The Divine Name

The Divine Name in Isaiah 42

Please turn to Isaiah chapter 42. Going to pick back up where we left off in Isaiah. I'll read verses one through nine for context. Please stand when you have Isaiah chapter 42, which can be found on page 602 of the Pew Bible.

Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen and whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street.

A bruised reed he will not break and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law.

Thus says God the Lord who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it. I am the Lord.

I have called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and keep you. I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

I am the Lord. That is my name. My glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass and new things I now declare. Before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

Amen.

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for revealing to us your name. We ask that you would help us to understand this important truth as we consider Isaiah 42 verse eight. We ask that we would give glory to no other and we would give glory only to you.

Amen.

God Reveals Himself by Name

You may be familiar with the name of God. Appears differently in different Bibles and Bibles like the ESV, it just shows up as Lord in small caps. It's the first letter fully capitalized and the others small caps.

On some Bibles, it appears as Yahweh. Some Bibles, it's Jehovah. God has revealed to us who he is by his name. It's an important thing. It's a thing that many people realize as important and so they try to honor him in different ways.

You see some people who get tattoos of this name. In Hebrew, this is four consonant characters, Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh, they would get a tattoo. There's a neighbor very close to this church who has a car that has on the back of the car Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh, it's the name of God in Hebrew.

People recognize the importance of the name. At least that it is important, but what is the actual importance of the name? God has revealed who he is and we ought to acknowledge him as being holy, as being like no other.

His name reveals that he is indeed like no other. It says in this passage, I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory I do not give to another. He has chosen to reveal himself by this name. Think about how names are given.

One who is above another usually gives a name. Because God is over Adam, God named Adam. Because Adam is over Eve and the animals, he named Eve, he named the animals. Because parents are over their children, they named their children.

Yet there is no one above God, so there is no one to name God. God instead names himself. Similar to the fact that he swears by himself. There is nothing higher than himself, he explains. So therefore he swears by himself.

So there is nothing higher than himself, so he names himself. It's not just a given that God would give us a name to know him by. Perhaps he would simply say that I have no, I would not want you to call me by anything other than generic titles like God or Lord.

But instead he has given us this name and he has named himself, him being the highest and no one being above him. It is something worth considering as you see a trend of people naming themselves, especially trans people who would rename themselves.

What is that saying about who their God is, about who it is who gets to name them, about who is above them? It's really claiming an authority over your own self, an autonomy over your own self that you would give yourself your own name like that.

Before continuing, I would like to point out that I consider it somewhat providential that I'd be here in this passage at this time. Part of the reason that I've had guest preachers in the evening the past few weeks was to delay and hopefully study this passage much more.

Now I have studied this passage, but I would love to study the name of God much more deeply than I have. It is also interesting to note that at this time, one of my closest partners in ministry, Andrew Case, is revising his book on the divine name and he's making it twice as long.

That's something that I would like to read and have not had a chance to fully read even though I've read the first edition. So Lord willing in the future, hopefully I will have more to share with you about the name of God.

The Meaning of the Divine Name in Exodus 3 and Its Fulfillment in Jesus

But as we look at it just today, starting off with the wonder that he would even reveal himself to us by a name. What is the meaning of that name? Well you see in Exodus 3 .14, he says the following. Exodus 3 .14, God said to Moses, I am who I am.

And he said, say to this people of Israel, I am has sent me to you. He says this immediately after Moses had asked him. If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me what is his name, what shall I say to them?

So God answers Moses, I am who I am. This is the meaning of God's name. He is who he is. It is simply I am. This is why in the New Testament you see Jesus say multiple times, I am, claiming that divine name.

Now there are some people who would look at this, and because Hebrew does not distinguish very, apart from context, present tense and future tense, you could read this as I will be who I will be. And then this identity, the God's name, becomes about his capacity to meet any kind of need.

This is how the Jehovah's Witnesses even translate it. They're a group that is very, even obsessed with the name of God. They translate it, I will be whom I will be. Yet what you see Jesus say in the New Testament is not I will be, but simply I am.

This speaks to God's aseity. His aseity is his self-existence, that he is not reliant on anyone else. No one has created him, he simply is. And then from that speaks of his eternity, that he is forever, his immutability, that he does not change, his simplicity, that he's not composed parts, he simply is.

There's no composition to him, there's no origin to him, there's no changing to him, he simply is. In fact, to make this I will be whom I will be would suggest that he does change, which he does not. He is eternal.

