God Reveals Himself by Name

Transcript

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[0:00] All right. Well, let's turn to the word of the Lord. Actually, there is a mistake in the bulletin. We printed off Genesis 3, 1 through 17. It should be Exodus 3, 1 through 17. That is my fault. I looked at it and I saw it and I thought, yeah, that's right. It was not. It should be Exodus. So just listen along and let the words fill your mind.

[0:36] This is from Moses and the burning bush. Now, Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There. The angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. And Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. So Moses thought, I'm going to go over and see this strange sight. Why the bush does not burn up. When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush. Moses, Moses. Moses. Moses. And Moses said, here I am.

[1:32] Do not come any closer. God said, take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy ground. Then he said, I am God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

[1:53] At this, Moses hid his face. Because he was afraid to look at God. The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers. And I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and bring them up. And I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and bring them up. Out of that land. Out of that land. Out of that land. Out of that land. Out of that land. you to pharaoh to bring my people the israelites out of egypt but moses said to god who am i that i should go to pharaoh and bring the israelites out of egypt and god said i will be with you and this will be the sign to you that is i have i who have sent you when you have brought the people out of egypt you will worship god on this mountain moses said to god suppose 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 then what shall i tell them god said 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 to the israelites the lord the god of your fathers the god of abraham the god of isaac and the god of jacob

[4:10] has sent me to you this is my name forever the name you should call me from generation to generation go assemble the elders of israel and say to them the lord the god of your fathers the god of abraham isaac and jacob appeared to me and said i have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in egypt and i have promised to bring you up out of your misery in egypt into the land of the canaanites porozites to a land flowing with milk and honey. This is the word of the Lord.

[4:59] Thanks be to God. And now we skip backward. We skip backward, backward, not really to Jacob, but to Hagar, a little bit to Jacob. We skip to Hagar, to Genesis 16 to 17.1. It's a strange section, and I did it on purpose because I was really only focusing on the names of God. So let's... Let's hear a little more. Genesis 16, verse 7. The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert.

[5:58] It was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going? I'm running away from my mistress, Sarai. She answered. Then the angel of the Lord told her, go back and submit to your mistress.

[6:25] The angel added, I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count. The angel of the Lord also said to her, you are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael. But you will not be able to give birth to a son. For the Lord has heard of your misery.

[6:50] He will be a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him. And he will live in hostility toward all his brothers. She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her. You are the God who sees me. For she said, I have now seen the one who sees me.

[7:15] That is why the well was called Be'er Lehi Roi. It is still there between Kadesh and Bered. So Hagar bore Abram a son and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had born. Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

[7:45] When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am God Almighty. Walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Let's pray. Lord Almighty, God who sees, Yahweh, you are God. May you be exalted through the reading and the hearing of your word. Add your blessing to it today. These things we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

[8:36] So God has always been beyond human expression. And though our hearts and our souls can always relate to God, our human language has its limitations. And it's why the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf with what Romans 8 26 calls wordless groans. It's also why Jesus uses so many parables and illustrations to demonstrate the kingdom of heaven, because one or two human ideas were just not really enough to paint a full enough picture.

[9:23] But what is really stunning is the length that God goes to throughout the course of the Bible and throughout the course of history to reveal to us who he is. And we could search all the languages in the world throughout all of history, and there would never be a word good enough that would come close to explaining who God is. Because we just can't, we just can't encapsulate God in one word or one name. And so God is. So God is ever revealing himself to humanity, showing himself to individuals and populations at certain points in time.

[10:21] In time as we are best able to understand or most in need of certain pieces of knowledge. And he does this in little bits and pieces, because if he were to reveal all of himself at once, I don't think we would be able to stand it. He just reveals pieces of his character, because our hearts wouldn't be able to take in all of his greatness all at once. We just couldn't bear it. His glory is too amazing and too great. We couldn't comprehend it.

[11:10] I see the evidence of this sort of revealing in my own story. And as I have grown in my faith journey, my understanding of who God is has changed day by day and year by year. And God has deepened my knowledge of who he is. And with every new thing, I desire more and more to praise him. More and more often, but also in a deeper and deeper way.

[11:42] And I also see the stories of God's people and his revealing to them in these ways. So God described a number of things in scripture. But I wanted today to focus particularly on names. God describes himself. In character, God describes himself as like a mother, as a father, as protecting with eagle's wings, as a potter. He describes himself in many ways. And we can come to understand God's character in many ways. But today I'm only focusing on the character of God as revealed in names. But I want this to be somewhat in the context of the Bible. I want to be a little bit more interactive. And I'm not going to, we're running a little behind, so I'm not going to take a lot of time. But in the chat, if you feel led, if there has been a point where God has revealed himself to you, either by his character or by a specific name, I want you to go ahead and call that out. Because the point of this service today was to be able to praise God because he has revealed himself in a certain way.

