411: Kristian Smith - Exhortation: The Name of YAHWEH

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   Welcome to good Christophian talks. Thank you for. Joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our Daily News feed. Each week we post a talk that we previewed from suggestions sent in by listeners from around the world. Then we record a short intro beforehand as a. Personalized recommendation to you on why we are sharing the talk.

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   And now let’s talk more about this week. ‘S talk. Hello everyone. This is Brother Levi McKinley and I’m coming to you from the Wend Your Anaclesia up in southeast Queensland, Australia.

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   This week’s talk was an exhort that was given by our brother Christian Smith, who is also a member of the Wend Your Anaclesia, and it was given back in April 2024. And although this talk was given a little over two years ago now, it’s always stuck with me since I heard it, and I’ve never forgotten it. And one of the reasons why I think it was so memorable, to me at least, was the fact that as a kid, I was always taught that Yahweh is God’s name.

4. 1:17

   And I remember going over to my friend’s house and we’d all sit down together and do the readings. And it always stood out to me that some people would replace the literal words in their English Bible, Lord God, to the Hebrew word Yahweh. Actually, you remember being called out once because I didn’t do it and I had no idea why, What, what the, what the go was like.

5. 1:41

   Why did people do this? And so it was always a question in my mind growing up why we viewed Yahweh as so special. And maybe I guess that’s one of the things with being young, you don’t have all the answers. And as you grow, you find out. And this is exactly what that talk did for me.

6. 2:00

   And maybe this is nothing new to you, but for me it was. And I found it very helpful because it not only helped me to understand why God chose to reveal himself by His name, but it also helped me to appreciate and to realize just how special His name really is. It’s more than just a title.

7. 2:23

   The name Yahweh reveals God’s greatness and His depth of being. But something else that just blew me away, which I think is probably my favorite point from this talk, is how God is breath, how Yahweh is breath, and whether we intend for it to be or not, the very breath in our lungs acknowledges God. If you get a free moment to yourself, just listen to yourself breathing as you inhale and exhale, and you’ll notice that you’re speaking His name because Yahweh is breath. I think that’s really cool and very special and definitely shows God’s handiwork in us.

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   So, as always, we hope this talk strengthens your faith and brightens your day. This is Brother Christian Smith, the name of Yahweh. Good morning my dear brothers and sisters. What a blessing and a privilege it is to be with you here this morning, gathered around the emblems of God’s love today. The thoughts for today’s exaltation have come from a few places.

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   Firstly, the Scriptures of course, which is only appropriate, but also a few hymns from the hymn book and also a very unusual poem that I stumbled across some time ago which I borrowed some of the sentiment from. But firstly, let’s start with the hymns.

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    There is a very clear memory in my mind, even from quite young, of being a little bit confused and sometimes even slightly amused by the words of a handful of hymns from the hymn book. Now for some context to that statement. If you’re old enough, we can probably cast our minds back and remember that before the green hymn book, there was the blue and the blue hymn book. In case you’re unsure what that is, is really just a shorter version of what’s in the green hymn book. And in the addition of the blue hymn book that was used in the ecclesia that I grew up in, there were a handful of hymns. There weren’t many of them, but there were a few that featured the word Jehovah.

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    Now, I’m not actually sure if Jehovah features in the green hymn book. I think mostly we’d find that it’s the word Yahweh. But in any case, it wasn’t always so in the hymn book that we grew up with.

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    Now even from quite young it was obvious during the meeting that nobody sang Jehovah. It was replaced with the word Yahweh instead, and this fact was made even more obvious. And this is where sometimes it was slightly amusing because there was always the small problem of how to exchange the two syllable word Yahweh into music that allowed for the three syllables of the word Jehovah. So this meant that there was always a leftover note. And the end result of that problem was that these lines of lyrics were often ended up being mumbled or sort of sung significantly quieter until the words in the music’s music matched up again.

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    So what that did for me, at least in my mind, if nothing else, was emphasise the fact that the word Yahweh was a much preferred replacement for the word Jehovah. That is, there was something special about that word Yahweh.

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    And of course, all of that prompted the question, why do we use the word Yahweh and not Jehovah? Which is a good question. Just to be clear, this isn’t actually the topic of our exhortation this morning, but it is very much leading us quickly there. So while we’re here, just in case like me, you were unsure of what the answer to that is, why do we use the word Yahweh?

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    It’s not Jehovah. This is, in short, the answer that was given. The word Jehovah came about by taking the consonants of the word Yahweh, so that’s YHWH, and combining into them the vowels of the Word Adonai, which is the Hebrew word for my Lord. So if we take the consonants of Yahweh and the vowels of Adonai, mix them together, combine them, this gives us a word of roughly Yahuwah.

