From a philosophy perspective, the name is simply stunning. You see, in human existence all things are contingent. All things are cause and effect. Something causes this effect which causes in turn that effect and so on. Science likes to trace the origins of the planet and its life to the Big Bang, but no one can go any farther back because something had to cause the Big Bang. We know that for every effect there must be a cause. But to avoid infinite regression, there must, at some point, be an existence that is not an effect, an uncaused cause, an unmoved mover -- a self-existent being that has no dependencies, no contingencies. God's primary name, YHWH, is the claim that He alone is that singular Being.
It is the same name that Jesus claimed and almost got murdered on the spot for it.
So the Jews said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple (John 8:57-59).Jockey all you want, but both in the Greek grammar and in the response of the Jews it's quite clear that Jesus claimed, just as God did with Moses, to be YHWH, the Self-existent One.
His completely unique name and trait of self-existence has large ramifications. One is the complete lack of dependency. We tend to think that God needs ... something. He needs our obedience. He needs our praise. He needs His people. None of it is true. He surely wants all that, but there is no lack in God, no dependency on anything or anyone but Himself. He is self-existent. Another is the fact of His self-centeredness. I know, I know, that sounds bad, but it is only logical and, in fact, absolutely mandatory. Since He alone is YHWH, the Self-Existent One, He is indeed the true center of the universe. His first allegiance, logically and morally, is to Himself. We like to think that it is we who are the important ones, but it is not so. God is. We rank under Him. As the Self-Existent One, He is the one of supreme importance and value and any time we impugn that, we diminish His Godhood. On the other side of the coin, since He is self-existent, there are no contingencies for Him. That means that He does whatever He wants. He lifts up and lays low, brings about and prevents from happening, enriches and impoverishes, all without interference. He doesn't wring His hands, hoping that His people will do the right thing and get it done. He doesn't depend on us. In Job we read, "Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to Him if you make your ways blameless?" (Job 22:3). That might surprise you. I mean, "Of course God is pleased if I do what's right!" Yes, but I have not added pleasure to God by doing so. He has no contingencies, no lack of pleasure that He needs or would have had if I had done the right thing.
"Jehovah" -- YHWH -- is the singular name of God. Other names are tied to it. Other terms are linked with it. It is, however, at the root of God's name and, more importantly, the root of His existence. It is a much bigger name than we often realize. It speaks of His uniqueness, His self-existence, His sovereignty, His independence, His omnipotence ... and on and on. It's a really, really big name ... built out of 4 little letters.
3 comments:
Excellent post. Indeed my favorite name of God. In philosophy, the alternative to this is Descartes's "I think, therefore I am". Even though that was the bedrock of most modern philosophies, Wittgenstein mocked it, saying, "That's a hell of a place to start!" Indeed, the self is the most unstable thing in the universe; not good bedrock, yet it's the foundation of existential philosophy. Instead, Wittgenstein replied that "the only I-think-therefore-I-am is if God says it." Some years after reading that, we were studying Exodus 3 in BSF where God reveals His personal name. Having never read that passage before, I thought my head would explode. There was the answer to all philosophy...and of course everything. YHWH is a God that made man, not a man-made god.
I like Jim, when I first read this in Exodus, thought it made perfect sense. It completed for me every loose end.
On the self-centeredness of God, we see that as a bad thing becuase we have brought God down and think he is bound by all that binds us. I always like to use the phrase, in lieu of self-centeredness, "living at the center of the universe". It is from this perspective that we measure and determine all that is right, wrong, good, evil, ugly, and beautiful from our own selves. I think this is pretty common, I catch myself doing it. Amazingly however, some go so far as subjecting God to these self-centered judgements, and after finding him lacking, lay claim to "new" truths, although there's nothing new about them. Then worse they make claims that these new truths are the result of "new leadings" from the very God they have judged as morally inadaquate to be God.
Interestingly, the "big two" in the questions that have stumped philosophers over the centuries were these: 1) Why is there anything? and 2) How does anything move? It is quite clear on the first one that all causes must have an effect, that everything we know in this universe is an effect, and, therefore, there must be an uncaused cause. We also know, from the Law of Inertia and elsewhere, that a body remains in a state of rest or uniform motion unless it is acted upon by an external unbalanced force. So ... how did anything come to be, and how did anything move?
God answers those questions right here. "I AM." The Uncaused Cause, the Unmoved Mover, the one-and-only Self-Sufficient One.
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