Hephzibah. My delight!

My precious granddaughter’s name is “Hephzibah”. It’s a beautiful name but it isn’t simple and it isn’t convenient. When people first hear it, they want it re-pronounced, spelt, and explained. But the meaning is lovely: “my delight is in her”. Would every child know that their parents delight in them! God placed this name in Scripture (Isaiah 62:1-5) to let the people of God, the Israel of God, the Church, the Bride of Christ know that God will call us by a “new name” which expresses His delight in us as we grow ever closer to our wonderful LORD!

Names hold great significance in the Scriptures. Reading through Genesis, one will find over and over passages that explain why a child was thusly named. We read that God even changed people’s names. He changed Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah, adding His own Hebrew letter in there, (the English ‘H’). What a daily reminder of the covenant God had made with them! He also renamed Jacob, “Israel” meaning “Prince of God”. (Gen 32:28)

It is most important to know the Almighty God’s name. “God” is not a name, it is what He is, Creator and Supreme Being. But God reveals His name so that we can be in relationship with Him. To Moses, He revealed His name to be YHWH, “I AM THAT I AM”, always existing, not having a beginning. (Exodus 3:14) Elsewhere it is shortened to YAH, “I AM”. (Isa 26:3-4) Other passages reveal this “YHWH” in many of His relational aspects through many covenant names, “YHWH who heals”, “I AM Shepherd”, “YHWH Shalom” and others. Each name reveals a characteristic of our Almighty Creator that He welcomes His people to know Him as. But within the very name “YHWH”, He reveals Himself as the Self-Existent One and LORD. In the King James version, this name is represented by “LORD”, all letters capitalized. (I don’t know why they just didn’t keep “YHWH”!)

God declares “I, YHWH, that is my name; and My glory I will not give to another…” (Isa 42:8) “I, even I, am YHWH and besides Me there is no Savior! (Isa 43:11)

Yet also in the Book of Isaiah is the wondrous revelation of God’s incarnation:

“For unto us a Child is born, a Son is given…and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace…” (Isaiah 9:6)

That promised Child will be called “Jesus”  (“Yeshua” or “Yehoshua” in Hebrew)  meaning “Jehovah saved”. (Luke 1:31) This is the Promised Messiah, promised from the fall of man, to deliver man, to save him from sin, to redeem him from the curse, to bring him back into proper relationship with His Creator!

“Yeshua” or “Jesus” is the name that God has exalted to be “above every name”! (Philippians 2:9) If that verse means what it says, which I believe it does because God cannot lie, it means that the name of “Yeshua” (“Jesus” in English), is even above God’s other covenant names! Of course, you can’t know God as Shepherd, if He is not first your Savior. You can’t know God as SHALOM (Peace), if He is not first your Savior. And so Jesus said, “No man comes to the Father except through Me” for one must know the Almighty God first as the Savior Jesus Christ, and only then can we receive “the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’” (Romans 8:15) If you don’t have a relationship with YAH the Savior, who sanctifies you, how can you come into the Presence of the Holy Father?

Jesus, during His earthly ministry, declared “Before Abraham was, I AM.” What a blasphemous statement for anyone to make, if it were not true. But it is the truth! God Himself came down to earth and put on human flesh, to die the death due us for our sins. If you accept Him as “Yeshua”, as “Jehovah saves”, then you may know Him as His other names including “Emmanuel”, “God with us”.

This is the Good News: that God Himself descended to us as Yeshua the Messiah to lift us back up to Him! “And thus we shall always be with the Lord!” (1 Thes 4:17) HalleluYAH!

Call on the name above every name, knowing that His name reveals Him as both God and Lord! Call on the name of Yeshua! Call on the name of Jesus Christ!

PS: A “different” “Jesus” cannot save you! If you think you can have salvation in a “Jesus” who is not also “YHWH” and LORD, you are misled! A self-proclaimed “church” that does not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ is not preaching the Good News, but another gospel which is really no good news and so a misnomer! (2 Cor 11:3-4) (Gal 1:6-7) (2 Cor 11:14)