Read with Me
Exodus 3:13-17 (HCSB)
Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them: The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what should I tell them?”
God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the Israelites: Yahweh, 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; this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.
“Go and assemble the elders of Israel and say to them: Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me and said: I have paid close attention to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised you that I will bring you up from the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.
Listen with Me
Here Moses presents his second excuse, a reason that he believed disqualified him from doing what God had commanded him to do: he didn’t know enough about God to be His messenger to Pharaoh. He didn’t even know God’s name. He had been educated about all the gods of Egypt while he lived in Pharaoh’s household. And he had listened as Reuel, his father-in-law, talked about “’El”, the God who visited the dreaded “mountain of God” on which he now stood.
Instead of merely a name, God revealed to Moses His identity and His character when he gave him the name Yahweh to present to the Israelites. Even though that name had been used before the flood (Genesis 4:26b), and by Abraham “(Genesis 12:8), God was known by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, mostly as ‘El, a generic term meaning “powerful one”, or simply “God”,. He had also been known at times as ‘El Shaddai,“the all-powerful God”.
But Yahweh, actually a verb form meaning “He is”, is rooted in God’s eternal nature, carrying the approximate meaning of “the One who exists”, as opposed to the gods of Egypt and the other nations which have no real existence at all. It also carries the sense that God is self-existent, uncreated, and not dependent on anyone or anything outside Himself for His existence. All these senses would be communicated to the Israelites by Moses’ use of that divine name.
However, it was quite possible that many among the Israelites had no knowledge of this name, the name that Abraham had known, but that Jacob seemed to be ignorant of, always using ‘El or ‘El Shaddai. Moses was to make sure that the Israelites understood that he was not a messenger from some new God. Instead, he was to let them know that this God, Yahweh, was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he was to tell them that this God was aware of their suffering and enslavement, and that, because of the promise He had made to the patriarchs, He was now going to do something about it.
Pray with Me
Father, it had been several centuries since the Israelites had gone to Egypt. And during that time, they had forgotten much of what they had been told about You. But You had been watching over them, and had been involved in preserving them, even in the midst of their suffering. That gap, during which they had grown into a mighty nation just as You had promised (Genesis 46:3), meant that they would have to be reminded and taught much. This was where You began. Thank You, Lord, for Your faithfulness to Your every promise. Amen.