[13:06] That was the point of this, is that we are able to praise God because he has revealed his character to us. And through the revealing of his character, we have known him more and relied on him better. And that comes also through the testimony that the people of God have shared with each other. So we say, we see the testimony of these people in the Bible as God reveals his character to them. But we also see the testimony of the people of God in our own congregation. So if God has revealed his character to you in a special way, and you have known the character of God, you can put that in the chat. And that is, that is special to us too.

[13:55] So the name Yahweh is especially important to our discussion. And it's especially important as part of God's Mosaic covenant and God's Mosaic relationship with Israel. So we should expect to see the name Yahweh after Exodus begins. But in Exodus 6-3, God tells Moses, I am the Lord, Yahweh. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as a messenger of God. As God Almighty. El Shaddai. But my name, the Lord, Yahweh.

[14:38] By my name the Lord Yahweh. I did not make myself fully known to them. The name Yahweh appears throughout Genesis quite a bit though. And first, that's because of the author. The author would have been post Mosaic tradition. But also because of the book of Genesis. because Yahweh was a word that referred to gods before this tradition, and it would have been more as an impersonally and casually named situation. So it wasn't just referring to God as Yahweh, someone who is personally known as the name Yahweh, but as a God who can sometimes be called Yahweh, just like other gods can sometimes be referred to as Yahweh casually.

[15:43] Now at the time of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, God probably was referred to in many ways, and occasionally they would refer to God as Yahweh casually because of casual, casual cultural ties. Not because God had personally revealed himself to them as Yahweh.

[16:09] Yet. But God did reveal himself to them on many occasions as we see in the reading. And what gets me is his revealing to Hagar. This is what sticks out to me first. Because Hagar. was a slave. And Hagar was not included necessarily in the covenant promises.

[16:40] She was of little consequence to Abram and Sarai, except that they thought they must be meant to use her to bring about God's covenant promises. But they treated her badly, so badly that she ran away. She had nothing. And she took her chances alone as a woman in Bible times in the wilderness while she was pregnant with child in the desert, rather than face their cruelty.

[17:18] She would rather face almost certain death and destitution than face their cruelty. She didn't know. She didn't know who her master's God really was. But she had a theophany, and she experienced God relationally firsthand. God revealed himself to her as the God who listened. In fact, he told her, you will name your son Ishmael because I have heard you.

[17:58] She responded by naming God the God who sees, El Roy. Her act of worship was to name the well after the God who saw her. Now we all know that God saw the Israelites and that God saw Abram and Sarai because he made a covenant with them and they were important to his plan. But Ishmael was not the promised child. And Hagar was a slave. Even if Ishmael was not the promised child. He was still a child of Abram. But Sarat. But Hagar.

[18:40] Was a nobody. What does this name reveal about God. That God doesn't just see and hear certain people. God sees and hears every person. without discrimination, because he loves every person. Hagar was not a nobody.

[19:10] Hagar was his beloved child. And he heard her cries. And he answered her pleas. Now God also revealed himself to Abram. In fact, right after. Right after he revealed himself to Hagar. Abram had made a mistake.

[19:38] Many. If you read Abram's accounts, he made many mistakes. But God revealed himself to Abram on many occasions. And this passage is just one. But it's a book. it's a beautiful one, God was confirming his covenant with Abram and he had referred to himself as El Shaddai, God Almighty, God the All-Sufficient. For 13 years, Abram had thought that he did pretty well. He thought that he'd born an heir through Hagar. He was appropriately satisfied and assumed, well, this must be what God had wanted of him or expected of him. And that must have been fine, but Almighty and All-Sufficient means much better than what humans take as good enough, I suppose. So here God specified that Abram at the age of 100 would have with his wife Sarai, who was 90, and not his maidservant, the son of the covenant promise. And this was better than Abram and Sarai could have expected, and certainly not in a way they could have expected. And Abraham laughed. He said, hey, I know I griped a little a number of years ago that my household would pass on to some servant and not to an heir of mine, but now I have an heir with a maidservant. And he's an heir of mine. And I don't mind if Ishmael is the son of the covenant promise. It's good enough. But God El Shaddai is God Almighty the All-Sufficient. He is not God of the good enough.

[21:32] I suppose. He is God for your utmost and deepest needs. Even those you don't know that you have. Even if you don't remember them. even those for generations and generations to come, even those that go beyond you to other people, God is the God of the all sufficient.

[21:57] God is the God way beyond good enough. God is bigger. God is the almighty. And I can relate to that kind of need. I wonder, has there been a time where God has surpassed what you thought you needed? Has there been a time where God has gone beyond what you thought, okay, if God could just meet this, it will be good enough and I can make it. But instead, God has blown you away by being more than good enough, by being all sufficient and God Almighty.