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    This word was then Latinized, that is, was turned into a Latin version of that word which gives us the word Jehovah. And this process seems to have been done in the Middle Ages by Christian scholars and then over the next few 100 years. It was later abandoned by most of them with of course Jehovah’s Witness Witness group being the most notable to hang on to it.

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    So in short, Jehovah the word is a man made word combining different words and thoughts. One thing is certain in the Exodus 3 account, which Chris read for us just before, when Moses asked God what his name was, God didn’t reply with the word Jehovah. In fact, it’s not really obvious from our reading that he said Yahweh either.

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    So why is it that we place so much weight on this word of Yahweh, so much so to use it in our hymns and to even often replace the words Lord God with Yahweh in our Bible readings?

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    So it is with this name of God, and its original Jewish form in particular that we will hopefully draw some encouragement from this morning. So let’s have a look. If you’re still at Exodus chapter 3, let’s have a look at Exodus 3 again. So this is what we read for us this morning. We’ll start here.

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    So this is the account where God is asked to reveal his name to his people, the Israelites. Until now, he’s been known mostly by titles. That is the Jewish versions of the word God, and we’ve already mentioned one of those already. That’s Adonai, which means my Lord. So Exodus 3 verse 14 is the verse where most that we’re going to start with rather, but this passage really seems slightly strange when Moses talks to God and we’ll talk about that later. But Moses said in short, the Israelites are going to ask me who has sent me and who is going to deliver us from Egypt. He says to God, what will I tell them? What name will I give them?

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    Now, Israel historically weren’t strangers to God. Sure, their relationship had been very up and down with him, but surely they were familiar with the God of their fathers. That’s what we would think at least. But maybe at this time when they’re slaves in Egypt, they had forgotten this fact while they were there.

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    So God answers Moses with a statement. Simple, definitive and eternal statement. He said aya Asha aya, or as we would read in our Bible, I am that I am or maybe your version says I will be who I will be. Tell the people God said I am has sent you. That is Moses. We’re reading here in the in this account, the first time that God expressed his absoluteness. He identified himself as ultimate truth, eternal and unique.

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    Let’s have a look at verse 15 because here in verse 15 is where God really answers the question that Moses asked him. God continues in verse 15. He says, this shalt thou say unto Israel, the Lord God of your father’s, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had sent me unto you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. The passage we read there, the phrase this is my name that God refers to in verse 15 is referring back earlier in that verse to Lord God.

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    We would read at the beginning of the verse or we could replace that, and we often do with the word Yahweh. Yahweh is my name is what God said. More accurately, YHWH is how it was originally written in Hebrew. Now it really is a study in itself how we go from Lord God to the word Yahweh, which we really don’t have time for this morning, but as far as I can tell, Yahweh is a good translation to fit into that for, for that word Lord God. But in particular this morning it’s the original Jewish form of the word Yahweh, which is really very interesting. The original written form of the name of the Almighty that is YHWH.

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    No vowels, only consonants. All ancient Hebrew words follow this pattern when written. That is, they wrote them without any vowels. Vowel sounds were often included in words when spoken, but not in a written form. So it is left for the scholars afterwards to surmise what the sounds were likely to be as the ancient Hebrews spoke their language, and the word Yahweh really is no different.

26. 13:14

    It seems like, as best as we can tell, that the A and the E were probably the sounds used when speaking God’s name out loud, that that isn’t actually known for sure. But what we do know is that in this ancient Hebrew language, God chose to reveal His name to mankind that we might benefit from it. He chose a deeply nuanced language with layers of meaning, where letters and words have numbers, sounds and symbology attached to them, which can make it hard for people with, let’s say, broad Australian accents to always fully appreciate. So just a few observations about the original title of Yahweh at YHWH.

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    On the surface, all of these things may seem unintentional and of no consequence. But assuming that our understanding of the language aspect of God’s name is correct. And we do have to make assumptions here because of course, Exodus 3 was written thousands of years ago. A long time has passed since then, and we aren’t Jewish language scholars. But assuming that we’re correct on that, these things help to give us a better appreciation, I think, of the greatness and the depth of being of the Heavenly Father. So firstly, YHWH is made-up of three different Hebrew letters. So they are the Y, yod, H, hay, vav which is the West, and then a hay.

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    Again, hay, or the rather yod or the Y is the smallest of the Hebrew letters, and it’s also the most frequently occurring letter in Scripture. Yod, if you see it written, looks very much like a small dot in Hebrew script. And since a yod or a dot is used to form all of the other letters, it is considered to represent the starting point of the presence of God in all things.

