By My Name Yahweh I Was Not Known
Episodes 1-3 of 7
Has Anyone Ever Seen the Father?
The Bible's Own Answer - Episode 1
But, Who Is the Father? What is his name?
By definition, He is the Father of Jesus. Jesus Himself declared this many times. John 20:17 records Jesus telling Mary Magdalene, "I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God," distinguishing his unique relationship with the Father.
In Hebrews 1:1-2, we read, "God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son".
Here we see Father God has previously spoke throught prophets of the old testament. But, what is His name? Just a few verses later, in Hebrews 1:5, we see the Father saying to Jesus,
"You are my Son. Today have I become your father?"
It turns out that the author of Hebrews was quoting Psalm 2:7, which says,
"Yahweh said to me, You are my son. Today I have become your father."
So, what is the Father's name on the old testament? It is Yahweh. So, back to our original question, with more context:
Has Anyone Ever Seen Father Yahweh?
Yahweh said to Moses, "You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live." -Exodus 33:20. But why? Perhaps it is because, "all have sinned" and "your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you" -Romans 3:23; Issiah 59:2
In 1 Timothy 1:17, Paul referenced Father Yahweh as "the King eternal, immortal, invisible"
Invisible? Does that mean that Father Yahweh has no body or just that Humans are not able to see Him?
Jesus will answer a little later. but first, John said, "No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him." -John 1:18. But how did Jesus declare Him if no one has seen Him? Jesus has the answer: "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God. He has seen the Father." -- Jesus has seen the Father, so Father has a body to see. But no human other than Jesus has seen Him or can see Him.
I have quoted the words "God" and "Father" as if they are interchangeable. But are they?Paul answers that directly. In 1 Corinthians 8:6 he writes:
"...there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things..."
One God. The Father. Paul does not leave room for ambiguity — in the new testament, the title God belongs specifically to the Father.
Of Father Yahweh, Paul said He is "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see..." -1 Timothy 6:15-16.
Wait. Jesus is a man and He has seen His Father. How is that? Because Jesus is not just a man. He is also the only-born Son of God. -John 3:16.
Conclusion
Israel at Sinai heard a voice from fire. Abraham sat with visitors from Heaven at his tent. Jacob wrestled with God until dawn. Moses spoke with someone "face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." — Exodus 33:11
If the Father Yahweh has never been seen — if He cannot be seen and a person remain living — then who were they encountering?
Scripture has an answer, and it runs deeper than most readers expect.
What we can say with confidence here is this: Father Yahweh — dwelling in unapproachable light — has never stood before human eyes, other than His Son. Every visible encounter with God in the ancient record — Abraham's visitors, the voice from Sinai, the man who wrestled with Jacob — came through someone else.
Deuteronomy 4:12 reminds Israel of Sinai: "Ye heard the voice...but saw no similitude — only ye heard a voice." No form. No face. A voice only.
Father Yahweh remains, across all of scripture, the one no living person has ever seen.
Which raises the question that the next study is built to answer: if it was never the Father — then whose face, whose voice, whose hand was it?
Watch for, "The Angel Who Carried the Name" in the next couple days on Facebook.
The Angel Who Carried the Name
The Messenger of Exodus 23 - Episode 2
The Hebrew word translated "angel" in the following text is mălʼâk - meaning: "a messenger; specifically, of God, i.e. an angel (also a prophet, priest or teacher) - according to Strong's Hebrew Dictionary.
Israel has just been redeemed from Egypt. The law has been given at Sinai. And now Yahweh makes a promise about the journey ahead:
"Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Take heed of him, and hearken unto his voice; be not rebellious against him; for he will not pardon your transgression: for my name is in him." — Exodus 23:20–21
Read that final clause again. My name is in him.
This is not the language Yahweh uses for ordinary messengers. Angels throughout Scripture carry messages. They deliver words, execute judgments, and move on. They are never described as vessels of the divine name itself. That language appears here — and it changes everything about who this figure is.
What "My Name Is In Him" Actually Means
In the ancient world, a name was not merely a label. It was identity, authority, and legal standing compressed into a single word. To carry someone's name was to act with their full authority — not as a proxy, but as an authorized extension of the person themselves.
When Yahweh says His name is in this angel, He is not describing a title or a commission. He is describing a transfer of identity. This messenger does not merely speak for Yahweh — he bears Yahweh's own name as an intrinsic possession.
That is why the warning is so stark: "be not rebellious against him." Rebellion against this angel is rebellion against Yahweh Himself — not because the angel is a powerful servant, but because the name — and therefore the person — of Yahweh is present in him.
He Is No Ordinary Angel
The text drives this distinction further with a detail that is easy to miss: this angel has the authority to pardon or withhold pardon for transgression.
"He will not pardon your transgression." — Exodus 23:21
Forgiveness of sin is not a delegated administrative function. Throughout the Hebrew scriptures, the power to pardon belongs exclusively to Yahweh:
"Who can forgive sins but God alone?" — Mark 2:7, echoing the consistent Old Testament assumption
The fact that this angel has that authority — and can withhold it — is not incidental. It is a quiet but devastating indicator that this figure operates at the level of divine identity, not angelic office.
