Yahweh-Exodus 3:14-15 and 6:2-5

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Sermon Script

Intro

Diesm vs Bestie-ism chart

The tendency is to imagine God in terms we can understand. We try to determine what God is like by what we want him to be like.

Sometimes people believe God is distant, cold; tinkering with history or with man, like a cosmic game of Minecraft, but ultimately God has no personal connection to us.

Or sometimes people believe God is soft and squishy, a super sweet bestie that would never tell us harsh things, is always safe, is always accepting of who we are and want to be.

Now some of those things might have truth in them such as the idea that God accepts us as we are. Not sure if you caught that. The tricky part is there’s as many false ideas in the mix as there is truth, when we decide how God needs to be based on our wants and desires.

The reality is that we don’t get to define who God is or what He is like. Although some people may see him as distant or rigid and some see him as a super sweet bestie, God gets to show us exactly what He wants us to know about Him. We find this in his word. The bible is God’s personal work of literature where He reveals himself to the world and to His people.

So, for the next few weeks, I’m asking you to attempt to start with a blank slate. Attempt to clear your mind about who you think God is. Let’s dig in and see who God shows himself to be.

Facts about the name Yahweh:

Sources: “Naves Topical Bible”, Biblestudytools.com, and “The Book of Exodus” by Brevard Childs

This particular name for God is called the tetragrammaton because it takes the four letters of God’s name and adds filler vowels to make sounds. YHWH

We literally have no other reason to use these 4 letters except that God revealed it that way. This isn’t converted to an English name so we can read it.

The Hebrews said this name was so Holy that they wouldn’t even speak it out loud. They used the named Adonai or “Lord” to address God. Some sources say this didn’t actually start though until A.D. 70 after the destruction of the temple. Either way, it’s a holy name.

(May not use in sermon) Jehovah comes when they take the tetragrammaton and add the vowels from Adonai to create a new word. Older English bible translations, such as KJV, use this word instead of LORD or YWHW.

You can look up the notes in an ESV Bible so I’m not going in to all the names of God and their presentation style in ESV but when you see LORD spelled exactly like that in a bible verse, its native Hebrew is YHWH (GOD’S OFFICIAL NAME).

Naves topical bible says that we find out in Exodus 3, by the use of YHWH and God’s use of the verb I AM to describe himself, that “it’s an eternal covenant name implying self-existence and saving presence” (p. 1099 Naves topical bible)

God says “I am who I am.”

Multiple sources refer to this being the name used to describe God within the context of being in covenantal relationship with the people He loves and has worked on their behalf in history.

This is the name that binds them together.

This is the name that reassures us that God is always there, has always been there, He is for us, and he always fulfills his promises.

Tonight, we will be in Exodus 3 and Exodus 6

(Tell context of burning bush)

Exodus 3: 13-15) This is the first Biblical usage of this word, Yahweh, to describe or name God.

Moses assumes the people will doubt who this “god” is; so, he asks, “God, who should i tell them sent me?”

It’s important to know that at this time in history, a name was an icon and relayed enough information to describe who the person is. The name was a vocabulary word with a definition. Therefore, parents would name their child a word from the language that described who their child would become or who they wanted them to become.

This is very different than today, mostly. Sometimes parents will look through books to find a name that means something “cool” or powerful.

(I’m thinking through how to explain this to teens.)

A resume would be a good way to describe it for older teens. Maybe a trading card like a Pokémon card for the younger ones.

These items are simple images that describe who a person is.

Actually, names still hold meaning today. I mean, maybe the man-made definition of the “word” doesn’t, but what that name represents does. The character they represent lives within that Icon that the name provides.

It’s also interesting that Jesus was called the icon of God. We will look at that verse in a little while.

What’s an Icon? Anyone know?

Yep, it’s an image that represents something bigger. It’s that quick representation of who God is, that immediately comes to mind to help us understand this person that is being described.

What are some names that immediately paint the picture of an entire persona when spoke out?

What thoughts or images come to mind when you hear these names:

Bro. David – everything that brings to mind

(Kids responses were preacher, cowboy, horseman, jeep, old)

Tom Brady

(Kids responses were washed up, cheater, boo)

Beyonce

(Kids responses were queen, show, larger than life)

Hopefully that makes sense. There are certain things that should immediately come to your brain and thoughts when you hear Yahweh. That name means a lot more than a difficult word.

We are going to talk about a few things to know.

OK, Let’s discuss the text:

Exodus 3:13–15 ESV

¹³ 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?” 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.’” ¹⁵ God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

Exodus 6:2–5 ESV

² God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. ³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. ⁴ I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. ⁵ Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.

The following take-aways are from biblestudytools.com and guided my exposition.

Take-aways:

1. Yahweh is the Self-Existent, Eternal God

a. (Exodus 3:14a and 3:15b (my name forever)

b. God doesn’t need us-This may be offensive, but it’s true

c. The Verb He uses, “I am,” seems vague and quite open to interpretation. It’s a very inclusive verb.

d. And God is inclusive, despite what you hear… but only inclusive of ONE- that is himself (father, son, holy spirit)

i. God doesn’t need us. Let me say that again. He does not need us. He is inclusive of Himself. He has existed eternally without us and did just fine.

ii. Did I offend you? GOD DOESN’T NEED US. Our emotional and spiritual health is dependent on us understanding this fact.

2. Yahweh is relational

a. Exodus 3:15a)

b. Exodus 6:3-5)

c. Look up Psalm 19 on your own time

d. EVERYTIME Yahweh is used to describe God, it’s in a relational way.

