Over 3000 years ago God and Moses were talking. God was sending Moses on a big job to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. So Moses asked what God’s name was.
The answer in Biblical Hebrew comes out YHWH, what scholars term the Tetragrammaton (“four letters”). William Tyndale (in the 16th century) translated it as Jehovah, which people still use today.

Eventually the Hebrews stopped saying God’s name. Their respect was so great they refused to say the name. Knowing a name gave a power over the person. It still works today. Call someone’s name on the street and they stop and whirl around to look. The Hebrews felt no human had the right to do that to Almighty God.

Nowadays humans say God’s name, sing it and even swear it. God swearing has become so common society even has a short form used almost everywhere, OMG (“O my God”). What a contrast with the ancient thinking!

Cultural attitudes coincide with this language. People will “pray” and tell God what to do. They tell God what is in the Bible (that’s really funny when you think about it) and claim something from the Word and insist God perform. The ancients fell on their faces even to angels, and expressed real fear before God. Today we don’t even acknowledge the angels. What a contrast!

This attitude goes even further, which truly amazes me.

The Bible clearly states that we not make any image of God. “Never make your own carved idols or statues that represent any creature in the sky, on the earth, or in the water” (Exodus 20:4 God’s Word). Yet most people have an image of Jesus somewhere in their house. That includes people who believe Jesus is God and in church buildings. That breaking of the Second Commandment doesn’t even seem to bother anybody. “Everybody’s doing it”.

“Be humbled by God’s power so that when the right time comes he will honour you” (1 Peter 5:6 God’s Word).

O my God, Creator of heaven and earth, humble your people to bring honour to yourself. May we always look up to you, not across nor down on you. O my God, teach us to ensure our thoughts and words which do not show our obedience to You, love for our Saviour and submission to Paraclete stop on the inside of our teeth and never see the light of the outer world. AMEN.