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    In other words, it represents God’s omnipresence. The 2nd and 4th letters. The letter H or hey, as I would say it means look or behold. That’s the meaning of it, and it is said to represent the divine breath and the power of God.

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    The 3rd letter, the West is the letter Vav. This letter has a meaning of hook and as the 6th. As it is the 6th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, it’s then associated with man. In Hebrew tradition it is suggested that the vav represents the connection or the hook that binds heaven and earth.

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    So within this name of God we have a sense of omnipresence, God’s breath, and also a sense of connection between heaven and earth. We can also note that the word Yahweh with just the consonants YHWH contains all soft sounds and this makes it impossible for this word, the name of God, to be shouted. It is also impossible to be spoken quickly or in any other way other than very deliberately. In fact, this word, when we do try to say it in its vowel form, is quite difficult to say.

32. 17:08

    It is almost impossible for the mouth to ever close properly around it. YHWH comes out as little more than breath. I’ll try it. Yeah, an interesting thought that God’s name in this form is almost unpronounceable as anything other than breath.

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    Accidental maybe, but if not, how fitting in the light of Bible teaching of God and in particular a verse that we read in John chapter 4. So come with me there, if you would, to John chapter 4. In this chapter in John chapter 4, Jesus spoke to a woman of Samaria and their paths crossed as she was came to draw water from the well.

34. 18:13

    During that conversation in verse 23, Jesus said to her, But the hour cometh, and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. And verse 24, God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must work, must worship him in spirit and in truth. God is a spirit, or my saying depending on the version you’ve got, God is spirit.

35. 18:54

    This word spirit means vital principle or breath. God is the vital principle. He is breath. God is breath from John 4. How fitting, then, is the original Hebrew form of his name, which is also little more than breath. Breath is the vital principle, as we know, to all living things. We can survive several days with our food, only two or three without water, but we have only minutes with our breath.

36. 19:37

    Breathing is our most basic action, an essential one, our first task at birth and the last of death, an action done without thought or consideration until it is not able to be performed easily. We take breathing for granted, don’t we? Until it’s hard to do. And I’m sure we can all identify with the horrible feeling of being short of breath, or finding our air supply polluted, or the feeling of desperation when we’ve found ourselves underwater for too long and urgently needing that vital gasp of air, or even eating a piece of steak can happen.

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    We are nothing without breath. Nothing else matters to us when we are struggling to breathe. All other issues or ailments at those desperate times are secondary to just get air.

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    Of course, our dependency on air is always present, including right now. It’s just that we give it little thought until those precious, precious breaths are hard to find. As we know, we are utterly dependent on the Almighty for our breath of life. Just as a newborn can do nothing for itself, so are we dependent on the Almighty, on Yahweh. He alone supplies the air, the ability to breathe it, and the life that it gives.

39. 21:10

    We do none of it ourselves. And we are totally at His mercy. Every breath that fills our lungs is a tiny little gift to us from God himself. So let’s consider our breath of life and the Spirit of God in Genesis, and we’ll follow it through to Ecclesiastes. So if you’d like to have a look at Genesis 2, we’ll see here the continuation of it and where breath really comes from between these two two quotes.

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    So Genesis chapter 2. And in Genesis 2 we read how Adam was formed out of the dust of the ground at creation. The necessary elements to form a human were all present, with the atoms all ranged in the right way. Yet Adam was not a living soul until the breath of life was put into his body. And we know that from Genesis 2 verse 7 says and the Lord God, that’s Yahweh formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man that is Adam became a living soul.

41. 22:33

    So Adam was a lifeless body until God provided that spark of life to allow all of his organs to function and then that breath to keep them going. So this, of course, was the beginning of Adam and of human life. But once Adam was up and breathing and walking around, he didn’t turn to God and just say thank you.

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    But I’ve got it from here because we know that’s not how it works. And Ecclesiastes 12 makes that very clear to us, that the dependency on God’s Spirit that is God’s breath is always present for us. So let’s have a look at Ecclesiastes 12, in particular verse 7. So we’ve read about the beginning with Adam in the garden.

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    Please out these trolls talking about the end at death. And verse 7, the reeds. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it again. That word spirit in Ecclesiastes 12, verse 7 means breath or vital principle. We could read it. So if we read that again, then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the breath shall return unto God who gave it.

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    And we read similar words really in a Job, in Job 34 verses 14 and 15, Job 34 verses 14 and 15. And it reads there, if he, that is God, set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself, his spirit, and his breath, all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust. So from these verses we know that in the end the atoms return to the ground where they came from, and the breath or the ability to breathe returns to God where it came from. And it is this thought that helps explain, I think, God’s omnipresence, perhaps the hardest of the three O’s of God to get our head around.

