Preached by Eric Schumacher
Last week, Moses asked, “Who am I?” And God answered that he would be with Moses to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt. We saw that God is always with his people to enable them to fulfill their calling. But knowing that God is present with his people is not enough.
If Kermit the Frog promised to be with you as you faced a gang of violent street thugs, it would not be comforting. He’s a Muppet. He’s not real. He can’t help you.
If I promised to be with you as you were thrown out of an airplane from 5,000 feet without a parachute, it would not be comforting. I can’t fly. I can’t help you.
The promise of a person’s presence is only as comforting and boldness producing as the person is strong and capable to meet the need at hand.
We must therefore answer the question: Who is God that the promise of his presence should comfort and encourage us?
In the remainder of the Exodus 3, we get a glimpse of two things: who this God is and how presence works.
What is His Name?
In verse 13, Moses asks a second question. “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 is apparently unfamiliar with the name of the Lord (given that he must ask!) and expects the Israelites to be as well. (Whether “Yahweh” was or was not use previous to this is a question we don’t have time to address.)
Who should Moses say has sent him? This brings us to our first main point:
(1) The God who is present is Yahweh.
In verse 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.”’”
“I AM WHO I AM?” What does that even mean? “I AM” comes from the Hebrew verb “to be.” Its essence is to indicate “an action or state of being of which there is no particular concrete instance in view.” So, it refers to general, conceptual terms.
The way it is written makes it possible to translate it multiple ways:
Past: “I have always been who I have always been.”
Present: “I am who I am.”
Future: “I will be who I will be.”
Which should it be one, two or all of these? Let’s note a few things about this statement:
First, it does not indicate an action but a state of being. God is not referring to something that he has done (is doing or will do), but to his existence.
Second, nothing in this statement itself indicates a tense (past, present, future). In such a statement, the tense must be inferred from the context. But, nothing in the context indicates a tense (past, present or future).
Third, “I am” is an equative verb. These are usually accompanied by a “predicate,” a word or phrase that tells something about the subject. So, for example, if someone said, “The coffee is…” you would expect to be completed with something like “…hot,” “…dark,” or “…very bright, medium bodied with lively citrus topnotes.”
But, here, the predicate (I am) says nothing more than what the subject (I am) has told us. It is like saying, “The coffee is the coffee.” The effect of this is: we are forced to focus, not on a concept, especially one that exists outside the “I AM,” but on the “I” itself.
So, this statement and this state of being are the answer to Moses’ question, “What is his name?” He is the God who is. The answer pushes us beyond any on temporal category (past, present or future).
In the context, who is this “I AM?” In verse 15, he is the God of the past—the God of the patriarchs, who made a covenant with them. In verse 16, he is the God of the present—the God who sees what is happening to them now. In verse 17, he is the God of the future—the God who will bring them out of Egypt into the promised land. So, in its immediate context, the past, the present and the future all converge on this “I.”
So, we should conclude that all three—“I have been,” “I am,” and “I will be”—are intended. No single option rises over and above the others. When God describes himself throughout the Bible, he describes himself as the one who transcends temporal categories—the God who was, who is and who shall be forever. This is, as one author writes, a “bold but simple statement of supreme, factual, dynamic existence that cannot be contained within any one time reference.”
Yahweh
In verse 15, the name “Yahweh” appears again (printed in most English Bibles as “LORD” in small caps). “Yahweh” is his name. It comes from the same verb as “I AM.” Thus, “Yahweh” is probably “shorthand” for “I AM WHO I AM”—not unfolding, but hinting at that reality.
When he says, “thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations,” it means that this is the name by which he is always to be known. That is to say: God will always and forever make himself known and be remembered by the essence and nature expressed in this statement.
Implications
The God who is present with his people is Yahweh, the great “I AM WHO I AM.” But, what exactly does this say about him?
“I AM WHO I AM” implies that he is:
Eternal. Given its past, present and future nuances, it implies he is the God who always was, is now and forever more will be.
Self-existent and self-sufficient. If he is eternal, it implies that no one and nothing created him. He depends on nothing outside of himself.
Unchanging and unchangeable in his essence and nature. God is not today someone different than he was yesterday. And, tomorrow he will not be different from what he is today. This is the same God that was revealed to their fathers, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
Self-determining, independent, autonomous. God’s existence, essence, nature, actions are not ultimately determined by anything or anyone outside of himself. Yahweh must be taken on Yahweh’s terms. He calls the shots. He cannot be adapted to the opinions, desires and preferences of men. He will be who he will be.
