“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”

Isaiah 55: 6-7

_____________

#####

Yahweh’s Name is Important

Yahweh is the One true Elohim. His Name sets Him apart from all the gods that men have created for themselves. Yahweh doesn’t want us to confuse Him with any of them.

Yahweh Declared His Name During the Exodus

One of the primary purposes of the Exodus was to give Yahweh the opportunity to declare His Name and His sovereignty to the world through Egypt, the world’s lone superpower at that time. He used the 10 plagues on Egypt to do it. Each of the plagues demonstrated Yahweh’s superiority over Egyptian gods:

Plague 1—Hapi (thought to be the spirit of the Nile) and Khnum (thought to be the guardian of the Nile).
Plague 2—Heqt (thought to have the form of a frog) and Hapi.
Plague 3—It’s not clear in this plague which Egyptian god Yahweh is mocking.
Plague 4—Uatchit (a god thought to appear as a fly).
Plague 5—Ptah (thought to be the creator), the Apis bull (thought to be the incarnation of Ptah), and sacred cows in general.
Plague 6—Sekhmet (a goddess thought to have healing powers) and Serapis (another god thought to have healing powers).
Plague 7—Seth (thought to be the protector of crops) and Nut (thought to be the goddess of the sky).
Plague 8—Isis (thought to be the goddess of life) and Seth.
Plague 9—Ra (thought to be the sun god).
Plague 10—Osiris (thought to be the giver of life) and Pharaoh (thought to be god on earth).

When Moses first approached Pharaoh to tell him to let Yahweh’s people go, Pharaoh refused, and he mocked Moses and Yahweh. Moses was dumbfounded, and he presumptuously told Yahweh,

“Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your Name, he has done harm to this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all.” (Exodus 5: 23)

Yahweh’s response to Moses is revealing. He simply told Moses to give the Children of Israel this explanation:

“I am Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your Elohim; and you shall know that I am Yahweh your Elohim, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a permanent possession; I am Yahweh.” (Exodus 6: 6-8)

In the first plague when He turned water into blood, Yahweh said,

“By this you shall know that I am Yahweh.” (Exodus 7: 17)

In the fourth plague when He afflicted Egypt with flies, Yahweh said,

“But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where My people are living, so that no swarms of insects will be there, in order that you may know that I, Yahweh, am in the midst of the land. I will put a division between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall occur.” (Exodus 8: 22-23)

In the seventh plague when He devasted Egypt with a hailstorm that involved fire and ice, Yahweh said,

“This time I will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth. For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth. But, indeed, for this cause I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power, in order to proclaim My Name [Yahweh] through all the earth.” (Exodus 9: 14-16)

In the eighth plague when He sent a massive swarm of locusts to consume plant life in Egypt, Yahweh said,

“Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am Yahweh.” (Exodus 10: 1-2)

When He drowned Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, Yahweh said,

“As for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. Then the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh….” (Exodus 14: 17-18)

Yahweh is deadly serious about His Name. That’s why Isaiah said,

“Give thanks to Yahweh, declare His Name, make His acts known among the peoples; declare that His Name is exalted. Make music to Yahweh, for He has acted with grandeur; make this known throughout the world. Exult and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel is great in your midst!” (Isaiah 12: 4-6)

The Worst Decision Ever Made

Thanks to what I think was the worst decision ever made, the correct pronunciation of Yahweh’s Name has been cloaked in mystery and confusion. In the mid-2^nd century BC following Greek occupation in Israel, rabbis decided that saying Yahweh’s Name should be forbidden. Ostensibly, they made that decision to prevent Jewish people from taking Yahweh’s Name in vain or from profaning His Name, but in effect, they reduced His Name to naught by taking it out of circulation, even though Yahweh commanded us to declare His Name to the world.

To enforce their prohibition, the rabbis declared that saying “Yahweh” was blasphemy and that the penalty for blasphemy was death. See Sanhedrin 7: 5:

One who blasphemes is not liable until he mentions the Name [and “blesses” the Name by the Name (i.e., “May X curse X”), it being written (Leviticus 24:16): “And he who blasphemes the Name … if he blasphemes the Name” — blaspheming the Name by the Name.] R. Yehoshua b. Karchah said: The entire day [of deliberation] they would examine the witnesses (to blaspheming) with an epithet (kinui) [A “substitute object” of a curse is called “kinui” by the sages; and, in Scripture (Job 32:22): “Ki loyadati achaneh” (“For I know now how to mince words.”)] — “May Yossi smite Yossi.” [I have heard that the Tetragrammaton is alluded to by “Yossi” for it (Yossi) has four letters, the gematria of which (86) is “Elokim.”] When the judgment was concluded [and beth-din came to pronounce him liableb], they could not execute him [on the basis of the testimony that they heard, for they had heard from their mouths only a curse] by epithet.] But everyone is sent out, [it being demeaning to utter a “blessing of the Name” in public], and they ask the senior witness (what he heard) and say to him: “Repeat what you heard explicitly,” and he does so. And the judges stand upon their feet, and they rend (their garments) and do not resew them [in a “finished” manner, with Alexandrine stitching, where the rent is not noticeable; but other stitching is permitted.], and the second witness says: “I, too, heard as he did.” [and he need not repeat it explicitly], and the third says: “I, too, heard as he did.” [This is in accordance with the view that just as two (witnesses) constitute one testimony, so do three.]

