The Ineffable Name and the Promise of Belonging

  The Ineffable Name and the Promise of Belonging

When God appears to Moshe at the burning bush, it is a moment of revelation, and it is a moment of reintroduction.

Moshe asks a simple but daring question:

“When the people ask me Your name, what shall I say?”

God’s response is a name and a statement of being, of presence, of time itself.

God reveals the ineffable Name which is spelled with the four Hebrew letters: Yud–Heh–Vav–Heh.

This Name does not describe what God does; it describes who God is, and who God will always be. 

The sages teach that this Name holds all of time within it: He was, He is, and He will be. 

Past, present, and future collapse into one eternal reality. 

This is a God who transcends history, circumstances, empire, and suffering. God rules time itself.

And it is precisely this God who is beyond time, and limitation, who promises redemption.

In Egypt, the Israelites are crushed by slavery, stripped of identity, unable to imagine a future beyond survival. Redemption, therefore, must be more than escape. It must be a transformation of who they understand themselves to be, and who they understand God to be.

God promises redemption in four expressions, each one a step deeper into freedom.

“I will take you out.” This is the end of physical suffering, the breaking of the chains.

“I will save you.” This is liberation from oppression and fear, from the systems that dehumanize.

“I will redeem you.” This is restoration with strength, justice, and purpose. God does not merely free the people; God claims them.

And finally, the most intimate promise of all: “I will take you to Me as a people, and I will be your God.”

This is the culmination of redemption.

Not freedom from something but belonging to Someone.

God does not redeem them and then walk away.

Redemption ends in a relationship. A Covenant.

This final expression teaches us that redemption is not complete until we know who we are. We are not simply former slaves. We are God’s people. And God is not only the One who once rescued us; God is the One who is forever bound to us.

That is the power of the Name Yud–Heh–Vav–Heh.

It is the God who was with us in Egypt, who is with us now, and who will be with us in every future moment we cannot yet imagine.

A God not confined to miracles of the past, but present in every breath, every turning point, every redemption still unfolding.

To carry this Name is to live with the knowledge that we are never alone in time. 

Our story is held in eternity.

We are linked to God not only by memory, but by destiny.

God was. God is. God will be.

And we are always God’s people.

Much love

Elissa