Another similar question arises here about how, to whom has he made this name known? Has he made it known to all his people throughout the ages? Has he made himself known to the patriarchs, that is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

Many would say that he did not reveal himself to them. Exodus 6 .3 says, I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name, the Lord, in the ESV and other translations, Jehovah, Yahweh, I did not make myself known to them.

So looking at this passage, it sounds like he did not make himself known to them as Jehovah. He did not make himself known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as Jehovah. Yet, you look through those passages and you see that they refer to him as the Lord, all caps.

They refer to him as Jehovah. First time it's used is in Genesis 2 .4, in the context of Adam and Eve. The Bible, in speaking this way, is not speaking anachronistically, importing a word that had not been revealed and putting it on the lips of the people who did not know it.

Rather, it is speaking truthfully that these people knew God by that name. When he speaks in Exodus 6 .3 and says that they did not know him by that name, what he is referring to is not the consonants or the sounds that would make up his name that they did not know, but his nature as I am that I am, as a self-existent one who provides salvation because he is not dependent on anyone, but rather all are dependent on him, that they had not known him by that mighty salvation.

But as he comes to this people in Egypt who need deliverance from Egypt, they will know him by the meaning of that name. James Thornwell writes this. His Jehovah-ship is the pledge of the absolute fulfillment of all his promises.

He is all and therefore can be all to those who fear him. Notice this is one who thinks that the name means I am, I will be that I will be, but the point still stands. To those who fear him. Hence to call himself Jehovah is to proclaim the stability of his covenant and to pawn his very existence in proof that he will become and that from himself the satisfying portion of his saints.

It was this relation most precious and interesting of the absolute to us which the fathers had not yet fully apprehended. So him being the I am, being the one who is capable of meeting every need because he is dependent on no one, but all are dependent on him, he makes this character as savior known to them, particularly in the exodus, though the patriarchs did not know his salvation in such magnificent ways.

The Divine Name Is Incommunicable but Not Ineffable

Now in addition, this name is incommunicable. That means it cannot be shared with others. As he says in this passage, Isaiah 42, eight, I am the Lord, that is my name, my glory, I do not give to another.

His name is not one that is being given to another. This is not something that you could name your child. You might name your child after great men. You might even name your child Joshua, which is the Hebrew form of the name Jesus, but you cannot name someone Yahweh.

You cannot name someone Jehovah. There is only one who can bear that name because he is the only one who is self-existent. It is not a name that honors God and pointing to someone's God. Rather, it is a name that designates God himself.

You know, other names often talk about God being savior, et cetera, they speak in third person of God, being savior or being my God or being my comforter, et cetera, but this name speaks of him as he is.

While it is a name that is incommunicable, it is not a name that is ineffable. So a name that is ineffable is a name that could not be said. It is a name that can be said, it may be said. Even though you have translations like the ESV that put it in small caps, it is a name that can be said.

That comes from the tradition in the Septuagint where later editions of the Greek translation of the Old Testament just used the word Lord rather than the divine name in order to speak of him. You see different translations translating Yahweh or Jehovah.

It is a name he has given us. If it's a name he has given us, it's a name that we can use. To quote Calvin, he says, "'It is certainly a foul superstition of the Jews "'that they dare not speak or write it, "'but substitute the name Adonai.

"'Nor do I any more approve of their teaching "'who say that it is ineffable "'because it is not written according to grammatical rule.'". There are things about the vowels that are contrary to what you would typically expect of how a name would work.

"'Nor do I agree with the Grammarians "'who would not have it be pronounced "'because its inflection is irregular "'because its etymology, "'of which all confess that God is the author, "'is more to me than a hundred rules.'".

So in other words, because God has given it to us, it is for us to use. So now at this point, it's very common to ask, well, how ought you to pronounce the name? I will not give you a firm 100 answer, but I will tell you my own suspicions.

I believe Jehovah is a roughly accurate way of pronouncing the name. Now, the common theory about this is that you take the consonants of God's name and then you add the vowels for Adonai because early versions of Hebrew were written just with the consonants.

Later versions, you take the vowels of Adonai and you put them in there and you would end up with Jehovah. So many people understand this to be simply something that evolves over time that later you take those letters and you throw on some vowels.

However, if that is the case, why do you see that name reflected with its vowels in so many different names in the Old Testament? So many different names in the Old Testament honoring God have that name Jehovah built into them with the vowel sounds.

For example, Jehoiada, Jehoadan, Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jehoiakin, Jehoiada, Jehoiakim, Jehoiarib, Jehonadab, Jehoram, Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshiba. These names really wouldn't make sense unless the vowels actually had some kind of meaning in the name itself.

