Good morning, everyone. It's great to see you all. For those of you who are new or visiting, my name is Sean. I'm one of the pastors at the church. It's my joy and privilege to preach God's word to you this morning.
We recently started a sermon series in the book of Exodus. Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 3.
We will go through chapter 3, verses 1 to 15. Exodus, if you're not familiar with the Bible, is the second book in your Bible, Genesis chapter 3, starting verse 1.
Let me pray for the meeting of preaching about prayer.
Father, we humble ourselves before your word again.
Because in it you speak to us. You reveal yourself to us.
In it we meet, encounter our Savior, Jesus Christ, who lived and died and was raised for a salvation.
We want to know you more and to love you with our whole heart.
So we do pray that by the power of your Holy Spirit, you would work that miracle in us.
To know and love you.
To submit ourselves to you.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian.
And he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the mist of a bush.
He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.
Then Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight.
Why the bush is not burned.
When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush,
Moses, Moses.
And he said, Here I am.
Then he said, Do not come near.
Take your sandals off your feet.
For the place on which you are standing is holy ground.
And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt,
and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters.
I know their sufferings.
And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians,
and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land,
a land flowing with milk and honey.
To the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the other Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hibites, and the Jedusites.
And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me,
and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them.
Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.
But Moses said to God, Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?
He said, But I will be with you.
And this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you.
When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.
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.
And he said, Say this to the people of Israel.
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.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
I don't know if you've ever had the embarrassing experience of running into a friend or an acquaintance
and then just completely blanking on their name.
A lot of nods here.
So, you should know their name, but you can't remember it in that moment.
So, you're using all kinds of roundabouts to address them without awkward having to ask them for their name again.
Or maybe, you know, this happened to you.
If someone else has done this to you, it's painfully obvious that they don't remember your name.
They just keep saying, Oh, hey, brother.
Hey, sister.
Hey.
Whatever way they can, the boy is saying your name.
And these experiences are embarrassing to us because our names are important to us.
Our names embody our identity.
We who we are.
It represents us.
So, whether it's true or not, failing to remember a person's name communicates disinterest, perhaps even disrespect.
This is why whenever you go to Starbucks, the barista asks you for your name so he or she can write it on your cup.
And if you have a name that's difficult to spell, they probably ask you, Hey, how do you spell it?
And there's a reason why the baristas do that because they are trained to do that.
Not merely to give the right coffee to the right person, but to make the customer feel valued.
There's a reason why business schools teach their students how to remember other people's names.
By making associations with the sound and with other things that they know about those people.
Dale Carnegie, the 20th century American writer and lecturer, was onto something when he wrote in his bestseller,
How to Win Friends and Influence People.
The average person is more interested in his or her own name than in all the other names on earth put together.
Remember that name and call it easily, and you have paid a subtle and very effective compliment.
But forget it or misspell it, and you have placed yourself at a sharp disadvantage.
The name sets the individual apart.
It makes him or her unique among all others.
Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
If that's the case for us, and we're just mortals, one of 7.753 billion people like us,
how much more significant is the name of the only God?
The one who has no peer, no equal.
In a mere two chapters, Moses covered 80 years of his life,
but here in this arresting passage, the narrative slows way down.
And we get a detailed book that one moment in a day,
when Moses was personally introduced to the Lord God and learned his name.
And we learn here from his name that the sovereign Lord is ever present with us to deliver us from our slavery.
That's the main point of this passage.
The sovereign Lord is ever present with us to deliver us from our slavery.
We're going to first look at God's holiness, then God's nearness, and then finally God's name.
Verse 1 sets the scene.
It says,
Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian.
And he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
So we know from Exodus 7.7 that Moses was 80 years old when he confronted Pharaoh.
So another 40 years has passed since he's been exiled from Egypt.
Most of us here haven't lived 40 years.
So that many years and more have passed with Moses, from a worldly perspective, wasting away in the Midianite wilderness.
He has grown accustomed to this new way of life.
He's the former prince of Egypt.
He's long in the past, a distant memory.
He is now a weathered shepherd.
He knows the wilderness of Midian like the back of his hand.
He has a wife now, Zipporah.
He has two kids, two Gershom and a lizer.
Here he is, as usual, has spent his day wandering around the wilderness, taking his father-in-law's sheep around to find a good patch of grass to feed them.
