Monday, November 22, 2010

God's name is His character

“Those who know Your name will trust in You, for You, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek You.” Psalm 9:10
In Hebrew thought, a person’s name is much more than just a word that makes them distinguishable from another person. Rather, the name reflects the person’s character. This is why Noah was called Noah, meaning comfort (Gen. 5:28-29), why Isaac was called Isaac, meaning laughter (Gen. 21:26), and why God changed Jacob’s name from Jacob (deceiver) to Israel (prince of God) (Gen. 32:28). Of course, there are many more examples.
So when the Bible talks about knowing God’s name, what it means is that we know His character. The name of God, Jehovah (or Yahweh), means ‘the becoming One’. That is, whatever our situation, God becomes to us that which we need. When we are needy, He is Jehovah Jireh, the One who provides. When we are sick, He is Jehovah Rapha, the One who heals. When we are falling into sin, He is Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our righteousness.
We get to know someone’s character by spending time with them. When we spend enough time with God, we realise that He really will always be there for us. We may forsake Him, but He will never forsake us. We can completely trust Him to take care of us, because of this. It’s good to be reminded that God will never leave us nor forsake us (Deut. 31:8, Heb. 13:5).

2 comments:

  1. Well put and useful. would like to gleen from this to use as part of our Women's Retreat program

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