It was John Knox, the great Scottish Reformer who once wrote, “I have never once feared the devil, but I tremble every time I enter the pulpit.” I understand that. Some Sundays more than others. And this subject, God Himself and specifically His name, is one before which any preacher ought to tremble.
As we work through Genesis chapter two, verse four introduces us to something we have not encountered in the first chapter. God has already been revealed as Elohim, the Creator, the one who spoke the universe into existence. But now, for the first time in all of Scripture, we read a different name: Yahweh.
“In the day that Yahweh God made earth and heaven.” Genesis 2:4 (LSB)
For the first of over 6,800 times in your Old Testament, God reveals His covenant name. Here is what I want us to see: Yahweh is God’s personal covenant name, and knowing that name leads us straight to Jesus.
Out of all the names and titles for God in Scripture, Yahweh is the most common in the entire Old Testament. It comes to us from the Hebrew tetragrammaton, four letters corresponding to YHWH, and it appears in your Legacy Standard Bible 6,844 times. That repetition is not accidental. God wanted to be known by this name.
But what does it mean? When Moses asked, God answered directly:
“I AM WHO I AM… This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name from generation to generation.” Exodus 3:14–15 (LSB)
Yahweh means to be. It means “I AM who I AM.” This is not a generic title like “the Almighty” or “the Most High.” Those names tell us what God is like. This name tells us who He is. He is the eternal, self-existing, ever-living, ever-acting One. He said it was His memorial name to all generations.
If you have a King James Bible or nearly any other English translation, you won’t find the word Yahweh in the Old Testament at all. Instead you will see the word LORD, printed in all capital letters. The story behind that goes back to the Masoretic Jews of the inter-testament period, who were so concerned about violating the third commandment that they substituted the word Adonai wherever Yahweh appeared. That practice found its way into the Greek Septuagint and eventually into our English translations.
Their reverence for God’s name was right. But did He ever tell us not to use His name? The third commandment forbids abusing His name, not speaking it. As Elder Milburn Cockrell wrote in the Berea Baptist Banner:
“I know of no Scripture which teaches it is wrong to take the sacred name YHWH upon our lips, as orthodox Jews believe. What is forbidden in the Third Commandment is not the use of the name of God, but the abuse and misuse of that worthy name.” Elder Milburn Cockrell, Berea Baptist Banner, July 2001
The name Jehovah (familiar to many of us) arose from a misreading of YHWH when combined with the vowel sounds of Adonai. Latin-writing Christians eventually rendered it Iehovah, which became Jehovah. It is not the original name. The King James translators were not wrong to do what they did in their time, and I do not say this to create controversy. But Baptist scholars going back to the 1800s (men who held to the KJV) were already asking these questions. John Broadus wrote in 1886 that “later Jewish feeling exaggerated this into a rule that the proper name Yahweh must not be pronounced at all.” George Boardman, writing in 1889, noted that “modern translators think that the word should be transliterated” as Yahweh. This is not a novelty.
I will say plainly: I will choose the text that has Yahweh in it, every time. Because the name carries the doctrine. Consider Psalm 110 (“Yahweh said to my Lord…”), where two distinct persons are named and the Trinitarian weight of the text is unmistakable. Or Genesis 19:24 (“Yahweh rained fire and brimstone from Yahweh out of heaven”), a Trinitarian statement in the middle of the Pentateuch. The name matters.
You may have noticed that Yahweh appears throughout the Old Testament, but disappears in the New Testament, even when New Testament authors quote passages that contain the name. Why?
It is not Jewish superstition. The Greek New Testament is just as inspired as the Hebrew Old Testament, including the way it handles the Old Testament text. A shift has taken place. The name Yahweh has not been abandoned. It has been fulfilled. It has been given a face.
Jesus is Yahweh in the flesh.
In John 8:56–59, Jesus said “Before Abraham was, I AM”, using the covenant name of God. The Jewish leaders understood exactly what He was saying. That is why they picked up stones. In Matthew 3:1–3, John prepares the way for the one Isaiah called Yahweh. In Romans 10:13, Paul quotes Joel 2:32, “Everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved,” and applies it directly to Jesus Christ. In Philippians 2:9–11, every knee bowing to Jesus fulfills the very passage where Yahweh declares His own supremacy in Isaiah 45.
The name Jesus, Yashua in Hebrew, means Yahweh saves. It is not a coincidence. It is the point. He is Yahweh revealed. The Father is Yahweh. The Son is Yahweh. The Spirit is Yahweh. One God.
All of that is present, in seed form, in the first appearance of the name in Genesis 2:4.
Yahweh is God’s personal covenant name. And knowing it leads us straight to Jesus. That is not a conclusion I arrived at. It is the conclusion the Scripture arrives at. From the first mention of the name in Genesis 2:4, through six thousand repetitions in the law and the prophets and the Psalms, to the manger and the cross and the empty tomb. All of it is Yahweh keeping His covenant. All of it is “I AM who I AM” making good on His word.
If you want to go deeper, I commend to you a sermon preached here by my son Isaiah on October 15, 2023: “Why the Name Yahweh Matters.” He did his homework.
The Psalmist gives us the right response: “O magnify Yahweh with me, and let us exalt His name together.” (Psalm 34:3)
His name is Yahweh. His name is Jesus. And it is the only name given among men by which we must be saved.
This article is based on a sermon originally preached for Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. You can listen to the full message on SermonAudio:
▶ Listen: “In the Day That Yahweh God Made Earth and Heaven” — Pastor David GreenIf you do not have a church home, we would love to have you visit us at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Brunswick, Georgia. You can find our service times and location at sgbcbrunswick.com/services, or contact us with any questions.