And he unwittingly stumbles into Horeb, the mountain of God.
This is the same mountain that is sometimes referred to as Mount Sinai.
Horeb might refer to the more general region in Sinai, too, the specific mountain.
And Moses didn't anticipate this at all.
God is about to interrupt and change his life forever.
He says in verses 2 to 3,
When we see the word angel, it's natural for us to imagine a figure, human-like figure, clothed in white with some wings flapping in the back,
because that's how our culture usually depicts angels.
But the word angel in Scripture, in both Hebrew and Greek, simply means messenger.
And this messenger of God can appear in various forms.
He's a spiritual being sent by God.
But here, the angel of the Lord is something more than that.
Throughout the Old Testament, the expression angel of the Lord occurs 48 times.
And often, this mysterious figure is so closely identified with the Lord God himself that the lines are blurred.
For example, in Genesis 16, it says that the angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar.
But a few verses later, it says,
Hagar called the name of the Lord who spoke to her.
Hagar, you are a God of seeing.
For she said,
Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.
In Genesis 22, when Abraham is about to sacrifice his only son Isaac in obedience to the Lord,
the angel of the Lord again appears.
It interrupts him and stops him in his tracks.
And he says,
Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him.
For now I know that you fear God,
seeing you have not withheld your son,
your only son,
from me.
In Genesis 31,
Jacob recalls that the angel of God
appeared to him in a dream and spoke to him at Bethel.
And this is what the angel of God said to him.
I am the God of Bethel,
where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me.
The same thing happens when the angel of the Lord appears to Gideon in Judges 6
and to Samson's parents in Judges 13.
In these passages,
the angel of the Lord is nothing less
than the appearance of the Lord God himself.
And this raises the question,
why then is the Lord referred to as the angel of the Lord?
The Old Testament maintains this tension
to convey two very important truths.
On the one hand,
God reveals himself to his people
and sometimes appears to them
in very personable and visible ways.
On the other hand,
God is so transcendent and glorious
that no man can see him
in his fullness,
in his full essence.
For example,
in Genesis 16,
13,
I mentioned Haggad said,
she saw God.
Genesis 32,
30,
Jacob says,
I have seen God face to face.
And yet we know from Exodus 33,
20,
you cannot,
God said,
you cannot see my face
for man shall not see my face
and live.
Even in the New Testament,
1 Timothy 6,
15,
16,
it says,
God is the blessed and only sovereign,
the King of kings and Lord of lords,
who alone has immortality,
who dwells in unapproachable light,
whom no one has seen or can see.
So by using the expression,
angel of the Lord,
and the Lord,
side by side,
the biblical authors are conveying
these two realities.
The angel of the Lord
does not exhaust
all there is to know
about the Lord.
However,
he is nevertheless
a true and real representation
of him.
We can't be sure
because scripture doesn't
explicitly say this,
but some people think
that the angel of the Lord
in the Old Testament
is the pre-incarnate appearance
of the Son of God.
The appearance of Jesus,
before he took on human flesh.
The angel of the Lord,
as I mentioned,
can appear in various forms,
and here he appears
in the form of fire.
It says in verses 2-3
that he appeared
in a flame of fire
out of the midst
of a bush.
But Moses was greatly intrigued
by it because even though
the bush was burning,
it was not being consumed.
Fire is often used
to depict God
throughout the Old Testament.
Remember the pillar of fire,
that God appears
in the wilderness
to guide Israelites,
to give them light.
And I think there are
several reasons
for the biblical author's
penchant for this
use of the fire.
And the way God appears
to people in fire
is that first,
to the naked eye,
fire is immaterial.
It doesn't have a body.
It's incorporeal.
It doesn't have flesh.
And for that reason,
it is an apt representation
of God who,
according to Isaiah 31,
verse 3,
is spirit,
not flesh.
Second, fire produces heat.
It burns.
In describing God's fiery jealousy
for his people
and his righteous judgment
of the wicked,
scripture repeatedly calls God
a consuming fire.
Fire consumes the dross
and defines the gold.
The Lord consumes his enemies
and defines his people.
Third, the fire produces light
that illuminates.
1 John 1, 5 says,
God is light.
And in him is no darkness at all.
The Lord shines his face upon us.
In the presence of God,
there is nothing hidden.
Everything is known.
