"Therefore my people will know my name...."
What does it mean to know the name of God? There are all kinds of lengthy studies, even books, on the subject of knowing God's name. Scholars have a field day on this one (And it's good there is something to keep the scholars busy and away from the rest of us...pardon my soapbox). One site I looked at said there were more than 600 names for God in the Bible. This list includes names for Christ as well since He is God the Son. One even suggested, and I agree, that we don't know the true name of God because the names we ave are descriptions or titles.
FYI, God isn't God's name. It's what He is. Like we're people. God is God, but that's not His name. In fact, the name He gives Moses at the burning bush when Moses asks who will he tell the Egyptians sent him, God responds simply: I Am. And, from this, get the name Yaweh. But basically it means my name is the fact that I exist. So you really have to wonder whether God's real name is ever revealed in scripture. Or if He has a name as we understand names?
And why does He really need one? Names are meant to help us distinguish one person from another. Since God is totally one of a kind and the only being in His category, He doesn't need a monicker to distinguish Himself. In fact, this lack of a name sets him apart from the other manmade and so man-named gods.
Names in the Jewish tradition were sort of shorthand for who a person was and so Esau's name means "hairy" and Lo-Ruhamah's (Hosea's son) name means "not loved" (how would you like to grow up with that one? Cash's Boy Named Sue has nothing on Lo-Ruhamah.). So how do you encapsulate God in a one word name, even a first, last and middle name, the being of God? You can't. No name can adequately quantify or encompass a God like no other.
I like we have a God that has no name. The unknown God as Paul tells the people of Athens.
Perhaps knowing God's name is simply a metaphor for being in relationship with Him. To know God's name is to know Him so well you're on a first name basis with Him...even if He doesn't have one. Maybe it's trying to know Him so completely and thoroughly that you would come close to having a name for Him. And maybe...there are those to whom He has truly revealed His name, His one true name. And words and the earth and the human heart cannot contain it.
Lord knows.
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