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• When you think of Amazon, you are likely to think of delivery packages rather than the rain forest in South America.
• If I say the name Bill Gates, you think of Microsoft computers and billionaire.
• If I say Serena Williams, you think of someone who can easily take out Bill Bloomquist on the tennis court.
• Disney is known for its amusement resort parks and its entertainment industry.
• General Mills is known for its food products from breakfast to dessert.
• Proverbs 22:1 “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches.
• Names matter. They represent personal identity and a positive reputation. In fact, an autograph is valuable because it represents the signed identity of an individual – whether one famous, or for your personal agreement to follow through with financial or physical commitment. Likewise, forgery of a name is a serious crime because a name carries ability and access, and if you don’t have that authority you are stealing what does not belong to you.
• Similarly, we do not find parents naming children Judas, or Benedict Arnold, or Osama Bin Laden.
• Or, when a woman marries a man, she takes her husband’s name because they have a relationship with shared life, shared hopes, and shared storage (ahem!). Or, if there’s a fracture in the relationship, a wife will take her name back because she no longer wants the name association.

Since names are important for people, they also matter to God.

• Ps 8:1 “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.”
• Ps 29:2 “Ascribe to the LORD glory due His name.”
• Mt 6:9 “Hallowed be [God’s] name.”

Hallowed = to set apart, identify as unique and sacred.

• Illus: Our homes illustrate hallow regularly. Each day we go to our cabinets for a dish to use for our food and drink. Such dishes can be described as “common” or “ordinary.” Once the dishes are used, they become dirty and are placed in the sink or washer. These are what may be theologically called “profane” or “unclean.” Then some families have what is known as “sacred” or “hallowed” dishes – China. Such dishes have their own storage cabinet and are required to be handled with unique care and special occasions.
  LIKEWISE, God’s name is to be held with unique care with the speech from our lips, the thoughts of our mind, and the representation with our life.
• As Christians, we have salvation in Jesus’ name (Ac 4:12), pray in God’s name (Mt 6:9; Jn 14:13), gather in His name (Mt 18:20), and live for the glory of Jesus’ name (Php 2:11; Col 3:17). We are warned to never profane God’s name (Ex 20:7; Lv 13:21; 22:2, 32; Dt. 5:11).

All throughout the Bible are multiple names for God that describe His character, His competency, and His compassion. God’s names are clues to discover the depth of His nature.

Today we start a several week study unpacking the power of God’s names.[1]

EXAMINE: God Exists (Exodus 3:1-14)
¹ 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.
Moses is a monumental character in the Bible. If you read the opening chapters of Exodus, you learn that God had a special plan for Moses since his birth. Moses was born during a time when the Israelites were enslaved to the Egyptians. The Egyptian Pharaoh was insecure about the mass population of Israel, so he ordered severe slave treatment with harsh work conditions, and he ordered the death of every male born child (EX 1:8-16).

However, the Hebrew midwives feared God/Elohim [ אֱלהִים] (EX 1:17). Apart from God, these women were the first to start the pro-life movement. And their reasoning was because they feared God. Fear of God is not just the beginning of wisdom, it is the end of all other fears. I’m not saying that believers never get afraid or nervous, but belief in God means temporary troubles and terrors are put in perspective with the eternal God.

Fear of God is not just the beginning of wisdom, it is the end of all other fears. I’m not saying that believers never get afraid or nervous, but belief in God means temporary troubles and terrors are put in perspective with the eternal God.

So, Moses was born and spared. His mother floated him down the Nile River, and coincidentally (sovereignly) the Pharaoh’s daughter found the baby and adopted him. Moses received a well-to-do upbringing and a world-class education in Pharaoh’s household.

However, eventually Moses learned of his identity. He saw fellow Israelites mistreated by an Egyptian, and Moses responded with anger and murdered the man. From that point forward, Moses became shamed, insecure, and fleeing his God.

Exodus 2 ends with Moses several hundred miles away from home, as a thankless shepherd in dismal Midian. Yet, the chapter concludes “God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (2:24). Here is revealed another name for God: El Shama: “God who hears.” God listens and is attentive to the cries of His people. When circumstances feel out control, we need to remember hardship does not hinder God’s hearing; pain does not repeal God’s promises; and suffering does not subtract God’s salvation.[2]

² And the angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

Moses has been away from God’s people for over 40-years. The pace and place of Moses’ life has blinded him to the person or purposes of God. Yet, the LORD appears. God’s appearance comes in unusual ways in unexpecting times.

Perhaps you are thinking that your pace and place of life does not have time for God. Yet, it is the unrefined places of life that are fitting places for God’s grace to be planted and grow.

