Name of God Image

 

 

01_20_2019_TheNameOfGod_DonRuhl

 

 

The Name of God

Exodus 3.13–15

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • January 20, In the year of our Lord Christ, 2019

Persuasion:

  1. God and Moses
    1. Exodus 3 shows God recruiting Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt.
      1. First, Moses questioned who he himself was
        1. that he should go to Pharaoh and
        2. bring Israel out of Egypt.
      2. God said that He would be with Moses,
        1. showing that Moses did not have to be concerned about his identity.
        2. God had already said that He was
          1. the God of Abraham,
          2. the God of Isaac, and
          3. the God of Jacob.
            1. Even as God was with the patriarchs,
            2. so He would be with Moses.
      3. Then Moses came up with another objection.
        1. He took what God had said about being the God of their fathers and
        2. assumed that would not be enough:

          13 Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, What is His name? what shall I say to them?” 14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.” 15 Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: The LORD 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 this is My memorial to all generations” (Exodus 3.13–15).

          1. As you may know, Moses continued with his objections.
          2. He did not want to do what God said.
            1. He had tried to help the children of Israel 40 years earlier, but
            2. it did not work.
              1. He could not see why it would this time.
              2. God worked patiently with Moses and finally Moses went.
      4. Right here I want to concentrate on what God said about His name.
    2. A fuller rendition of “I AM” is “Jehovah,” or “Yahweh.”
      1. However, our Bibles have Lord in small or all capital letters.
      2. God’s name appears five to six thousand times in the Old Testament.
        1. When we say, “Jehovah,” or “Yahweh,”
        2. we are simply saying, “He is,” (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, Volume 1, page 211), because
          1. we are saying it in the third person.
          2. When He says it, He is saying,
            1. “I am,” in the first person.
    3. This is what Israel needed to know.
      1. Yes, He was the God of their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but
      2. He was also their God,
        1. He was saying to Moses, “I am present is what I am,” and
        2. that would provide assurance that Israel in slavery needed to hear. (TWOT, page 212).
          1. Later in Exodus 6 God said,

            2 And God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the LORD. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD I was not known to them. 4 I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers. 5 And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant. 6 Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. 7 I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the LORD’” (Exodus 6.2–8)
          2. In Deuteronomy 28,
            1. God stressed His name and
            2. that His teachings would lead them to fear His name,

              58 “If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD… (Deuteronomy 28.58),

              1. and He went on to detail the consequences for failing.
              2. Even as you do not want your name defiled,
                1. neither does God.
          3. Israel needed to know the sacredness of God’s name, because

            “It connotes God’s nearness, his concern for man, and the revelation of his redemptive covenant” (TWOT, p. 212).

            1. If they did not observe His law,
            2. they would do things to defile His name as history has proven, and
              1. He would no longer be near to them, because
              2. they will have made another god near to them.
    4. Anyway, God simply is the One who has always been.
      1. Regardless of the point in time, He is, and
      2. from everlasting to everlasting He always is.

        “No human can comprehend the nature of a being who had no begetter; not explainable is it how a being could exist who had no beginning, who is his own cause for being. Everything else must have a cause, and ultimately the cause for everything is God, but for God there was no cause. He is the uncaused Cause” (Hugo McCord, Getting Acquainted with God, page 16).

        1. Some people want to know who caused God?
        2. If something caused Him, then what caused the causer of God?
          1. We would then have an infinite number of causers but
          2. you know that at some point you have to have something
            1. that always has been,
            2. is now, and
            3. always will be
              1. that has caused everything,
              2. except itself or Himself.
                1. I declare that the God of the Bible
                2. is that Causer who has not been caused Himself.
                  1. He is the Creator.
                  2. Nothing created Him.
    5. That is what the Bible declares
      1. when it identifies Him as the I AM.
      2. Now, I want you to consider more on His identity.
  2. Jesus and Abraham
    1. John 1 says something so profound
      1. that we really need to stop and think
      2. of whom John spoke.
        1. Think of the meaning of Jehovah, Yahwah, or I AM WHO I AM.
        2. Listen to John as he opens his Gospel record of the ministry of Jesus:

          1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made (John 1.1–3).

          1. Do you realize what John just said about Jesus?
          2. He identified Him as God or as the Lord,
            1. which would lead further to see Him as
            2. Jehovah or Yahweh.
    2. In John 8 Jesus made that connection, and
      1. when the Jews heard what He said,
      2. they also made the connection, but
        1. did not like what He said:

          56 “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” 57 Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” 59 Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by (John 8.56–59).

          1. Jesus could have said, “I was,” before Abraham, but
          2. Jesus intentionally said, “I am.”
        2. He was the One who spoke to Moses at the burning bush.
    3. Isaiah 6 and John 12
      1. First, think on whom Isaiah said he saw?

        1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.  2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said:

        “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
        The whole earth is full of His glory!”

        4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 So I said:

        “Woe is me, for I am undone!
        Because I am a man of unclean lips,
        And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
        For my eyes have seen the King,
        The LORD of hosts.”
        (Isaiah 6:1–5)

      2. Now, think on whom John said Isaiah saw:

        37 But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, 38 that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke:

        “Lord, who has believed our report?
        And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?”

        39 Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again:

        40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts,
        Lest they should see with their eyes,
        Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
        So that I should heal them.”

        41 These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him (John 12.37–41).

    4. Revelation 1.8

      8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1.8).
    5. Revelation 11.16–18

      16 And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying:

      “We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty,
      The One who is and who was and who is to come,
      Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.
      18 The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come,
      And the time of the dead, that they should be judged,
      And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints,
      And those who fear Your name, small and great,
      And should destroy those who destroy the earth.”
      (Revelation 11.16–18)

Exhortation:

  1. What is your conclusion on the identity of Jesus of Nazareth?
  2. Do you know what it means
    1. that Jesus is the Lord of the Hebrew Bible?
    2. Since He is your Creator,
      1. you shall be meeting Him one day.
      2. That day will be when… 
      3. We shall give account of ourselves.