Chapter 4
God Has a Name
WHAT is your name?— You have a name. So do I. The first man on earth had a name. God called him Adam. The first woman was named Eve. Every man, woman and child has a name.
Look up at the many, many stars at night. Do you think they have names?— Yes, God gave a name to each star in the sky. The Bible tells us: “He is counting the number of the stars; all of them he calls by their names.”—Psalm 147:4.
People and stars all have names. So do you think that God has a name?— The Great Teacher said that he does. He once said in prayer to God: ‘I have made your name known to my followers.’—John 17:26.
Do you know God’s name?— God himself tells us what it is. He says: “I am Jehovah. That is my name.” So God’s name is JEHOVAH.—Isaiah 42:8.
Do you like it when others remember your name?— People like to be called by their name. And Jehovah wants people to know his name too. So we should use the name Jehovah when we talk about God.
The Great Teacher used God’s name Jehovah when he spoke to people. One time he said: “You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart.”—Mark 12:30.
Jesus knew that “Jehovah” is a very important name. So he taught his followers to use God’s name. He even taught them to speak about God’s name in their prayers.
Long ago God showed the importance of his name to the man Moses. Moses was one of the sons of Israel. The sons of Israel lived in a land called Egypt. The Egyptians made the sons of Israel slaves and were very mean to them. When Moses grew up, he tried to help one of his people. This made the king of Egypt angry. He wanted to kill Moses! So Moses ran away from Egypt.
Moses went to another land. It was the land of Midian. There he worked as a shepherd, taking care of sheep. One day he saw an amazing thing. A thornbush was on fire, but it was not burning up! Moses went closer to take a better look.
Do you know what happened?— Moses heard a voice from the middle of that burning bush. The voice called, “Moses! Moses!”
Who was saying that?— It was God speaking! God had a big work for Moses to do. God said: ‘Come and let me send you to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and you bring my people the sons of Israel out of Egypt.’ God promised to help Moses.
But Moses said to God: ‘Suppose I come to the sons of Israel in Egypt and say to them that God sent me. What if they ask me, What is his name? What shall I say?’ God told Moses to tell the sons of Israel: ‘Jehovah has sent me to you. Jehovah is my name forever.’—Exodus 3:1-15.
This shows that God was going to keep the name Jehovah. God wanted to be known by the name Jehovah forever.
Moses went back to Egypt. The Egyptians there did not really know Jehovah. They thought that he was just a small god of the sons of Israel. The Egyptians did not think that Jehovah was the God of the whole earth. So Jehovah told the king of Egypt: ‘I am going to make my name known in all the earth.’—Exodus 9:16.
Jehovah did make his name known in all the earth. He had Moses lead the sons of Israel out of Egypt. And people in all the earth soon heard about Jehovah.
Today many people are just as those Egyptians were. They do not believe that Jehovah is the God of the whole earth. So Jehovah wants his people to tell others about him. This is what Jesus did.
Do you want to be like Jesus?— Then tell others that God’s name is Jehovah. You will find that many persons do not know that. So perhaps you can show them the scripture in the Bible at Psalm 83:18. Let’s get the Bible right now and find that scripture together. It says: “That people may know that you, whose name is Jehovah, you alone are the Most High over all the earth.”
“Jehovah” is the most important name there is. It is the name of the One who made all things. And remember, Jesus said that we should love Jehovah with our whole heart. Do you love Jehovah?—
How can we show that we love him?— One way is to tell others his name Jehovah. We can also tell them about the wonderful things that he has done. This will please Jehovah, because he knows that people need to know about him. We can have a share in doing that, can’t we?—
Not everyone will want to listen when we speak about Jehovah. Many people did not listen even when Jesus talked about Him. But that did not stop Jesus from speaking about Jehovah.
So let’s be like Jesus. Let’s keep talking about Jehovah. If we do, Jehovah God will be pleased with us because we show love for his name.
(Now read together from the Bible a few more texts showing the importance of God’s name: John 17:26; Isaiah 12:4, 5; Romans 10:13.)