45. 25:12

    As believers in the Bible and God, we have really no problem coming to terms with His omnipotence, that is, Him being all powerful. Of course, to be able to create and sustain all things, He must be all powerful.

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    If He’s all powerful, it is then not too much of A leap to believe that He’s all knowing and all seeing, but omnipresent. To be everywhere present is, I think, hardest for us to understand because we can only understand our being as existing in a fixed place during a certain time. We can’t experience anything being all places at the same time, everywhere, but God is so far above our experiences.

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    Come with me to Psalm 139 speaking about God’s omnipresence. Psalm 139, we’ll start at verse 7. Just go down to verse 10. Verse 7. Whither shall I go from my spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? So whither shall I go from my breath, or whither shall I go from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy right hand leave me, and thy right hand shall hold me. And again in Jeremiah 23, we also read the words where God’s God asks a question.

48. 27:13

    Do I not feel heaven and earth? The vital principle of the breath of life, the Spirit of God, is what provides life and keeps it going in all of these places at the same time. Life can only be provided by the Creator, and in this way Yahweh is omnipresent. His life giving presence is felt in all living things, from the unknowing shrub to the smallest of creatures, to the most obedient of disciples and even the most ironclad atheists. All bear witness of the Creator with each breath. Each breath is exaltation to the Almighty, whether or not it is even realised or acknowledged.

49. 28:09

    God is breath. He is the vital principle to us. He is vital to our existence right now. And His Son is vital to our future, Jesus, the ultimate example of how our sinful ways can be overcome. And then our mortal functions replaced, our corrupted failing bodies replaced with an incorruptible one, which is surely, which is surely the greatest of all gifts.

50. 28:40

    Jesus body is now changed by God-given immortality. And when we consider the process of how this was done, the sacrifice and the blessing provided by God and His Son, we can truly think, truly appreciate, I think, the opportunities given to us today. God gave his Son the breath of life and Jesus didn’t waste a single one of them.

51. 29:09

    He used each breath wisely and not even an idle word past his lips. Faithful service day after day. Of course this pleased the Father, but even Jesus breath needed to be removed and so and so important was this event that God not only knew what would happen, He not only allowed it to happen, but God actually had to make it happen because only Yahweh could give His Son life giving breath and only Yahweh could take it away. And so He did for us brethren and sisters. On the cross, Yahweh removed his spirit from his Son’s body. Jesus breath returned to God who gave it, and Yahweh’s omnipresence was definitely felt by all at that time. But of course Jesus death was short lived, which is a good thing.

52. 30:17

    Three days later, God’s Spirit was returned to Jesus in a way yet not experienced by anyone else. God’s breath of life was returned in abundance, so much so that mortality was replaced with immortality, perfect in corruption, a state so good that we can’t really understand it.

53. 30:43

    And so we came here this morning, brothers and sisters, to remind ourselves of what is really important, to focus on our minds on things that we should, to remember His Son and our example, to obey and serve with love and gratitude. It is a blessing and a privilege to be here this morning, isn’t it? Not just because of the beautiful surrounds in which we find ourselves gathered with like minded family, but also because God has given us more time. He’s given us more breaths.

54. 31:25

    Enough breaths to witness this day so far. Which is an amazing blessing, even if we’re not particularly feeling it this morning. For whatever reason, as undeserving as we all are, He has provided us with health and circumstance sufficient to meet here today. This is an amazing blessing and it’s not always easy to feel that all the time. I get that.

55. 31:55

    I know it’s easy to be like, well, meeting starts at 11, walk in, hopefully get a seat near the air con somewhere, stand up, sit down at the right times. That is how I can feel sometimes. But really, what an extraordinary blessing We have breath from God and opportunity beyond belief and each other to share the journey with praise God. John 4.

56. 32:26

    God is breath and we that worship Him must worship Him in breath and in truth. At the beginning of this new week, we need to breathe words of praise and worship to the Father. We need to breathe words to those around us that are befitting of a disciple of Christ. We need to be conscious and grateful for our breaths as the gift of Yahweh that they are to use them well to give glory to Him.

57. 33:04

    God is unpronounceable, yet in every second pronounced, in every breath we take, hallowed be His name. Thank you for listening to the good Chris Adelphian Talks podcast. We hope this talk helped you in your walk and brightened your day. If you would like to hear more, please subscribe for new episodes. We are on all major podcast platforms and also on YouTube. If you enjoyed this particular talk, please share it with someone else who you think might enjoy it too. For show notes on the talk you just listened to, visit [email protected] or check out the Show Notes section of your podcast player.

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