So my suspicion is that Jehovah actually is an accurate way. And by accurate, I'm not necessarily referring to how you pronounce each one of the consonants. I understand that ya would be a more accurate way of saying the J sound.

That's how you say it in older versions of English or some of our Swedish folk here might say the J that way. But that as far as the intention of the name or as far as the letters would go that this is roughly accurate way.

And then the irregular pointing that people would complain about and say that therefore it must be just some imposition that later happened. You see that irregular pointing even on many of these names that bear the name Jehovah within them.

Jehonathan, Jehoiada, Jehoshaphat all have those irregular markings. Consider also this, 2 Kings 23, 34. And Pharaoh Neko made Eliakim the son of Josiah, king in the place of Josiah his father and changed his name to Jehoiakim.

So Eliakim or Eliakim, what is it? Eli, like Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani, my God, my God. Eli means my God. And what is Jehoi or Jehoi, what does that mean? My Jehovah, my Jehovah. We have this right here, Pharaoh Neko, changing Eliakim to Jehoiakim, changing from my God to my Jehovah.

Jesus Reveals the Divine Name and Bears the Name Above All Names

Now, all of this is significant when we see in the New Testament, Jesus giving us his name as well. He has been given the name above all names. He has been given the name, while the name Jesus itself, those consonants or those sounds are not necessarily what the Bible is referring to when they speak of him being given the name above all names because other people have borne the same name.

Rather, speaking of something, speaking of a title of him as Lord, as the son of God, having been declared as such through the resurrection. Yet, he has chosen to reveal himself, to reveal the Father to us in taking on flesh, taking on humanity, being human, bearing a name as a human would bear.

It is a wonderful thing that Jesus has revealed himself to us even with a human name like Jesus. Now, none of this should cause us to embrace the superstition that many people have, including oneness Pentecostals, where they would say that the name Jesus, that even other people bear, has some kind of superpowers.

Acts 4 .12 says, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. People will take that and then say the name Jesus as though it's a magic talisman that will produce, it's an incantation that will produce miraculous things.

It is not the sounds of the word itself. It is rather his title, his position that is the name above all names. Yet, it is still a wonderful thing that he has revealed himself to us even with a name. Now, not only that, you see his relation to the divine name itself in the New Testament.

First of all, there is the wonderful providence that even at this time, they had ceased using the divine name. Now, this is something where, when you look at this in the New Testament and you see that they're no longer using the divine name, and all the faithful are even tolerating this, you ask yourself, why would that be?

Why would God permit his name to no longer be in use during that particular era? Well, is it not a wonderful providence that they would simply speak of God as Lord and then likewise speak of Christ as Lord?

It is something to hint to you frequently that Jesus himself is God. And you would not have that if they had maintained the divine name. If they had maintained the divine name, spoken of the Father as Yahweh, spoken of the Father as Jehovah, and then spoken of the Son as Lord, you would see, you would not have that wonderful demonstration that he is himself God.

But, in referring to both the Father as Lord and the Son as Lord, because God in his providence permitted the name to go out of use, you see that they are both God, both the Father and the Son share the one divine being.

It's a wonderful providence. Moreover, Jesus speaks of himself this way in Revelation 1 .8, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord, which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty.

How does he describe himself? He describes himself as one who is unchanging, as one who is what he is. I am who I am. And then he says, before Abraham was, I am. He says this several times. In many translations, you'll say it, say I am he.

Some translations will italicize it to let you know that the word he is not actually there. It is just I am. And why would Jesus say I am when it doesn't make so much grammatical sense? It's because he is claiming the divine name for himself.

John 18, verse three says, so Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. This band of soldiers, this is a Roman cohort, which could have as many as 800 at that time.

It typically was 800 in the first century. If you're imagining a small set of 10 soldiers or whatever, Jesus was often surrounded by many disciples, hundreds of disciples. The Romans, in preparing themselves for that, are not going to send a dozen soldiers.

They send hundreds of soldiers. So imagine hundreds of soldiers surrounding Jesus' small band of disciples because he did not have hundreds of disciples around him, but the Romans, having prepared for that, are bringing hundreds, okay?

So imagine the scene, small number of disciples, many Roman soldiers, hundreds surrounding him. Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, whom do you seek? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus said to them, and I'll read this the way it's actually written, I am. Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, I am, they drew back and fell to the ground. So he asked them again, whom do you seek?

And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I told you that I am. So if you seek me, let these men go. Jesus, in saying I am, causes hundreds of soldiers to fall to their knees. This is not just a, oh yes, that's me, here I am.

