Moses asked God several questions when he was commissioned to deliver the Israelites from Egypt. One of them is quite relevant to our discussion. Here, I’ll let Moses ask it again:
“Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” (Exodus 3:13).
Here is God’s reply:
“I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
Did Moses understand the awesome privilege he had of hearing God pronounce his own name? What language did He use? Hebrew? Aramaic? Some Ugaritic dialect? A new language?
However he pronounced it, the correct pronunciation is lost to us today. The Jewish sages, understandably, developed the custom of not pronouncing the Name, lest it be profaned. It was too holy even to write it with the same stylus with which the other words of Sacred Scripture were penned. It was too holy to be written by unwashed hands or unchanged garments. And, as a result, the pronunciation vanished like the last Hebrew who articulated it.
Christians tried to regain it by fashioning it according to the English tongue, so we call Him JEHOVAH or YAHWEH, both inadequate renderings.
I bought a Passover Haggadah; it is the order of the passover seder that is used at a passover dinner. In front was a warning: “This book contains that Name of God so do not put it on the floor or profane in any way.” So I tucked the book neatly back on my shelf, lest inadvertently I profane the Name.
That must have been what it was like for the Jewish scribes and sages. Let’s not use the Name lest our people or people of the nations abuse It, according to the Third Commandment.
I was singing the song attached below and thought, “Father, if we mindlessly sing this song, are we profaning your name? If this is not the correct pronunciation, and we say it, are we profaning your name? If I call you HaShem (the Name) am I making you less personal in my life than you desire to be?”
So all I can conclude is this PRAYER: “Father, forgive us for losing something wonderful you gave to your people because we imposed our sense of holiness upon it. I don’t know if this is the correct prayer, but I sense you leading me there. For those of us who sing or say your Name — in whatever dialect or language — Father, judge our hearts and convict us of dishonoring your Name when we do. Maybe one day on this side of glory, you will give us the phonetic keys to pronouncing your great Name and release the bondage from those of us who can’t. We love your Name, in any language or tongue, mispronounced or not, but spoken with all the reverence due such a spectacular God! Amen.”
Enjoy this song, “At Your Name” by Phil Wickham
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