I protect you and set you on high because you know My Name. Psalm 91:14.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Do you know My Name? Most people think they do, but they really do not. I mean My forever Name. The Name that I revealed to Moses when he knew that just to say “God” was not enough to identify Me as unique because My people were living in a nation that did not know Me and they had many “gods” and their “gods” had names. There is no God but Me and certainly no living God but Me, I know of no other and I know everything and made everything. I am the Most High, the Almighty and the everlasting Rock, but I have a very specific Name that those in covenant with Me know. And I have given the whole family of believers, whether in Heaven or on earth, My Name.
And today we begin a new series and it is all about My Name because by My Name I reveal to you who I AM and what I do for you. I protect you and set you on high (inaccessibly high) because you know My Name. Psalm 91:14. My Name is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10. All who call on My Name are saved. Romans 10:13. So this series is called, “Because you know My Name.” And today’s lesson is called, “יהוה, LORD, I AM, I was and I AM to come.”
To really know My Name, My very core, the Name from which all My other descriptive names shine forth from and are generated in, you must see it in Hebrew. Because in Hebrew it is only four letters that contain the power and the depth of the meaning of My Name, which is a mystery that keeps revealing more through the ages, but in any other language it would take many pages filled with words and pictures to describe what it means. But in Hebrew each letter is from a pictogram (picture), is a number, and contains a volume of meanings.
When I revealed Myself to Moses, he wanted to know My personal Name. No one had ever asked this before. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as the Almighty (Shaddai) and Elyon (the Most High), which are descriptive nouns about who I am to you, but by My name, יהוה, I did not make Myself known to them.
Moses had not known Me in his growing up years, but he had heard of Me and he knew of his ancestry as a Hebrew, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but My people had become like the secular society they lived in and had turned their attention to other gods, matters and cares. Once they were in bondage, however, they began to remember a better day when I had been the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and they cried out to Me. And then I had the authority to intervene and, once they gave Me that, down I came to offer deliverance.
When I first revealed Myself to Moses in the burning bush on Mt. Horeb (Sinai), I identified Myself by telling him, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at Me. Exodus 3:6. When he got to know Me, however, all he wanted to do was gaze at Me and see My glory.
I told Moses, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the oppression of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.” Exodus 3:7-9. I am on your side. If you are experiencing a place of oppression and affliction, just call on Me. But just like I told Moses and as I kept revealing to him all along the journey out of Egypt, I will involve you in the working out of the solution. I can only bring about the good result if you will partner with Me by letting Me use your dominion authority to work on the earth. I gave mankind the authority over the earth for the term of your leasehold interest and I can only come in to intervene in the affairs of men if someone prays and opens the way for Me. But I need someone to go for Me with whom I can work. To whom I give the right to use My Name.
So, I told Moses to go therefore and take care of it with Me, “Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to Me, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” And My reply to him is the same as I reply to you, “Certainly I will be with you.” Exodus 3:10-11.
But Moses needed more information. He wanted to know My Name so he could identify Me as who I AM and not mix Me in with the many so-called “gods” of Egypt. So I gave Him My Name. And this was the greatest revelation of his life, for knowing Me by Name opened up My authority to him. As it does to you. And there is another Name hidden deep in My bosom that I have now revealed and given among men, and there is no other name by which you must be saved. But that Name is contained in and explains My Name. Jesus told you that I have given Him My Name and He kept you in it. I am your Salvation. In Jesus, My Name is explained and manifested in its workings. The healing rays from the Sun of righteousness all emanate out of My Name.
Then Moses said to Me, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” Moses trembled as he heard My unexpected answer, “I AM WHO I AM”; (אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה) and I said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Exodus 3:14. This is the essence of My Name, I AM and always will be. I AM life, I always existed and will always exist, and all life originates and flows from within the Great I AM. I am present as your Helper. Jesus also identified Himself this way to the Jewish leaders: “Amen, amen I tell you, before Abraham was, I AM!”
But there was more, so then I continued on with Moses and revealed the great Name that resounded throughout the spiritual realm and material world and has not stopped once the sound of it was released, I answered Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD (יהוה), the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name from generation to generation. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt. So I said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ Exodus 3:15-17. And when he went to the people, they believed Moses, and when they heard that I, the LORD was concerned about the sons of Israel and that I had seen their affliction, then they bowed low and worshiped. Exodus 4:31.
