Although the most common last...
Illustration
Although the most common last name in America is Smith (about two and a half million of them), the most common name in the world is Chang. In consideration that about ten percent of the people in China bear the name, it is most likely there are in excess of eighty million Changs. It will, perhaps, come as a surprise that the most common first name in the world is Mohammed.
In biblical times, names were understood to be of supreme importance, because they not only served to identify, but expressed the essential nature of the person, place, or thing being named. To know a person's name was to possess a certain power over the person.
Understandably, there is a pronounced hiddenness about the name of God in the Scriptures. God is but a name we use to refer to that which we cannot name. Oh, to be sure, there are "names" enough in the Scriptures — El (power), Elohim (inclusive "plural"), El Shaddai (God of the mountains), and at least seven other appellations of El. Yahweh (God of Hosts), Adonai (Lord, and Jehovah (a sixth century substitute for Yahweh) are other familiar names. No name, however, manages to gather in the fullness of the one whose nature and function are limitless.
The "I am who I am" just IS!
In biblical times, names were understood to be of supreme importance, because they not only served to identify, but expressed the essential nature of the person, place, or thing being named. To know a person's name was to possess a certain power over the person.
Understandably, there is a pronounced hiddenness about the name of God in the Scriptures. God is but a name we use to refer to that which we cannot name. Oh, to be sure, there are "names" enough in the Scriptures — El (power), Elohim (inclusive "plural"), El Shaddai (God of the mountains), and at least seven other appellations of El. Yahweh (God of Hosts), Adonai (Lord, and Jehovah (a sixth century substitute for Yahweh) are other familiar names. No name, however, manages to gather in the fullness of the one whose nature and function are limitless.
The "I am who I am" just IS!
