TITLES OF GOD: JEHOVAH
DR. JIM DIXON
EXODUS 3:13-15
AUGUST 20, 1989
It was January 1947 and in the Judean desert northwest of the Dead Sea, a Bedouin boy named Mohammed Ahmed Ahamed, sometimes called Mohammed Adi was playing with two of his friends near the cliffs of Kerbatt Kumran. It was there that this Bedouin boy saw a mysterious cave, the cave that went deep into the earth, a cave that was deep and dark. This boy took a stone, and he threw it into the cave, wanting to see how long it took to hit the bottom. When the stone hit, the boy heard the sound of pottery breaking and he realized that something was down there. Gradually he made his way down into the cave. He did not know that no one had entered that cave in 1900 years, almost two millennia. Down at the bottom of the cave, in the midst of the broken pottery, he found a leather scroll with ancient Hebrew written upon it. It was the beginning of one of the greatest discoveries in archeological history, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Today, archeologists have found in that cave, and in caves nearby, tens of thousands of scroll fragment, 800 complete manuscripts. They have found manuscripts of every book in the Old Testament, with the exception of Esther, manuscripts dating from 200 years before Christ. You see, prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the earliest manuscripts we had of the Old Testament books were from 800 years after Christ. Scoffers mocked the Bible. They said the Bible can’t possibly be reliable because the manuscripts aren’t old enough. But, you see, suddenly with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we had manuscripts 1,000 years older, and scholars couldn’t wait to compare these new manuscripts with the manuscripts we already had. They were amazed to find that these new manuscripts from 200 years before Christ were exactly the same word for word as the manuscripts we already had. Exactly the same, word for word, as the Bibles we already possessed.
You see, God wants you to understand this book is reliable. He wants you to understand this book is trustworthy. God inspired the pages of holy scripture by his Holy Spirit. He has guarded and protected scripture through the ages. The Bible is the word of God and there is no book, no book more important for you, no book more important for your life. The Bible reveals the nature of God. The Bible reveals the plan of God, and the Bible reveals the very title of God.
Now in the Bible, the title of God or the title of God that is in the Bible is oftentimes called the “tetragrammaton,” a word, which literally means four letters because the word for God in the Bible contains four letters, four consonants. The Tetragrammaton.
A long time ago when biblical scribes were copying the Bible and they came to the Tetragrammaton, when they came to the name of God, when they came to these four letters, they were afraid to write them. And these scribes would go, and they would take a bath and clean themselves and they’d put on new clothes, and then they’d come back, and they would write the Tetragrammaton. They would write those four letters. They would write the name of God. Well, if they came to a page that contained the name of God many times, they took a lot of baths and changed a lot of clothes. And of course, it came to be that some of the Jewish people began to be afraid to speak the Tetragrammaton. They began to be afraid to speak the name of God. And so, they took the Hebrew word “Adonai,” which means “the Lord” or “my Lord,” and they substituted it for the Tetragrammaton.
What is the Tetragrammaton? What is the name of God? What are these four letters? These four consonants? Well, if we transliterate the Hebrew to the English, these four letters are either JHVH or YHWH. Now, the ancient Hebrew had no vows. And so biblical scholars have wondered, “Well, how are we supposed to pronounce this divine name?” And most biblical scholars agree that it should be pronounced Yahweh. But, you see, many of the ancient Hebrews took the vows from Adonai and they applied those vows to the Tetragrammaton, and they came out with the name Jehovah, and to this day, some biblical scholars insist that the proper pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, the proper pronunciation of the name of God is Jehovah, but it doesn’t really matter. I mean, it doesn’t matter whether you say “Jehovah” or “Yahweh.” We sing “Guide Me Oh Thy Great Jehovah.” We sang that today. We also sang today, “Yahweh, I know you are near standing always at my side.” And you see the issue isn’t how we pronounce the name of God. The issue is what does this name really mean? What does the Tetragrammaton mean? What does the name Jehovah mean?