Just 3 verses later, look what Jesus said about Himself:
"the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive" — Mark 2:10
Who else could Yahweh's
The Son being monogenes (only-born-Jn3:16) and prototokos (firstborn-Col1:15) is critical. Being "born" is a biological process designed by the Creator — it is not a creative act like making a chair. Therefore:
- The Son shares the Father's nature (just as a human child shares their parent's nature). "His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance", " the image of the invisible God" -Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:15
- He existed before creation, being "the firstborn into the world" the agent of creation (Hebrews 1:2,6; Colossians 1:16)
- He is not a creature; He is Father Yahweh's own Son in the fullest, literal sense.
- The "firstborn of all creation" title in Colossians 1:15 denotes rank and inheritance priority over creation — not membership in the creation
The Same Figure Throughout Israel's History
This messenger does not appear only in Exodus 23. He is the consistent, recurring presence through whom Yahweh engages His people across the entire Hebrew narrative, You can see 50 verses where the angel of Yahweh appeared => http://sidnash.org/b/vDL
In every case, the pattern holds: the figure is called an angel, yet speaks as Yahweh, accepts worship as Yahweh, and exercises divine authority as Yahweh. The name is not borrowed for the occasion. It is his — because Father gave it to His Son - Jesus, our Messiah.
Who Was El Shaddai?
The One Who Appeared - Episode 3
Here is a question worth sitting with: if no one has ever seen the Father — and we established that plainly in week one — then who exactly were the patriarchs encountering?
Because the text does not leave us guessing. It tells us directly.
"I am Yahweh, and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai."
— Exodus 6:2-3
The Hebrew verb translated "appeared" is râʼâh in the Niphal stem — the passive or reflexive form. It does not mean someone caught a glimpse from a distance. It means the subject made himself visible. He presented himself. He showed up in a way that could be seen, spoken to, and physically encountered.
That one verb does a great deal of work.
The Father cannot be the one appearing.
We already know this. The Father has never been seen by anyone (John 1:18, John 5:37). His invisibility is not a limitation — it is simply his nature as the source, the sender, the one from whom everything originates. So when Exodus 6:3 says someone appeared to the patriarchs, the Father is already ruled out — not by theology, but by the Bible's own consistent testimony.
So who was appearing?
Meet El Shaddai.
In Genesis 17:1, Yahweh appears to Abram and introduces himself: "I am El Shaddai." In Genesis 18:1, Yahweh appears again to Abraham at Mamre — and this time Abraham sees three figures, speaks with them, and shares a meal. In Genesis 35:9, El Shaddai appears to Jacob and speaks a blessing over him.
These are not visions. These are not metaphors. The Niphal râʼâh in each case signals a visible, physical presentation of a divine agent.
And that agent has a name he uses: El Shaddai.
But there is a deeper layer to Exodus 6:3.
The verb "known" in the phrase "by my name Yahweh I was not known to them" is the Hebrew yada — a word that goes far beyond recognizing a label. Yada is the knowledge of intimate relationship, of understanding someone's inner nature and relational identity.
The patriarchs knew El Shaddai. They had seen him, spoken with him, received covenants from him. But they did not yet yada — deeply know — the one behind him. The origin. The sender. The Father whose name the Son carries.
That is the knowledge Exodus 6:3 says was not yet given.
Jacob felt it most acutely.
In Genesis 32, Jacob wrestles through the night with a figure he cannot overcome. At dawn, when he demands a blessing, the figure gives it — but refuses to give his name. Jacob is left limping, renamed Israel, saying:
"I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered."
He encountered the agent directly. Face to face — pânîym. And still he did not know the name, or the full identity behind it.
Hosea, reflecting on this same event, notes the wrestler was a messenger — a malʼak. Not the invisible source, but the sent one. And a messenger carrying the full authority of the one who sent him is no small thing — think less of an errand-runner and more of a judge speaking with the king's own voice.
The patriarchs knew this messenger as El Shaddai. What they did not yet know was whose name he carried, and why.
That answer comes in two parts.
Spoke 2 showed us that the Father placed his own name — Yahweh — inside this messenger explicitly (Exodus 23:21). The name was not the messenger's by origin. It was given, entrusted, inherited.
And in the weeks ahead, we will see how that inheritance works — and why it changes everything about how we read the burning bush.
Next time: "The Voice Behind Creation" — who is speaking when the world is called into existence?
How does that sit with you? Anything to tighten or adjust?
Maybe incorporate this:
"The Father's invisibility to sinful human beings is not arbitrary. Isaiah said it plainly — it is our iniquities that separate us from him, our sins that hide his face (Isaiah 59:2). Even in Eden, it was not the Father who hid from Adam. Adam hid from him. And when the Father acts through his Son to restore what sin destroyed, Revelation hints at something breathtaking: in the new creation, when sin is finally gone, they will see his face — perhaps even the Father's."