Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Word of the Lord which engages us this morning comes from our Old Testament lesson (Exodus 3).                 

We always feel at a disadvantage if someone comes to us and knows our name but we don't know theirs. They call us by name, obviously knowing who we are and knowing something about us. But we stand there, searching our brains for some clue about their name, their identity. If it is truly someone we have never met before we feel awkward, embarrassed. We are forced to ask the question that really shouldn't be all that embarrassing: "Please forgive me, but what is your name?"                 

Moses is in a predicament like that. God calls to Moses by name "Moses, Moses." Not only doesn't Moses know the name of whom he is talking to, he doesn't even know what species he's talking to. By all human arrangements, Moses should not have been there. As an infant, he should have been killed, but instead he was saved out of the Nile River and raised in the palace of the Pharaoh. He might have become an influential leader of Egypt, but instead he killed an Egyptian for simply beating a Hebrew, and Pharaoh therefore sought to kill Moses (Ex 2:15). Moses fled into the desert and probably should have died, but instead met an influential man in Midian, married the man's daughter, and became a shepherd for him.                 

Yet here he was and he saw this strange sight. An ordinary bush burning in the desert but not being burned up. He is curious; he investigates. A voice speaks to him "Moses, Moses." "Here I am." Then he's told "Don't come near, take off your sandals, for the place you are standing is holy ground." Then he is told: (3:6) "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God." The Lord had not spoken to his people for some 430 years. He had communicated directly with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He had worked wondrously through Joseph to bring that family of promise down to Egypt. They had multiplied into more than a million Israelites, but now they were enslaved by the Egyptians, afflicted with servitude and sufferings. The Lord had decided that it was the opportune time to begin the rescue of his people. You know the rest of the story. He empowers Moses to speak for him. He curses Pharaoh with 10 plagues until Pharaoh finally relents and releases the people. Then He saves the people through the Red Sea and takes them to the Promised Land. But first things first. Moses and these Hebrew people should know the name of the God who is saving them. Moses says (v. 13) "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?"                 

Many people in our world want a generic god, a god that they can give any name they want to. Lodges want to call their god "The great architect of the universe" or "Ja-Bul-On", a name that includes references to Baal and an ancient Egyptian sun god. New Age seekers want to claim that "All is god, and god is all." Humanists assert that man is actually god, the ultimate of evolution in the solar system. Yesterday while grocery shopping I saw a young man with a t-shirt that looked like a 'Salvation Army' insignia, but actually said "Satan's army." I walked around repeating Jesus' words in my head "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." Even many people who think of themselves as believers, as Christians, have a very generic view and name for "God." He's just God and he's up there somewhere. They believe He exists, but they don't know His name or very much about Him. How could they if they haven't heard his words before.                 

Moses wants to know His name and God is prepared to tell him. "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you." "This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation." This name is used throughout the Old Testament; in Hebrew it is pronounced "Yahweh". Every time you see the word LORD in all capitals in the Old Testament, the word actually was Yahweh. Sometimes it gets changed into English into Jehovah, but the name is actually Yahweh.   

This name was so sacred, so special to the Israelites, that for several hundred years of their history they simply quit using it for fear they would use it in vain.                 

Like Native American names like "Crazy Horse" or "Sitting Bull", Hebrew names were often descriptive. Abraham means "Father of many." Israel, the other name for Jacob after his losing wrestling match with God, means "God prevails and wins."                 

But "I AM WHO I AM?" What does that mean? First, but not foremost, it is a transcendent name. I am forever who I am and will be Him forever. He is no one else's, not controlled by others' power. But it is not just an eternal, transcendent name. He is a God who makes and keeps promises to His people. He tells Moses (verse 6): "I AM the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." He is a compassionate, rescuing God. He intends that his people not to be slaves, but to be free to serve Him. Verse 7-8: " I AM concerned about their suffering. I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers. I have come down to rescue them. He is a God who wants to form His rescued people into a godly community, marked as His special people. He will not just rescue and then neglect. He will rescue, and continue to love. In Chapter 6 verse 7 He says: "I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians."                 

Yahweh reveals his transcendent, majestic name to Moses and His chosen people at the same time that He reveals His loving character to them. Yahweh reveals He is a God who keeps promises. Yahweh reveals He is a compassionate, rescuing God. Yahweh reveals He is a God who wants to form His rescued people into a godly community. It is a special name for a special God. He is not generic. We shouldn't turn him into our image or give him our pet names. We should hear his revealed names for himself. In our family devotions at home I often say the name Yahweh when we come to the all caps LORD in the Old Testament. Yahweh is the most frequently used name for God in the Bible, cited over 6000 times.                 

This name Yahweh may be unfamiliar to some of you today. But even if it is new you have actually known a variation of it for years. Jesus. Jesus' name is a Greek New Testament form of the Hebrew word Yeshua, which means Yahweh saves. Jesus actually attributes the name Yahweh to Himself when He said "before Abraham was born, I am!" (John 8: 58). � Paul declares Jesus to be Lord Yahweh in 1 Corinthians 12:3. Yahweh revealed His name to Moses, and revealed his promising, rescuing, community-forming character. Thirteen centuries later Yahweh revealed another special name to His people, the name of Yeshua, Jesus.   

Yahweh would reveal that He had the power to save his people from a life of slavery in Egypt. Jesus, Yeshua, "Yahweh saves", would fully reveal Yahweh's compassion, his power to rescue His people from struggles much bigger than Pharaohs and Egypt. Jesus would rescue us, His people from sin, from death itself, and from our slavery to the satanic world.                 

Jesus is no revelation of a new or different God, anymore than Yahweh was. God has chosen to reveal himself in history, in stages. We are not able to know Him apart from His revelation of Himself. Hebrews 1:1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but now in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.     

Moses, the human, saved Yahweh's people by leading them through the sea. Jesus, fully human and fully God, saved Yahweh's people by dying for us on the cross.                 

So, the next time you introduce yourself to someone and share your personal name with them, remember that Yahweh God has shared his personal name with you. You, like Moses, may feel inadequate to knowing and serving this Yahweh. And you would be right. But thanks be to God, He comes to us anyway, sending his Son, Jesus Christ, for us. Despite our smallness and sinfulness, He chose to call us, rescue us, and make us his godly community. The next time you start to establish a personal bond with someone new by giving them your name and receiving their name to you, remember that Yahweh himself has given you his name. He has established that personal bond and made you one of his own. �

The grace, peace, and saving name of our Lord Yeshua Christ be with us always. Amen.