Well, we know that Jehovah comes from the old ancient Hebrew verb, “hiyah,” which is the word “to be.” We know that Jehovah literally means “I am.” We know that God spoke to Moses and God gave some sort of explanation of his name when he said, “I am who I am,” sometimes rendered “I am that I am,” or “I will be who I will be” or even “I am He who is.” But all of this sounds rather confusing, so this morning I’m going to clear it up for everybody. If you know some biblical scholars, you might want to send them this tape.
There are really two primary understandings of the name Jehovah, two primary understandings of the Tetragrammaton. First, there are those people who take this word in the causative sense. They take the verb to be in the causative sense. I cause to be. The name of God, I cause to be what I cause to be. I am He who causes to be. Jehovah then, becomes above all else a reference to the creative power of God. I am Jehovah. I am the creator. He who causes to be.
The latter portion of the 19th century there lived a woman whose name was Jenny. Jenny loved beautiful things. Jenny hated ugly things. The problem was Jenny was married to Robert and it wasn’t so much that Robert was ugly. The problem was that Robert created a lot of ugliness because Robert was a producer of cement. He used to produce what was called and what still is called Portland cement. Portland cement was originally produced in Britain, but Robert was a pioneer, producer or manufacturer of Portland cement in Canada. Robert and Jenny were very wealthy because they had made a lot of money producing cement and they lived on a great estate of 150 acres in Canada. The problem was that there was a portion, a 10-acre portion of that estate that was ugly because Robert had been there. He had dug there. There was an old limestone quarry which Robert had used in the making of cement, an old limestone ditch 10 acres wide. And whenever Jenny would go out on that portion of the estate and she would see that ugly limestone quarry, she would literally grieve inside.
Well, you see, she decided that she was going to plant flowers there to try to change it into something beautiful, and so she planted flowers in that old limestone quarry. Because Robert and Jenny were very wealthy and they traveled the world, Jenny brought flowers from all over the world back to that limestone quarry, and she made an incredible garden there. And today that garden is called the Butchart Garden, one of the most famous, one of the most beautiful gardens in all of the world named after Robert and Jenny Butchart.
You see, she had taken something ugly, and she made it beautiful and that’s what God would have each and every one of us to do. But you see, if you go to the Butchart Gardens near Victoria on Vancouver Island and British Columbia as I did two weeks ago, and you read the literature, the literature claims that Jenny Bouchard created the Butchart Gardens, it says that over and over again she created the Butchart Gardens. But you see, biblically speaking, that’s not true. Only God in the purest biblical sin is able to create because the creative power of God is expressed through the Hebrew word “bahrah” and “bahrah” means “to create from nothing,” creation “ex nihilo,” creation out of nothing. So, Jenny Butchart may have formed a garden and she may have planted a garden and watered a garden, but in the pure sense, she didn’t create a garden. The only garden truly created was Eden, and Eden was created by God “ex nihilo,” “out of nothing.”
It’s interesting that even today there are scientists and there are scholars who are searching for the Garden of Eden. They want to know where it was. Of course, the surface of the earth has radically changed through the passing of the millennium through thousands and thousands of years through volcanic eruptions and through great earthquakes and the shifting of continental plates and great land masses that were once close together are now far apart, but the Bible tells us that the Garden of Eden was where four rivers came together and the Bible names those four rivers, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Gihon and the Pishon. Well, the Tigris and the Euphrates still exist, and they flow into the Persian Gulf, but the Pishon and the Gihon are not to be found. And yet archeologists have recently discovered two dry riverbeds, thousands of years old where two massive rivers once flowed to meet the Tigris and the Euphrates. The unfortunate thing is that where these four rivers met, it is now covered by the Persian Gulf. It’s all underwater, but it really doesn’t matter.
