TheName of Our God and What It Means

“Then Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the people of Israel and say to them ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, ‘What is His name’? what shall I say to them?’  God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’  Say this to the people, ‘I Am has sent me to you.’ God also said to Moses, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent Me to you.”  This is my name forever and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.’” –Exodus 3:13-15 (ESV).

The occasion was the call of Moses to be the deliverer of his people, the Israelites, long in bondage in Egypt.  The occasion was God’s getting the attention of Moses, tending his father-in-law Jethro’s flocks in the land of Midian near the mountain called Horeb.  An angel appeared to Moses in a flaming fire out of the midst of a burning bush.  By then, Moses’ attention was riveted on the bush that was not consumed, and from the burning bush the voice of God spoke to Moses, identifying Himself as the God of Moses’ forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the patriarchs of the nation that was now in bondage in Egypt.  God had a job for Moses to do.  He was to go to Egypt, a land he had left forty years before, and lead the Israelites out of bondage. Moses offered many excuses why he should not be the one for this massive undertaking.  But each excuse was aptly met by a convincing word from God followed by a sign that God would be with Moses. ..Moses anticipated that the people would ask, “What is the name of the God who has sent you here to deliver us?”  God told Moses to say, “I Am has sent me to you” (v. 14).

“I Am”  “Yahweh” is expressed in the four Hebrew consonants YHWH and all represent forms of the powerful Hebrew verb “to be.”  In our finite reasoning it is sometimes hard for us to comprehend the meaning of “I Am” as it applies to God.  First, we must try to comprehend that He is immutable, self-existent, not dependent on any entity for His own existence, He always was, always is, always shall be, past present and future.  He is “the same yesterday and today and forever” as noted in Hebrews 13:8.  All of these qualities of God—and more—even more than Moses or we can imagine is in His name, Yahweh.  “I will be with you,” God told Moses in Exodus 3:12.  And with that promise we begin to grasp some of the wonder, power and might of Almighty God, He who breathed and spoke and the Universe and all within it came into being is Omnipresent with each of us who recognize Him and invite Him to be a part of our lives.  Armed with this knowledge—after his arguments with the God of the Universe at the time of his call, Moses was finally persuaded at age 80 to heed God’s assignment for him, and he left Jethro’s flocks to return to Egypt and be the leader of one of the most remarkable and freeing enterprises in history—that of leading the people of Israel out of Egyptian bondage.  Was the task easy?  Certainly not.  Was it often frightening and intimidating?  Yes, indeed.  But “I Am—Yahweh” was true to His word and moreover He was with Moses as the otherwise impossible feat was accomplished.  How utterly amazing to think that the powerful God who called, commissioned and equipped Moses for his leadership role is the same God who speaks to us today and guides us in whatever it is He has called us to do!  I was talking with a dear person yesterday who awoke from a dream with a clear impression of a job she must do.  It was as if God had spoken to her in the dream to give her direction.  She is working faithfully to accomplish the task, and God s leadership is with her.  “I Am Who I Am!”  Listen to God.  He still speaks!