Join Rabbi Schneider and host Dustin Roberts as they delve into the profound and spiritual implications of understanding God’s names as revealed in the scriptures. From Genesis to Exodus, they explore how the sacred name Yahweh is pivotal to the relationship between humanity and the divine. Learn about the Jewish traditions surrounding these names and why speaking God’s name fosters a deeper, more intimate spiritual connection with the Creator. Discover how these teachings can enrich your spiritual practice and empower your faith journey.
See, there’s something personal when you know somebody’s name. Everybody in the Old Testament from Moses onward called upon Father God in love and in reverence by his name.
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This is Discovering the Jewish Jesus with Rabbi Schneider and I’m your host, Dustin Roberts. And when babies are born, they’re given names that identify them for the rest of their life. Recently, my wife and I had a baby and his name, it’s special to us because it’s associated with so much love and meaning. And did you know that God also has a personal name? Just like our son’s name speaks to his identity, God’s name, it speaks to who God is and what he will do for his people. So let’s get started. Here’s Rabbi Schneider to open with prayer.
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Father God, we worship you today and we ask that you release power on the preaching of your word and that, Father, it would bring forth a harvest of fruit for you a hundredfold. We ask this together in Yeshua’s name and for Jesus’ fame. Amen and amen. I want to talk about the names of God in Scripture, particularly we’re going to be looking, beloved ones, in this series at God’s covenant name. Did you know that the Lord actually has a personal name, that Father God actually has a personal name? Just like you have a personal name, your God has a personal name as well. But before we look at God’s personal name, I want to make a few comments today to set the stage for the series of messages that are to come. I want to begin today by going to the book of Exodus with you. If you’ve got your Bible, I want you to go there with me. You might want to Have your Bible in front of you during the course of these series so that you can make notes and underline places, as I point out to you, the different places in Scripture where the Lord uses His personal sacred name in conjunction with one of the things that He does in the salvation of His people. In other words, what we’re going to do is we’re going to look at God’s sacred name And then we’re going to show you when God joins His covenant name, His sacred name, to a function that He performs in the lives of those that He’s saving. I’m making now an introductory comment by going to the book of Exodus, chapter number 33, verse number 18. Now, in this section of Scripture, Moses has been calling out to Father God, and he’s wanting Father God to affirm him, to affirm him and affirm him. And finally, the conversation reaches a climax in verse number 18. I’m going to pick up there. Moses says to the Lord, I pray you, he said, show me your glory. Again, this is the climax of the conversation. Moses keeps on looking to the Lord for assurance. And then finally, Moses said, show me your glory. And the Lord says this to him. Listen carefully as I pick up in verse 19. and he said i myself will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim get it now the name of the lord before you and i’ll be gracious to him i’ll be gracious and i’ll show compassion on whom i will show compassion but he said you cannot see my face for no man can see me and live. Let’s put this in context. Moses is asking, Father God, he’s saying, God, Lord, I want to encounter you. Show me your glory. And the Lord responds back to Moses and he says, Moses, you can’t see me face to face. But Moses, he said, listen, I am going to proclaim glory. my name to you. So once again, Moses says, show me your glory. And the Lord says, you can’t see me face to face, but I’m gonna proclaim my name to you. He tells Moses to go hide himself in the cleft of the rock and to call upon Father’s name. Moses goes into the cleft of the rock, and as Moses is calling upon Father by his sacred name, which we’re gonna be studying in this scripture, I’m not saying it yet, because we haven’t got to it yet, but Moses is calling now upon the Lord by his sacred personal name, Exodus 34, verse six, then the Lord, pass by in front of him and proclaim, the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives inequity, transgression, and sin, yet he will by no means leave the guilty go unpunished, visiting the inequity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation. Moses made haste to bow low and to worship. And so I’m setting the stage right now, beloved ones, by helping you to see how incredible it is to know Father God’s personal name and in knowing his name to have revelation about who he is. Moses says, Lord, show me your glory. Father says, I’m gonna proclaim my name to you. Go hide in the cleft of the rock. Moses then calls upon Father God by his name, a breathy Yahweh. And as Moses calls upon the name of Yahweh, the Lord himself, Yahweh himself, descends upon Moses and he says, I am Yahweh God. compassionate and gracious, full of loving kindness and truth. And Moses literally, beloved ones, is filled with light. He encounters God and he knows who he is. So before we move further into this, I want to take a couple steps back now as we go to the very beginning of the Bible to the book of Genesis chapter number one. So to begin this series, we’re going to take a few steps back. I want you to go with me now into the book of Genesis. We call in Hebrew, Beersheet. And we’re going to go there with chapter number one. As we go to Genesis chapter one, we read the verses that we’re all familiar with. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1.1, in the beginning, God created. created the heavens and the earth. So in the first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1-1, when we see God’s name translated in English, the actual Hebrew word there for the English word God is the Hebrew word, get this now, church, Elohim. So what the verse actually says is, in the beginning, Elohim came, created the heavens and the earth. The word Elohim, listen now, is a title. It’s not God’s personal name, but it’s a descriptive title of God. It’s interesting to note that during the time that the Old Testament was written, during the time that Moses wrote Genesis, even the heathen refer to their God, get this now, as El. Now, we’re looking at the word Elohim. Elohim, in the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth. Elohim is the plural of El. And again I said, even the heathens refer to their gods as El. It just meant God or Lord. But here, it’s not a singular L, but we add the em on the end of it to make the L Elohim, which makes L plural, Elohim. And the reason that we’re adding the em on, the reason that the Lord added on the em sound at the end of L is because when we add the word em, On the end of a word in Hebrew, it, number one, shows accent. It marks it to give it greater weight. It gives it an exclamation point. And so when we say Elohim, it makes the word El just stand out. So that’s the first reason that we use the plural of the form El in Genesis 1-1. The second reason that we use the plural of the word El in Genesis 1-1 is because, listen to this, church, within the Godhead, there is a multi-dimensional aspect and so in other words as we continue in the book of genesis chapter 1 and 2 we hear the lord saying as he’s about to create man he says let us he said make man in our own image and so i’m looking now at genesis chapter 1 verse 26. Then Elohim, then God said, let us make man in our own image, in our own likeness. And so the question is, who is the Lord referring to in Genesis 1, 26, when he said, let us make man, and get this now, our own image? The point is, is that within the Godhead, listen now, there is relationship. And this is what we read about in the Gospel of John, that Jesus is God himself. He’s the son who’s always been in the bosom of the father. And so the fact that we have relationship on earth, a relationship between a man and a woman, relationships within families, relationship within society. This whole concept of relationship stems out of God’s own nature. In other words, in God himself, there is relationship. And so this concept of in the beginning, let us, he said, create man in our own image, in the beginning Elohim, God plural, said, let us create man in our own image. This comes from the concept of the fact that within God there is relationship. He’s talking to himself. The Son is in his bosom and there’s an eternal dialogue going on between the Father and the Son and the Son and the Father. And so the Elohim connotates the fact that there is a relationship within the Godhead. It’s multidimensional. There’s only one God. We all know that. There’s only one God, one God alone. But within the one God, there’s relationship. And so for this reason, When we read about God creating the heavens and the earth and him making man in his own image, we see him using the title Elohim rather than El because again, he’s putting accent on the sense that he’s not just one of many gods, but he’s the one true God and there’s relationship within him and thus we have Elohim in the plural form. As we begin to read the Old Testament, We don’t see God revealed by his covenant name, which this series is about, but we simply see him being referred to as God. In fact, when Jesus was on the cross, right before he gave up his spirit, he said, Eli, Eli. And that word Eli is actually a form of this word El here. It’s interesting that the only time that Jesus referred to God simply as God, as Eli, Eli, why hast thou forsaken me? The only time that he referred to God simply as God rather than as Father in terms of his own communication with him was when he felt forsaken by God. Because he knew God more than just El or more than just Elohim or more than just Eli. as we read in the Gospels, but he knew God, listen beloved ones, as his own father.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’re listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Rabbi will be right back. But first, did you know that you can receive real-time encouragement straight from Rabbi through text message? Visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com and click on the link that says Rabbi Text Me. Or you can text the keyword Rabbi to the number 88777. Rabbi sends these special text messages as the Holy Spirit leads. And he looks forward to connecting with you real soon. At the core of everything we do at Discovering the Jewish Jesus is our commitment to declare the whole counsel of God’s Word from start to finish. In fact, Rabbi’s unique way of connecting the Old and the New Testaments has helped people all over the world to understand the Bible with fresh eyes. To join us in this work of God, give a donation online today at discoveringthejewishjesus.com or call 800-777-7835. And now here is Rabbi Schneider.