[22:48] Or is there a time now where you think, God, I have a need and you need to rely on God as all sufficient and almighty? Well, the story progressed and God continued to grow and shape Abraham through his faith and relationship.

[23:08] And we get to Genesis 22 and Abraham now has his son, Isaac. In fact, his son, Isaac is of age and God has given Abraham his most difficult test yet. He's asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac to God. And Hebrews 11 summarizes this up nicely. It says, by faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. And he said, I will not give you a sacrifice. He who embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.

[24:00] Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead. And so in a manner of speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. It was there that Abraham trusted in God, so that he could be redeemed from the curse of the covenant. And so Abraham was so fully that he even trusted God with the life of his very son, whom he knew God had made the covenant promise through.

[24:28] So God knew that no matter what God's provision was, would be perfect and God's timing would be sufficient. So Abraham called that place, the Lord will provide. And to this day, Abraham is the only one who knows that. So this day, it is said, on the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided.

[24:53] Jehovah Jireh means the Lord. And here we come back to that more generic use of the term Yahweh, will provide. And Jehovah is this adapted spelling of Yahweh. The Lord Yahweh will provide. So if you remember how great his great great great great great great revealing every aspect of his character, little aspects of his character along the way of Abraham's journey until this point, and providing for Abraham until this point in little ways. And Abraham's faith had been growing until this big, huge test came. And finally, Abraham trusted so much that he knew that God would provide, and he knew he could count on this. And so when God did provide for this huge, huge moment, this huge moment of reckoning, Abraham was so relieved and so full of praise that he just cried out, this is the mountain of the Lord will provide, Jehovah Jireh.

[26:38] Where has God provided in your life? Or where is that need where you are looking for Jehovah Jireh? God is a provider for our needs because he compassionately cares for us. And this is not the first time we have seen God as the provider. And this is huge because I look at something like Genesis.

[27:12] Genesis 1, verse 1, it says, Genesis 1, verse 1, it says, bring you into your own promised land. I am that Yahweh. It was like he was signing the covenant promise with his own personal name, and that personal name was Yahweh. That's his personal name, and that is why Yahweh became so important to the people of Israel. So God had revealed something even more important to Israel. So all throughout history, God's been revealing more and more of his character, but now it becomes even more important because now it is a personal relationship.

[30:52] And it's a personal relationship that means deliverance. It means I've heard your cries, and I won't stand for people hurting you. It means I'm going to do something about it. Knowing that the name Yahweh had associations with that covenant promise, and that God was revealing himself to Moses, and that he was God of the forefathers, and was ready to bring the Israelites out of slavery, and was finally going to free them, and bring them to their own promised land. And that he was the I Am. Who would be with them. That was the other thing. Yahweh comes from the verb that means to be.

[31:46] So it is a play on the word I Am. He is the I Am. who would be with them. This was a declaration to all of Israel that he would be their personal God who would always be with them. And it was also a declaration to Egypt and to the world. It made a statement about who he was to them and to all. God had revealed all of that to Moses in simply a name in just that moment and to the Israelites and to the Egyptians. And that name means that even after all the slavery and oppression with circumstances that seemed impossible that he is a God who keeps his covenant and what they know about him. And that's what God revealed to them and to all. And it was a declaration to all of Israel that he was a God who keeps his covenant and what they needed right then. He was that for them. Where you need the God of covenant, of promise, of deliverance, the I am who will be with you and on your side, he is and he will be for you. And this paves the way for God to reveal himself in other ways in his kingdom. His deliverance of the Israelites especially sets the stage for his people to see, understand, and receive him as the God who sanctifies Jehovah Mekadesh. As Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals both inside and outside of the body, the soul and outside the body. The Lord who sanctifies him.

[33:44] He makes children were meant to respond in ways of telling his story and helping to reveal his character others others others others others others others others Abraham with his son Isaac, safe and sound, named a mountain and made a sacrifice.

[34:23] When God reveals himself to us, I think we need to try and tell each other and celebrate together, even in the small revelations and tiny testimonies of life. So during our response time, if you feel led, and maybe some of you have, I haven't checked the chat, just, I wonder if you might just say in the chat how God has revealed himself to you. It can be by way of your favorite name of God or in a specific way, but let's let that be our praise to God today. Let's pray.

[35:02] Dear God, thank you that you are the God who has revealed himself to us. Who sees, who hears, who knows, who is with us, who is Yahweh, who provides, who is more than sufficient, who sanctifies, who heals, who saves and makes our salvation possible.

[35:28] We praise you for all these things and so much more. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.