Everyone is known.
And with the light of his wisdom
and salvation,
the Lord enlightens us.
He enlightens our ignorance.
He illuminates our darkness
so that we might know him
and serve him
and walk in his ways.
So it says in verse 4,
when the Lord saw that Moses
turned aside to see,
God called to him out of the bush.
Moses, Moses.
And he said,
here I am.
This is a standard pattern
in scripture,
when God appears
and addresses someone.
In Genesis 22, 11,
the Lord appears to Abraham
and calls out to him twice,
Abraham, Abraham.
And he replies,
here I am.
Same thing with Jacob
in Genesis 46, 2.
And in both of those instances,
God intervened
at very critical junctures
of these patriarchs' lives
to directly guide them
and to influence them.
And so he does here,
he does the same thing here
with Moses.
And in the New Testament also,
we see the same pattern
with Jesus
when he calls out
Luke 10, 41.
Martha, Martha,
you're anxious and troubled
about many things,
but one thing is necessary.
Or in Acts 9, 4,
when he cries out to Saul,
Saul,
why are you persecuting?
When someone's addressed
by the Lord twice like that,
there's a sense of earnestness
and urgency.
Moses.
Moses didn't know God.
As you'll see later,
he asked God for his name.
Sure, he had the Hebrew parents,
but he was adopted
by Pharaoh's daughter,
as you recall.
He was raised
in the Egyptian court.
He knew that the Israelites
were his people,
but he didn't really know
their way of life.
He didn't really know
their God.
He knew of him,
but the Lord knew Moses.
He knew his name.
And God introduces himself
to Moses in verse 6,
saying,
I am the God of your father,
the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob.
Moses, in that address,
is instantly known by God
and connected to the covenant
promises that he had given
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And notice it doesn't say,
I am the God of your fathers,
like usually it says.
It's like the God
of your father, Moses.
Your father, Moses,
Amorim.
The singular.
Remember, Moses
has been dealing
with that identity crisis
of sorts
over the past chapter.
We saw that he grew up
as an adopted princeling
in Pharaoh's court.
Acts 7.22 tells us
that Moses was instructed
in all the wisdom
of the Egyptians,
and he was minding
his words and deeds,
and yet Moses did not
quite feel like an Egyptian,
like he belonged
to the Egyptian palace.
He still considered
the Hebrews,
the Jews,
his people.
And after he murdered
an Egyptian,
Pharaoh,
his adopted grandfather,
tried to kill him.
And so Moses was rejected
by the Egyptians,
but he was also rejected
by his fellow Hebrews.
He scoffed at him
and said,
Who made you a prince
and a judge over us?
You may be an Egyptian prince,
but you're not
our prince.
So when Moses fled Egypt
as a future
and ended up
in the wilderness of Midian,
Jethro's daughters
called him an Egyptian.
Among the Egyptians,
Moses felt like a Hebrew,
and among the Hebrews,
Moses felt like an Egyptian.
Here's a man
dealing with
imposter syndrome.
A man caught
between two identities,
a phony.
His name was
Ab Moses,
drawn out of the water,
a son of nobody,
a fatherless one,
a found one.
But look at what God
says to him.
He knows his name,
Moses,
Moses.
He says,
I am the God
of your son.
The God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob.
God's saying to Moses,
I know who you are.
You are mine,
and I am your God.
Moses was just looking
for grass,
but God was
searching him out.
God had a plan
for him,
not to just be
a shepherd of sheep,
but to be a shepherd
of the nation of Israel.
Perhaps some of you
are not yet followers
of God,
followers of Jesus,
and you might have
your own plans
for your life,
but I can tell you
that God has a plan
for you.
You are living your life
without reference to God.
You are pursuing
your own purposes
and priorities,
but do you know
that God has created
you for himself?
Do you know
that you are known
by God?
And do you hear
the voice of the Lord
calling your name?
But after calling out
Moses,
God said something
unexpected.
Usually,
when someone calls out
your name
and gets your attention,
you expect
that person
to walk over to you
or at least motion you
to come closer to you.
Hey, come.
I want to talk to you.
Hey.
But that's not what God said.
Look at verse 5 with me.
Then the Lord said,
Do not come near.
Take your sandals
off your feet,
for the place
on which you are standing
is holy ground.
