The Name

“This Is My Name Forever”: God’s Self-disclosure (Exodus 3:15)

August 24, 2011

In our modern world, a person’s name can be merely a label of identification; it does not reveal anything about the person.  Biblical names, however, have their background in the widespread tradition that the personal name gives significant information about the one who bears it.  The Old Testament consistently celebrates God’s making his name known to Israel, and the psalms again and again direct praise to God’s name (Ps. 8:1; 113:1-3; 145:1, 2; 148:5, 13).  “Name” here means God himself as he has revealed himself by word and deed.  At the heart of this self-revelation is the name by which he authorized Israel to invoke him, commonly rendered “the LORD” (for the Hebrew YHWH or Yahweh, as modern scholars pronounce the word)!

At a very early date in Jewish history, it came to be regarded as too sacred to pronounce YHWH so pious readers avoided pronouncing it by substituting for it the word adonay, meaning “my Lord.”  When the Masoretic scholars began to supply the vowels of adonay to the consonants of YHWH, God’s name was still pronounced adonay to avoid saying Yahweh.  During the Protestant Reformation, however, an attempt to transliterate this hybrid resulted in “Jehovah” since “Y” was missing from the German language and the name has remained even though it is clearly a mispronunciation of YHWH.

God declared this name to Moses when he spoke to him out of the bush that burned steadily without being consumed.  God first identified himself as the God who had committed himself in covenant to the patriarchs (Gen 17:1-14); then, when Moses asked him what God’s name was (the ancients assumed that prayer would only be heard if its addressee was named correctly), God answered first “I AM WHO I AM,” then shortened it to “I AM.”  The name in all its forms proclaims his eternal, self-sustaining, self-determining, sovereign reality.  This is the same supernatural mode of existence that the sign of the burning bush had signified (Ex. 3:2).

Given the polytheism and pantheism of the surrounding Egyptian culture, it was essential to know the identity of the one true God.  Further, in ancient cultures, to know the name of someone was to know something very essential about the person.  Though Moses is apparently not familiar with God’s name, this does not mean that the personal name of God was unknown to the Hebrews prior to Moses; it may have meant that the name had been lost or had fallen into disuse during the centuries of slavery in Egypt, or that the name had not been used extensively or fully understood before this time.

At the pinnacle of Egyptian power, YHWH chose Egypt and her god-king Pharaoh as instruments to demonstrate his sovereign power over her land and her gods and Moses is chosen as Yahweh’s Messenger and Redeemer. 

Exodus and the Promise of God

Over the course of the next 10 weeks I have asked Fred Schuller (Papa Fred) to write at least one entry a week on the Exodus story.  Here's the first one and as usual Fred did not disappoint.

Musings on Exodus by Papa Fred (August 16, 2011)

When you think of Exodus, the subject of the burning bush, or the plagues, or the Red Sea is often the focus.  As we begin our study, I would like to challenge each of you to search beyond the obvious and look at this awesome book as a bridge to New Testament theology and the very foundational tenets of our Christian doctrine.  A little background work and look at the story of Joseph as the context of Exodus is necessary because that is how the book of Genesis ends.  Exodus, however, begins by reminding us of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob.

I would like to provoke you to go even further back to Genesis 15 and take a look at Joseph’s great grandfather Abraham to position our context.  You all know the story, God promises Abram an heir and in Genesis 15:5-6, God takes him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.”  Then he said to him, “so shall your offspring be.”  And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Before I continue the story, look at what God has done.  He has justified Abram by faith some 2000 years before the Cross.  The Apostle Paul wrote of this declaration in Romans 4:3 some 1500 years before Luther resurrected the doctrine of Justification by Faith during the Protestant Reformation.  So Genesis 15:6 is a theological bridge that states Abraham was justified by faith, just like we are.  God took his own righteousness and credited it to Abraham as if it were actually his.  This God did because Abraham believed in him.

Furthermore, Galatians 3:8-9 states that, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”  So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.  That’s us boys and girls.  God is preaching the gospel some 3500 years before the cross and including us Gentiles in the blessing of Abraham.  Wow, that is the good news.

God also reveals himself as a Covenant keeping Sovereign Providence in the words of Genesis 15:12-14.  “As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram.  And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.  Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.  But I will bring judgment on the nation that they will serve, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.”  The story of Exodus is not some random act of history, but the Sovereign act of a Covenant keeping God who ordained all the events of the story for our good and his glory.  It is not just a narrative of the Hebrew people, but a picture of redemption and how the great “I AM” intervened in history to save his people.

In a similar manner, Jesus Christ stepped into history in the cosmic invasion of the Incarnation to save his people.  Galatians 3:13-14 reminds us, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us-for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree-so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”  So, as we begin this whirlwind journey through Exodus, look back to the great “I AM” as the cause agent and look ahead to the Cross as the God-Man Jesus ultimately redeems us as the Son of Man and personification of the great “I AM.”

August in Athens

August in Athens is one of the most amazing things on the planet. In the span of just a few days a relatively quite town explodes with an electric level of activity. Parking spaces are hard to find and the local grocery stores are packed. And you can smell college football in the air.

Most of you reading this will fall into one of three categories:

• you spent your summer in Athens
• you just got back into Athens from a summer of adventure/work/or you can't talk about it
• you are just now arriving in Athens as a student

No matter your status we want to welcome you! This is an amazing stage of life for you and we want to help you build your life around something that matters. This fall our college ministry is going to be focused on four things:

• The Word
• Community
• Service
• Living Sent

Over the course of the next few weeks you'll here more about all four of these areas but for now just get your stuff unpacked, go to Kroger and stock up on Ramen noodles, meet some new people, and plan to be at College Bible Study this Sunday @ 9:30 am in the basement at WFBC.

Get directions to the church here.

See Ya Sunday, Go DAWGS!