God did not leave us to guess who He is. When I read the passages about His Name, I see Him telling us who He is and then proving it through what He does.
What God Reveals Through His Name
In the Old Testament, God reveals His personal covenant Name, commonly represented by the four consonants YHWH. Many English Bibles, including the NKJV, print that Name as LORD in small caps. In this study, I will also use Jehovah, the long-received English rendering Unforsaken uses when discussing the covenant Name.
I think the meaning of God’s Name is far more important than a debate over pronunciation. The Name reveals that God is self-existent, eternal, faithful, merciful, holy, righteous, and near to His people by covenant. God did not give His Name as a religious charm, a sound we can use to control Him, or a badge for careless speech. He gave His Name so His people could know Him. We are meant to trust Him, worship Him, call on Him, and bear His Name in truth.
Several passages will keep our study anchored. Exodus 3 and Exodus 6 join the LORD’s Name to His self-existence and His memory of the covenant as He acts to save Israel. In Exodus 34, God proclaims that He is merciful and gracious, yet He also judges the guilty. Exodus 20, Isaiah 42, Malachi 1, Psalm 103, and Matthew 6 teach us to revere and hallow that Name. Then Joel 2, Acts 2, Romans 10, John 8, Philippians 2, and Revelation 19 show how salvation in the Name of the LORD and the divine identity of Jesus belong to the same biblical revelation. Reading these passages together keeps us from building our view around one word while ignoring the character, covenant, and saving work that Scripture joins to it.
When God called Moses from the burning bush, Moses asked what he should say if Israel asked for the Name of the God who sent him. God answered by revealing Himself as “I AM WHO I AM.” Then He joined that declaration to “the LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD 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 to all generations.'”
“I AM WHO I AM” tells us that God is not derived from something else. He is not dependent, developing, or created. He simply is. He exists from Himself, by Himself, and before all things. Yet God reveals this truth in a covenant setting. He is not an abstract force. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He came to deliver Israel according to His promise.
This is why His Name is both transcendent and near. The LORD is above creation, yet He stoops to redeem. He is eternal, yet He remembers His covenant. He is holy, yet He hears the groaning of His people. The Name tells us who He is, and His acts show us that His words are true. We know the Name rightly when we believe the God who bears it.
Knowing the Name Through Covenant and Character
Exodus 6 can confuse readers because Genesis uses the LORD’s Name long before Moses. The passage does not mean that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had never heard the Name. Israel was about to know that Name through covenant fulfillment in a deeper, lived way. God would deliver His people and judge Egypt. He would redeem Israel, bring them out, take them as His own, and lead them into the promised land.
And God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD I was not known to them.”
To know the Name is more than being able to pronounce its syllables. Israel would see what the LORD’s covenant Name meant in action. He would keep His promises, overthrow Egypt’s idols, redeem by blood at Passover, bring His people through the sea, give His law, and dwell among them in the tabernacle. God’s Name is never a bare label. It is bound to His revealed character and His works.
This connection between God’s Name and His character becomes even clearer after Israel sins with the golden calf. Moses pleads for God’s presence and asks to see His glory. God answers by proclaiming His Name, but the proclamation is not a lesson in pronunciation. It is a declaration of who He is.
Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty…”
The LORD’s Name reveals mercy and justice together. He is gracious and patient. He abounds in goodness and truth, and He forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. At the same time, He does not clear the guilty. We often create a false picture of God by holding on to one side and discarding the other. Scripture will not let us do that. The LORD is tender in mercy and perfect in holiness.
This is why reverence for the Name must include truth about God’s character. A person may say the right word while still dishonoring the Name by describing God falsely. His Name must be hallowed in what we teach, how we worship, what we say, and how we live.
Jehovah, YHWH, LORD, and YAH
The Hebrew text preserves the consonants of God’s covenant Name, which are often written in English as YHWH. The received Hebrew Masoretic tradition is the proper Old Testament base for Unforsaken’s language work. English Bibles commonly represent the Name as LORD in small caps, while the form Jehovah has been used for centuries in English theology, hymns, preaching, and study. That is why Unforsaken uses Jehovah as the long-received English rendering.
We should be honest about what we know without claiming more than Scripture gives us. Jehovah is an English form; using it does not mean that modern English pronunciation perfectly reproduces the ancient Hebrew sound. Yahweh is a scholarly reconstruction used by many people, but Unforsaken does not treat a reconstruction as superior to the received Hebrew textual tradition or to the established English use of Jehovah. Reverence is not proved by winning a pronunciation argument. We show reverence by honoring the God who revealed His Name.
Scripture also uses the shorter form YAH. Psalm 68:4 says, “Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Extol Him who rides on the clouds, By His name YAH, And rejoice before Him.” Many believers know that form through the word Hallelujah, which means “Praise YAH.” Whether we see LORD in an English Bible, YHWH in a study note, Jehovah in English teaching, or YAH in praise, these forms point to the same covenant Lord revealed in Scripture.
Several Old Testament passages join the LORD’s Name to a declaration about His work or character. These are sometimes called the compound Names of Jehovah. They are not separate gods, secret codes, or formulas we can use to force an outcome. Each one reveals something true about the one LORD in the setting where it appears.
I find these declarations most helpful when I keep them in their passages. The setting shows what God did, why His people named it, and what we may truthfully say about Him.
In Genesis 22:14, Jehovah-Jireh means “The LORD Will Provide,” after God provides the ram in Isaac’s place. Exodus 15:26 describes Jehovah-Rapha, “The LORD Who Heals,” as God teaches Israel to listen and walk in His ways. After God gives victory over Amalek, Exodus 17:15 calls Him Jehovah-Nissi, “The LORD Is My Banner.” In Judges 6:24, fearful Gideon calls an altar Jehovah-Shalom, “The LORD Is Peace,” after the LORD deals graciously with him.
