Father, you are a God who saves, and you are a God who finds great pleasure in glorifying your name by the way in which you save and redeem and deliver your people. And so we want to look at this old, ancient text that describes you, and we want to see the God who saves. We want our hearts to be stirred by the God who saves. We want our lives to reflect the God who saves. And so for that reason, we are turning our attention now to your word. In the full assurance of faith that as your word is preached, as your word is read, the Spirit will be active in our midst. Lord, we want that, that the Spirit would be active and moving, revealing to us the God of our salvation in the face of Jesus Christ. We pray this in your name, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Well, when someone throws out the word retirement, What comes to mind? If you're a younger person, maybe in your 20s or earlier, you think retirement and you think, "I don't even ever think about that word. That's something that's like decades off or something that's just for old people." If you're not quite that young, retirement gets thrown out there and maybe it's kind of panicky. Like you feel like you're not ready. Or maybe you're getting closer and you sort of got this idea forming in your head of, This is what I want my retirement to be, to look like. There can be all sorts of images of the ideal retirement, right? Some people probably think of retirement and they think of golf courses and like oversized floral t-shirts in the state of Florida. Like perpetually for as long as possible once I stop working. That's sort of what comes to mind for some people. Other people think of maybe old guys. This is what I think of. I think of the old guys in my town growing up. The retired farmers who would go to this little café every morning and they would drink coffee. So the dream of retirement was you had the guys who worked, like my dad, who would go in early and drink coffee and chew the fat, and then he'd have to go to work. And then these old guys would get to stay there until like 9, 10 in the morning. I don't know how many trips they made to the bathroom, but they would just sit there and just drink coffee, talk politics, and talk sports. And you really go there, it didn't matter when you went, it was really the same conversation just sort of recycling itself. That was their vision of retirement. That was their dream. I don't know what yours is, but in preparing for this message, one of the commentaries I was reading, one of the resources, actually likened what we see in the first 2 chapters of Exodus, and especially the beginning of Exodus 3, as a description of sort of a type of retirement for Moses.
And that was sort of an intriguing image. Moses, at this point in the story, is living off on the edge of the wilderness in a land called Midian. He's a long ways away from Egypt where he grew up. Now, if you remember the story, Moses is a Hebrew, he's an Israelite, but there is a decree that goes out from Pharaoh. The Israelites are getting too numerous, and so the Pharaoh decides he's going to strike down the firstborn, firstborn son of every Israelite family. And so Moses' mother hides him in a little basket and puts him into the river. It's actually called an ark. The word for it's the same. It kind of hearkens back to Noah. And he's discovered by a princess in the Egyptian court. And he's taken into the court and he's adopted. And so Noah gets raised as a prince of Egypt. And we know the story, right? For 400 years, the Hebrews have been slaves. And then at one point, Moses becomes an adult and he's out kind of wandering and overseeing and things. Seeing what's going on, and he comes across an Egyptian adult, an Egyptian man, beating a Hebrew. And it stirs something in him. He realizes even though he's a prince and living in Pharaoh's court, this Hebrew that's being beaten mercilessly is one of his people. So he looks around, the coast is clear, and he kills the Egyptian. And that sparks this whole series of events. He becomes a fugitive. The Pharaoh wants to kill him. And so he has to take off and he flees to Midian.
So you see this picture now of Moses as sort of just the shepherd. It's sort of like this retirement exile. It was interesting the way this commentary was talking about it. He's off just kind of hanging out. Watching sheep. Chilling. He's away from the trouble. No big things happening. He's got a wife. Family seems to be doing well. So that's where we find Moses, in the middle of his sort of retirement and exile. At some point, if you're tracking with me, if you're seeing this, the idea of golfing for all of retirement, if you're like me, that kind of might seem like an exile like this. When I think of retirement, the idea of like floral shirts and Florida in particular with humidity, that doesn't seem enjoyable. I don't think this is what Moses had in mind for his life. He ends up on the edge of the wilderness just sort of tending his father-in-law's flocks. He doesn't even have his own job, right? He's going to work for his father-in-law.
