I Am Who I Am...I Will Be With You

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.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

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.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

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,

Isaiah 31:3

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.

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,

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

Exodus 6:3

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.

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,

Yesh,

Yesh,

Yesh,

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,

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