“Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—this time I will make them know My power and My might; and they shall know that My Name is Yahweh.” (Jeremiah 16: 21)
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Katie and I are traveling in Israel and gathering information for SnyderTalk. While we are there, I am posting excerpts from His Name is Yahweh in SnyderTalk.
The message in the book is important. Please take the time to read it.
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Without Faith We Are Dead
Yahweh’s creation changed dramatically when Satan deceived Eve and she and Adam ate fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil against Yahweh’s explicit instructions. Their sin forged a gulf between God and man that remains mankind’s most pressing problem and it was not simply eating forbidden fruit. They attempted to usurp Yahweh’s sovereignty and impose their own authority over God’s creation. This is something Yahweh will not allow. He will not relinquish sovereignty over His creation to anyone.
The Relationship between Yahweh and Satan
The relationship between Yahweh and Satan is very difficult to understand, but we know from God’s Word that Satan is mankind’s Adversary and Accuser. He is referred to in the Bible by many names. Each one of them describes him as a spirit bent on subverting Yahweh’s plan for mankind and preventing man from having intimacy with the Creator. Why God allows, and has allowed, Satan to exercise authority in His universe is a mystery, but from the third chapter of Genesis through the remainder of the Bible he is seen as the enemy of mankind and God’s opponent in a spiritual war that rages to this day.
Satan led a rebellion in heaven against Yahweh, and eventually he and his angels were defeated and thrown out. Ezekiel 28: 12-15 describes him before he rebelled:
“You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz, and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you.”[i]
Isaiah 14: 12-14 describes Satan’s sin that initiated the war in heaven between Yahweh and Satan and his angelic followers:
“How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”[ii]
Satan’s sin was pride. Take a close look at the “I will” statements in these verses from Isaiah. Satan wanted to take God’s place and for that he was thrown down to earth. He has been very active in the terrestrial realm since then, but Satan’s first attack on mankind occurred in the Garden of Eden.
Satan’s Deception and the Loss of Intimacy with Yahweh
Satan came to Eve in the Garden of Eden in the guise of a serpent and said, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”[iii] Eve quickly told him that they were free to eat from any tree in the Garden except the tree in the middle of the Garden—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then she explained that God told them, “You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.”[iv]
Clearly, Eve misunderstood Yahweh’s command. In Genesis 2: 17, He told Adam, not Eve, that if he disobeyed Him by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He would impose a death sentence on him. Stated another way, he would be “doomed to die” or he would “surely die,” but Yahweh did not say he would die immediately.[v] Adam must have told Eve about Yahweh’s warning, and it is obvious that her understanding was flawed because God said absolutely nothing about touching the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.[vi] Also, Yahweh gave Adam this command before He created Eve[vii] so it is reasonable to assume that Adam told her about it.
Satan knew exactly what Yahweh told Adam, and Eve’s misunderstanding of God’s command enabled him to deceive her and to perpetuate the lie that death is not the penalty for sin. Even today, when people disobey God and nothing happens to them immediately they think they are safe, but they are not safe. They are doomed to die unless they are redeemed. Someone must pay the price for our sins. Either we pay, or our Redeemer pays for us. It is just that simple.
Knowing that Eve misunderstood Yahweh’s explicit command, Satan said,
“You surely shall not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”[viii]
Eve thought the fruit looked very appealing, and the notion that she could be as wise as God was more than she could resist. She picked fruit from the tree, ate it, and offered Adam a bite. Their rebellion in the Garden of Eden set in motion a spiritual war between Yahweh and Satan for the souls of men and women and created a sin problem for mankind that only Yahweh can solve.
As I have said before, Yahweh would visit Adam in the Garden to walk and talk. Adam must have looked forward to God’s visits. He probably felt like a small child awaiting the arrival of his favorite grandparents. It is possible, even likely, that Adam would run up to Yahweh, hug Him tightly, and kiss Him. But after they ate the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve hid from God instead.
What a contrast. Before Adam sinned, he could hardly wait for Yahweh’s visits, but afterwards he could not bear the thought of seeing Him. Why? Because he knew he had made a mistake—a big one. He had sinned against God, and he knew it. He was ashamed of himself, and he must have thought that by hiding from Yahweh his guilt and shame would simply disappear—the way a child thinks.
Adam’s sin destroyed the intimacy he had with Yahweh, and only he was responsible. Yes, Eve took the first bite, but Adam was responsible. According to Genesis 3: 6, he was right there beside Eve while she was talking with Satan. His inaction at that critical moment made him responsible for the problem mankind has been dealing with since that day—rebellion against Yahweh.
