Knowing the Name of God
Last week we looked at Exodus chapter 3:1-10. God wants to use us in His mighty plan, but we have to be paying attention to Him.We must always be ready to heed the voice of God even in unexpected places. No matter how simple we think we are, God tells us, “it is not who you are, but who I am.”
In today’s sermon we will be meditating on: Who is the great I am? What is God’s name? What does it mean? And what difference does that make in your life today? Understand,names are important. Names matter. Names tell us something about your history. Often in the Scriptures, names illustrate about a person’s character or their aspirations or their parents’ aspirations.
“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?” 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.’ ” - Exodus 3:13-14.
Now, God has revealed his name. Exodus 3:15 says, "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.”
Now, in verse 15 He says, “Tell the people, ‘The Lord has sent me.’” The Lord. This is a name of God that is based on a verb used in verse 14 when God says, “I am.” The verb phrase “I am” means “to be,” or “to exist.” God says, “I am the existing One.” “The Lord”, “I am.”
This is the most important name for God in the Bible! It is used nearly seven-thousand times in the Old Testament. It consists of four Hebrew consonants: Y-H-W-H , sometimes pronounced, “Yahweh” or “Jehovah.” It was later translated into English with the four letters; L-O-R-D, Lord. But the original word was “Yahweh,” “Jehovah,” “the One Who Is,” & “I am.” You see, this name also tells us a number of important things about God.
First, God is a Person: “I am.” He is not a figment of our imagination. He is not a cosmic force. He is a personal God who reveals Himself and makes Himself known. He is self-existent. He is self-reliant, He is self-sufficient. He is the uncreated Creator. He is the Sustainer of everything that exists. He exists by Himself and for Himself. He is self-existing.
And secondly, we see that God is unchanging and unchangeable! He is “immutable”—He doesn’t change. In Malachi 3:6, He says, “I the Lord [Yahweh] do not change.” Nothing ever happens in this world that God did not think of, that He did not plan for. He is never caught off-guard! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Heb.13:8). The God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament.
Mere mortal humans are continually changing. This is why God is often called “the Rock” in the Scriptures. He is faithful. He is constant. He keeps His promises. He can be trusted. He is the covenant-keeping God. He is a miracle worker. He never changes! He is eternal. He had no beginning and He will have no ending. He always was. He always will be. God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” That includes the past, the present, and the future tense. This is an important concept to understand as we live in a world where everything is shifting, everything is changing, values and views and perspectives all change. But God is the eternal. His laws are eternal.
This personal, self-sufficient, unchanging, eternal God made Himself known to Moses and to His people. He promised to be with them. He promised to deliver them from their oppression, from their slavery. He promised to take them to a good land. And they could trust that promise to fulfill that promise because the promise was made by the Great I am, the Lord, Jehovah. The same God who delivered His people from captivity in Egypt was still alive! He is still at work today. He was still redeeming and rescuing and saving His people!
You see this connection between Jesus and Yahweh. Jesus refers to Himself as, “I am,” mostly in the book of John. Jesus says “I am” 24 times in John’s gospel. Jesus says, I am the Bread of Life, I am the Light of the world, I am the Good Shepherd, I am the Resurrection and the Life, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, & I am the true Vine. In each of these, He’s claiming to be Yahweh, claiming to be the Great I am.
Let me give you a couple of illustrations. Remember the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman? This is in John chapter 4:25–26. She said to Jesus, “I know that Messiah is coming . . . When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
Here’s another instance in John 6:20, where Jesus is walking on the water toward the disciples. He says to them, “It is I.” Don’t be afraid. That’s how our English Bibles read. But actually, the text should say, literally, “I am; do not be afraid.”
Jesus is Yahweh. He is the Lord. He is the Great I am. He is the One who came to deliver His people and to set them free. This is crucial to our Christian faith! This isn’t just like a theological term. It is an important part of the Christian faith. If Jesus is not Yahweh, if He is not Jehovah, then His claims are not true. To reject Jesus is to reject God. Everything that is true of God is also true of Jesus.
Jesus came to this earth to reveal God to us. It is the continuation of the burning bush. Jesus is the Great. I am in the flesh and through Him we can know Yahweh. Through Jesus Christ, Yahweh, the One who said, “Don’t come near!”, but now in Jesus Christ, Yahweh has drawn near to us. He is holy, but He came to give us His holiness and to save us from our sins so that we might draw near to Him.
And as Jehovah delivered His people out of slavery in Egypt, Jesus is the God who delivers and sets captives free from sin. In our daily lives, He continues to rescue us from ourselves, from the power of sin, from the power of our flesh, from the entanglements of sin and this world, and from the devil. One day, He has promised that He will deliver us fully, completely, and forever from the very presence of sin! He’s our Deliverer!
Jehovah led the people of Israel into the Promised Land with the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, just as Jesus came to this earth to lead many sons and daughters to glory. He leads us every day by His Holy Spirit. And so, Yahweh, the LORD, said to Moses, “I am with you. I am all that you need.”
He gave Himself for us in exchange for whatever we lack. Do you have a thirsty soul? He says, “I am the Living Water.” Do you have a hungry heart? He says, “I am the Bread of Life.” Are you under the curse of sin and death? He says, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” Are you lost? He says, “I am the Way.”
Conclusion:
The children’s magazine once stated that a lot of people subconsciously predict career success based on a name. According to James Bruning, Ph.D., a psychology professor at Ohio University, participants predicted that girls with feminine names like Emma and Sarah would be more successful if they pursued feminine occupations like a nurse or hairstylist, while boys with names like Steven and Bruno were thought to succeed in masculine careers, like a plumber or truck driver.
However, the most powerful name is the name of God. And the name by which God was known in Israel is Yahweh (Jehovah), which comes from the same root as “I AM”… Jesus says, I am the Bread of Life, I am the Light of the world, I am the Good Shepherd, I am the Resurrection and the Life, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, & I am the true Vine. “For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” - Romans 10:13. Amen.
