How much respect do we show for God? When Jewish scribes were copying the Scriptures and came to the name of God (‘Jehovah’, or ‘Yahweh’ – translated ‘LORD’ in our English Bibles), they would take a bath, put on clean clothes, throw the pen they were using away, get a brand new one, and then write the name. Only they wouldn’t write the name – they considered the name of God to be too holy to write or to utter. So they would just write the consonants: YHWH.
Nowadays you hear people talking about God as ‘the man upstairs’, ‘the big guy’, and so on. God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and has complete control over our lives and everything that goes on in the entire universe. While it is true that Jesus calls His disciples ‘friends’ (John 15:15), this is His prerogative, and it doesn’t give us the right to call Him our ‘buddy’. The King of heaven and the universe, calling us miserable and pathetic humans His friends? How amazing is that!
The Jewish attitude towards the name of God does give us something to think about, although one can easily see how their actions could become a meaningless ritual. We should instead adopt their heart attitude towards the name of God and His Person – recognising just Who He is and giving Him the respect He deserves.
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