In many cultures,
including the ancient
Near Eastern culture,
taking your shoes off,
like taking your hat off,
communicates respect.
It's a sign of humility.
But there's something
more than that
going on here.
It's not just about
showing respect.
God gives the reason
why he must
take his sandals off.
He says,
For the place
on which you are standing
is holy ground.
The ground
beneath the flame
of the Lord
has been made holy
by the presence
of the Lord.
In the Old Testament,
God's people
were taught
to distinguish
between what is holy
and what is common.
Between what is clean
and unclean.
And the holy place,
the tabernacle,
the temple,
the holy vessels
used for God's
worship and sacrifice,
and God's chosen
holy people
were specially set apart
for God.
They were consecrated
for Him.
That's what it means
to be holy,
set apart.
And because the holy God
has graced
this plot of land
with His presence,
it's no longer
common,
ordinary ground
that anybody
can just walk on.
God is holy.
And that means
He's not like us.
One theologian
describes God
as holy other.
That means
He is not
just a superlative
version of humanity.
He's not merely
quantitatively
different from us.
He's not just
more of the same.
He is qualitatively
different from us.
He is different
altogether.
He's not like us.
He's set apart
from us.
He's not common
like us.
For this reason,
God cannot let Moses
approach Him
on His own terms.
Moses must
take his sandals
off.
The initiative
lies with God
and not Moses.
This is the same
reason why we
begin our worship
each Sunday
with the call
to worship.
To acknowledge
that God's
sovereign initiative
is what allows
us to come
gather in His presence
and worship Him.
The first words
of our worship
is not our words,
it is God's words
who calls us
to Himself.
God is not
someone we can
speak to
or approach
glibly
or flippantly.
He's not
someone we can
trifle with.
He will not
be mocked
and He cannot
be fooled.
God says,
Be holy
for I am
holy.
Leviticus 11
in Acts 1.13
says,
God is
up purized
and to see
evil
and cannot
look at wrong.
He is the one
who dwells
in unapproachable
light before whom
all our hidden
sins and shortcomings,
all of our faults
and foibles,
all of our past,
present,
and the future
are nakedly exposed
before His light
and fire.
He's the
consuming fire
who will
condemn sinners
and consume
all unrighteousness.
And if you
are playing
or flirting
with sin
in your life,
if you are
taking God
for granted,
if you are
not honoring
God as holy,
you should
tremble
and fear.
He said
in verse 6,
that's exactly
Moses' response.
Moses hid his face
for he was afraid
to forget God.
Moses knew
instinctively
that if he saw
the Lord,
he would perish.
That's God's holiness.
God
is not
only
set apart
from us,
but that
He's the God
who draws near
to us.
And we see that
in verses 7
to 12.
Remember at the end
of chapter 2
how he said
that God
heard
the groaning
of Israel,
God
remembered
His covenant
with Abraham,
with Isaac,
and with Jacob,
God saw
the people
of Israel
and God
knew
those verbs
are repeated
here.
And in chapter 2
God remembers
His people
and here He
begins to intervene
on behalf
of His people.
And so it says
in verses 7
to 8,
that the Lord
said,
I have surely
seen the affliction
of my people
who are in Asia
and have heard
their cry
because of
their taskmasters.
I know
their sufferings
and I
have come
down
to deliver
them out
of the hands
of the Egyptians
and to bring
them up
out of that
land
to a good
and broad
land,
a land
flowing
with milk
and honey.
Notice the
repetition
of the pronoun
I.
It demonstrates
God's personal
commitment
to His people.
I myself
will do this.
I will fulfill
the promise
I made
to Abraham
to bring
my people
out
into their
slavery
in Egypt.
The Lord
who dwells
on high
comes down
to lift
us up
out of our
slavery.
And this
quality.
This reminds
us again
that God
is not
detached
from us.
He's not
disinterested
in us,
in our
plight.
Our God
is not
distant,
isolated
from our
sin and evil
and wickedness
of this world.
He draws
near to us
and He
intends to
dwell with
us.
God says
Canaan is a
good and
broad land,
a land
flowing with
milk and
honey.
Honey is
rarely mentioned
throughout the
Old Testament,
actual honey
from the
bees.
And the
word used
here for
honey is
related to
the Arabic
word which
refers to
date honey.
