{"id":975,"date":"2021-09-01T08:34:59","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T12:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=975"},"modified":"2021-09-01T08:34:59","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T12:34:59","slug":"gods-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/09\/01\/gods-name\/","title":{"rendered":"God’s Name"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What are the most common \u201cfirst words\u201d spoken by little children?

In the English-speaking world, \u201cMama\u201d and \u201cDadda\u201d head the list.  \u201cYes\u201d and \u201cno\u201d are close behind, followed by \u201chello\u201d and \u201cbye.\u201d  Then comes \u201ccat,\u201d which seems to confirm the reality that felines have now surpassed canines as America\u2019s most popular pet. 

Farther Richard Rohr has an alternative thought.  The Franciscan priest suggests that the first word spoken by every human being, the world over, is the sacred name of God. 

What name is he talking about? 

The answer emerges in the third chapter of the Old Testament book of Exodus, where Moses encounters God at the burning bush.  He receives the mind-boggling job assignment of leading the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt.  As one might expect, the fearful 80-year-old has a few questions.  God encourages him to fire away. 

Moses starts with the big one: \u201cWho in the world are you, Lord?\u201d  Or as he puts it in Exodus 3:13, \u201cWhen the people ask, \u2018What is your name?\u2019 what should I tell them?\u201d

God\u2019s answer is one of the most mysterious sentences in all of human literature:  \u201cI AM WHO I AM.  This is what you are to say to the Israelites.  I AM has sent me to you\u201d (3:14). What exactly is God trying to say here?

\u201cI AM WHO I AM\u201d (which is typically capitalized in English translations) stands for just four Hebrew consonants, read from right to left in the image above:  YHWH<\/strong>.  These four letters represent God\u2019s personal name.  YHWH appears 6,807 times in the Old Testament and is usually rendered \u201cLORD.\u201d 

No one knows how it should be pronounced.  Vowels were not included in the original Scripture texts.  Centuries before the time of Jesus, the majority of the Jewish people \u2013 concerned about breaking the commandment not to take God\u2019s name in vain \u2013 stopped speaking the four letters altogether.  YHWH has almost literally become The Name That Must Not Be Spoken.  Members of the Jewish community who read Hebrew aloud generally substitute Ha Shema <\/em>(\u201cThe Name\u201d) or Adonai <\/em>(\u201cLord\u201d) whenever YHWH appears.

Our best guess is that God\u2019s personal name is to be rendered as Yahweh<\/strong>.

What does it signify? 

Its underlying meaning remains a mystery, even after 3,000 years of rabbinical reflection.  Some believe it should be translated, \u201cI am who am.\u201d  In other words, God is God and we are not.  He is the ultimate Being in the cosmos.  Others prefer, \u201cI am who I am.\u201d  That is, \u201cMoses, who I am is none of your business.\u201d  This would be an expression of God\u2019s impenetrable identity.  Still other scholars believe Yahweh means, \u201cI will be there with you,\u201d or \u201cI am all you need.\u201d 

The simplest and perhaps most compelling insight is that God may have wanted his people to think about him every time they took a breath. 

Try it.  Breathe in:  Yah.  <\/em>Breathe out:  Weh.  <\/em>\u201cYah-weh.\u201d 

The consonants in YHWH are the only ones in Hebrew in which the speaker doesn\u2019t use the tongue or close the lips.  All the other consonants \u2013 such as P, K, T, B \u2013 explode off the lips or teeth, or spring from the back of the throat.  But Yahweh<\/em> can be said effortlessly.  It\u2019s as easy as breathing in and breathing out.

God\u2019s name, in fact, may represent a constant reminder that he is the One who keeps us breathing.

As Richard Rohr observes, the first breath of every newborn baby is God\u2019s name \u2013 the first word spoken by every child.  And just in case you\u2019re anxious about what you should pray just before you die, don\u2019t worry.  With your last breath you will speak God\u2019s name.

Rohr goes on to say that there isn\u2019t a Catholic way of breathing or a Protestant way or an English way or an American way. 

There\u2019s just breathing<\/em>. 

You\u2019ve done it your whole life \u2013 on average, about 20,000 times a day, whether awake or asleep. 

But from time to time, as we catch our breath going from one moment to the next one, we can choose to stop and remember:

Yahweh.  <\/em>God is God. 

And he is closer than our next breath. 
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What are the most common \u201cfirst words\u201d spoken by little children? In the English-speaking world, \u201cMama\u201d and \u201cDadda\u201d head the list.  \u201cYes\u201d and \u201cno\u201d are close behind, followed by \u201chello\u201d and \u201cbye.\u201d  Then comes \u201ccat,\u201d which seems to confirm the reality that felines have now surpassed canines as America\u2019s most popular pet.  Farther Richard Rohr has an alternative thought.  The… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[302,301],"class_list":["post-975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gods-name","tag-yhwh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":977,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions\/977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}