And I spoke further to Moses, saying, “Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, 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 [or My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, 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 possession; I am the LORD.’” Exodus 6:6-8.
And once they knew My Name and called upon Me, everything else followed in one mighty work after the other until they arrived at the land I had promised to the descendants of Abraham. Why? Covenant. I had given them My Name, espoused them to Me in faithfulness and truth forever. And so it is with you today in Jesus.
And what does LORD (יהוה) mean? You translate it as LORD, all in capital letters, but in Hebrew it is far different and if you do not see it in Hebrew, you will not understand. In Hebrew, it is three tenses, past, present and future, of the verb “to be” (להיות). It is a combination of haya (הָיָה), hoveh (הֹוֶּה), and yih’yeh (יְהיה). And I affirm this is correct in the book of Revelation, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the LORD God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8. And that would have been related to John in Hebrew, for even the apostle Paul told King Agrippa that when he had the vision of Jesus he heard Him speaking in Hebrew, Acts 26:14. So it should read, I AM the Aleph and the Tav (the first and last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, signifying My Word, that is, את), יהוה , and Shaddai (שַׁדַּי). But there you see the meaning defined of YHWH: “who is, who was and who is to come.”
But there is even more if you consider the pictograms of the letters and the numbers of the letters. The first letter is “yod” which is pictured as a hand, My hand of power, but in Hebrew, the name of the letter and the word for “hand” are the same. So you see a hand as the first letter of My covenant Name. The second letter is hei, which means “grace” and it is depicted as a man with arms raised in wonder at the revelation from heaven or as a window (thus the unclosed side of the letter) opened to pour down grace from heaven, and the next letter is a “vav” which has a pictogram of a large nail or peg type nail, and then there is another “hei” meaning grace. So you have the hand, grace, a nail, and grace. The nailed hands of Jesus, that were pierced for your offenses, opened the windows of heaven to pour down grace upon grace.
And with respect to numbers, the yod is the number 10, hei is the number 5, and vav is the number 6. So you have a yod, 10, hei, 5, vav 6, and hei, 5, to total the number 26 and if you add that you get the number 8 which signifies new beginnings, since 7 is completion of the week, and Jesus rose on the first day of the week, number 8. And you have a new beginning in Him.
Just as an aside also, the letter yod is used as the number 10 and yod means hand. The tithe is one tenth of the work of your hands. Do you see why I wrote the Old Testament in Hebrew? You would know Me better if you learned about the Hebrew letters.
And to My Name I continually added adjectives describing who I am, was, and will be to you. The LORD your healer, the LORD your victory, the LORD who sees ahead and provides for you, the LORD your righteousness, the LORD your Shepherd, the LORD your refuge, the LORD your holiness, the LORD your redeemer, the LORD your deliverer, and many such other magnificent promises. My promises are tied to My Name. And why is that? Why do I say YHWH your healer? Because they are covenant promises, healing is the children’s bread, i.e., for those in covenant with Me, and they are executed in, sworn to, and established by My covenant Name. David understood covenant, and he sang, “I will bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your Name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your Word according to all Your name.” Psalm 138:2. ALL My Name, the LORD your healer, the LORD your Shepherd, the LORD your peace, the LORD your righteousness, the LORD your provider, and so on. Each of My promises is a covenant with you signed in My Name. And Jesus is the core expression, the very heart, of My Name. With long life I will satisfy you and I will show you My Yeshuah, Salvation, Jesus. All My promises find fulfillment in Salvation. Out of YHWH comes Salvation.
I say I swore by Myself when I established covenant with Abraham, that means I swore by My Name. And so I do with you.
I call you each by name. Do you do so with Me? And there is only one Name Jesus told you to use when addressing Me: Father (Abba).
I love you. I AM who I AM. I AM, I was and I am to come. Isn’t that good to know? I have your past covered to take away all your sins, I have your present covered to turn it into a garden of Eden by the BLESSING, and I have your future covered here in this life and for an eternity in My glorious Kingdom. And all that in the four sacred letters of My Name: יהוה
Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped the waters in His garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name or His son’s name? Surely you know! Proverbs 30:4.