Also, see the English explanation of Sanhedrin 7: 5:

The blasphemer is punished only if he utters [the divine] name.

Rabbi Joshua b. Korcha said: “The whole day [of the trial] the witnesses are examined by means of a substitute for the divine name:, ‘may Yose smite Yose.”

When the trial was finished, the accused was not executed on this evidence, but all persons were removed [from court], and the chief witness was told, ‘State literally what you heard.’

Thereupon he did so, [using the divine name].

The judges then arose and tore their garments, which were not to be resewn.

The second witness stated: “I too have heard thus” [but not uttering the divine name], and the third says: “I too heard thus.”

Mishnah five deals with the blasphemer and the special circumstances of his trial.

With regards to the blasphemer the Torah states (Lev. 24:15): “Anyone who blasphemes his God shall bear his guilt. If he also pronounces the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death.” From these verses the Rabbis learned that the blasphemer was obligated for the death penalty only if he used God’s four letter name.

The problem with putting the blasphemer on trial is that when the witnesses testify and repeat what they heard, they too will be blaspheming God’s name. Although they certainly would not receive the death penalty for doing so, it was nevertheless seen to be unacceptable for even a witness to repeat what he heard, especially in a public trial. Therefore, during the court’s deliberation they used a code word, “may Yose smite Yose”. However, in order to complete the trial the witnesses needed to state what they heard explicitly at least one time. Therefore, at the end of the trial they would remove everyone from the court and only the witnesses and the judges would remain. They would then ask the eldest witness to say explicitly what he heard. So painful was it for the judges to hear God’s name being blasphemed that they would tear their clothes and not repair them. This was a typical sign of mourning. The remaining witnesses would not need to say exactly what they heard, thereby repeating the blasphemy. Rather they would merely say that they heard what the first person heard.

Sanhedrin 7: 5 is part of the Oral Law, a.k.a., Halacha and the traditions of the Jews, and according to Jewish tradition, the Oral Law has precedence over Yahweh’s Law. That sheds light on what took place when the Messiah was tried by the Sanhedrin:

Then the high priest [Caiaphas] tore his robes and said, “He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy; what do you think?” They answered, “He deserves death!” (Matthew 26: 65-66)

The Messiah said Plainly that He is Yahweh

There can be no doubt that the Messiah said He is Yahweh. John 8 is the best example of this:

John 8: 24—“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.”
John 8: 28—So Yeshua said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM….”
John 8: 58—Yeshua said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was existed, I AM.”

The meaning of Yahweh’s Name is “I AM” or “I EXIST”. So, the Messiah was telling them who He is by using the definition of the Name and not the Name itself. He avoided saying the Name until the right time. He knew from the beginning that He had to be convicted and sentenced to death for saying “Yahweh”, and He was. Thanks to gross ignorance about Halacha, few Jews and Christians know this.

Our Elohim’s Name is Yahweh

See the book His Name is Yahweh: Revised Edition and the website His Name is Yahweh.

The Messiah is Yahweh, and He is our Righteousness

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch. He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. This is His Name by which He will be called, ‘Yahweh our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23: 5-6)

Yahweh said that He is our Only Savior

“I, even I, am Yahweh. There is no savior besides Me.” (Isaiah 43: 11)

Something Big is in the Works Right Now

Something really big is in the works right now. It won’t make people forget about the Exodus, but it will cause the Exodus to take a backseat. Yahweh explained it to Jeremiah this way:

¹⁴ “Therefore behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ ¹⁵ but, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.”

¹⁶ “Behold, I am going to send for many fishermen,” declares Yahweh, “and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks. ¹⁷ For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes. ¹⁸ I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations.”

¹⁹ O Yahweh, my strength and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of distress, to You the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, “Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood, futility and things of no profit.”

²⁰ Can man make gods for himself? Yet they are not gods!

²¹ “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: 14-21)

As Yahweh said, this time He will make everyone know His power and His might, and everyone will know that His Name is Yahweh. The process is well underway already. Jewish people have started returning to the Promised Land, and descendants of the other Children of Israel are waking up to their identities. In due course, they will return, too. When the time comes, Yahweh will return and remove all doubt about who He is and what His Name is. You can count on it, because Yahweh will fulfill every promise He made to the letter. See Ezekiel 37, Ezekiel 38, and Ezekiel 39.

Keep these things in mind as global events unfold. They will help you understand what’s taking place in the spiritual realm. Yahweh is about to put on the greatest show that the world has ever seen. It will make the events of the Exodus look small by comparison. That is not my opinion. That’s what Yahweh said.

#####

_____________

#####

“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”

John 10: 14-18