We could certainly say more. But, all this leads to one ultimate conclusion: He is sovereign. In Exodus 33, when Moses asks to see God’s glory, God tells him:
I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name “Yahweh.” And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
When God proclaims his name “Yawheh,” he follows it with a proclamation of sheer sovereign grace—more precisely, sovereign grace over the hearts of men: He shows grace to whom he shows grace. He shows mercy to whom he shows mercy.
And this statement of sovereignty in grace brings us to a very important aspect of God’s name, one that we dare not miss: He is the God who is always and absolutely faithful to his covenant people.
A Covenant God
God is not a mere, abstract, static, monolithic collection of attributes. In our Western culture, and particularly in more intellectual and reformed circles, it can be tempting to dissect God on a systematic level and leave him there. “Who is God?” a catechism asks; and answers, “God is a Spirit, and does not have a body like men.” This is true enough, but not enough.
When God reveals his name, he reveals it in relationship to his covenant people. In Exodus 34, when the Lord passed before Moses, he proclaimed:
Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.
He is the God who keeps covenant with grace and with justice. And, on the heels of him revealing his name to Moses in our passage, comes this statement (15):
Say to the people of Israel, “Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.”
He is not simply the great “I AM WHO I AM.” He is the God who graciously enters into dynamic, personal relationship with his people through covenant promises to do them good.
You cannot know God merely by formulating and dissecting systematic statements in an academic and catechetical fashion. Such statements are important; God makes them. Nevertheless, God’s essence and nature cannot be fully known and experienced apart from his self-revelation in the midst of the community of his covenant people. Yahweh is defined in the context of relationship.
The focus of the revelation of God’s name in context is this: This God is going to be faithful to his promises, his people and his purposes.
This is good news. He is always with them, always acting and reigning, now ready to intervene for their good. Yahweh will let nothing and no one come between him and his people.
This is good news indeed—if, and only if, you are one of his people. Can we know Yahweh today? If so, how?
Jesus is the I AM
In the Gospel of John, this “I am” language shows up on the lips of Jesus. In John 8, Jesus uses this language three times, finally saying: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” The Jews understood his claim to be the one true God, for “they picked up stones” to kill him.
This is how John describes Jesus in Revelation 1:4:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come…
And this is how Jesus describes himself in Revelation 1:8:
“I am the Alpha and the Omega…who is and who was and who is to come…”
Jesus, “who saved a people out of the land of Egypt” (Jude 5), is the great “I AM”—the self-defining God of the past, present and future—in the flesh, with us.
In the New Testament, we do not find the name “Yahweh” used and exalted as we do in the Old Testament. Rather, the New Covenant exalts the supremacy of the name of Jesus, at which every knee should bow (Phil 2:9-10). We are to believe on this name to be saved (1 John 3:23; Rom 10). It is that name that is emphasized throughout the book of Acts as powerful and effective to bring the blessings of salvation to all who will call upon it in faith.
The God who revealed himself to Moses as “I AM WHO I AM” is known and seen in the person of Jesus Christ.
How does this apply to us as Christians?
Last week, I spent a large part of the sermon providing practical examples of how we might apply the promise of God’s presence to various situations. But remember: It is only this understanding of who the God who is with us is that undergirds all those applications. Therefore, you must preach to yourself.
Last week, we considered a hypothetical trial that you are called to face. And so, you remind yourself that, as a believer in Jesus, the Lord is with you. But then, you hear a voice—perhaps that of Satan, of the world, or of your frail, faltering flesh— whispering in your ear:
God is with you—so what? Do you see how big your enemy is? How impossible this situation is? How long the struggle has been? Who is this God that you should find any confidence in him?
If you can’t answer that last question—“Who is this God?”—you are dead in the water. The truth that God is with you is useless apart from the knowledge of who this God is.
If you can’t answer that question, you will not pray, you will not press on in faith. Only a satisfying vision of who God is for you in Jesus has the power to change your heart and to cause you to act as you should.
So, you say to Satan, the world and your flesh:
The God who is with me is Yahweh, revealed and known in Jesus Christ: the eternal, unchanging, self-existent, self-sufficient, self-determining, self-defining, self-revealing, all sovereign Creator and Sustainer of the universe. And all this he puts to use for me in the Gospel. He is the God who is always and absolutely faithful to his people. He is the God who will let nothing and no one come between him and his people, or let his purposes be thwarted.
