The Name of God
In most English language translations of the Bible the name of God is rendered as LORD in all capital letters. This follows a Jewish
tradition that began some time after (most of or all of?) the Old Testament was written. The reason is that they do not want to risk "taking the name of the LORD in vain" in violation of one of the ten commandments.
I have a copy of the New Jerusalem version of the Bible which does not follow this convention but uses the divine name rendered as Yahweh. I like the version for this reason, though in other ways it does not seem the best.
You are probably wondering what possible difference this makes. For me, not having studied the issues all that much but going on my own gut feelings, as I tend to do most of the time, the issue is that God declared that Yahweh is His name and all through the Old Testament it was used. God is a person, not just some vague force. This person has a name, and His name is Yahweh. Now, I'm not about to become a Jehovah's witness over this, but when I read the Old Testament I usually change the word LORD to Yahweh in my mind as I read. Frequently the passages seem more personal and make more sense when I do that.
I found a web site this morning,
RESTORATION OF THE SACRED NAME, that deals with this in some detail. I have not read all or even most of the site, so I cannot recommend it totally. I do like some of the reasons listed there for using the Name of God, they are:
*To identify and accordingly exalt the bearer of this Name as the PERSONAL God of Israel and of the universe, as opposed to the general interpretation of a rather mystical, almost unidentifiable Being, as held by most religions.
*To proclaim and make known this Name unto the masses of believers who claim to follow Him but know not His Name - so that they may sanctify and praise His name that His Name may be honoured among the nations (Malachi 1:11; Isaiah 12:4).
*To conform with what may really be the more correctly interpreted instruction of Exod. 20:7 concerning the use of His Name: viz. "Do not make His Name worthless" "Lo tisah et Shem YHVH Eloheicha l'shav." By withholding the proclamation of His Name, we may well be guilty of "making His Name worthless."
*The Torah and Tanach ('Old' Testament) clearly records how Hebraic Patriarchs and Prophets actually proclaimed and pronounced the Sacred Name as a Testimony to non-Jews and non-believers and how His followers will come to know His Name and call upon Him, using this Name!Those all seem excellent reasons to me. But really the reason I do is because Yahweh is God and He told us his Name so it seems to make sense to use it now and again. I'm sure I'll be told by someone why I'm wrong :-)