You see, it doesn’t matter whether we’re able to find the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was simply a manifestation of the creative power of God, and we have the creative power of God manifested all about us. Even now you can look into the stars at night, and you see Jehovah, he who causes to be. You see the creative power of God. We can look into great telescopes, and we can see the vastness of the universe and you can see galaxies millions of light years away and you see the creative power of Jehovah He who causes to be. And you can look into powerful microscopes, and you can see the vastness of the universe. You can see galaxies, millions of light years away, and you can see the creative power of Jehovah, He who causes to be. You can look into powerful microscopes, and you can see the vastness of the microcosm and the whole of inner space, and again, you see the creative power of Jehovah who causes to be, and what does all this mean to you? What does any of this mean to you?
If you really believe that God is Jehovah, if you really believe he is the creator, if you really believe you are the creation, you will worship him in awe and majesty. You’ll say with the Psalmist, “Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Thy name in all the earth.”
This isn’t all that the Jehovah title of God means to us. The fact that He is Creator means more to us because He continues to create. He still “causes to be.” The Bible says He wants to cause to be a new nature in you. He wants to create in you a new nature. He wants to make you a new creation. That’s what the Bible says. Because He is Jehovah who cause us to be, He wants us to understand that the old nature is flawed. We are fallen; we were all generated by God, but degeneration has taken place because of sin, and we are all degenerate and we need to be regenerated by Jehovah, He who causes to be. He wants to make us a new creation and He wants to create in a new nature.
Last weekend I went to San Diego to perform the wedding of one of my nieces. As Barb and I were coming home on Continental Airlines, I was reading the Continental Flight Magazine. There was a story there about a woman named Susan Rose. Susan Rose apparently was sitting in a restaurant bar, and she was just doodling on a napkin. She was doodling cartoon faces and she made this one face, only 15 lines, just a cartoon face, a simple cartoon face. A triangular shaped head and eight strands of hair just rising from the top of the head. And she looked at this little cartoon face that she’d just drawn on this napkin and she really liked it and so she took it, and she showed the cartoon face to one of her friends, a woman named Joanna Ferrone, and her friend liked the face too and her friend gave it a name. Her friend called it Fido Dido. Now I know that many of you have heard of this Fido Dido character and some of you referred to this cartoon face as Fido Dido, but according to the Continental Flight magazine and Susan Rose is supposed to be pronounced Fido Dido and of course Susan Rose began to market this Fido Dido phase and she put it on t-shirts and people began to buy them by the thousands and by the hundreds of thousands and today you can buy Fido Dido products, not simply T-shirts, but you can buy watches and socks and even Fido Dido hair dryers. In 16 nations Fido Dido products are marketed grossing $50 million a year and it all began in a little restaurant bar where Susan Rose was doodling on a napkin. Now Susan Rose wants us to understand she’s not simply into this because of the money. That’s what she says. She says there’s a message here, a Fido Dido message.
She says the Fido Dido message is you are what you are and what you are is okay. She says, that’s the message of Fido Dido to the world. You are what you are and what you are is okay. I’ve heard that message before. You’ve heard that message before. That’s the old I’m okay, you’re okay message. And it’s the message we get from the world, and it seems like a pretty appropriate message sometimes because there’s a lot of people out there and maybe a lot of people in here who don’t really like themselves, people who don’t love themselves, and I’m okay, you’re okay. Sounds kind of needful and you are what you are and what you are is okay. That sounds kind of helpful, but there’s only one problem. The problem is it’s not a biblical message. The Bible says God loves you just the way you are, but God’s not satisfied with you the way you are. God wants you to love yourself just the way you are, but he doesn’t want you to be satisfied with yourself just the way you are. Oh, the way you look is okay. God wants you to be satisfied with the way you look, and he’s satisfied.
And your basic personality is okay. God wants you to, whether you’re an extrovert or an introvert, it really doesn’t matter. God wants you to be satisfied with that basic personality of yours. He’s satisfied, but you see, he doesn’t want you to be satisfied with your character. He’s not satisfied because our character is not okay. We are degenerate. We have fallen because of sin, and we desperately need a new nature. We need to be made a new creation. And that you see is what Jehovah “He who causes to be” offers you and me. The Bible tells us that in that moment you accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior – and I hope and pray each and every one of you have done that—in that moment you embrace Christ as Lord and Savior, Jehovah, He who causes to be, actually comes within you by the Holy Spirit and in that moment to embrace Christ as Lord and Savior, He plants within you like a seed. This new nature he makes within you a new creation.