And that's where we find him. And then one day, this retirement of sorts takes an unexpected turn. He's walking along a mountain and he sees a bush. And it says the bush is burning, but it's not consumed. So Moses kind of does a double take. There's a burning, unburnt bush. And he says, "I've got to check this out." This is an unusual circumstance. So Moses moseys on up the mountainside. And he sees the bush, and when he arrives, he gets a whole lot more than he bargained for, right? You know how the story goes. Exodus 3 tells us in this burning, unburnt bush, he encounters the angel of the Lord. It's a theophany. It's an appearance of God. Moses gets there, he encounters God, and all of a sudden this bush starts speaking, or rather, from the bush he hears a voice. The voice tells him, "Take off your shoes, you're on holy ground." Now, there's nothing special about the dirt here. We know that special dirt only exists in Iowa. That's where the special dirt is. This is just regular dirt, but it's in God's presence. So he has to take off his shoes. He's in the presence of the holy God. And at this point, Moses starts to get a little bit freaked out. You got a bush that's been burning for a while now. He's had to walk up the mountain to get to it. It's still not burnt. Now there's a voice coming out of the bush that tells him, "You're in front of God. You're in His presence." It says Moses gets freaked out. He gets a little scared. He's shaken up. The bush even knows his name.
And then it informs him that it's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of his fathers tells Moses that He's sending him back. Your respite is over. You're going back to Egypt, back to Pharaoh's court. So you're going to go and get my people Israel. For 400 years they've been enslaved, they've been in bondage, and you're going to take them out. Now, if you're keeping track at home, this means Moses just got commissioned to go back to the place where he's wanted for murder. He's a fugitive from this land. He's been told, go back. Go back to Pharaoh. Go into Pharaoh's palace. Don't even go back and be sort of like incognito, like just kind of hanging out with your Hebrew people and building up some sort of guerrilla insurrection. Now I want you to go back and go into Pharaoh's courts. And I want you to demand that he release this massive population of free slave labor.
6 · Moses balks at the commission, asking who he is to confront Pharaoh
Moses' box. Who is he to go tell off Pharaoh? God responds in verse 12, "But I will be with you." And that's where we pick up. Moses is still unconvinced. He's still worried that Israel will be unconvinced. And so he asked for more info. He says, "You gotta give me more than that if I'm gonna go back and do all this." And that's where we find ourselves in today's text.
7 · The primary text is read aloud: Exodus 3:13-15, in which Moses asks for God's name and God reveals Himself as 'I AM WHO I AM,' then instructs Moses to tell Israel that 'I AM' and 'Yahweh the Lord' has sent him—a name to be remembered forever
In Exodus 3:13-15, we read this. Hear God's holy and authoritative word. 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: Yahweh the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered. Throughout all the generations. God's holy and authoritative word, he writes truth upon our hearts.
8 · Establishes the theological significance of names in the Old Testament as revelations of character, not mere labels
That's that famous great I Am passage of the Old Testament. God gives Moses his personal covenant name. Now that's really important because in the Old Testament, names are a big deal. It's not sort of like it is today where a lot of times folks just sort of pick names out of, out of a big directory. You go online, you kind of search for— some people think, what are like the most common names? And they pick from the top of the list. Some people are like, what are the least common names? And they go way to the bottom so you have that really unique name. Well, in the Old Testament, you pick names based on what they meant. And oftentimes in the Old Testament, God gives names to things. So what does he call the first man? He calls him Adam, which is also the Hebrew word for Man, things like that happen in the Old Testament. They aren't just labels. Names just aren't like little stickers you have on yourself. Oh, that's Stuart. That's not how they function. It tells you something about the character of the bearer. You think of like long-distance truckers, right? And they've got their CBs, and they call each other. You have a handle. So the long-distance trucker has a handle when he gets on the CB radio. That's actually a helpful image for what a name is in the Old Testament. It's a handle. It's a way to get a grasp of who a person is, what makes them up. That's the way biblical names operate. They're way bigger than just tags. In our text today, we're given God's covenant name, Yahweh. You see it in your Bible every time in the Old Testament you encounter the LORD, and LORD is in all caps, big L, and then smaller caps for O-R-D. Every time you encounter that word, it means you're seeing the name Yahweh. The covenant name of God is present in your text. Well, this morning we see the significance of this name that occurs thousands of times in the Old Testament. Here's what we'll find out. In Exodus 3:13-15, the Lord's name, Yahweh, reveals God as Redeemer, as one who is able and eager to save His people.
9 · Signals the structural shift from introduction to the body of the sermon, previewing the exposition of the threefold revelation: 'I AM WHO I AM,' 'I AM,' and 'Yahweh the Lord, God of your fathers
That's what we see in these verses as we unpack what He means by "I AM WHO I AM." "I AM has sent you." "The Lord, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, the God of your fathers, has sent you." So what do we see? What do we learn about this name?