It's the
sweet syrup
produced from
grapes,
figs,
and dates,
and fruit of
the carrot
tree.
So that's
most likely
what's in
view here.
Milk
represents the
best fruit
of animal
husbandry,
and honey
represents the
best fruit of
horticulture,
the two
things that
Israel thrived
on.
And Canaan
was a
different kind
of land.
It didn't
have a
prominent
source of
fresh water
like the
Nile in
Egypt.
And so
from a
purely
agricultural
standpoint,
it was
actually not
good land.
But that
was exactly
God's point.
God was
bringing them
to a land
where they
will have
to depend
on Him,
where He
will dwell
with them
and provide
for them.
It says in
Deuteronomy 11,
9-12,
it's the land
that the
Lord swore
to your
fathers to
give to
them and
to their
offspring.
It's a
land flowing
with milk
and honey.
For the
land that
you are
entering to
take possession
of is not
like the
land of
Egypt from
which you
have come,
where you
sowed your
seed and
irrigated,
like a
garden of
vegetables.
But the
land that
you are
going over
to possess
is a
land of
hills and
valleys,
which drinks
water by
the rays
from heaven,
a land that
the Lord
your God
cares for.
The eyes
of the
Lord your
God are
always upon
it,
from the
beginning of
the year to
the end of
the year.
The
promised land
was designed
to make
the Israelites
dependent on
him.
It was the
most suitable
land for
cultivating that
trust in
relationship with
him.
When God
brings us
into relationship
with him,
when he saves
us,
God's goal
is not to
make us
self-sufficient
independent
people.
He instead
takes us to
a place of
dependence and
surrender,
for that's
where true
freedom is
found.
Because that's
the proper
relationship between
creator and
creature,
between father
and children.
And amazingly,
to do that,
God says he
will use
Moses.
He says in
verse 10,
come I will
send you to
Pharaoh,
that you may
bring my
people,
the children
of Israel
out of
Egypt.
But Moses
objects in
verse 11,
who am I
that I should
go to
Pharaoh and
bring the
children of
Israel out
of Egypt?
From Moses'
perspective,
this is a
very sensible
objection.
Think about it,
he's a fugitive
from Egypt,
a criminal
wanted for
murder.
In the
previous chapter,
Pharaoh tried
to kill him,
so he says,
who am I
that I should
go to
Pharaoh?
Moreover,
Moses was
rejected by
the Israelites
themselves.
And so
Moses asks,
who am I
that I should
bring the
children of
Israel out
of Egypt?
I'm neither
the prince of
Egypt,
nor the
prince of
Israel,
I'm just
the lowly
Midianite
shepherd.
Who am I
to do
any such
thing?
You've got
the wrong
meaning.
But Moses
is also
completely
missing the
point.
Because what
did God
say to him
earlier on?
I have
surely seen
the affliction
of my
people,
I have
heard their
pride,
I know
their
sufferings,
and I
have come
down to
deliver
them.
God
said,
I will
do it.
He's not
sending Moses
to do it
on his
own.
So God's
answer to
Moses in
verse 12
is simple
but powerful.
He says,
but I
will be
with you.
Notice what
God doesn't
say to
Moses.
He doesn't
say,
hey,
Moses,
stop
doubting
yourself.
Be
confident.
Choose
confidence.
He doesn't
say,
hey,
Moses,
you're
actually
very
qualified
for this.
Remember,
you were
instructed in
all the
wisdom of
the
Egyptians.
You were
actually
quite mighty
in words
and deeds.
God
doesn't
say,
Moses,
this won't
be as
hard as
it sounds.
Pharaoh,
he talks
a big
talk,
but he's
soft.
You start
applying some
pressure,
and he's
just going
to crumble.
No,
God
neither
pumps up
Moses,
nor belittles
the task
before him.
He simply
assures him,
I will
be with
you,
and that's
enough.
The
exodus of
Israel from
Egypt will
not be
about
Moses,
and his
competency
will be
about the
Lord
and his
might.
And after
this exchange,
Moses realizes
that who
am I
was the
wrong
question.
So he
changes his
question.
He asks
God,
who are
you?
If you're
the one
that's
going with
me.
In
verse 13,
he says,
then Moses
said to
God,
if I
come to
the people
of Israel
and say
to them,
the God
of your
father has
sent me
to you,
and they
ask me,
what is
his name?