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So I’m just building up now to the revelation of God’s sacred name. When then, if in the very beginning we see him revealed as Elohim, the name used for the creator, when then in scripture do we first see the Lord revealed by his covenant personal name? I’m going to answer that question as we go now together to the book of Exodus chapter number three. And we’re also going to be looking here at Exodus chapter six. As we get now into the meet beloved children of God in this series, we’re studying the covenant names of God. In Exodus chapter three, in Exodus chapter six, we see the revelation of God’s covenant name. Hear the word of God as I read first of all, Exodus chapter three, verse 14 and 15. God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Now this is God’s sacred name here. God furthermore said to Moses, thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, the Lord. the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. This is my memorial name to all generations. So in Exodus 3, we see the covenant name of God It’s made up of four Hebrew letters, yud, hey, vav, hey. And most Semitic scholars, scholars of the ancient Hebrew language, feel that it was pronounced a breathy, listen now, church, yahweh. I want to continue on in chapter number six of Exodus. Once again, the Lord and Moses are speaking. God spoke further to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. And I appear to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty. This is El Shaddai. Remember, we looked at El in the book of Genesis, El Elohim. He said, I appear to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty. This is El, okay, the singular form of Elohim that we looked at. Almighty. This is El Shaddai. We’ve heard that song, El Shaddai. Remember some of you old timers like myself, remember Amy Grant sang that song, El Shaddai. The Lord said here, I reveal myself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, as El Shaddai. But listen to this, but by my name, Yahweh. did I not make myself known to them? And so up to this point, those that walked with God didn’t know him by his covenant name, but God revealed his covenant name to Moses. And everyone from Moses onward in the Old Testament, when they called upon God, listen now, church, they called upon Father God by name. His covenant name. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Hosea, all the prophets, they all called upon God by His name, a reverent Yahweh. Now, Today, the Jewish community feels that God’s sacred name is to be protected, that it shouldn’t be spoken. And so when Jewish people speak to God today, traditional Jewish people, they don’t speak to Him by His name. Rather than calling Him by His name, Yahweh, Jewish people will simply refer to Him as Adonai, which simply means Lord. Again, the mindset in the rabbinic Jewish community is His name is so sacred, We shouldn’t speak it. But I want you to know, beloved ones, from my heart, that does not resonate or make sense with me because everybody in the Old Testament from Moses onward called upon Father God in love and in reverence by his name, Yahweh. See, there’s something personal when you know somebody’s name. If you just say to somebody, hey, you, hey, bud, if you just call somebody by their title, There’s a sense of disconnectedness there. That’s why when you meet somebody and you want to get to know them a little bit more deeply, you say to them, what is your name? Because when they give you their name and you call them by their name, a personal relationship is formed. So even though I want to say I respect them, the Jewish community and I understand their reasoning for not referring to God by His name, I think biblically you can’t back that up. And so this series is about God’s covenant name. I want to obviously challenge every listener right now that if you’re going to call upon God by His name, you need to do it in reverence and in love. But I also want to say to you that God loves you and He revealed His name to you because He wants you to know Him, He wants you to love Him, and He wants you to be able to feel comfortable enough to call upon Him by His name, Yahweh. Otherwise, church, He wouldn’t have revealed Himself to us by His name. In fact, did you know that in the Hebrew Bible, in the Old Testament, God’s covenant name, Yahweh, again made up of the four Hebrew consonants, Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, is used, get this now, over 7,000 times. Now, today we hear different songs that are calling God Jehovah. And this is a mispronunciation of God’s holy sacred name, a breathy Yahweh. And the reason that the Gentile church is calling upon God by Jehovah oftentimes rather than