Jeremiah 23:6 promises the righteous Branch and calls Him Jehovah-Tsidkenu, “The LORD Our Righteousness.” Ezekiel 48:35 closes the vision of restored presence with Jehovah-Shammah, “The LORD Is There.” We should not detach any of these declarations from their passages and turn them into slogans. The God who provides and heals is the same Lord who gives victory and peace. He is our righteousness, and His presence is the hope of His people.
Calling on the LORD and Confessing Jesus
The prophets promised salvation to those who call on the Name of the LORD. Joel 2:32 says, “And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.” Peter quotes that promise in Acts 2 while preaching the death, resurrection, exaltation, and lordship of Jesus. Paul quotes the same promise in Romans 10 as he explains what it means to confess Jesus as Lord.
That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved… For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
This is not a move away from Jehovah toward another god. It is the revelation that the salvation promised in the Name of the LORD is received through Jesus Christ. We come to the Father through the Son by the Spirit. Jesus physically bore the punishment for our sins in His innocent body through real torture, the shedding of His blood, and death. He was buried and rose bodily. Whoever believes in Him is saved.
The New Testament does not abandon the divine Name. It reveals the fullness of God’s identity in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In John 17, Jesus says to the Father, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world.” The Son reveals the Father perfectly. In John 8:58, Jesus says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” The reaction of His hearers shows that they understood the weight of His claim.
Philippians 2 says that every knee will bow at the Name of Jesus and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Paul is drawing from Isaiah 45, where the LORD declares that every knee will bow to Him. This does not erase the Father or make the Father and the Son the same Person. It glorifies the Father because the Son shares the divine honor due to the LORD.
When Christians confess that Jesus is Lord, we are not lowering the divine Name. We are honoring the eternal Son, fully God and fully man, through whom the Father is known and sinners are saved. Jesus receives the worship and divine titles that agree with the LORD passages He fulfills, and His lordship brings glory to His Father.
Jesus commands baptism “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” in Matthew 28:19. The wording gives us one Name and three Persons. Scripture reveals the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as God, while never confusing one Person with another. There is one God in three co-equal, co-eternal Persons.
I believe these guardrails are essential whenever we study the divine Name. We must not divide God into three gods. We must not collapse the Persons into one Person wearing different masks. Nor may we make the Son a creature or the Holy Spirit an impersonal force. The LORD is one, and the one LORD has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Bearing His Name With Reverence and Hope
God’s Name belongs to God. He says, “I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another” in Isaiah 42:8. Malachi 1:11 looks forward to the nations honoring Him: “From the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles.” Believers bless His Name, trust His Name, pray according to His Name, and live under His Name.
Psalm 103 begins, “Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name!” Proverbs 18:10 says that the Name of the LORD is a strong tower and the righteous run to it for safety. These passages do not teach a magical use of syllables. They call us to trust the God who has revealed Himself.
The third commandment warns, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain” (Exodus 20:7). Profanity is included, but the command reaches much further. To take the Name in vain is to carry, speak, invoke, or attach God’s Name to what is empty, false, hypocritical, or irreverent.
We misuse His Name when we swear falsely or claim that God said something He did not say. Using His authority to manipulate another person also treats His Name as empty. We can dishonor Him by worshiping with our mouths while our hearts are far away, and our conduct can profane His reputation before the nations. Ezekiel 36:20 says Israel did exactly that through their conduct and exile. Jesus teaches us to pray, “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name” (Matthew 6:9). To hallow His Name is to treat God as holy in every part of life.
Revelation gives this hope a beautiful ending. Jesus returns with names and titles that reveal His glory. His Name is called The Word of God, and on His robe and thigh is written KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. Yet He also has a Name that no one knows except Himself.
His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself.
The unknown Name does not contradict what God has revealed. It reminds me that even true revelation does not exhaust Him. The Lord has made Himself truly known, but we cannot reduce Him to our vocabulary. Eternity will never empty His glory.
Revelation also promises that Christ will write His new Name on the overcomer. Revelation 22:4 says His servants will see His face and His Name will be on their foreheads. I find that a beautiful picture of salvation ending in complete belonging, as God’s people bear His Name without shame, hypocrisy, or fear.
Until then, we hallow His Name by letting His revealed character govern how we speak about Him. We refuse to attach His authority to lies, manipulation, flippancy, or careless vows. We call on His Name in true faith because salvation is not found in a special pronunciation, family background, or law-keeping. Whoever confesses Jesus as Lord and believes that God raised Him from the dead will be saved.
We also bear His Name through holy conduct. Everyone who names the Name of Christ must depart from iniquity, because the world learns something about God from those who claim to belong to Him. And we worship with hope, knowing that His servants will see His face, love Him, praise Him, and belong to Him forever.
For further study, see The Name of God Jehovah, I AM WHO I AM, The Names of Jehovah, and The Trinity. The studies on The Word Logos and The Word of the LORD in the Old Testament also explain how the Son reveals the Father and why these passages must be handled carefully.
My Final Thoughts
God reveals His covenant Name so we can truly know Him as the self-existent, faithful, merciful, and holy LORD who keeps His promises and saves His people. The Name is not a charm or a pronunciation contest; it is God’s own revelation of His being, character, covenant faithfulness, and glory. So I want to hallow His Name, call on Him through Jesus Christ, and live as someone who belongs to Him while I wait for the day when His servants will see His face and His Name will be on their foreheads.