What
shall I
say to
them?
Names,
especially in
the ancient
Near East,
were not
merely things
that people
called each
other,
not a
moniker
merely,
but something
that represents
the person's
character and
identity.
And throughout
Genesis,
God revealed
himself to
his people
with various
names and
titles.
He revealed
himself to
them as
El Elyon,
God Most
High.
In Genesis
14, 18 to
20, he
revealed himself
to them as
El Roy,
God Who Sees,
in Genesis 16,
13,
and as
El Shaddai,
God Almighty,
in Genesis 17,
1,
and as
El Olam,
in God
Everlasting,
in Genesis
21,
33,
these names
all reveal
various aspects
of God's
character,
his nature,
and so when
Moses asks
God for
his name,
he's not
just trying to
figure out
what he's
calling.
He anticipates
that the
Israelites will
ask him,
what is
his name?
Moses,
what do
you know
about our
God,
the God
of our
fathers?
Can you
tell us
his name?
Do you
know his
character,
his nature?
How can
you assure
us from
what God
has said
to you
that he
will indeed
deliver us?
And God
gives a
magnificent
answer in
verses 14
and 15.
I am
who I
am.
Say this
to the
people of
Israel.
I am
has sent
me to
you.
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
him.
This
is my
name
forever,
and thus
I am
to
remember
to
all
generations.
The
patriarchs,
as you
will see
in
Genesis 15,
7,
if you
have seen
Genesis 15,
7,
20,
13,
already
were aware
of this
name.
They
addressed
him as
such,
the
Lord.
But as
Exodus
chapter 6,
verse 3
makes clear,
they never
understood the
fullness of
this name.
God never
unpacked for
them the full
significance of
this name as
he does here.
So this is a
defining moment in
history of
Israel and
indeed in the
history of the
world, when the
Lord God
discloses his
actual name.
name is
rendered in
our English
translations as
the Lord.
But that's
not what the
Hebrew word
for the
Lord.
The Hebrew
word for the
Lord is
Adonai, which
some of you
guys are
familiar with.
But that's
not what it
says there.
The Lord is
in all caps
to indicate
that this
is the
four
consonant
name of
God,
sometimes
called the
Tetragrammaton,
because it's
four letters,
four consonants.
It occurs
almost 7,000
times in the
Old Testament.
But then why
does our
English translation
say Lord
instead?
That's because
around 300
BC became
customary among
the Jews when
reading the
Old Testament
to substitute
the title
Lord,
Adonai,
for the
name of
God.
Just out of
sheer reverence
for God,
lest they
take up
God's
name in
vain.
So the
name that
God revealed
to his
people became
an ineffable
name,
an unutterable
name.
And eventually
the knowledge
of the
name's
pronunciation
was forgotten
and the
vowels from
Adonai were
added to
the four
consonants
which led
to the
hybrid form
Jehovah.
But the
original
pronunciation
was likely
closer to
Yahweh
or Jehovah.
Archaeologists
have discovered
inscriptions with
various forms of
this name,
including short
and abbreviated
ones.
So a lot of
Hebrew names
contain the
name of the
Lord.
Isaiah is
one of them.
His Hebrew
pronunciation
is Yesh,
Yesh,
Yahu.
That's Isaiah.
Yahu
saves.
But the
greater weight
should be
given not
to the
name's
pronunciation
but to
its actual
meaning.
The name
of the
Lord is
not a
magical
incantation
that you
need to
say just
right to
get the
right thing
to happen.
To use
illustration,
the original
name that
I was
given at
birth in
Korea was
Shin-hyun.
Most
of you,
even if I
pronounce that
name for
you a hundred
times,
will never
be able to
pronounce it
correctly.
So when my
family moved to
the U.S.,
because of my
dad's job,
his Korean-American
boss met with
me and our
family,
and he asked
me what my
name was,
and I said,
my name is
Shi-hyun,
and he said
to me,
Shi-hyun,
Shawn.
You should
go by
Shawn,
because no
one would
be able to
say her
name otherwise.
And when I
was naturalized
as a U.S.
citizen,
I made
Shawn my
first name,
and my
Korean name,
my middle
name,
and I
answered to
both.
They're both
my true
names.
There are
51 million
people living
in South
Korea who
can pronounce
my name
perfectly,
but none
of them
know me
like you
all know
me.
