WHAT EXACTLY DOES "GOD" MEAN?

God’s name is a verb. This is no small thing.

In the context of the Ancient Near Eastern world from which the Hebrew Scriptures were written names meant something. They told you about the person. For example, Abram means exalted father. Yet, when God promised him he’d be the father of a nation his name changed to Abraham, meaning “Father of Multitudes.”

Names were more than something written on a nametag. They spoke toward your identity. Your essence. And God’s name? It’s a verb.

We learn this in Exodus 3 when Moses asks God his name. God’s replies, “I Am Who I Am.” And then he says his name is, “I Am.” And finally he says his name is, “YHVH.” These three names have the same root word in Hebrew that mean “to be” – which is a verb.

Much has been said about this name over thousands of years. Nahum Sarna writes, “… it expresses the quality of absolute Being, the eternal, unchanging, dynamic, presence.” God is that which causes all things to be.

God is the one who animates all things with divine, life-giving breath. The energy of God is what gives life to all things. God is the source from which all that is comes to be, and he holds all things together. Perhaps this is why some have said the name of God is the sound of breathing. The name teaches us God sustains all things. This has the power to shape the way we look at the world in which we live.

Because if all things flow from God, and all that is possesses the breath of God; then our world is far more connected, beautiful, sacred and blessed than we think.

Consider something you’ve put immense time, energy and effort into. Maybe it was a home project or a book or music or your career or a relationship. You put so much into it you may even have said, “I invested myself in that.”

Think about those words. You invested you into something else.

Maybe this is why we feel the sting of rejection so deeply when someone else fails to appreciate the work we’ve done. They not only criticize your work; they criticize you, because you cannot be separated from your work.

It’s the same with relationships. When I watch someone befriend my children my heart swells and breaks with joy. It goes the other way too. When someone is unkind or hurtful to my children my chest rips open and a hulking bear jumps out intending to do harm. Because my kids are not just another person, there is a part of me in each of them.

Which brings us back to our world that has the breath and life of God in it. Paul, in Acts 17, tells those listening, God gives “everyone life and breath and everything else.” All people have the breath of God within them.

Everyone.

Your enemies. The person who has caused you the most pain. The President you didn’t vote for. The really annoying guy two cubicles over at work. Men and women who were not born in this country that have moved here (legally or illegally). The newlyweds next door, whether they be gay or straight. The person who cuts you off and makes you slam on your brakes when you are on your way home after work. Your classmate who is rather odd.

And every single time we take a breath to speak about these people, every time we inhale to speak words that are kind or unkind,  favorable or unfavorable, tender or mean-spirited – we use the breath of God to do so and speak of those who possess the same breath. You see, we are not as different as we would like to think.

All men and women have been given the same breath. We all come from the same God. We are in his image. We are God’s kids. How do we know this? Because God’s name is a verb, which teaches us, he gives all people, in all places, in all times, life and breath and everything else.

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*This blog is an excerpt from a sermon given on Sunday, September 27, 2015 at Denver Community Church. Listen to the full teaching here.