10 · The name Yahweh is not entirely new—it appears in Genesis—but it is new to Moses and forgotten by Israel after 400 years of slavery
Well, first, Yahweh, the Lord's name— when God tells Moses this, he's informing him, my presence is with you. When we read that Moses gets introduced to the name Yahweh, it doesn't mean it's the first time anyone has ever heard this name. It's not the first time this name has ever been uttered in all the earth. If you go back and read in Genesis, this name is being used. And it's just not just Moses using it as the author of Genesis. It's being used by the people of Genesis that he's referring to. They know of God in this covenant way and with this covenant name, but it's new to Moses. Isn't that weird? Moses is supposed to be representative of the people of Israel, right? And this name, this covenant name, is something that catches him off guard. He has to ask God, what's your name? So evidently, through 400 years of slavery, the name has been forgotten. And that's actually sort of the theme. One of the themes you see in the first 2 chapters is there's kind of this distancing of God's people from God's name. They don't remember. It's striking. In one part, you're going to see God respond. He hears basically the cries of oppression come up from the people of Israel, right? 400 years of slavery. But what's striking is what it doesn't say. It doesn't say that Israel is crying out to God for deliverance. It just says they're crying out and that God hears them. The sense in the first two chapters is that Israel has forgotten through 400 years the name of the covenant God.
11 · God's mode of revelation to Moses is distinct from the dreams and visions of the patriarchs—Moses converses with God in direct dialogue, a new intimacy of communication that persists throughout his life, even as God's holiness remains inviolable
Now, before we even get to the name itself, it's also important to realize the revelation Moses gets, how God reveals himself. This is different than Genesis. It's different than Abraham and Joseph. You know, they dream and crazy stuff happens, and God passes through animal entrails, and they dream, and there's like brothers bowing down, and they dream, and there's fat cows eating skinny cows and skinny cows eating fat cows. I mean, there's crazy stuff in these dreams, and that's how God communicates to His people. That's not what happens with Moses. They converse with each other. They talk. There's a back and forth. From the burning bush through the end of his life, Moses gets to speak with God. There's a new intimacy of communication. Now God's holiness is always present. Moses has to take his shoes off, right? On Mount Sinai, he gets hidden in the cleft of the rock as God's glory passes by because he can't handle seeing it right in the face. But he gets to converse. He gets to talk.
12 · Moses's fear is ironic: he is more afraid of confronting Pharaoh than of the fact that he is speaking with the covenant God Himself
Which kind of makes Moses' misgivings a little ironic, doesn't it? You read Exodus 3 and Moses' biggest concern isn't, "I'm talking with a bush that is claiming to be the Great I Am, that's claiming to be the Covenant Lord." His biggest concern is, "The Covenant Lord is asking me to go talk to Pharaoh." I can't go talk to Pharaoh. You see how far they've gone from remembering who God is and knowing His name? But Moses is concerned. He's scared, understandably. He has to go back to Egypt and go in front of the most powerful man maybe in the world at that time, and he's supposed to represent Israel, right? Well, you know what happens when he kills the Egyptian and gets that early banishment? The next day he sees two Hebrews fighting, right? Now Hebrews, the reason we keep hearing them called Hebrews and not Israelites is Hebrews is what the Israelites were referred to in other countries. So it's sort of like what they call Israelites as foreigners. So that's a designation for the Israelites, that the Israelites wouldn't necessarily use of themselves, but other countries would. Well, Moses sees two Hebrews fighting, right? He tries to break it up, and they kind of throw it back and say, "What are you going to do? You going to kill us like you killed that Egyptian? Who made you ruler and judge over us?" He flees in part because he fears that his own people are going to betray him, are going to turn him over.
13 · Moses's earlier attempt to deliver Israel by his own strength ended in rejection and flight
I think part of what he's doing when he first kills that Egyptian is he's kind of taking deliverance up into his own hands. My people need to be saved. I'm going to kill this guy and deliver my brother. And the next day, the next day, he thinks he's gotten away with it. He's buried the guy in the sand. He tries to break— Guys, don't fight with each other. I'm here. We're going to get out of this. And they turn him and say, you're not our leader. You're just some Egyptian prince. Now God's saying, go back, talk to the guy who wants to kill you, and I want you to lead that people who are just about ready to turn you over to the guy who wants to kill you. So Moses asks, you want me to do this? Who do I say sent me?