Take a look at this exchange between God and Adam and Eve and see if it does not remind you of a father talking with his children. Yahweh knew what Adam had done, and He knew that Adam was hiding, but He asked, “Where are you?”[ix]
Adam replied,
“I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”[x]
Then God asked,
“Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”[xi]
Since God knew what Adam had done, He was simply trying to get him to admit his mistake and accept responsibility, but as a child does, Adam made excuses instead. He said,
“The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”[xii]
In other words, Adam was telling Yahweh that He was ultimately responsible for the problem because He gave the woman to him, and she offered him the fruit. The fact that he disobeyed God and ate the fruit was beside the point. Is this not exactly the way a child thinks?
Then God turned to Eve and asked,
“What is this you have done?”[xiii]
She replied,
“The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”[xiv]
Eve behaved like a child as well. In her mind, she was not responsible because the serpent told her the fruit was good. It did not matter to her at that moment that she ate the fruit so she could be as wise as Yahweh.
Adam and Eve denied responsibility for destroying the intimacy they had with Yahweh, and both of them were wrong. They were responsible for creating the gulf between God and mankind, even though Satan tempted them, and Adam was ultimately responsible, as I explained earlier. Although Adam and Eve created the problem, only Yahweh can repair the damage they did.
God Acts to Restore the Lost Intimacy
Yahweh desires to have an intimate, personal relationship with each and every one of us. That is why He created us in the first place. God did not create man to obey rules. He gave us the Law to teach and guide us, but obeying His Law is not our end goal. Our objective is to have intimacy with Yahweh. He loves us and yearns to enjoy the same kind of relationship with us today that He had with Adam before he sinned. If you are not experiencing close, personal fellowship with God, then you need to examine yourself carefully to find out what the problem is.
Our lack of intimacy with Yahweh is not His problem, so resist the temptation to lay the blame on Him the way Adam did. Blaming Him only hurts you because you cannot find God by blaming Him for something He did not do. He stands ready right now to enter into an intimate relationship with you, but you must come to God the way He directs or you will not find Him. In the truest sense of the word, He is as close to you as He can possibly be—literally right at your door, but if you do not approach Him the way He intends you will never find Him.
Earlier, I said that Yahweh is holy and that for us to enter into a personal relationship with Him we must be holy too. You will recall that Moses was ready to approach God directly when the Children of Israel reached Mount Sinai, but everyone else had to prepare to meet Him. They had to wash their clothes and spend two days getting ready. Exactly what did God count on them doing during those two days? He expected them to do what He wants us to do today—turn their hearts toward Him and seek Him with all their hearts.
Deuteronomy 4: 29 says,
“Seek Yahweh your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.”[xv]
We must seek Yahweh, but we must do it with all our heart and all our soul. Regrettably, that is not the way many people seek Yahweh. God wants us to have a burning desire to know Him, and then He reveals Himself to us in a close, personal way.
Be honest with yourself and think for a moment about the way many people seek God. For many of them, it is a once a week activity at best. On Sunday Christians head for church and on Saturday Jewish people head for synagogue, and religiously they take their seats. Someone (a preacher, a rabbi, a song leader, or maybe an elder) stands in front of the congregation and reads from a script, and they dutifully follow along by doing whatever they are told to do. Some congregates are prepared before they arrive, and they are actually seeking Yahweh. But others are not ready, and they are simply going through the motions.
They stand up. They sit down. They read a verse from the Bible. They sing a song. They go through a well-rehearsed routine, and they call it worship—seeking Yahweh. But they are not seeking Yahweh with all their heart and all their soul, and Yahweh is under no obligation to reveal Himself to them.
Many congregates are simply engaging in religious activity, and God never once promised that He would honor religious activity. In fact, He said just the opposite in Isaiah 29: 13-14:
“Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for me consists of tradition learned by rote, therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be concealed.”[xvi]
These verses make it clear that Yahweh hated their religious activity because it was not what He desired, and He punished them for it. He aimed His remarks primarily at the religious leaders, the priests, since they should have known better. They were leading the people astray, and in effect they were mocking Yahweh seeing as they must have thought that He did not know, or worse, that He knew and did not care. Through Isaiah, Yahweh was telling them to wake up and do right or suffer the consequences.
