What's in a Name?
Exodus 2:23-3:15; 4:10-17

“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” These famous lines from William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet have become a part of the culture of western civilization. In the play, Juliet is bemoaning Romeo’s last name, Montague, for the house of Montague was the sworn enemy of her family. Juliet is saying that a person’s intrinsic qualities are what really matter, not the name he or she is called by. I suppose it is somewhat akin to the paradigm of Martin Luther King, Jr., that we should judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. What really matters about a person is on the inside, not his or her name or race.

A human being's name may be largely irrelevant, but I do not think that is true when it comes to God. In Exodus 3:14, God reveals his specific name to Moses. It is not a generic name. The word “God” is general. “God” describes a being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshipped as the creator and ruler of the universe. All of that is true of the deity who speaks to Moses from the burning bush, but “God” lacks specificity. Furthermore, “God” is rather abstract and impersonal, but the God of the Bible is very concrete, very personal.

The angel of the Lord set the wilderness shrub afire with God’s glory. The bush blazed but was not consumed. Then God called to Moses from the bush and gave him a command. “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Ex. 3:5). The God who addressed Moses was holy. “Holy” in the Bible refers to being set apart. God is fundamentally different from creation and from human beings. We call this in Christian thinking the transcendence of God. God embodies what theologians have identified as the “mysterium tremendum,” the great or profound mystery. When a person comes into contact with this reality, he or she experiences an overwhelming sense of awe. Moses experiences this tremendous mystery. “Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God” (Ex. 3:6b). All of this is contained in the word “holy.”

But the God who spoke to Moses that day was not only holy; God was also related to Moses and to Moses’ people through covenant commitment. God said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Ex. 3:6a). The God of the burning bush was the God of the patriarchs and matriarchs: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel. God had claimed Abraham and Sarah and their descendants to be his special, chosen people through a covenant.

Furthermore, this God was cognizant of his people’s sufferings. “Then the Lord said, 'I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings'” (Ex. 3:7). God was touched with the feeling of their infirmity.

Not only was God aware, but God also planned to rescue them. “I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians” (Ex. 3:8a). God also planned to provide for his people. God said he would “bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites” (Ex. 3:8b). Protection and provision were God’s intention for Israel.

Moses knew that God was holy, that God was aware of him and the Israelites, that God was concerned about their suffering, and had a plan to set them free and to provide for them. If God’s name were a matter of indifference, if the generic name “God” were enough, Moses would not have inquired about God’s specific name. Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” (Ex. 3:13).

God had not spoken to his people for over four hundred years! There had been no direct communication from God since God appeared to Jacob at Beersheba on his journey to Egypt to join Joseph and escape from the famine (see Gen. 46:1-4). Now suddenly, unexpectedly, God reaffirms His covenant relationship with His chosen people, and, in what is a pinnacle of divine revelation, God discloses the specific divine name. In response to Moses’ questions, God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM” (Ex. 3:14).

This is an unusual and enigmatic name. The name consists of the repeated verb “to be.” It is pronounced “YAHWEH.” The name is open to a wide variety of translations. It can be rendered as “I will be who I will be” or “I will cause to be what I will cause to be” or “I will be who I am.”
Exodus 3:12a may provide a clue to the sense of this mysterious name. I AM said, “I will be with you.” One commentator interpreted the meaning of the name this way: “I will be God for you. The force is not simply that God is or that God is present, but that God will be faithfully God for them. […] God will be God with and for the people at all times and places.” This is God’s name forever; this is God’s title for all generations (Ex. 3:15).

As an aside, our translations render the divine name by capitalizing the word as “LORD.” When you see God’s name capitalized, it is translating the divine name YAHWEH. This is an ancient tradition that comes down to us from Judaism. The LORD’s name was so holy that they did not pronounce it. Instead, when they came to the tetragrammaton (the four consonants of the divine name, YHWH) in scripture, they said the Hebrew word Adonai which is translated as “Lord.”

This is the specific and personal God who spoke to Moses that day long ago in the wilderness near the mountain of God called Horeb.

There is one other dimension of this text that we must not miss. The LORD says, I have observed the misery of my people. I have come down to deliver them. I have come to bring them to a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey. I have seen how the Egyptians oppress them. This is all wonderful news, but the LORD adds one more thing. “So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt” (Ex. 3:10). This prospect was not as exhilarating!

Moses immediately begins to make excuses about why he is not the man for the job. Moses says, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” and “Suppose the Israelites do not believe me or listen to me?” and “I have never been eloquent. I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” Basically, Moses did not want to go. He was comfortable tending sheep on the backside of the desert for his father-in-law, Jethro.

But there was no excuse that would convince the LORD. YAHWEH had been preparing Moses to be Israel’s human deliverer for his entire life. Neither Moses nor Israel could escape the destiny that accompanied covenant making with the LORD.

Exodus Chapter Three is one of the high points of the unfolding biblical story of God’s identity and mighty acts. This text continues to be foundational and formative for us as the people of God in the twenty-first century.

After a prolonged period of silence and apparent inactivity, the LORD can and does rouse Himself and come down. The LORD is holy. He is the mysterium tremendum who nonetheless makes it possible for mere mortals to hear Him and know him. The LORD knows the misery and suffering of this present world. He has a plan to deliver us and to bring us to the promised land of his kingdom. As we journey towards the land flowing with milk and honey, the LORD will be with us and for us at all times. This is wonderful and sustaining news. God is for us, not against us.

We must never forget that a covenantal relationship with the LORD also entails responsibility and vocation. The LORD says to us as he said to Moses, “So come, I will send you to Pharaoh.” God would send us wherever there is misery, suffering, oppression, and the need for deliverance and provision.

It is also important to point out that what is true of YAHWEH is equally true of the Lord Jesus Christ, for they are one God with the Holy Spirit. Just as YAHWEH saw the plight of Israel, the Lord Jesus saw our misery, suffering, and oppression by the world, the flesh, and the devil. He came to earth to deliver us by his death and resurrection and to give us hope for a better country, a heavenly one, and just as YAHWEH sent Moses to Israel and to Pharaoh, the Lord Jesus sends us saying, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Mt. 28:19). This is our privilege and our calling.

So, what is in a name? It turns out that there is a great deal in God’s name, YAHWEH. We cannot call the LORD by any other names than those that have been revealed, for they are sweeter (especially the name of Jesus) than any other name we may know.

The LORD, the God of covenant keeping, is forever so named. So let us muster courage, fortitude, and faith to heed God’s call upon our lives as God’s chosen people. When God calls our names, let us respond as Moses did at the outset, “Here I am.”

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in the name of the LORD. Alleluia! Amen.