God Provides More Instructions About His Name -- Exodus 3:15

And God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons 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 this is My memorial-name to all generations.

In answer to Moses’ question about what he should tell the children of Israel when they ask, “what is the name of the god who sent you?” God told him that he is simply to say, “I AM WHO I AM sent me.”  Now, in this verse, God seems to be sensing Moses may have not felt that was a sufficient answer to pass along, so He adds more about Who He is.

God seems to be saying, “Look, My name is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  That’s My name forever.  That’s how I want to be known throughout history.”

As we have indicated elsewhere, we believe that this would have had a made a great connection for Moses, and for many of the children of Israel that were living in Egypt at the time.  Through storytelling from generation to generation and perhaps from what they heard in their worship events, they would have been familiar with the lives of their forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But God is saying in this verse that He wants this to be His “memorial-name to all generations.”  That means, He wants us living in the twenty-first century to also know Him by this name, “the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob”.  So, what does that really mean for us?

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob collectively are both the actual ‘forefathers’ of the people of Israel as well as Israel’s ‘symbolic’ foundation.  And God is saying, “I want to be known by that name, forever.”  End of statement.  Because of Who God is, then it is safe to assume that He will also be that God “of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” forever.  And that means, to me at least, that Israel continues to be His people, His children, even though many of them may have turned their back to him as we read in Isaiah chapter 1, verses 1-4.  Many people have children who are not walking in harmony with their parents.  They have not disowned them.  They grieve them.  The leave the door of their lives open wide to welcome them back – but in the meantime, they are still their own children.

The New Covenant, made possible through Jesus Christ, opened up God’s arms wider to allow each of us Gentiles, to become part of His original family, through the acceptance of the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross.  God did not set up a “new family”.  He invited us to His one and only family.  We often forget this.  We think we’re we’re special and better.  We’re not.  His original children, those who have turned their back on Him, are still His.  They may, if they lived once Christ had made His sacrifice for us or are alive now, now come back into His arms, through the same means, just as we read in the story of the Prodigal Son.  What remains to be discovered by the Church today, is how God will deal with those of His original family that had turned their back on Him, had died before Christ’s sacrifice was made, or had died after Christ’s sacrifice without accepting it as their means of redemption.  The verdict, in my opinion, is out on that.

“Why?” you may ask.  The answer is simple.  Good, learned men and women, on both sides of the argument have interpreted the relevant passages differently.  There is no dishonor, and I believe much humility, in simply admitting, “We do not know”.  The alternative is to argue it out with no one moving on the issue.  In the meantime, let none of us throw Israel under the bus.  God does not throw His children under the bus.  Let us pray that they may “come home”.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

“I AM WHO I AM” says God but What Does It Mean? -- Exodus 3:13-14

Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I shall say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’   Now they may 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 sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

You need to know that I was not looking forward to studying this particular segment of Scripture.  If the truth were known, as a young man (many decades ago) I felt that God’s reply to Moses’ question here unsatisfying.  At worst, I thought it was a bit out of character for God.  I know now I was mistaken, but more on that later.

Here we have Moses still so lucid during his conversation with God, he is able to continue asking questions and as some would say, posing objections.  His first objection you will remember was “Who am I to go?”  God took care of that one, patiently.   Now he as much as tells God the people won’t believe him when he goes to tell them God sent him.  What I find interesting here is the idea that either Moses was serious at this point or he was being a little tongue in cheek.  Did he really believe that the people would ask, “What is His name?” when he already refers to Him as “The God of your fathers”?  This is another one of those interesting questions that we will never really know the answer to.  But it is very probable that by now the Israelites had so integrated themselves with the Egyptian culture that they had started to adopt the Egyptian false gods as their own and over generations, people could easily have mistaken one of those gods for the “God of their fathers”.  So, they needed to check out which one Moses was talking about.

“God, I need a name for you or this won’t work,” says Moses.   He seems to have recognized, given the way his fellow Israelites were living at the time, the opposition he would face with this possibility of being led out of Egypt.  Perhaps this was partly due to their loss of hope over all these years and not just their belief that it was impossible to even think about it being a possibility.  In any event, Moses wanted to be well covered with the potential responses to their questions and objections.

And it is here we now have God’s great and awesome and simple response – “Tell them I AM WHO I AM and I sent you to them.”

Chuck Smith in his commentary on Exodus 1-5 (C2000 Series) makes this comment: “Now this really is to Moses. God is declaring to Moses that relationship, "I am", I am what? "I am whatever you're going to need." The name of God, a verb, "to be". "I am", because God always wants to be to you whatever your particular need might be. "I am your peace, I am your strength, I am your help, I am your guide, I am your righteousness, I am your salvation, I am your hope." Whatever you might be, God will become to you whatever is the need in your life. How beautiful that is. "The Becoming One is named Yahweh, The Becoming One", as God becomes to you whatever your need might be.”

David Guzik, in his own study guide on this chapter, says that when God revealed Himself to man in the days of the patriarchs it was often associated with a newly revealed name or title for God, and gives us several examples from stories in Genesis.  And here he suggests, therefore, a different reason as to why Moses would ask this question regarding God’s name. “It is logical to think they would ask, ‘what name did He reveal Himself to you under? What new revelation from God do you have?’"

Yet here if “I AM WHO I AM” is clearly a reference to the name YHWH, then God is not providing Himself with a new name to be revealed at this time.  The existing name of Yahweh appears more than 160 times in Genesis alone.  Although not mentioned in our Scriptures, Judaic Rabbinical documents indicate that Moses’ mother’s name was Jochabed meaning, Yahweh is my glory.  Guzik goes on to quote Cole (another commentator) in saying, “Moses and Israel knew the name Yahweh. God did not give Moses a ‘new and improved’ name of God, but the name they had known before. God called them back to the faith of the patriarchs, not to something new.’”

Is it possible that God says His name is I AM because God simply ‘is’, asks Guzik.  “There was never a time when He did not exist, or a time when He will cease to exist.”  Guzik, in his writings, goes on to give us some more insight into the possible meanings of the name “I AM” saying it “has within it the idea of aseity - that God is completely independent; that He relies on nothing for life or existence. (He) doesn't need anybody or anything - life is in Himself.”   And, “Also inherent in the idea behind the name I Am is the sense that God is ‘the becoming one’ God becomes whatever is lacking in our time of need. The name I Am invites us to fill in the blank to meet our need” and then shares how through His Son, Jesus Christ, meets whatever that need may be – “when we are in darkness, Jesus says I am the light; when we are hungry, He says I am the bread of life, when we are defenseless, He says I am the Good Shepherd.  God is the becoming one, becoming what we need.”   But that is not to imply that we can make God what we want Him to be for us at any given time.  No, God becomes what He feels He needs to be for our best interest.  And so it is, that Jesus Himself often took upon Himself that divine title of “I AM” and as Guzik says, “identifying Himself with the voice from the burning bush.”  You can check the references for that in John 8:24, 28, and 58; John 13:19; and John 18:4-6.

Have you met the great “I AM WHO I AM”?  He has come to us.  He has ‘become’ for us what we need.  Through His son, Jesus Christ, He is now with us.  We, therefore, can go and do His bidding.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

 

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.