How are God’s various names useful to you?
Discussion question for March 11, 2011.
There are many names used for God in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament. Why is that the case? What benefit can you find for knowing God’s various names? How can you use the different names in the way you live, pray, and communicate with others? What name would you use to describe God?
Here’s my summary of our discussion.
Depending on your sources and definition of what is a “name”, there are over 100 names used for God in the Bible. If you consider them in total you would get a great picture of God according to His many facets. For example, Jehovah-Rophe means the God that heals; Jehovah-Jireh means the God that provides. Using just these two names we can understand more about God’s character, especially when taken in the context in which He revealed them. The name becomes more than an identifier, it becomes a description.
A practical application of this is to use the name of God that describes His nature as it pertains to the specific prayer request. John shared that he experienced greater faith and saw better results when he prayed for healing on behalf of someone while calling on the name of God: Jehovah-rophe. This acted as a reminder to him that God already has the character and authority to heal, and his prayers could be made with great faith and boldness.
There are several times in the Bible where it invokes “The Name of the Lord.” In the context it seems as if the writer, especially in the Psalms, equates the name with the entity. This may be a Hebrew concept since their culture places such great importance on the name. In the New Testament, written in Greek, there are names and adjectives often combined. Although this is less the case in the prophetic writings, specifically the Revelation.
A great change or covenant agreement can trigger a name change. This was the case with Abram becoming Abraham, Simon becoming Peter, and Saul becoming Paul. The permanence of the change is represented by the name change. We have a promise of this kind of personal change in Revelation 2:17 and echoed in Revelation 3:12. In these verses those that overcome are given a new name.
God has multiple names exposed through the Bible, but they are not name changes. When He is called Elohim in the beginning, He is still called Elohim at the end. This is because God’s enormity can carry many names, but His character does not change to fit the new name.
As we learn about God’s names, we come to learn about Him. This is a great way to grow spiritually. The more we know about God, the better we will come to know Him. The real goal is personal relationship, not accumulated knowledge or opinion.
There have been examples in the recent past of people using the names of God as some sort of leverage to get their prayers answered. This is not what is intended. A good relationship is defined as one in which there is mutual respect a opposed to control or manipulation. To attempt to control God by any means is to break relationship; similarly, to be controlled by God in an attempt to avoid responsibility is also a breech of relationship.
God is love. He wants us to know Him and to be known by Him. Then we can grow in our relationship together. Knowing God’s character and expressing it with names is akin to using a term of endearment as an act of worship.