YHWH Misgab

Names of God – part 37

The LORD my Fortress

YHWH is God’s actual name which he revealed to Moses from the burning bush, it implies the personal nature of God.

The second part of the name here is how God relates to us:

Misgab was a city in the country of Moab, east of the Dead Sea. My logical autistic brain here would take this to mean that God is like a foreign city, but Misgab is not all foreign cities, so here I have to abandon my hypothesis. Taking it literally or as a simile have let me down. It feels right to take this as either a metaphor or allegorical. Moab had an on/off relationship with Israel and Judah, its western neighbours, sometimes fighting alongside them, sometimes against them. It seems odd that the name of an often enemy city should be taken as one of God’s titles. But there was something significant about Misgab, its location and its architecture.

Misgab means high as an adjective. Misgab is a fortified city on a high hill, It is also fortified with an inner fortification or tower where people could run for safety if the outer defences were breached. The name of the LORD is a strong tower draws on the town planning of Misgab to show that God can be relied on to look after us if we run to him. God is the strongest defence we can have.