And that's
what's more
significant.
Not can you
pronounce God's
name, but do
you know
him?
Do you
know his
name?
Do you
have a
relationship
with the
living God?
And there
are several
things that
God's name
reveals about
himself.
First,
his name
means I
am,
who I
am,
which can
also be
translated,
I will
be who
I will
be.
The Hebrew
tense used
here has a
timeless sense,
so it can be
used to refer
to the past,
the present,
or the future,
and you see
examples of
that all
throughout
Scripture.
And that is
completely
intentional.
It communicates
the fact that
God never
changes,
and he is
the same
yesterday,
today,
and forever.
God,
and what a
comforting
thought that
that is.
He is,
he was,
he is,
and he will
be.
This is what
theologians call
God's immutability.
He does not
change.
Another way to
describe that is
that God is
faithful.
He is always
true to
himself.
He is always
faithful to
his character.
He never
deviates from
who he is.
Fallen human
beings can
fold under
the pressure
and act out
of their
character.
They can act
in a way that
is inconsistent
with their
convictions.
I have done
that.
But God
never does
that.
He is always
true.
He is always
faithful.
And that means
he is always
reliable,
always
trustworthy.
Human beings
are faithful.
They change.
They are for
you one day
and then they
are against
you the next
day.
They go back
on their
word.
But Jehovah
never goes
back on his
word.
He never
changes.
Second,
I am who
I am,
means that
God is
absolutely
sovereign.
Theologians
call this
God's
aseity.
He is
independent.
He is
self-existent.
All of
creation has
a derivative
and dependent
existence.
Because we
have been
created by
God and
are sustained
by God,
but God
is self-existent.
He does
not owe
his existence
to anything
or anyone
else.
He does
not owe
his allegiance
to anything
or anyone
else.
He is not
subject to
anyone else.
Yahweh
defines
himself.
we are
defined by
others.
Yes,
human beings.
We're
defined by
other people
and other
things.
Who gave
birth to
us?
You're
so-and-so's
son,
so-and-so's
daughter.
What schools
did you go to?
He's an
alumnus or
a graduate of
this school.
What generation
were you born
in?
Is generation
Y,
generation X?
Where do you
work?
But young
God is
self-existent
and independent
and for
that reason
God is
the only
truly
sovereign
being in
the entire
universe.
Because to
be sovereign
means to
have supreme
authority,
to rule
oneself,
to have no
other authority
higher than
oneself.
But there
is no such
human being
on earth.
Xi Jinping
is not
sovereign.
He is
not sovereign.
Vladimir
Putin
is not
sovereign.
Joe Biden
is not
sovereign.
None of
them is
truly
independent.
But the
Lord is
not accountable
to anyone
else.
He is not
beholden to
anyone else.
He is not
confined by
anything else.
He owes
no one
anything.
That's what
it means
to be
God.
I am
who I
am.
Third, I
am who I
am means
that God
is present
with us.
The words
and phrases
I am
who I
am, I
am,
Yehovah,
all play
on the
Hebrew
verb
to be,
which is
connected to
God's promise
to his
people in
verse 21.
I will
be with
you.
God's
name
contains
a promise
that he
will be
with
his
people.
It
captures
the promise
of Isaiah
43 that
we said
about in
that first
song.
Fear not
for I
have
redeemed
you.
I have
called you
by name.
You are
mine.
When you
pass through
the waters
I will
be with
you.
And
through the
rivers
they shall
not overwhelm
you.
When you
walk through
fire you
shall not
be burned
and the
flames
shall not
consume
you.
For I
am the
Lord your
God,
the Holy
One of
Israel,
your
Savior.
It
contains
the promise
of Psalm
23 verse
4.
Even
though I
walk
through the
valley and
shadow of
death,
I will
fear no
evil.
Why?
For you
are with
me.
If you
have entrusted
your life
to God,
if you
have confessed
the name
of Jesus
and clasht
your allegiance
to Him,
you are
never alone.
God
says,
I will
never leave
you nor
forsake you.
Even when
your own
father or
mother
forsake you,
the Lord
will not
forsake you.
In the
midst of your
darkest hours
and hardest
seasons,
I don't
know what
you're all
going through,
but God
does.