The Bible says that new creation, that new nature is described by the words love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. You see, if you’re a Christian, if you’ve been born anew, then you already have this nature within you. You already have that seed planted within you by Jehovah who causes to be. He has caused this new nature to come within you. The Bible speaks of it in the “eras” tense. It has passed, it has already happened, it has already been accomplished. He has already placed within you this new nature. He has caused this new creation to be in you. The problem is we also have the old name. It’s still there and the Bible says we really have to decide what we’re going to feed, what we’re going to water, whether we’re going to water this new nature created by Jehovah, who causes to be or whether we’re going to water the old nature which we’ve caused to be. See, you can read books and you can look at magazines that feed and water, the old nature and you can watch television programs and go to movies that feed and Water the old nature. You can make friendships with people who feed the old nature, or you can choose to read books, magazines that feed this new nature created by Jehovah. You can choose television programs and movies that tend to feed the new nature created by Jehovah. You can choose friendships with people who are going to water the new nature which Jehovah has caused to be.
This is extremely important. I can’t tell you before God how important this is. If you’re a Christian, when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, nothing is more important than this. Have you watered the new creation? You see, when you stand as a Christian before the judgment seat of Christ, the major issue is going to be this. Have you watered the old nature or the new nature? The major issue is going to be what the Bible calls sanctification. Have you really fed and nourished this new nature created by Jehovah? The Bible says that if we speak in the tongues of men and of angel, but we do not have the new nature, we’re a noisy gong or a clinging symbol.” If we have prophetic powers and we understand all knowledge and all mysteries and we have all faith, so as to move mountains, but we do not have this new nature, we have not cultivated this new nature. We’ve not watered this new nature. We’re nothing. If we give away everything we have and deliver our bodies to be burned but we have not cultivated this new nature, we accomplish nothing. He is Jehovah the Creator he causes to be. He wants to create a new nature in you.
There’s a second and final meaning of this name Jehovah. There are some scholars who take the name Jehovah, not so much in a causative sense as they do in a temporal sense. They take the Hebrew verb to be in a temporal sense. Not so much He who causes to be, but He who continues to be. “I am He who continues to be.” Jehovah, I am He who is. It Doesn’t matter how far into the future you go; He is. It doesn’t matter how far into the past you go; He is. The great I am. The eternal One.
Janet Culver had her picture on the cover of People Magazine last week. The cover story is her story. She’s a legal secretary in New Jersey and five weeks ago she decided to take a sailing trip in a small sailboat with her boyfriend from Bermuda to New York, 700 miles. They plan to make the trip in seven days and Janet Culver hoped that at the conclusion of those seven days, there’d be a proposal of marriage. They’d be married and they’d live happily ever after. I wasn’t meant to be.
Four days into that trip there was a horrible storm and the water engulfed at sailboat. The boat went down, and Janet Culver and her boyfriend got into a little rubber dingy there. There they were, adrift on the Atlantic. They had very little food and very little water, very few provisions. The sun was hot, and the salt from the sea water was hard on the skin. The days passed. By the tenth day, they were starving to death. The food was gone. The water was gone. They were dying of thirst. They had sores all over their body from the salt and from the sun. They were so weak, and they were delirious.
That evening of the tenth day, Janice’s boyfriend whispered weekly something about not being able to go on and he slid out of the rubber raft and swam a few feet away into the night. Janet heard the sound of her boyfriend drowning himself. He took his life and there she was alone in this raft on the Atlantic and the storms were so great. Sometimes the waves were 15 feet high. By the 14th day she was exhausted, and she had remembered how she had heard stories of people who had died or seemingly died and come back to life and they had seen a light at the end of the tunnel, some concept of God or some concept of deity. And she wasn’t a religious person, but she made a vow to the light. If the light was there, she made a vow that if somehow, she could come out of this alive, she would serve the light forever and she would serve people for His sake.