That is the kind of answer that, when combined with the truth that the Lord is present with his people, will compel you to go through trials with joy and strength and patient endurance. Believing anything less of God will cause you to cower and run away.
So, the God who is with his people is Yahweh, the all-sovereign God who will let nothing and no one come between him and his people. I want you to see that truth worked out in this passage.
How does God use his sovereign grace for the good of his people? Our second main point:
(2) Yahweh reigns sovereign over the hearts of all people.
In verses 16-17, the Lord instructs Moses to go and gather the elders of Israel and to proclaim to them that Yahweh, the covenant God, knows of their sufferings and intends to deliver them and fulfill his promises.
But, how will they respond? The Lord says in verse 18, “And they will listen to your voice.” The Lord knows how the elders are going to respond before Moses goes.
The elders are to join Moses in going before Pharaoh to present this request:
Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to Yahweh our God.
I am going to forego examining the details of that request for now. We will look at that when the request is made in chapter 5. For now, I want to focus your attention on what God says next.
In verses 19-20, the Lord says:
But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.
We see here that the Lord knows exactly how Pharaoh will respond and exactly what is required for Pharaoh to let the people go. And, he will do exactly that, sovereignly move to cause Pharaoh to let them go.
This movement—from knowing how elders respond, to knowing how to move Pharaoh to action—now culminates in what the Lord says in verse 21, “And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians.”
God’s sovereignty is so great that it reaches even to the hearts of the enemies of God’s people. He will actually change the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will favor the Israelites.
Think of how a great a thing this is! In chapter 1 we read, “And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service…” But now, the Egyptians will “favor” the Israelites, not because they have naturally soft-hearts, inclined toward favoring the Hebrews, but because God puts it in their hearts.
The Heart Changer
Yahweh is sovereign over the hearts of all. This means: God can change hearts. How does this apply to how we live?
Perhaps you are a wife who desperately wants and needs her husband to step up and be man—to take primary responsibility for leadership, protection and provision in your home. He’s not obeying God’s purpose for husbands. You’ve learned what 1 Peter 3:1 says:
Wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.
(It’s interesting, isn’t it, that change happens in husbands when they see “the imperishible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. Sanctification—conformity to God’s purposes—happens in husbands by means of seeing the beauty of God’s glory in Christ put on gracious display through their wife—not by her brow-beating him with the husband-law!)
You know this now. But, you’ve spent years leading him, swatting-down his leadership attempts, nagging and browbeating. Now he’s secluded, withdrawn, uninterested, neutered. He is resigned to let you lead and to be a passive, if not absent, wimp. He’s unresponsive, perhaps even mocking, toward your new desire to see him lead. His work, his hobbies and his friends happily receive, affirm and nurture his strength and leadership—they are a wife enough for him now. Is there any hope?
Or, perhaps, you’re the husband. You have spent years abandoning your role as a husband, forcing your wife to pick up the slack. You’ve spent years coming home from work exhausted, frustrated and drained. You have not seen your role as that of a servant-leader, laying down his life, to lead, provide and protect. Rather, you expect your home to be a castle and your wife and children to be your servants.
Recognizing this as wrong, you’ve started trying to lead. But, what you’re finding is that your wife, after years of waiting for you to be her husband, has now put up a sign: “Position Filled.” She’s got her friends (real and/or on-line), her women’s group, her books, blogs and podcasts on family, her own hobbies and interests. These things now give her leadership, protection and provision—and you’re no longer needed. She laughs at or ignores your attempts to lead. Is there any hope?
Yes. We have a God who is sovereign over the hearts of all, with whom you can plead to graciously change your heart and the heart of your spouse.
When that is your marriage, what god, what idol are you going to run to, to cause your husband or wife to change: to brow-beating? to behavior-manipulation? to threats? to cynicism? to despair? to apathy? Or will you put your hope in the God who reigns sovereignly over the hearts of all?
Examples, of course, could be multiplied: evangelism, reconciliation with an estranged child or parent, standing up for justice at work, working for change in government, rebuking someone in sin, finding yourself needing to (but unwilling to) repent or forgive.
Whether you are struggling to savor God’s glory in Christ or working to strengthen this vision in those you are teaching and training or you are seeking to spread this vision in evangelism and missions and loving deeds—you can and should pray for God to change their hearts!
Let’s turn now to see to what end his sovereignty is used, our third main point:
(3) Yahweh’s sovereignty guarantees the victory of his people.