No, when he said, when they said, they answered to him, Jesus of Nazareth, and he just says, I am, not even I am he, but I am. He's claiming the divine name. When he utters that, they all fall down and bow.

You talk to a Jehovah's Witness about this, someone who cares much about the divine name, but denies it to Jesus Christ, they will say that, oh, well, you know, they were just really impressed with the power in his voice and the way he said it.

Hundreds of soldiers are not going to fall to their knees at one man saying I am, unless there were some real power behind that claim. He is God Almighty. He is the I am, he is Jehovah. What ought you to do with this information?

You ought to uphold the third commandment, to not take the Lord's name in vain. This is done both negatively and positively. Negatively, you do not speak the name of God in a way that dishonors him. Not just talking about saying OMG.

Any kind of mockery, any kind of coarse jesting or joking about God, it's all inappropriate. You know, there are billboards that'll say things and then, you know, put a little dash and then God at the end of it.

And that sort of thing, putting words in the mouth of God, totally inappropriate. People will do this also in a devotional, kind of a therapeutic devotional way that where they'll put words into God's mouth and then say God at the end of it.

Or they'll speak of God loosely. To uphold God's name is to speak of him only in those ways that would truly honor him. And then yes, you should likewise, in addition to negatively not speaking ill of him, you should speak truly of him.

You should even use his name. Speak of him as Jehovah. Speak of him as Yahweh if you are so inclined. These are good ways of speaking about the Lord. This is a good trend in Bible translation, I think, that more are using an actual name there rather than just small caps Lord.

I'm not so opposed to it because Jesus himself used a translation of Scripture that simply said Lord. Jesus himself used the Septuagint which simply said Lord, not Jehovah. So I'm not saying that it would be totally improper to do that as we do here.

But I'm saying I think it is a good trend to speak God's name. It is given to us to know him by and it is providential that during the time of Jesus, he was not spoken of by that name in order that you would see that Jesus Christ is Lord, Jesus Christ is Yahweh.

God's Glory, His People, and the Name of Christ

Now it is a wonderful thing what is said here in Isaiah 42 verse eight. My glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. How might this happen? This might happen by other gods receiving credit for the things that God has done.

Idols being named after God. This is what you see of the golden calf. That's not supposed to be some other God. That's supposed to be Jehovah. It's named Jehovah in the Bible. So are the golden calves that Jeroboam had.

God does not give his glory to another. He saves his glory for himself so that only he will be glorified. And yet, and yet through Jesus Christ, it is said that he shares his glory with us. It says that this unshareable glory is in a sense shared.

Now mankind will never be acknowledged as creator. Creature will never be creator. And yet at the same time, Bible says that we will be glorified with Jesus Christ if we suffer with him. Jesus says in John 17 that he longs for the Father to glorify him with the same glory that he had with him before the world began.

This is that divine glory. And Jesus in taking on human nature, dignifies human nature in such a way that there is some secondary sense in which we may enjoy the very nature of God. This is how Scripture speaks of us enjoying the divine nature.

Once again, creature will never become creator. Yet there is something so profound about the way that God blesses us with himself that it speaks of it in this way, his glory. But then it also speaks this way of his name, this name that he does not share with another.

Isaiah 43, seven, just the next chapter. He speaks of everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. Who is that that gets to be called by his name? His people are called by his name.

This name that he does not share with another, we are called by his name. Now, no one is going to call me Jehovah, but we are called by the name of God and that he has chosen to put his mark on his people so that his own reputation stands or falls with his church.

And so his church will prevail all the way to the end in order that his name would prevail all the way to the end. And as it says in Acts 11, 26, it is at this place that the disciples were first called Christians.

What a marvel that is to bear the name of Christ, the Christ, the Messiah. We bear his name likewise, we being called Christians. God's name is only for himself. His glory is only for himself. But through the incarnation, through Jesus Christ, becoming man, through us being grafted into him, we may have a union with the Father.

We may have a communion with him so that we may enjoy the blessings of being united with one who bears the divine name, who bears divine glory. And we may enjoy this for all eternity through the blessings of Jesus Christ, who has offered his life for us and been raised for our justification, amen.

Dear only Father, we thank you for this wonderful truth and we ask that you would help us to know it rightly, that though your name is incommunicable, though it cannot be shared, there is a sense in which we are able to enjoy it having been marked, having been called by your name.

We thank you for this and we thank you for Jesus Christ, the one through whom this is possible. We ask that you would turn our eyes toward him, that we would abandon all worldly ways and follow after him in a wholehearted obedience, knowing that he has forgiven every sin of those who turn to him.

In Jesus' name, amen.