14 · God's threefold answer—'I AM WHO I AM,' 'I AM,' and 'Yahweh'—is all rooted in the Hebrew verb 'to be,' signaling God's absolute self-existence and independence
God gives him that famous threefold answer. He says, first, I am who I am. Then God says, you tell them I am has sent me to you. Tell them I am has sent Moses to you. And then finally he says, Yahweh the Lord. This is actually the first time his name gets used. The God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. Now what gets lost in translation is that all of these things are related. The 'I am who I am,' the 'I am has sent me to you,' and then the Lord, the designation Yahweh— those are all related to the Hebrew verb 'to be.' God is making a statement about himself, about who he is. He relies on no one. He relies on nothing for existence. This is who's sending you, Moses. But the point isn't like existential. It's not like some philosophical, "Well, we should just sit here and think about 'I am.'" Have like all these philosophical sort of tangents we go off on that aren't really present in the text. You're not supposed to go here and start chasing down all the crazy things you can find about the to-be verbs in the Old Testament. The text in Exodus is supposed to guide us to understand what does it mean for Yahweh to say, "I am who I am." 'Who I AM. I AM has sent Moses to you.'
15 · The statement 'I AM has sent me to you' refers back to God's promise in verse 12—'I will be with you'—which is another tense of the verb 'to be
Well, He underscores it in the second statement. 'I AM has sent me to you.' It refers back to verse 12. It's showing us that this God is personal. Read verse 12 again. What does it say? The first time he's kind of skittish about going to Pharaoh. He says, what am I going to do? Verse 12, God says, but I will be with you. That's actually a different tense of the verb I AM. I AM will be with you. Don't worry, Moses. I AM will be with you. Moses needs to understand that his identity isn't what matters most. Not his identity as the fugitive, as the man wanted for murder. Not his identity as the failed leader of a really brief coup that doesn't work at all. It's the identity of Yahweh. And this "I AM" The Lord is personal. He draws near to Moses and He's sending Moses to His people.
16 · The name 'I AM WHO I AM' is intentionally mysterious and cannot be exhaustively defined—it is God refusing to be boxed in
Exodus 3 is the key to the whole book. The entire book of Exodus is an outworking and unveiling of this mysterious "I AM WHO I AM." The answer isn't totally clear here, is it? You read those verses, and I read them for a lot this week, and you just kind of— hey, you kind of look at them from all these different angles, and there just seems to be still just kind of mystery surrounding it. But part of that is we can't exhaust fully what this name is. You don't get this name, and God doesn't give you a clearly defined name, and it's like, oh, okay. It's like Adam, man, now we know exactly what that is. No, this is God. You don't get to put Him in a box with a definition. And so there is a little bit of vagueness to this name and openness to what God's telling. But Moses asked the question for a very practical reason. He's worried he's not going to succeed. Because if he doesn't succeed, either Pharaoh or these people are going to kill him.
17 · God does not give Moses a pep talk about his own abilities—He simply says 'I AM will be with you
God responds not in the way you might expect. It's not a pep talk for Moses. Don't worry, buddy, you're the best speaker I've got. Don't worry, buddy, you're so awesome in debate. I watched you when you were growing up in Pharaoh's court. Man, you used to whoop that other prince. And so I know when you go back into the courts, Don't worry, buddy, I've had you out here in Midian hanging out with the sheep just so you'd be really well-rested. This is your moment. Seize the day, Moses. That's not the pep talk. That's not what he gets. He's a semi-retired fugitive who we find out in chapter 4 claims to have a speech impediment. I, I really don't think I'm your guy. To which God responds, big deal. I am, will be with you. Here's the point. It doesn't matter who Moses is. God's point is it matters who I am. And here's the application. Anytime God commissions us and sends us out for any task. The major focus shouldn't be on us. It should be on God. If He's commissioning you and sending you out, that's what matters. This same God, the God who sends Moses into Pharaoh's courts, the I AM, sends us. And so you don't look at the tasks and callings you've been given. As a husband, or a mother, or a business owner, or a child of God surrounded by a world of darkness, seeking to proclaim His light to the nations, and think, "What do I have to bring to this?" It doesn't matter what you have. I AM is sending you. It's not about you, it's about God.
18 · God's presence ensures success, but the 400-year delay in deliverance also reveals God's character—He waited mercifully to judge the Canaanites while Israel suffered
God is going with Moses. He hasn't forgotten Israel. He's heard their cries for deliverance. The name is telling us implicit to who God is and His character is that He draws near. He is present with His people. The God of their fathers is the one who's sending the deliverer. The point is, success is ensured because God is present, because God is active. And this also means another thing. I mean, 400 years isn't really something anyone in this room can get their mind around. We can sort of think of it historically. 400 years is way longer than our country has been in existence. Think about how far back George Washington seems. And they've been in bondage for 400 years, which helps us when we think about what can sometimes seem slow in our minds about God moving to help. You know one of the reasons why it takes 400 years? For 400 years Israel is enslaved and thinking, what is going on? Why? Why for so long? Remember what he says in another part of Scripture? He's waiting mercifully for 400 years to judge the Canaanites. They deserve judgment immediately, and God says, Part of the reason I'm going to send Joseph into Egypt, part of the reason I'm going to show myself mighty, I'm going to show myself glorious in their deliverance, and I'm going to show myself merciful for 400 years while I wait to punish this idolatrous, rebellious people. It brings perspective, doesn't it? We don't see everything that God is doing when we suffer. But the first part of Him revealing His name is that we know He hears and He listens and He's present with His people.