On that 14th day, as she was very near death, the Geronimo, a marine sailing research vessel, found her, rescued her, saved her life. That was only two weeks ago on July 31. Janet Culver says that she hasn’t forgotten her vow to the light. She’s going to serve him and she’s going to serve people. I pray that in the time that comes, she’ll discover who the light is, that the true light is Jehovah Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But, you see, Janet Culver is very much like a lot of people in this world. She believes there’s some God out there. She doesn’t know who He is, but she suspects that perhaps there is some deity out there. She’s also like a lot of people in this world because she wants to live and she wanted to continue to live even though the circumstances were hard. She hung on in the midst of incredible suffering. She hung on because she wanted to continue to be.
Most of you are like that. You really want to continue. You want to live; you want to continue to be. Every time you sit down, and you eat a meal, you’re saying you want to continue. And every time you fasten your seatbelt, you’re saying you want to continue to live. And every time you take a vitamin or go to the doctor or go to the health club, you’re saying, I want to continue to be. Of course, the truth is these bodies cannot continue to be, has been awful hard for some people to accept throughout history. That’s why the Egyptian Pharaohs wrapped their bodies in mummification at death. They just couldn’t accept the fact that their bodies couldn’t continue to be. And that’s why today some people freeze their bodies in cryonic suspension because they can’t accept the fact that these bodies can’t continue to be. That’s why Ponce de Leon sought the fountain of youth. He wanted to continue to live. The Bible says Jehovah continues. I am the Eternal One. You can travel into eternity future, and he is. You can travel into eternity path, and he is. The Eternal One. And the Jews understood, they understood the name Jehovah. The great “I am” was a name of eternity.
That’s why they marveled when Christ stood before them and told them what Abraham would’ve done if Abraham had been in their circumstance. And they said, how do you know what Abraham would’ve done? He lived 2000 years ago. Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham ever was, I Am. They understood. The Jews understood that he had taken the Tetragrammaton. He had taken the name of God; he had taken the name Yahweh Jehovah and he had applied it to himself because he is the Eternal One. And the Bible makes that clear. Jesus Christ is God. He is the alpha and omega. He is the eternal one. And he’s not only eternal, but the Bible makes it clear He offers you eternal life. He offers to share the very life of Jehovah with you. For most of us, it wouldn’t be enough simply to continue to exist. The average person lives 75 years average man, a little less average woman, a little more 75 years we’re told that the tortoise can live 150 years. But most of you wouldn’t exchange your 75 years for the hundred and 50 years of a turtle. You don’t want simply to exist.
We’re told that the sturgeon a fish can live more than a hundred years, but you wouldn’t exchange your 75 years for the existence of a fish. The giant sequoias and the great redwoods live 3,500 years and the bristle cone pine can live 4,500 years, but none of you would exchange your 75 years for the existence of a tree. People say, well if only that tree could talk. But of course, trees can’t talk. They don’t have a brain. And even if a tree had a brain tree, probably wouldn’t be able to tell you very much because trees just don’t see very much. I mean chances are in 4,500 years, nothing much happened in front of that tree. Trees are well worn, but they’re not well traveled. I’m sure that most of you would not exchange your 75 years for the existence of a tree. And God knows that. See what Jesus Christ offers is not simply existence. Everybody’s going to continue to exist anyway. Our bodies die, but our souls and spirits continue. God has created us. But what he creates, he does not terminate. Your soul and spirit of every single person on this world, in this world will continue to exist either in heaven or in hell to destiny. But you see, life is only found in heaven. And that’s what Jesus Christ offers eternal life, not near existence. The very light of Jehovah the great I am. That’s what he offers to you.