And in
the midst
of those
things,
even before
seemingly
insurmountable
obstacles that
seem to
pile on in
front of you,
in your
relationships,
in your
work,
in your
own
personal
struggle
for holiness,
you are
not alone.
God is
with you.
The
great
I
am.
the
Lord is
I will
be who
I will
be.
God
makes
himself
known
to us
by his
acts of
deliverance.
And so
he says
in Exodus
75,
Egyptians
shall know
that I
am the
Lord when
I stretch
out my
hand against
Egypt and
bring out
the people
of Israel
from the
mountain.
And so
likewise,
we get
to know
the Lord
like never
before in
his ultimate
and ultimate
act of
redemption
through his
son,
Jesus
Christ.
Remember
in Genesis
15,
13,
God
promised
Abraham
that after
400 years
he will
bring his
people out
of their
oppression
in a
foreign
land.
People
refer to
the time
period between
the end of
the Old
Testament and
the beginning
of Jesus'
life as
the 400
years of
silence.
God
intervened
in the
time of
Moses and
so Jesus
comes as
the Son
of God
intervened
and said
in John
1, 8,
no one
has ever
seen God,
the only
God,
who is at
the Father's
side.
He made
him known.
In other
words,
Jesus is the
only God
who makes
his Father
known to
us.
In Jesus,
the Word
made flesh,
we see the
invisible God.
God.
There's a
reason why
Hebrews 1, 12
says of
Jesus,
you are
the same.
Your
years have
no end.
Hebrews 13, 8
describes Jesus
as the same
yesterday and
today and
forever.
These are all
allusions to
the name of
the Lord.
There's a
reason why
Revelation 1, 4
says that
Jesus is the
one who
is and
who was
and who
is to
come.
And in
Revelation 1, 8,
the Lord
Jesus says,
I am
the Alpha
and Omega
who is
and who
was
and who
is to
come,
the Almighty.
The Lord
God has
come to
us in
the flesh
in Jesus
Christ.
That is
unbelievable.
that's
why Matthew
begins his
gospel by
telling us
that Jesus
is called
Emmanuel,
which means
God with
us.
And guess
how Matthew
concludes his
gospel?
The very
last verse,
Matthew 28, 20,
Jesus'
promise,
behold,
I am
with you
always
to the
end of
the age.
If there's
anything you
know about
our God,
you should
know that
he is
with you
and that
he will
never
forsake
you.
John 8, 58,
Jesus says
to the Jews,
truly, truly,
I say to
you,
before
Abraham
was,
I
am.
And they
understand
exactly
what he
is saying
because they
pick up
stones and
try to
kill him
for
blasphemy.
Remember
the statements
of the
gospel of
John.
What did
Jesus say?
I am
the bread
of life.
I am
the light
of the
world.
I am
the door.
I am
the good
shepherd.
I am
the resurrection
and the
life.
I am
divine.
I am
the
way
and the
truth
and the
life.
And no
one comes
to the
Father
except
through
me.
Apart
from
Jesus,
we should
cower
and tremble
in fear
and never
dare to
approach
the Lord.
We should
hide our
faces and
flee for
our lives
because he
is the
consuming
fire.
we're
sinners.
We are
unworthy.
We deserve
eternal
punishment
in hell.
But Jesus
came down
to us.
Jesus
took our
place and
he died
for our
sins on
the cross.
And then
he rose
victoriously
from the
grave.
The
great I
am did
that for
us so
that even
though he
told Moses
do not
come near.
Now he
tells us
James 4
8
draw near
to God.
Hebrews
4
16
says
let us
then with
confidence
draw near
to the
throne of
grace
that we
may receive
mercy and
find grace
to help
in times
of need.
this is
not a
fringe
aspect of
his character.
This is
his name.
This is
who he
is.
He's the
one who
is with
you.
He's the
one who
was and
is and
is to
come.
And if
you put
your faith
in Jesus
you will
never be
destroyed.
Let's
pray.
Lord,
thank you
for revealing
yourself to
us.
what
grace,
what
condescension,
what mercy
that
the great
I am,
the Lord
God
would come
down to
us.
second
person of
the
treaty,
the Lord
Jesus
Christ,
our
King,
Lord,
help us
to
remember
your
promise.
Walk
with you
always
to keep
in stead
with your
spirit.
In
Jesus' name
we pray.
Amen.