19 · The name Yahweh reveals not only God's presence but also His power to redeem
Next thing we see, this name Yahweh shows us Yahweh is God's way of saying, "My presence is with you." It's also His way of saying, "My power will redeem you." Now, surrounding all of this is just how inconsequential everyone in the story is to this entire rescue operation. The whole thing gets initiated by God. Back in verse 7, it says Moses— God tells Moses, I have surely seen the affliction of my people. I have seen it. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them. Everything about it hinges on God's action, on God's initiative. And it's huge because they've been enslaved for 400 years, which kind of gives you a pretty good idea they are incapable of saving themselves. Even at a point when the decree gets put out there that Pharaoh is going to kill their firstborn, if there's ever a point where they're going to rise up, right, where they're going to rise up and fight up the shackles, it's probably at that point when soldiers are taking babies out of the arms of mothers. And they don't do it because they don't have the strength, they don't have the power, they're helpless. 4 centuries, and for all we know it might be another 4 millennia. How long is this going to last? They sit under tyranny. God isn't just committed to being with His people. He shows us by His name that He's committed to re-establishing their well-being. As the God of the patriarchs, He reveals His name as Yahweh the Lord. He says in verse 15, "This is my name forever." This isn't just kind of a nickname I'm going to go for, like, while I'm in my teenage years, and then when I get more mature, I'm going to switch to, like, a better name. Now, this is my name that I will be known by forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all the generations. Israel can hope because she's not forgotten, because the God of her fathers is willing and able to keep his promises, willing and able to deliver her from bondage. He reveals his name in a way that gives them assurance. 'I am.' You want to know how great I am? I'm not the sun god. I'm not the god of the sea. 'I am who I am.' That's the one who's being sent. 'I am who I am' is the one who's going to take you out. 'I am who I am' is the one who's speaking through the mouth of Moses. Don't fear. Don't look at the feebleness of your situation for 400 years. But it doesn't exhaust who He is either. It sort of leaves us longing for more information, and that's the point of verse 15. This name is how I'm going to be known forever. You're going to talk about this name. You're going to talk about the things associated with this name. And the rest of Exodus is an outworking of The things done in the name of this God that underscore the character of this God, the nature of who He is. God promises— in another way of saying it, God promises, "I am who I am. Just wait and see. I'm going to do things that ensure my name, Yahweh the Lord, is remembered." is cherished, is magnified throughout all generations. You can be assured because I am Yahweh. Because at my core, I AM is absolute. I AM is independent. I AM is eternal. I AM is able. Yahweh simply is. Here's his point to Pharaoh, and will be the point to the Israelites: nobody can stand in front of this God.
20 · Exodus 5-15 unfolds as a cosmic power encounter between Pharaoh's visible might and the unseen 'I AM' speaking through Moses
And that's really what we see in the remainder of Exodus 5 to 15, is this massive power play. What seems like a huge earthly power in Pharaoh and Egypt and all Pharaoh's horses and all Pharaoh's soldiers and all his chariots and Moses speaking for this unseen I AM. That's what's going on. We see it in verse 18, how this power encounter, this cosmic throwdown is going to take place. They will listen to your voice, he's telling Moses, the Israelites, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, Yahweh the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. And now please let us go 3 days' journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to Yahweh the Lord our God. But I know, I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. That's a really pregnant sentence. I know that the king of Egypt, the one whose hand is mightiest in all the earth, will not let you go unless he is compelled by a mighty hand, unless he's compelled by a hand mightier than his. So, verse 20, 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. God is propping up Pharaoh. Setting him up to be the means by which he reveals his greatness.
