Jehovah-yahweh

TO READ: Genesis 28:10-22

What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.

Genesis 28:15

When God appeared to Jacob, he called himself Jehovah, the Elohim of Abraham (Genesis 28:13). The name Jehovah was first used in Genesis 2:4 when God made man. The title speaks of the special relationship between God and Israel.

When Moses talked with God and asked his name, God replied, “I AM” (Exodus 3:14). Jehovah told Moses he had heard the people of Israel crying because of their Egyptian taskmasters and had chosen to redeem them. “I am all that you will need as the occasion arises,” he promised Moses. He is all that is needed as our occasions arise as well!

He cares when we are in bondage to some earthly taskmaster. Perhaps food or some other appetite has us whipped, and we long to be free. Yahweh has revealed himself as our Redeemer from all bondage.

It is exactly at this point that some reject Christianity. The idea of God’s relating to them in a personal way is too much for them. Somehow the concept diminishes him in their thinking. People feel that if God can be known, this brings him down to their size; if he is their size, why do they need him? But knowing someone does not necessarily mean knowing all about that person. The pot knows the feel of the potter’s hands, but because it is not the potter, it cannot fully fathom its Creator’s mind. Jehovah-Yahweh wants us to know him. His name assures us that he made us capable of knowing enough to experience his salvation.