Deeper Dive
God's Integrity
“When God tells Moses His name so Moses can tell who sent him to the Israelites in Egypt, God says, “I AM Who I AM.” “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.” Who Moses knew as God (‘ĕlōhîm) now reveals Himself as I AM. Doesn’t sound so profound in English but “I AM” is written YHWH in Hebrew with each letter corresponding to the past, present and future tenses of the Hebrew verb for “to be”. This name is so sacred in Hebrew that it would not be spoken. In English Bibles you will find Yawheh translated as Lᴏʀᴅ.
The true sense is that God is continuing and unchanging in character and nature. YHWH does not change His nature, His character, His values. He is abidingly True to Themselves.”
Many years ago I had the privilege of sitting under the teaching of Jack Hayford and remember so many of the examples he used to explain word meanings in the Bible. One such word was “Integrity”. In a teaching about integrity he used the text where Jesus is teaching in Matthew 6:22-24,
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and [stuff].”1
In Greek the word “healthy” is haplous which translates healthy, clear, single, fulfilling its purpose or office; the root of the word was a trade term for a particular way of folding fabric in the market which revealed the true nature of the piece being offered. The contrary was a folding that concealed flaws from the person viewing so as to not disclose, to deceive. In English this is the idea of clarity or integrity of what is viewed. Our word “integer” is for a whole number and integrity carries that meaning of being exactly what is represented, not deceiving. The idiom follows through in the ‘not serving two masters’ as while it may appear you can, in the unseen it is impossible to have fidelity to both.
We are encouraged to live with this integrity, “Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.”2
When God reveals His name as Elohim — I AM, YHWH — part of the meaning is that He is precisely, exactly as He says, nothing different. He is disclosing all that needs be known about Himself, that He transcends definition and yet is fully God. He is Whole, Distinct, Separate, not created but Creator and He is wholly involved — nothing less. There is nothing that God says about Himself that is not True. He is not concealing what we need to know about Him.
Yes, many have questions about the unrevealed and more have speculated but reasoning what God ‘must’ be like apart from His specific revelation probable will turn out to be a ‘folding to conceal’ His truth.
FOOTNOTES:
1 Matthew 6:22-24 (ESV) – https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/mat/6/22-24/s_935022
2 Titus 2:7,8 (ESV) – https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/tit/2/7-8/s_1131007