21 · Pharaoh's mocking question—'Who is Yahweh that I should obey His voice?'—seals his fate
Pharaoh kind of mockingly asks Moses, "Why on earth should I free this massive population of slave labor? They're building my pyramids. They're building my cities so my people can sit in luxury and celebrate the work of their backs." He's not gonna be impressed. You know, God says in verse 18 there, you tell them Yahweh the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says— that's not going to impress. That's not gonna impress Pharaoh, is it? God of the Hebrews? We've had you under our heel for 400 years. You outnumber us and you're still under our heel. You see this reaction. In Exodus 5:2, this is how Pharaoh responds when Moses comes with the message. Pharaoh said, "Who is Yahweh the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know Yahweh the Lord, and moreover I will not let Israel go." And with that sentence, with that statement, Pharaoh ensured that the plot will unfold in a way that brings about his destruction and ensures the Lord's glory. It's really significant what he says. Who is the Lord? Who is Yahweh that I should obey his voice? He doesn't even know how profound a statement he's making. Exodus 5-15 unveils the power of God to deliver and redeem, while also showing the peril of disobeying the voice of Yahweh. Pharaoh ensures his own destruction when he basically says and telegraphs his move, "I don't care who this God is, I've never heard of this God, and I have nothing to worry about if I disobey Him. All I hear is a messenger." This guy Moses, who I grew up with, who's been running scared for decades, and I'm not afraid of him.
22 · God never speaks directly to Pharaoh—only through Moses
Here's what's underscored in that. God never speaks directly to Pharaoh, does he? That's what happens with Moses. All Moses ever gets is to go before Pharaoh and say, this is what my God says to tell you. There's no like burning bush that sits in front of Moses, or it sits in front of Pharaoh where he hears the voice. So Pharaoh is sitting on his throne and hearing Moses, and part of it is thinking, "Your God? Come on, Moses. I know who you are." There's a point in that though. To reject Moses like Pharaoh will do, the one who speaks for the Lord is to reject the Lord Himself. If you reject the Lord's messenger, you reject the One who sent the messenger. So you reject Moses and you're standing toe-to-toe with the Lord's power and authority and you're daring Him to act. Pharaoh proves with his words and actions that he's not just hostile to Israel, He's hostile to God. He mocks God's messengers. He even thwarts God's means of blessing. What does it say earlier in Exodus? Remember what's happening? You know, they forget about Joseph. His name kind of disappears. They're also forgetting about Yahweh's name, but Israel's multiplying, right? They're getting too numerous, and that's why they first get enslaved, as the Pharaohs start to get kind of kind of nervous, man, these guys are outnumbered, they're getting big. If they ever decide to rise up, they could squash us. Isn't that the exact command God gave to them? Be fruitful and multiply. This is what it looks like to bless. I'm going to bless you as you fill the earth. So here's Israel fulfilling what God has given them the task of, to be fruitful and multiply, fulfilling the calling and the promise that God made to Abraham. Through you, through your one seed, I'm going to make nations. I'm going to make descendants as multiple as the stars. And here are the Pharaohs looking at that, them being obedient to what God calls them to, and saying, I got to crush it. I got to stop it. I got to cut it off. Pharaoh institutes a whole program of genocide. These Pharaohs are the anti-God of Exodus. He's doing everything he can to keep God's people from worshiping God in God's place. Remember going back to Genesis, the story? God's people worshiping God, walking with God, being in God's presence, in God's place. God's saying, "I want my people to come out to the mountain where I'm going to be to worship me." And Pharaoh says, "Absolutely not." Redemption comes to Israel because Yahweh, I AM WHO I AM, is powerful to overcome the grip of their enslavement. Redemption comes because the Lord, the God of their fathers, is committed to his covenant promises. Before the Exodus, people knew Yahweh's name. We see that in Genesis. But they didn't know that the God who covenants with his people was committed and powerful to redeem them. This gets unveiled to them in new ways in the book of Exodus. It's a new dimension to the covenant. In Exodus 6:6, we hear, say therefore to the people of Israel, I am Yahweh the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. His name implicitly means that he is powerful to redeem, powerful to deliver.
23 · Signals the structural shift from Old Testament exposition to New Testament fulfillment
Now, the point of the series, right, is testify, to see where and in what ways Jesus emerges from these texts. Not strangely, not in weird ways, but accurately. There's all sorts of ways you do that in a faithful manner as you exegete passages. One of the ways you do that is you look and say, Where does the New Testament hearken back and quote these passages? Where do the New Testament authors inspired by the Spirit say, "This is where we see Jesus either active in this or fulfilling this or being pointed forward to this"?
