“I AM WHO I AM…‘The LORD’…This is my name forever,

the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.”

Exodus 3:14-15

Names in biblical times were important. “I AM WHO I AM” proclaims the “eternity and self-existence of God”*. Plain and simple, that is who He is. The name by which He is to be known forever is ‘The LORD’, translated Yahweh. The Israelites considered Yahweh too holy to speak or write out in full.**  At least they started out with reverence and awe.

However, by Sinai God was forced to further clarify the intensity of His holy name:

“The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished” (Exodus 34:6-7).   

According to A.W.Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Holiness should be the first thing that comes to mind—holiness is the essence of God’s being. All other character traits fall “within the context of His perfect holiness.”***

There is no contradiction between His attributes. “He doesn’t suspend one to exercise another…but works in the total unity of His being.”*** Hence, because God is holy, God is compassionate and gracious; because He is holy, He is slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, forgiving, yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished.

Consider this the short list. God is the summum bonum. As St. Thomas Aquinas says: “all that is desirable he has and is in an infinite degree.” The human mind has to break His holiness down into each little character bite we can grasp. It will take a lifetime to understand His holy nature, but what a way to spend a lifetime.

Oh the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

From him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be the glory forever! Amen (Romans 11:33-36).

Nancy P

*Adam Clarke, Wordsearch online

**J.Vernon McGee, Wordsearch online

***Kathy Howard, Before His Throne, p.22

All Scripture quotations are from the NIV 1973, 1978, 1984, unless otherwise noted.