Yahweh is because the ancient Jewish scribes actually did some things so that Gentiles wouldn’t know how to pronounce his name. They tried to cover up his name and conceal his name so the Gentiles wouldn’t be able to speak his name because they were concerned about the Gentiles of the world blaspheming his name. And so once again, they tried to cover it up and confuse how it could be pronounced so the Gentiles couldn’t blaspheme it. God’s personal covenant name, Yahweh, listen to this, beloved ones, is a verb. Now think about this. Even those of us that weren’t the most astute students of English, we learn that a noun was a person, place, or thing. And so if you refer to a person, that person is a noun. But God’s name, Yahweh, is a verb. And the tense of Yahweh, the tense of that verb form, listen to this, is continuous, UNFINISHED ACTION. YOU SEE, BELOVED, YOUR GOD AND FATHER IS ALIVE, HE’S ACTIVE, HE’S INVOLVED IN YOUR LIFE EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY. HE WAS INVOLVED IN YOUR LIFE YESTERDAY, HE’S INVOLVED IN YOUR LIFE TODAY, AND HE’LL BE INVOLVED IN YOUR LIFE FOREVER. CONTINUOUS, UNFINISHED ACTION. YAHWEH IS YOUR GOD, HE’S YOUR FATHER, AND HE LOVES YOU Beloved, neither you or I would go to a restaurant, order a meal, and then not pay for it, right? But yet we do that with God. I think that’s why the Lord said in the book of Malachi chapter 3, will a man rob God? They said, how are we robbing you? The Lord said, in tithes and offerings. We’re instructed in scripture to financially support those ministries that are blessing us and feeding us. If discovering the Jewish Jesus, if my life, beloved, and ministry is a blessing to you, would you support it? I’m telling you, the Lord will bless you for honoring Him with your wealth. God wants us to respond to His love through our wealth. The book of Proverbs tells us in Proverbs 3, verse 9, this word, honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first fruit of all your produce. I want to ask you, beloved, honor the Lord with your wealth through discovering the Jewish Jesus, if He’s blessing you through this ministry.
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amen thanks rabbi and this is discovering the jewish jesus and i want to encourage you to keep listening rabbi’s going to be right back shortly with a sacred blessing for you but first if the lord is leading you to financially support this ministry with a gift of any amount then please give us a call today you can reach us at 800-777-7835 that’s 800-777-7835 You can also give online when you visit our website. You’ll find us at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. And we want to say thanks to you when you give. So we’ll send you our latest newsletter. It’s a special monthly publication and it’s filled with lots of spiritual wisdom and it features rabbis engaging in authentic biblical messages. And it also has an intimate spiritual reflection from his wife, Miss Cynthia. And finally, you’ll see inspiring stories of lives forever changed. It’s really an additional dose of teaching and encouragement that illustrates what God is doing right here in this ministry with your help. And for those seeking to deepen their connection with the ministry, when you become a monthly partner, you’ll also get an additional gift. a handcrafted shofar that’s made in Israel. This beautiful instrument is the same kind that will be used to announce Jesus’ second coming. And we hope it’s gonna remind you of your impact on the ministry. And it’s also a great conversation starter, so let’s tell the world about Jesus as we prepare for His return together. Once again, to join this mission, send your financial donation of any amount in the mail to Discovering the Jewish Jesus, P.O. Box 777 Blissfield, Michigan 49228, or visit our website, DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com. Here’s Rabbi Now with the Aaronic Blessing.
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What I love about the Aaronic blessing is that it did not originate with man. The words actually proceeded from the very essence of God himself. The blessing comes from the book of Numbers, chapter six. So listen to these words and receive the blessing of the Lord into your life today.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance and the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace. God bless you and shalom.
SPEAKER 01 :
This program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. And I’m your host, Dustin Roberts. Have you ever wondered if God truly sees your needs? Well, next time, Rabbi Schneider is going to explore another one of God’s names, Yahweh Yireh, the Lord will provide. That’s Monday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