24 · The revelation of Yahweh in Exodus finds its culmination in Jesus
Well, all this revelation of Yahweh in Exodus shows us in our last point that Yahweh, the name, ultimately reveals itself in the name of Jesus. That Jesus is the culmination of everything we're hearing about and seeing in Exodus. We see this in John 8, starting in verse 31. We read, Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him— so these are people that are tracking with him, right? If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And they answered him, we are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free? Now, first of all, do you think Jesus is stupid? I mean, we're sitting here in Exodus reading about how for 400 years the descendants of Abraham have been enslaved, right? The whole point of Exodus is that God delivers his people Israel from slavery. But Jesus doesn't go back and say, actually, little history lesson, you were enslaved for 400 years. This is a guy, Moses, you kind of like to talk about him. You're a little obsessed with the law that he gave you. That was because you were enslaved and God brought you out. No, in John 8:34, Jesus broadens the category. Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. Now that's important. It's important because one of the things we see in Exodus is that God has a heart to see injustice settled, to see injustice set right, to see those who are oppressed delivered from oppression. But sometimes that leads people to read things like the Exodus, and it's called called liberation theology and read it through the lens of this idea that God is for the poor and against the rich. That the biggest thing Jesus came to do were like political and social upheaval. That Jesus is sort of like a better Karl Marx. And they read those passages and they see in them all sorts of political things. Well, Jesus looks at that and says, first of all, you were enslaved, but that's not the big deal. The bigger deal is you're enslaved to sin. And you see it in the way God delivers in Exodus, right? The point and application of Exodus isn't that there should be political uprisings and things of that nature. The point of Exodus is that these people are impotent to save themselves God saves them anyway. But what Jesus says in John 8 is that the bigger point is it's not just Israel that's enslaved in Egypt, it's all humanity that's enslaved to sin.
25 · The debate escalates when Jesus claims that Abraham foresaw His day
Now this sparks a debate, right? They don't even really care that he says they've been enslaved to sin. They kind of are ticked off that he starts implying they're not real true descendants of Abraham. So they start going back and forth, and that's when Jesus drops the bomb on them. He says Your father Abraham rejoiced. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. So the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old, and you have seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM. So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
26 · The Jews' response—picking up stones—proves they understand Jesus's claim to be Yahweh, yet they reject Him
Their response says it all. First, they understand that Jesus is making an explicit claim that he is synonymous with the Lord, that he is the same as Yahweh, that he's the the covenant God. But it's also tragic in the sense that it shows they have truly rejected Him. Think back to Pharaoh. What does Pharaoh say? "Who is this Yahweh the Lord that I should listen to His voice?" And he goes on throughout the book of Exodus to disobey the voice of the Lord, and it leads to his destruction. Here, these Jewish people hear the words of Jesus and they respond like Pharaoh, with a desire to kill God's messenger. You see the importance of listening, hearing, and obeying God's word. In fact, Jesus says in the text, you're not of Abraham because I'm here, I'm in front of you, and you don't recognize me, you don't see me, you don't listen to what I have to say.
27 · The revelation of Yahweh's name in Exodus is not exhaustive but progressive—it fills the Old Testament with demonstrations of God's character and reaches its climax in Jesus
The point is that the unveiling of Yahweh's identity, this I AM WHO I AM, doesn't just end in Exodus. He says, this is the name you will know me by forever, and it will be celebrated throughout all generations. And this name just fills the Old Testament, and it keeps getting filled in by the Old Testament. All the way up until this point where we're now given a fascinating new detail about God. He covenants with His people by drawing near to them. We saw that in Exodus, right? He covenants with His people by delivering them, by showing them He's powerful to take them out, by redeeming them from every obstacle. And in Jesus, we see even the obstacle of sin. Moses never pretends like what he writes in Exodus plumbs the depths of the meaning, "I AM WHO I AM." He never pretends like He exhausts it. What Moses does is show us the way Yahweh acts to save by the power of His name, and that the power of that name, that name itself, should be remembered and celebrated.
28 · After the Red Sea deliverance, Moses and Israel sing a song celebrating the name Yahweh—He has triumphed gloriously and become their salvation
At the very end of the deliverance sequence, so Exodus 15, is after the Red Sea has come and just plowed apart Pharaoh's army, there's a song. Moses and all of Israel sing a song to commemorate and rejoice and worship God. And it starts out this way in verses 1 and 2: I will sing to Yahweh the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea. Yahweh the Lord is my strength and my song. He has become My salvation. Notice what's happened there. Yahweh, the Lord, I AM WHO I AM, has triumphed and accomplished exactly what He promised. He saved and delivered His people. The whole song is a celebration of God's name. It's a celebration of the name that gets pointed out in Exodus 3. It's a celebration of the character that's folded into that name. We're just looking at 2 verses. The whole thing goes on for multiple verses. But what you see in verse 2 is something really important. Moses and the people declare, "Yahweh the Lord is my strength. He's my song. He's my salvation." Yahweh is no longer just the identity of God. It's the identity of His people.
