Exodus 3:1-6, 13-14; 6:2-4, YAHWEH (1)

We have looked at the term “God” in the OT.  Since the term is used of false gods, specifying the “true” God, the God of the Bible, requires qualifying or descriptive terms to be attached.  However, the various “gods” could also be distinguished by specific names that were attached to them.  Most of the nations worshipped a “pantheon” of gods, as you can see in reading the OT.  For example, Solomon recognized the gods of his foreign wives, gods whose names are given in 1 Ki. 11:5-7: Ashtoreth goddess of the Sidonians, Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites, and Chemosh the detestable god of Moab. 

When God called Moses to return to Egypt and lead the people of Israel out, he asked God for His name so he could tell the people.  He was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; but Moses wanted a name.  God’s answer was, tell them I AM has sent me to you (Ex. 3:14). 

Moses may have been looking for a name like Chemosh, or the name of one of the gods of Egypt.  You may remember that later, when Moses was up on Mt. Sinai, that the people worshipped a golden calf, of which Aaron said, this is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt (Ex. 32:4).  The “golden calf” idea came from Egypt; and we do know that later in Israel’s history King Jeroboam would establish worship of golden calves in Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 12:28-31). 

At the burning bush, God’s answer to Moses, I AM, revealed to Moses that God was not some local deity.  He was the ever-present, self-existent One, God who is incomprehensible and yet so very, very real. Again, God gave Moses a description, a very deep description.  The God of the fathers was simply, I AM.

But then, as the ten plagues, the attack on the gods of Egypt, was about to start, God revealed Himself through a specific name.  He was not merely some local deity; but He was the God of Israel.  That name was given in Ex. 6:2-3.  God told Moses, I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty (El Shaddai, a name we will study later) but by My name LORD I was not known. 

When you see LORD in all-caps, it is this name.  In older translations the name was Jehovah.  It is often called the “tetragrammaton” because it is a Hebrew term with four letters: YHWH (Hebrew has no vowels in the alphabet).  It is generally pronounced YAHWEH or YAHVEH. 

Notice what God said to Moses: I am the LORD; or, literally, I the LORD.  God is still the I AM; but the I AM now has a name, YAHWEH.  The “I AM” is YAHWEH; they are one and the same.  Now would be a great time to read Jesus’ conversation with the Jews in John 8:56-59.  Yes, He claimed to be the I AM!