A Little More on the Name of God

Accents & pronunciations change over time. Even if you know exactly how a word was spelled three hundred years ago, you cannot know exactly how it was pronounced. For example, Americans, Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders, and Brits, who were once a single people and still speak the same language, all pronounce the same letters differently. If you picked up an English text written by a 17th century Virginia planter you could not pronounce the written words exactly as he did, even though you could read and understand them plainly.

Now consider the tetragrammaton, YHVH. If a little time and geography make it impossible for English speakers today to know exactly how a familiar English word was pronounced just three centuries ago, how much more is it impossible for English speakers today to know how a Hebrew word was spoken two or three thousand years ago? It's not just a different language separated by millennia. It's an entirely different alphabet with no vowels! Even if we could be 100% confident about what vowels should go between the consonants, nobody alive can know exactly how to pronounce the consonants, let alone the assumed vowels.

There are only two ways to know how to pronounce YHVH for certain: 1) Go back in time and hear it pronounced by Yeshua or one of the prophets; 2) Get a direct revelation from YHVH himself.

Anything else is just academic speculation and anyone who tells you otherwise is just blowing hot air.

A Chiasm in Psalm 12 that Reveals the Master of All

From our low perspective it appears that the godly are disappearing from the earth, that the wicked are winning everywhere, but God has a much broader view than we do. He can see over the mountains and into the deepest valleys. He will guard the righteous forever, no matter how numerous the wicked might be. He has said He will, and He keeps His promises. After all, who is master over us all?

For more on chiasms--including how to identify, map, and interpret them--check out The Chiasm Course!

Who Are You?

Until God showed his power, Moses doubted his own role in God’s plan. He continually asked the question that weighs on us all: “Who am I?”

Who am I to lead your people? Who am I to speak to Pharaoh? Who am I that anyone should listen to me? God replied by giving Moses a mission: to confront both the B’nai Israel and the Pharaoh and to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.

When Moses asked again, “Who am I that Pharaoh should listen to me?” God, secure in his own identity (“I am/will be who I am/will be”), responded to Moses’ doubt with ultimate authority: “You are who I say you are. ”

Exodus 7:1-2  And YHWH said to Moses, See, I have made you a god to Pharaoh. And Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh, he will send the sons of Israel out of his land.

You too have a mission, a task delegated to you by God. If you doubt your ability to be of service to God and his Kingdom, believe this: God knows who you are. In the end, it doesn’t matter if you believe in your own capabilities so long as you trust in him. You will not overcome through your own power. You are just a tool. Moses and Aaron may have spoken God’s words to Pharaoh, but it was by God’s might that Israel was delivered.

Exodus 7:4-6  But Pharaoh shall not listen to you, and I will lay My hand upon Egypt, and bring My armies, My people the sons of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am YHWH when I stretch forth My hand upon Egypt, and bring out the sons of Israel from among them. And Moses and Aaron did as YHWH commanded them; so they did.

God knows who you are and what you are capable of accomplishing, and he does not choose his tools arbitrarily. He always uses the right tool for the job.