Jesus said, I’ve come that you might have life and you might have it abundantly. The Bible says God loved the world so much He gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. We invite you this morning to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and receive the very life of Jehovah everlasting life. We’ve offered this many times in the past and we will offer this many times in the future because this church exists for two purposes. First of all, we exist to evangelize as many people as can possibly be evangelized to see people accept Christ as Lord and Savior. And secondly, we exist to disciple those people who have been evangelized, that they might grow into the fullness of the major of the stature of Christ and be everything Christ wants them to be in this world.
So, we offer the gospel to you this morning. You might come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and I hope and pray that you understand the gospel. I marvel sometimes. I’ll sit down with someone who’s been going to this church for years and they obviously do not understand the gospel. Some people seem to have ears to hear, but they cannot hear and eyes to see and they do not see.
When I was five years old, I accepted Christ. And you know that I’ve told you how I set up my mother’s side and I knelt, invited Christ into my heart in the living room of our home. But you see, that wasn’t the last time I accepted Christ. That wasn’t the only time I accepted Christ. I accepted Christ again and again and again after I had first accepted Christ. I went forward at alter call after alter call after alter call because I just couldn’t believe, I just felt so unworthy. I couldn’t believe that Christ was mine and I was his. I felt so unworthy. And I used to hear ministers preach and they would scare me. Ministers still scare me.
Lots of fire and brimstone messages, turn or burn. I remember sitting there and hearing that, you know, I might die tonight. In fact, I probably would die tonight, and I might have accepted Christ before, but was I one hundred percent sure? And I think about that. Gee, one hundred percent sure? And then they’d give an altar call and I’d go down and I’d accept the Lord again and again and again and again. And finally, my dad took me aside and he said, son, no more alter calls. And I could see he really meant it. And it was only a few weeks later at Glendale Presbyterian Church and Glendale, California, a visiting evangelist was there. And he’d reached the point in his message where he was giving his alter call and was going on and on. And we were in about the hundredth verse of just as I am. And he was telling us how we probably would die tonight and are you a hundred percent sure? And my heart began to pound, and I wanted to go down again. But I looked over and I saw my dad and I was more afraid of my dad than I was of God. And then just shortly after that, my dad got up and went on down.
And I thought to myself, boy, if dad can go down, you know, surely, he won’t mind if I go. And I followed him right on down. It turns out my dad was a counselor that night. I cannot describe for you the look on his face when he turned around and saw me coming. But you see, the problem was I felt so unworthy, I felt so unworthy. And finally, I came to realize that that’s exactly right. That’s the whole point. I really am unworthy. But we’re saved by grace through faith. You see, if you just have enough faith, if you just have enough faith to invite Jesus Christ, to be your savior from sin, enough faith to say thank you Lord Jesus, for dying for my sin. I accept your sacrifice on Calvary’s cross. If you’ve got enough faith to say that. And if you have enough faith to say, Lord Jesus, come into my heart. I want to live for you. If you have enough faith to commit your life to his lordship, he will come in with the very life of Jehovah. He will come in and he will share his eternal life with you, and he will create in you cause to be in you a new nature.
Here’s Jehovah, he who causes to be Jehovah, he who continues to be us close in a word of prayer. Lord Jesus, we come to you this morning and Lord, we uh, we come in awe because you are Jehovah the great, I am Lord. You are the alpha and Omega. You have neither beginning of days nor end of life, but you continue forever. Lord, your gospel is clear. You offer eternal life to all who believe you and embrace you as Lord and savior. Lord, if there are people here today who have never done that, Lord by your Holy Spirit, we would ask you to draw them, to touch their heart, to remove the hardening that is there. Give them a heart of faith. Pray Lord that they might say this prayer with me in the stillness of this moment. Even if they sit there in the pew, Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Forgive me of my sin. Thank you for dying for me. Be my savior, Lord, come into my heart. I want to live for you, want you to be my Lord. Thank you, Lord, that when we pray that prayer, you do come in
And you give us eternal life and you place within us a new nature. You create enough a new nature. You cause us to be a new creation. Lord, help us to water that new nature, that we might be people who are characterized by love and joy and peace and patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. We love you Lord and pray these things in your name. Amen.