Major Themes
Names of God
The series begins with a provision and ends with a presence — and that is the shape of the whole Bible in six words — and one name behind all of them
Behind all of them is the personal name given to Moses at the bush: YHWH — Yahweh — which carries the sense of being, of life itself: I am that I am. We can only say I am because of Him. Each covenant name below is that name joined to something He had just proved to be.
Six names the text actually gives
| Infinite SupplyYahweh Jireh — “Yahweh Will Provide” | A ram caught in a thicket, provided instead of the death of Isaac — on the mountain where it would one day be provided again. Genesis 22:14 |
| The HealerYahweh Rapha — “I, Yahweh, am your healer” | Bitter water made sweet by a tree thrown into it — a tree that had been standing there for fifty years. Exodus 15:26 |
| God the IntercessorYahweh Nissi — “Yahweh is My Banner” | The battle against the Amalekites, won on a hill by a man with his hands held up rather than in the valley by the army. Exodus 17:15 |
| The God of PeaceYahweh Shalom — “Yahweh is Peace” | Gideon, terrified after meeting the angel of the LORD, is told he will not die — and builds an altar to peace before the battle, not after it. Judges 6:24 |
| Living in RighteousnessYahweh Tsidkenu — “Yahweh our righteousness” | A name for the coming King, given to a nation one king away from losing its throne. Jeremiah 23:6 |
| The God Who Is ThereYahweh Shammah — “Yahweh is there” | The last verse of Ezekiel, and the last of the covenant names: a city whose entire name is the presence of God. Ezekiel 48:35 |
Read them in order and they tell the story
They are not six unrelated attributes. They arrive in the order a people would need them, and they arrive at moments of trouble — a knife raised over a son, undrinkable water, an ambush, a frightened farmer, a dynasty about to end, a city in ruins.
He provides. He heals. He fights. He gives peace. He is our righteousness. He is here. The first is given on a mountain in Genesis; the last is the closing line of Ezekiel, spoken over a city that had just watched His glory leave. The series begins with a provision and ends with a presence — and that is the shape of the whole Bible in six words.
A note on the names
Six pages on this site are built on a name — Yahweh Will Provide, Yahweh is My Banner, Yahweh is Peace, and the rest. They are here for one reason: the text gives them. Somebody in the story names something after what God just did.
Look at what actually gets named, though, because it is not what you would expect. Abraham names a place. Moses names an altar. So does Gideon. Jeremiah is given the name of a coming king. Ezekiel is given the name of a city. Not one of these is presented as a title for God to be collected with others. Each is a marker somebody drove into the ground where something happened, and every one of them says the same kind of thing: this is what He turned out to be, here.
That is why these pages are not gathered into a chapter of their own. The story is where the name means anything, so each one sits where it happens and you meet it there.
You will see these called “the seven covenant names” elsewhere, arranged as a set. I have not done that, because Scripture does not. Where the text names something, there is a page. Where it does not, there isn’t.