What does your name mean?

There’s a running joke in my family about why my brother was called Jadon. I’m the eldest in my family and was a bit of a nightmare baby, I didn’t sleep much and would constantly be waking my parents up crying. On a family holiday, my grandparents took me out for a walk in the buggy so that my mum could get some rest, but all she could hear was me screaming as my grandparents walked me around the caravan park.

It’s safe to say my mum didn’t get any rest!

Fast forward two years and my parents found out they were pregnant with my brother and after the experience they had with me they prayed that this baby would sleep better. To their relief Jadon turned out to be the perfect baby, he slept through the night rarely waking and even during the day would take long naps with little problems. My parents claim that this is why they called him Jadon because the name Jadon means “God has listened”.

Names in the Bible have always fascinated me because so often the name tells us something about that person. For example, the name “Abraham” means father of many or father of many nations, and the name “Moses” means to draw or pull out of water.

But what about God’s name?

In the Bible, God is given many different names but the one that became what identified Israel’s Gods from all the other gods at the time was “Yahweh”. We first come across this name for God when Moses is speaking with God at the burning bush and God tells Moses that his name is “I am who I am”. Therefore, Moses and many others later in the Bible used the name “Yahweh” to refer to God, meaning “He will be”.

Just like all the other names we’ve looked at so far, the name “Yahweh” reveals to us something about the name bearer, God. By calling himself “I am who I am” or by us calling God “Yahweh” we are describing how God is self-existent. He has always existed and always will. He does not depend on anyone or anything. He will be and has always been. God’s very name is a reminder to us that he alone is God.

But there’s one last thing that I think is worth noting about the name “Yahweh”, it is only used when it is referring to God’s personal relationship with His people. For example, in the case of Moses and the burning bush, God says that He has heard his people’s cries, and He is intervening to rescue them.

This means that not only does the name “Yahweh” tell us about God’s self-sufficiency but it also indicates God’s personal relationship with us. God doesn’t need us, but he wants a relationship with us.

Our God is a transcendent, magnificent God that we can only hope to try to understand but he is also a deeply personal God who already knows you so intimately but wants to be a part of your life.

What does God’s name, “Yahweh”, mean to you?