God will not honor our religious activity unless we are worshipping Him with all our heart and all our soul. In fact, it offends God when we simply go through the motions and call it worship. Yahweh wants our hearts and souls, and He knows that if we give them to Him our attitudes and actions will come into proper alignment with His will.
I used the word “obligation” earlier, and that is exactly what I intended to say. God made a promise. If we seek Him with all our heart and all our soul, then He will reveal Himself to us. In a literal sense, God is obligated to reveal Himself to us if we seek Him the way He directs because He said He would, and Yahweh cannot lie. But He does not do it out of duty or obligation. He does it because He loves us and because He wants to have an intimate relationship with us. Try Him and see for yourself.
The Bible says a great deal about seeking God in a way that will glorify His Name and be rewarded. Below are a few examples:
- “Oh give thanks to Yahweh, call upon His Name; make known His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; speak of all His wonders. Glory in His holy Name; let the heart of those who seek Yahweh be glad. Seek Yahweh and His strength; seek His face continually.”[xvii]
- “…for Yahweh searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.”[xviii]
- “If…My people who are called by My Name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”[xix]
- “Yahweh is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.”[xx]
- “And those who know Your Name will put their trust (faith) in You, for You, O Yahweh, have not forsaken those who seek you.”[xxi]
- “Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; let those who love Your salvation say continually, ‘Yahweh be magnified!’”[xxii]
- “How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, who seek Him with all their heart.”[xxiii]
From these verses, it is clear that seeking Yahweh the way He desires is not a once-in-a-while thing, and it is not something we are supposed to do only in church or in synagogue. Yahweh instructed us to seek Him continually with all our heart and all our soul. Continually means all the time—literally all day every day. Yahweh should always be on our minds and never far from the front of our minds. That is what seeking Yahweh means, and when we seek Him that way He will let us find Him. If you catch yourself constantly thinking about Yahweh, rejoice. He will honor you for it because that is exactly what He desires.
Yahweh is speaking today, and we can hear His Voice if we will just seek Him and listen. Listening begins when we read His Word and obey Him. Prayer is also a form of listening because God talks with us while we pray. Over time, if you read God’s Word and pray earnestly seeking Him, you will learn to recognize His Voice. When you obey His Voice, His blessings will flow.
It has been said, and it is absolutely true, that faith is a gift from Yahweh. Similarly, seeking Yahweh is a gift from Him because the desire to seek and know Him comes from Him. If you feel Yahweh tugging at your heart and drawing you to Him, then you should do what Moses did when he met Yahweh at the burning bush. You should respond by coming close to Him and allowing Him to reveal Himself to you.
His Name is Yahweh: It explains why God’s Name is so important. It’s available in eBook format and in paperback. It’s also available for free in PDF format.
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His Name is Yahweh, the website, is a companion of the book His Name is Yahweh.
To see videos that explain the importance of God’s Name, click here.
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“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17: 22-24)
See “His Name is Yahweh”.
[i] Ezekiel 28: 12-15.
[ii] Isaiah 14: 12-14.
[iii] Genesis 3: 1.
[iv] Genesis 3: 3.
[v] The New Jerusalem Bible, Doubleday, New York, 1985, p. 19. Also, see Scherman, Rabbi Nosson, The Stone Edition Tanach, The ArtScroll Series®, Mesorah Publications, Brooklyn, New York, 1996, p. 6.
[vi] Genesis 2: 17.
[vii] Genesis 2: 21-22.
[viii] Genesis 3: 4-5.
[ix] Genesis 3: 9.
[x] Genesis 3: 10.
[xi] Genesis 3: 11.
[xii] Genesis 3: 12.
[xiii] Genesis 3: 13.
[xiv] Genesis 3: 13.
[xv] Deuteronomy 4: 29.
[xvi] Isaiah 29: 13-14.
[xvii] 1 Chronicles 16: 8-11. The Hebrew word translated as “call upon” in verse 8 is qara, and it has several meanings. The Tanach interprets verse 8 as saying “declare His Name” instead of “call upon His Name.” It could be interpreted “invoke His Name” as well. No matter how it is interpreted, we are commanded to declare, to call upon, and to invoke the Name “Yahweh.” Both the Tanach and the Christian Old Testament make this point repeatedly.
[xviii] 1 Chronicles 28: 9.
[xix] 2 Chronicles 7: 14.
[xx] 2 Chronicles 15: 2.
[xxi] Psalm 9: 10.
[xxii] Psalm 40: 16.
[xxiii] Psalm 119: 2.
