“My holy Name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel. I will not let My holy Name be profaned anymore, and the Gentiles will know that I am Yahweh, the Holy One in Israel.”
Ezekiel 39: 7
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Yahweh: The Name That’s Above Every Name
When most people here about the Exodus, immediately they think about Yahweh leading His people (the Israelites or the Children of Israel or the Sons of Israel) out of Egypt and taking them to the Promised Land. That’s true, but there is much more about the Exodus that we need to understand.
Yahweh used the Exodus to reveal His Name and His awesome power to the Children of Israel, Pharaoh, and the whole world. Before the Exodus was over, the Children of Israel would spend 40 years with Yahweh in the wilderness. Their proximity to Him was a message that none of them would ever forget.
Egypt was the world’s leading superpower at the time of the Exodus. Yahweh used the Exodus to show the world that He is sovereign over everything including the most powerful nation in the world and its king, Pharaoh.
Moses wrote about the Exodus in the Book of Exodus. The Book of Exodus is one of the five Books of Moses, i.e., the Torah. The Bible is available worldwide. It’s the best-selling book of all time. So far, more than 5 billion copies of the Bible have been sold. According to an article published in The New Yorker in 2006 titled “The Good Book Business: Why publishers love the Bible”:
The familiar observation that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time obscures a more startling fact: the Bible is the best-selling book of the year, every year. Calculating how many Bibles are sold in the United States is a virtually impossible task, but a conservative estimate is that in 2005 Americans purchased some twenty-five million Bibles—twice as many as the most recent Harry Potter book. The amount spent annually on Bibles has been put at more than half a billion dollars.
Everybody has heard about the Bible. Most people have a copy of the Bible somewhere. Some people have actually read the Bible from cover-to-cover, but very few of them study it. That’s a shame, because hidden in the Bible in plain sight is critical information about the importance of Yahweh’s Name.
Below is information from the Book of Exodus about the importance of Yahweh’s Name.
Yahweh Speaking to Moses
“Say to the Israelites, ‘Yahweh, the Elohim of your fathers, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob, has sent me to you….This [Yahweh] is My Name forever, the Name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.’” (Exodus 3: 15)
Yahweh is Elohim’s personal Name. It’s called the Divine Name and the Tetragrammaton. It’s the Name that Yahweh wants His children to know Him by and to call Him.
Pharaoh Speaking to Moses
“Who is Yahweh that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know Yahweh.” (Exodus 5: 2)
Pharaoh was correct. He didn’t know Yahweh, so Yahweh would show Pharaoh who He is.
Moses Speaking to Yahweh
“Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your Name, he has done harm to this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all.” (Exodus 5: 23)
Moses was frustrated with Yahweh. Yahweh had given Moses specific instructions, but nothing Moses did worked. Yahweh needed to explain to Moses what He was up to.
Yahweh Speaking to Moses
“I am Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your Elohim; and you shall know that I am Yahweh your Elohim, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a permanent possession; I am Yahweh.” (Exodus 6: 6-8)
Moses didn’t see the big picture. Yahweh made it clear that He would fulfill all of His promises, but first, He would teach Pharaoh several lessons. Today, we call those lessons plagues.
The First Plague—Turning Water into Blood
“By this you shall know that I am Yahweh.” (Exodus 7: 17)
The Fourth Plague—Flies
“But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where My people are living, so that no swarms of insects will be there, in order that you may know that I, Yahweh, am in the midst of the land. I will put a division between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall occur.” (Exodus 8: 22-23)
Some Bible translations refer to the fourth plague as a swarm of lice or insects instead of flies, and the Tanach refers to it as a swarm of beasts. I have searched diligently to find out how these various interpretations were reached, but I was unable to find a satisfactory answer. Thus, I used the New American Standard Bible as my source document.
In any event, in this plague Yahweh demonstrated His ability to take simple dust and turn it into something powerful with which to inflict punishment on mankind—in this case Pharaoh and all of Egypt. He was also demonstrating that He distinguishes between His people and everyone else.
The Seventh Plague—Hail
“This time I will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth. For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth. But, indeed, for this cause I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power, in order to proclaim My Name [Yahweh] through all the earth.” (Exodus 9: 14-16)
The Eighth Plague—Locusts
“Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am Yahweh.” (Exodus 10: 1-2)
The Prophet Isaiah
This is what Isaiah said about Yahweh:
“Give thanks to Yahweh, declare His Name, make His acts known among the peoples; declare that His Name is exalted. Make music to Yahweh, for He has acted with grandeur; make this known throughout the world. Exult and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel is great in your midst!” (Isaiah 12: 4-6)
We are Supposed to Declare Yahweh’s Name
Yahweh made it clear. We are supposed to declare His Name to the world.
For more details, read His Name is Yahweh: Revised Edition.
You can purchase His Name is Yahweh: Revised Edition in paperback or in eBook by clicking here.
You can read His Name is Yahweh: Revised Edition in PDF format for free by clicking here.
See the website His Name is Yahweh by clicking here.
One Final Point
When I say that Elohim’s Name is Yahweh, I’m not guessing.
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“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17: 22-24)