³ And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” ⁴ 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.” ⁵ Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

This encounter reveals that God is completely unique from humanity. God is unlike us who are bound by

• Space: one place at a time, while God is omnipresent.
• Time: present, while God is outside of time knowing past, present, and future.
• Dependency: The bush burned continually, but fire needs fuel. Likewise, humans are finite and dependent upon countless resources to exist. Yet, God is independent and infinite; His supply is inexhaustible and invincible.
  Most specifically, our dependency causes us to fall short and sin. We fail ourselves, others, and most importantly God. In contrast, God is holy.
  • Ps 111:9 “Holy & awesome is the LORD’s name.”
  • We should not view ourselves or our sin from our own perspective. This is short-sighted. It leads to comparison with those around us and thinking we are not so bad.
  • Yet, when we view ourselves, and our sin choices from God’s perspective, then we are humbled. We realize how far we are from the highest standard possible. This is why God commands Moses, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

⁶ 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.

Another name is revealed in vv.6 & 15, “El Dur” God of all generations; typically noted personally with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God loves individuals, but He loves even greater to place His blessings in families and generations.[3] That’s why churches should not just exist with multi-generation ministries but cultivate intergenerational relationships. Intergenerational relationships help the church not compete with resources but become the resource that reaches families and communities.  

⁷ 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,

Yet, another name: El Roi: God who sees.[4] God is not blind, closed eye, or absent. He’s watching our coming and going, and is present whether we see or not.  

⁸ 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 Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹ 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 oppress them.

¹⁰ Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” ¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

God has appeared to Moses in a burning bush. The LORD has spoken personally and revealed His past promises to bless. Further, God knows Moses’ history of being raised in Pharaoh’s house. He’s educated with literacy to establish a nation and government. He’s equipped as a leader of people, and herder of sheep to manage unruly crowds.
Yet, Moses is insecure and doubting his abilities to accomplish what God has assigned to him.

And this is where reading the Bible and listening to Moses is like looking into a mirror. We ask ourselves the same questions Moses asks: “Who am I?”

• Like the deployed veteran whose objective is not just successful missions but to be able to return home. Yet, once they return home they become uncertain if they can function in the real world. Unexpected noises and suspecting people cause them PTSD, and they feel like they’ve lost their identity.
• Or like a person who has spent significant time in prison and dreams of the day they can go home. Yet the excited feeling of going home turns into fear. They think, “I’ve messed up my life so much; what if I end up repeating my mistakes and return to life behind bars?”
• Or the mom who vaguely remembers sleeping in most mornings, but now wakes up from neck pains in awkward positions with eyes staring back and either cooing spasmodically or crying piercingly, and you can’t decide if you want to smile back or call a babysitter for a few hours.

• The voice of insecurity whispers inside all of us:
  “I am not _____ enough.” Not young enough,
  not smart enough, not funny or likeable enough,
  not athletic enough, not good-looking, not qualified… not spiritual enough…

Moses was Pharaoh’s adopted son, and never seems to feel like he measured up. He’s controlled by emotions and anger takes over that hurts and kills someone. He flees but his past still haunts him. And just the moment that God shows up to rescue and calls Moses to do something great, Moses questions his identity and abilities – and he will do so again, and again.

Feel familiar? But notice how God responds to Moses.
¹² 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.”

God’s response doesn’t coddle Moses, saying, “You are enough… You are brave and strong; You are smart and capable; You can do this.”

Instead, God says, I will be with you. God not always looking for the person who has bold dreams, a marketable brand, and purpose-driven methods; God’s looking for empty vessels filled with His presence.

God not always looking for the person who has bold dreams, a marketable brand, and purpose-driven methods; God’s looking for empty vessels filled with His presence.

¹³ 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?”

Moses wants specificity.

He knows the Egyptian “El’s/gods” but the presence of this “El” appears different – more authoritative, more credible, more powerful and able, more thoughtful and helpful. Yet, also more astonishing, and overwhelmingly glorious than Moses can comprehend.

¹⁴ 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.’”

And here we have revealed the primary name of God Haw-Yaw (YHWH/Yaweh)[5] = I exist. His name is a verb, indicating He is known not just by existing, but by His perfect and powerful actions.

God is letting Moses know that He cannot be defined by other beings. God is by far not the result of human preferences or the puppet of political polls. God is independent and self-sustaining. He eternally was, He’s ever-present, and He always will be.

Gen 1:1 provides the first name we will study:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens & the earth.”

Genesis communicates God existed eternally before creation, and when He created, it was out of nothing – or Latin “ex nihilio.” Human creation always starts with existing materials, but God creates complexity and beauty from when there was void and formlessness. God has distinct design, intelligent order, and stylistic creativity of sky with bright starry hosts, planets, and galaxies / water molecules with fish / land mass with luscious fruit-bearing plants, and assorted animals that exist in both sky, water, and land – and they all obey His voice!

Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”

Psalm 33:6-9, 18-19 “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm… Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.”

The climax of God’s creative activity is male and female, made in His image! This creative, powerful, and communicating God appears to Moses and says,
“I AM.” God is communicating that Moses (and us today) are not chosen because we are worthy but because He is. God says, “You think you’re lacking confidence, talent, skill, intelligence… You’re just thinking the tip of the iceberg! You’re so helpless that you can’t guarantee the next moment or minute. You’re life is but a puff of air or smoldering smoke. In the scope of the universe and all of time, you are a fraction of a microscopic grain of sand…. BUT, I AM.”

We respond,

• How will I know what to say? “I AM”
• Nobody will listen to me. “I AM”
• I’m not sure who else is on my team. “I AM”
• I’m too old and don’t have the energy. “I AM”
• What if I mess up and fail? “I AM”

The name “I AM” is the answer to every insecurity of questioned identity of life. When we become a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, we receive His name – Christian – and we acquire His Spirit, and we are in Christ because we know the great “I AM.”

The OT is filled names about Yahweh, some of which we’ll explore over these next few weeks. Here’s a few…

• Yahweh Hazaq: “The Lord is mighty” Indicates strength (Joshua 4:24).
• Yahweh Jireh (Yireh): “The Lord will provide.” Stresses God’s provision for His people (Gen. 22:14).
• Yahweh Oz and Magen: “The Lord is my strength and shield” (Psalm 28:7).
• Yahweh Rakhum and Hannun: “The Lord is merciful and gracious” He is patient with grace and quick to give kindness and forgiveness (Psalm 103:8).
• Yahweh-Rapha: “The Lord Who Heals” (Exodus 15:26) – “I am Jehovah who heals you” both in body and soul. In body, by preserving from and curing diseases, and in soul, by pardoning iniquities.
• Yahweh Shalom: “The Lord is Peace.” Points to the Lord as the means of our peace and rest (Judges 6:24).
• Yahweh Shammah: “The Lord is there.” Portrays the Lord’s personal presence in the millennial kingdom (Ezek. 48:35).
• Yahweh Elohim Yeshua: “The Lord, God of salvation” God delivers, saves, rescues and redeems (Psalm 18:46; 88:1).

Likewise, the NT reflects Jesus as the Great “I Am.”

• For the religious seekers, Jn 8:58 “Before Abraham was, I Am.”
• For the hungry, Jn 6:35 “I am the bread of life.”
• For those needing guidance, Jn 8:12 “I am the light of the world.”
• For those needing a fresh start,
  Jn 10:7 “I am the door.”
• For those who feel neglected,
  Jn 10:11 “I am the good shepherd.”
• For those who feel empty,
  Jn 11:25 “I am the resurrection and the life.”
• For those who feel confused,
  Jn 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
• For those who feel lonely and disconnected,
  Jn 15:5 “I am the true vine.”

The Bible’s message to you is not about self-help for you to be the best version of yourself. Instead, God loves you apart from your inadequacies and despite your flaws. God doesn’t help you become faithful enough or righteous enough – the gospel is that Jesus takes your place. Jesus IS the I AM who becomes all that we are so that we can receive all that He IS. The gospel is good news because we are more sinful than we realized but also more accepted and loved in Jesus than we could ever have hoped.[6]

APPLY/THINK

We must not lose sight of the aim of Yahweh’s revelation to Moses: “I AM has sent me to Pharaoh” (3:14). Later, “But for this purpose God raised up Pharaoh, to show God’s power, so that God’s name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” (9:18)

God’s aim is to send His people into the world to proclaim, “We are weak sinners, but God is a powerful Savior.”

Go to the world, start at home.

Start here, in your own heart.

• Prov 18:10 “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; we can run to Him for refuge.”

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[1] Works consulted: Tony Evans “Names Of God” series, JD Greear on Exodus 3.

[2] El Shama, cf. Exodus 2:24; Psalm 17:6; Romans 8:26; Hebrews 4:14-16.

[3] Gen 9:12; 17:7; Ex 20:6; Ps 78:4; Eph 3:21; https://growinggodlygenerations.com/2010/01/25/growing-godly-generations-scriptures/

[4] Cf. Gen 16:13; Ex 3:9; 2 Chr 16:9; Ps 121:3-8 / https://youtu.be/sz81dIfwf4Y?si=zO3DH1nrLmgrMVFb

[5] https://biblehub.com/hebrew/1961.htm

[6] See Tim Keller quote.