What is the name of God?
God does not merely have a title; He tells Moses what to call Him, and the answer given at the burning bush is a statement about His very being. Yet Scripture uses several names for Him, and commentators trace how each one belongs to a different relationship God takes up with people.
"I AM" — the name of His being
The name given to Moses is explained by writers as the meaning packed inside the name Jehovah, unfolded again at the end of the Bible.
Frederick W. GrantJehovah is the name of which the inspired translation is given in the third of Exodus — "I am," expanded to its full significance in the book of Revelation as, "He who is and who was and who is to come." So in unchanging existence He follows out the changes of created being, holding up creaturehood with the strength of eternity.
This name was not a passing revelation for one crisis. It was given as permanent.
F. B. HoleLooking backward, the "I AM" is "the LORD, the God of your fathers." Looking forward, He declares it to be His name forever and His memorial to all generations. Clearly then this great name carried the revelation of God to a climax, as far as the Old Testament is concerned.
Jehovah — the covenant name
The Hebrew name behind "the LORD" in most English Bibles is read as pointing to God's self-existence.
The Christian's FriendThe word means the self-existent One, and is, as another has said, practically translated, "who is and who was and who is to come." Coming from the verb "to exist," it expresses the eternity, and so the unchangeableness, of His being; and it brings before our souls the One who eternally is, who existed before all time, endures through all time, and continues after all time has passed away.
That abstract truth was given to a suffering people for a reason.
James McBroomIf "Almighty God" speaks of His power for His own, "Jehovah" speaks of the love of the "I Am" that never sleeps, working the present in view of both past and future for His own glory and the blessing of His people.
Elohim, El Shaddai, Elion
The ordinary Hebrew word for God is plural in form, and writers have not all read that fact the same way.
The Christian's FriendELOHIM is, as often noted, the common name for God, seen as the divine Being with whom people as people have to do, and as the One to whom they are accountable. It is a plural word... There are those who argue that it is simply, by Hebrew usage, a plural of excellence... there are others who hold that it is divinely intended to set out the Trinity, the unity of the Godhead in the three Persons of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Other names attach to particular seasons of His dealings — El Shaddai with the wandering fathers, Elion in coming glory.
C. H. MackintoshThen, in Genesis 14:22, we have "Elion" — God Most High. This is His millennial title. And in chapter 17:1 we have Shaddai — the Almighty. "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless"... It is hardly necessary to add that for the unspeakable title and relationship of "Father" we must turn to the New Testament.
Father — the name of the Christian revelation
The Old Testament names stop short of one thing, and the coming of the Son supplied it.
An Outline of Sound WordsFather is the name of the Christian revelation. How often the Son spoke of "My Father" and "the Father" during His public ministry. Jesus did not come to speak about Himself, but to reveal the Father... the mission of the Son was to declare the name of His Father, whether as the living Father, the holy Father, or the righteous Father.
Writers note that this declaring did not end at the cross.
H. J. Vine"I have declared to them your name, and will declare it." As we said before, it was necessary for the Son Himself to come to disclose the Father's name; and having done this, He continues to make it known from His exalted seat on high.
The name Jesus took on His own lips
The name from the bush reappears in the mouth of Christ.
F. B. HoleOnly faith in Him could turn away their doom — the faith that would find in Him, "I AM." There is no word for "he" in the original... In Exodus 3:14 God had revealed Himself as the great "I AM," so this statement of Jesus was in effect a claim to Deity.
Summary
- I AM — the name means self-existent, unchanging being: He who is, and was, and is to come.
- Jehovah — the same name taken up in covenant, so that eternal being becomes a promise a people can lean on.
- Almighty, Most High — names of power and coming supremacy, given as each stage of God's dealings required.
- Father — the name reserved for the Son to declare, and He is still declaring it from glory.
- Jesus — the One who says "I AM" of Himself, and who has been given the name above every name.