translated from Aramaic hebrew into english, it would best be described as.... "Holy Presence"... and to me that makes so much more sense... Greater is he that is IN you than that is in the world... fill me with your Holy Presence Yahweh!!! All good things come from him. 

I pray they see Christ / Yahshua in me.... That they see your Holy presence... Amen.

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