29 · The purpose of redemption in Exodus is not merely to break the chains of slavery but to bring Israel out from under the yoke of oppression and place them under the yoke of God's blessing—to serve Him in joyful slavery
That's because God's goal from the very start has been to do just that. The point of redemption in Exodus is never just to remove Israel from the yoke of slavery in Egypt. God's not just like breaking their chains and then just saying, All right, scatter to the wind, go wherever you like. He doesn't like bring them out and then just say, okay, promised land is sort of that way, and Moses kind of knows where it's at, so you might want to follow him. See you there in 40 years. That's not what happens. The point and purpose isn't just to break the yoke of slavery, it's to bring them out from under the yoke of slavery and oppression and to place them under the yoke of God's blessing. Remember God's initial assurance to Moses in Exodus 3:12? "But I will be with you." "But I AM will be with you." That same verse, God goes on to say, "And this shall be a sign for you that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out," when they're out from under the yoke, You shall serve God on this mountain. When you've delivered them from their bondage and their slavery, you will take them here and they will serve me. Redemption is a movement from slavery of bondage to slavery of joy. When Israel finally arrives at Mount Sinai, God tells them this, Exodus 19:4. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and now I have borne you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you indeed will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.
30 · The failure in John 8 is the same as Pharaoh's—rejecting the voice of God's messenger
That's what he tells Moses. That's the failure we see in John 8. "I speak." The One who Moses was pointing towards, the One who Abraham was happy to see this day. "Because I AM," Jesus says, "I speak and you don't listen." The point of John 8 is that if they abide in His Word, they are true disciples, they are true descendants of Abraham, and that truth will set them free. There's all this language in John 8 about the truth of Jesus, the truth of His words will set people free. We don't need to be free, we've never been slaves. Well, first of all, you have. 400 years in Egypt. Second of all, everyone needs freedom. You're all in bondage to sin. But the freedom you get isn't free to be autonomous God-ignorers. It's not free to be consumed by yourself. It's not free to now go live as you please. It's free to be put under the yoke of the life-giving identity of Yahweh, I AM WHO I AM, of Jesus.
31 · Jesus's name is not arbitrary—it is the Greek form of Joshua, meaning 'Yahweh saves
Remember how we started saying names have significance? The same is true of Jesus' name. It's a really common name, like James or John in that day and age. But it's a Greek translation of the Hebrew name Joshua. Joshua is a compound Hebrew word, Yah at the beginning, a shortened form of Yahweh, and Hoshea, meaning salvation. So Jesus's name literally means Yahweh saves. And Mary doesn't pull out of a hat. She doesn't go to the scrolls in Jerusalem and say, "What are the most popular names? What are the least popular ones? I want him to be really unique. I'm going to name him Apple." That's not what Mary does, is it? An angel of the Lord appears before Mary and says, "You will call his name Jesus." Yahweh saves. How? He saves them from political oppression, he saves them from slavery. No, above all that, you will call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. That's what Matthew tells us in his Gospel. It's the reason why Paul and the New Testament authors love to use the title Lord Jesus Christ. Now, a lot of times when I read from the Old Testament and we see the all-capitalized LORD, I'll actually say Yahweh. I do that because it's important, I think, helpful for us to remember this is a personal covenant name. This is God's way of saying, you are my people. I've drawn near to you. I've revealed to you a special aspect of My character in giving you My name, in explaining the way that I take possession of you. But it's also important to remember "the Lord." Because when the New Testament is constantly calling Jesus "the Lord," "the Lord Jesus," "the Lord Jesus Christ," that's a really intentional way of the New Testament authors Saying Yahweh, Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, Yahweh, Jesus, Yahweh saves, Christ, Messiah. That's who Jesus is, that's the name that's filled with all this meaning. Jesus is I AM, He is the Lord, He is Yahweh.
32 · The conclusion reiterates the sermon's thesis: the Lord's name Yahweh reveals Him as Redeemer, and the clearest revelation of God's greatness and closeness is in Jesus Christ
The Lord reveals God's name as Redeemer, as the one who's able and eager to save his people. In the clearest place you see the greatness and the closeness of God is in the person of Jesus Christ. The Exodus finds its fulfillment in Jesus. Yahweh saves. It's in that name we see the fulfillment of what God promised in Exodus 3. This is my name. This is my name forever. And thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
33 · Closing call to prayer, signaling the end of the sermon and transitioning the congregation into a posture of worship and response
Would you bow your heads?