2. What did the commission of Moses mtan ? — The Israelites without faith could not come near to God. Sinful as they were, they could not, if they dared, behold the glory of God. They could not even behold the face of Moses when it shone with the radiance of God's glory; still less could they understand the revelation of God's loving, ever-abiding presence which He vouchsafed to His true servant. This, then, was the commission given to Moses first of all — to interpret God — in so far as he could understand and interpret the incomprehensible — to this faithless people.
% When the people of Israel crowded for the first time into the House of God which Solomon had reared, the king, on bended knees and with uplifted hands, exclaimed : " Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have builded." It is the spirit in which the Infinite should ever be approached by the finite. As no space can enclose Him, so no name can contain Him. Human speech, which can clothe the things of man in pompous attire, is poor, ragged, and beggarly when brought near the throne of God.
» C. 0. Edmunds.
EXODUS III. 13, 14 279
Even the holy angels, whose faculties have never been beclouded by sin, and who know the nearest and fullest revelations of God, bow before the Ineffable Unknown, the Unutterable One. Our words, then, which only glance superficially at earthly things and never reach their depths, how can they fitly describe or contain the Infinite, the Holy God, in whom is all fulness of perfection, whom we have never seen, and whom by faith alone we approach ? ^
3. To interpret God in any degree a name is necessary. — No name indeed can ever set God forth, yet some name we must have. Accordingly we revere the name of God as well as God Himself, and say: "Hallowed be thy name"; for though the name is only a name, as in any other case, yet it sets before us what no other name can — it sets before us a living God.
IT My father named me after Boardman, that dauntless hero who preceded Judson in missionary work among the Karens. When I was old enough I read the history of the struggles, sufferings, and achievements of that brave young man. His name, which I so unworthily bear, has been to my soul an abiding and unfailing inspiration. Luther, Calvin, Knox, Bunyan, and Carey were long ago gathered to their fathers ; but the power of their names is still invoked wherever Christian workmen need a higher courage, a steadier purpose, and a more fervent zeal. But there is a name above every name — a name which is reconstruct- ing our disordered planet, re-creating our fallen and ruined humanity, and which stands everywhere for the sweetest charities of earth, the synonym of the purest life, and the symbol of the highest civilization; a name which carries healing to the wounded, rest to the weary, pardon to the guilty, and salvation to the lost ; a name which makes the dark gateway of the tomb the portal to a temple resplendent with the glory of celestial light, where the music of golden harps by angels' fingers touched is ineffable and eternal.'
IL
The Meaning op the Name.
1. It is probable that the name Yahweh was not new to Moses or the Israelites. An entirely new name would have meant to them an entirely new God. It is extremely unlikely iR. V. Pryce. » J. B. Hawthorne.
28o THE ETERNAL NAME
that the name is of Babylonian origin. If the supposed traces of it in Babylonian literature are genuine, they only point to the introduction of foreign {i.e. Western Semitic) cults. Some maintain that the name is found as an element in early North Syrian proper names. But, if so, this only implies that the name became known to Semitic tribes other than the Israelites.
^ The ultimate etjmiology of the name is quite uncertain. The primary meaning of hawah was perhaps " to fall " (cf. Job xxxvii. 6, h'we', ? "fall thou"), which is found also in Arabic. Hence some explain " Yahweh " as " He who causes rain or lightning to fall " ; or " He who causes to fall (overthrows) by lightning ", i.e. the Destroyer. In this case Yahweh in primitive Semitic times would be somewhat equivalent to the Assyrian Adad or Eamman. It is quite possible that the name Yahweh may in the far past have had a physical meaning, and have been a product of nature-worship.^
2. Hebrew writings tell us much as to the character and attributes of the God of the Old Testament, yet the exact meaning which the writer of Ex. iii. 14 attached to the name Yahweh is far from clear. Yahweh, however, may be considered as (1) causative imperfect of hawah, " to be," which would express " He who causes to be " — either the Creator or the Life-giver, or " He who brings to pass " — the Performer of His promises. But an objection to this interpretation is that this tense of the verb is found only in late Syriac. (2) The ordinary imperfect of hawah, " to be." The Hebrew imperfect denotes either habitual action, or future action, and therefore can be translated either " He who is," or " He who will be." The name " He who is " represents to modern thought the conception of an absolute existence — the unchangeable, self-consistent, absolutely existing One. And this has been adopted by many writers both in ancient and modern times. But the early Hebrew mind was essentially practical, not metaphysical. Professor A. B. Davidson (in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, ii. 199'') says that the verb " does not mean 'to be ' essentially or ontologically, but phenomenally." He explains it as follows : " It seems evident that in the view of the writer 'ehyeh and yahweh are the same ; that God is 'ehyeh, ' I will be,' when speaking of Himself, and yahweh, ' He will be,* when spoken of by others. What He will be is left unexpressed — He will be