When the Lord spoke of Pharaoh’s response, he concluded, “after that he will let you go.” The Lord will work to guarantee the release of his people from slavery.
Verses 21-22 continues:
And when you go, you shall not go empty, but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.
They will ask for silver and gold and clothing from the neighbors and those in their house. (They are neighbors and share houses, likely, because the Israelite women are household slaves, living in or close to the Egyptian homes.)
And, because God has given them favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, they will receive what they ask for. This clothing will be provision for them as they travel through the wilderness. And, this gold and silver will be used to build the tabernacle—which is the fulfillment of their calling (to worship the Lord who dwells in their midst).
On their way out, they “plunder” the Egyptians. “Plunder” literally means to “strip off.” “Plunder” is a term related to war. It is what victorious armies do to defeated cities. They take their treasure.
But, notice who will do the plundering and how they will do it. Who? The women of Israel will plunder Egypt. Women don’t plunder! Big, strong, trained, sword-bearing soldiers plunder! But, what have we seen in Exodus 1-2? Who is it that was thwarting Pharaoh’s plans—midwives, a mother, daughters, women. Who are they? In that culture, they are considered weak and foolish. God is using the weak and foolish things of the world to shame the wise.
How do they do it? Not by thievery. Not by swords. They simply ask. This emphasizes what we saw last week: “Not by might, nor by force, but by my Spirit, says Yahweh of hosts.” The God who is with them—Yahweh—will fight for them and sovereignly guarantee the victory of his people.
Yahweh arranges the salvation of his people so that in happens in a way that forces people to boast in Yahweh alone.
A Strong Tower
What’s the big application we should take away from Exodus 3? We might ask: What response is God expecting from Moses and the Israelites? Hearing God’s self-revelation in the name “Yahweh” should move them to faith. They should believe that he will do what he says he is about to do: “I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites…”
So, our ultimate application might be this: Rest in the name of the Lord.
Proverbs 18:10 reads, “The name of Yahweh is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.” That is an interesting statement, isn’t it? Yahweh’s name is a strong tower. What is a strong tower? It is a place where you can find protection from whatever is outside that tower.
How do you find refuge in a tower?
1. You admit that you are in danger.
2. You admit that you are incapable of delivering yourself.
3. You see and believe that the tower is sufficient protection.
4. Believing this, you run into the tower.
And what do you do once you are in the tower? You rest. You rest in the sufficiency of the tower to protect you from the onslaught of your enemy.
The name of the Lord is not a physical place. Rather, it represents a person, God’s nature and essence—now seen and known in Jesus Christ. How do you run into Christ? Like a tower:
1. You admit that you are in danger. We are in danger from our sin, the death that it brings, the devil (who uses our sin to accuse us before God), and from the wrath of God deserved by it.
2. You admit that you are incapable of delivering yourself. You cannot change yourself. You cannot give yourself life. You cannot pay for your own sin. You cannot overpower Satan and his accusations. You cannot resist the wrath of God.
3. You see and believe that God’s name—his essence and nature, put on display in the context of his covenant promises—is sufficient to save. In the Gospel, God says to us:
“In the life of Jesus Christ there is perfect righteousness. In his death, there is full payment for sins. In his resurrection, sin, death and the devil are conquered. In his ascension, there is the promise of my presence, the outpouring and indwelling of my Holy Spirit. In his reign, there is my power to conform you into my image and to work all things for your good. In his return, there is resurrection from the dead and life in the New Heavens and New Earth.
“For any and all who will look upon Jesus, call upon his name, believe these things—to such I will credit his full righteousness, I will forgive their sins, I will bring them out of death and slavery to sin into life and righteousness and peace, and I will give them myself forever.”
4. Believing this, you run into God’s name. That is, you cry out to God for mercy in the name of Jesus, trusting in him.
And what do you do then? You rest. You rest in the sufficiency of his name to do what he has promised, to deliver you from the onslaught of your enemy.
Friend, if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ—that is what it means to be saved. Hear who God is in Jesus—and believe.
And brothers and sisters—let us remember that our salvation is not completed by any other means than it began: By hearing the Gospel with faith. All the other applications that we have seen and that we will see will only happen if this happens: We see the glory of Yahweh revealed in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ—and we savor it, rest in it, and then walk in faith.
“I AM WHO I AM” is a strong tower, a mighty fortress. The name of Yahweh is powerful, for it speaks of all that Yahweh is. And all that Yahweh is he is for his people in Jesus Christ, whose name is exalted above all others, into which we run and are safe.