The fact that God introduces himself to us as “Yahweh” tells us that his first priority in relating to us is making sure we know that he is the intensely personal God, seeking to have a relationship with his people!!! (Article by biblestudytools.com)

God doesn’t need a relationship with you, BUT HE PURSUES A RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU.

This is good news. God doesn’t need us, but He wants us!

How does that make you feel? (This is a time when your feelings are based on a scriptural truth and that is a good thing. Feelings are not always a bad thing.)

Kid’s responses- warm, good, loved.

3. Yahweh is with us

a. Exodus 3:15b)

b. This covenant goes beyond just the patriarchs and even Moses. He wants all generations to be in relation with him and he is with us.

c. Will see this more in week 3

d. This is where we have the advantage over the Old Testament people. Because of the bible, we actually have God with us, Jesus, to see God.

Hindsight is indeed 20/20.

Colossians 1:15 ESV

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

e. When you pray, do you believe this?

i. Do you feel like the ceiling stops your prayers?

1. Your feelings aren’t validated by scripture here. For those in Christ, God does hear you and is with you.

f. When you behave, do you believe this?

i. Do you do everything for God’s glory because he is here?

4. Yahweh is the Unchanging God

a. Exodus 3:15b)

b. Somewhere along the way, science convinced us that everything changes, including “god.”

c. Medicine is always changing theories, natural science always changing theories. It’s supposed to because it’s simply a process to observe the natural world.

d. Our life is like science; constantly changing. What in your life is changing right now?

i. Many of you, its major life things changing

e. Hear this truth, GOD DOESNT CHANGE

f. Hear this truth, GOD’S WORD DOESNT CHANGE NOR NEEDS TO

i. doesn’t matter if everyone believes that this is 2022, and we have evolved past those ancient text.

5. Yahweh is WHOLLY other than us (He just built different)

a. Exodus 6:3)

b. This is interesting. Did you know that God doesn’t reveal himself to Abraham, the father of the covenant as Yahweh? He actually waits until a bunch of years later when Moses comes on the scene. That’s pretty major.

i. Must have been pretty frustrating for Abraham to not know exactly who God was yet. Abraham is literally the person God makes the covenant with, but he stays pretty anonymous until Moses, and really we still don’t know everything about God today.

c. Here’s my point: God doesn’t have to do things like you or even how you would do it.

1. “I wouldn’t have done it that way God.” – could be one of the dumbest or at least naive things we can say.

d. God is not created in your image. (Explain what that means)

i. He doesn’t have to be any certain way that you want him to be, and he doesn’t have to do things like you want him to do.

1. Many are going through hard times, and we want to point at God and fuss because it’s not how we would do it.

2. Maybe mention Maurice and what he said about suffering/persecution being good

e. Yet, God is good, and he can be trusted with your entire life

Romans 8:28 ESV

²⁸ And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

6. Yahweh keeps his covenant

a. Exodus 6:5b)

b. God always keeps His promises.

i. May not understand why He does what He does, but HE CAN BE TRUSTED

For two reasons:

1. Because He says He can be trusted

2. We can see his track record in history

c. The cross would become the ultimate fulfillment of God doing whatever it takes to stay in relationship with His People.

i. Jesus assures that this will happen.

ii. Therefore, because Jesus came and died on a cross, you can trust that God will take care of you, will right every single wrong, and will always be there for you (those in the family of God)

Time of Response:

Because he calls himself Yahweh, WE KNOW that he wants relationship with him.

1. Pray that God would help you to trust Him more

2. Commit to spend time thinking through this study

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Yahweh is the name of God that reassures us that He has always been and always will be there, He is for us, He desires a relationship with us, and He always does what He says He will do.

Exodus 3:13-15 and Exodus 6:2-5

Exegete

This particular name for God is called the tetragrammaton because it takes the four letters of God’s name and adds filler vowels to make sounds.

The Hebrews wouldn’t use this name because it was holy, so they used the named Adonai or “Lord”

some sources say This didn’t start until ad 70 after destruction of temple

either way, it’s a holy name

Jehovah comes when they take the tetragrammaton and add the vowels from Adonai to create a new word. Older bible translations in English used this word a lot.

ESV uses the following:

Yahweh = LORD

Adonai = Lord

Jehovah = the Lord GOD

Elohim = God (this is not a personal name for God just a generic term)

(p. IX Preface in ESV black leather bible I use for preaching)

The lesson here is that maybe we don’t take the word Yahweh serious enough.

How personal was this phrase Yahweh?

Strong’s Concordance 3068 – Yhwh or Yahweh

also listed is 3363 and 3378

Naves topical bible says that we find out by his name of (i am who i am) that “it’s an eternal covenant name implying self-existence and saving presence” (p. 1099 Naves topical bible)

I am who I am

Multiple sources refer to this being the name used to describe God within the context of being in covenantal relationship with the people He loves and has worked on their behalf in history.

This is the name that binds them together.

This is the name that reassures us that God is there, He is for us, and he always fulfills his promises.

In O.T., Name = Character

There’s a revealing of character in the name of a person.

Exodus 3:13–15 ESV

This is the first Biblical usage of this word to describe or name God.

Moses assumes the people will doubt who this god is. So, God, who should i tell them sent me?

At this time, the name was enough to describe who they are.

I’m thinking through explaining this to teens. A resume would be a good way to describe it for older teens. Maybe a trading card like a Pokémon card for the younger ones.

But honestly, names still hold meaning today. The character they represent lives within that Icon that the name provides.

It’s interesting that Jesus was called the icon of God.

It’s that quick representation of who God is, that immediately comes to mind to help us understand this person that is being described.

What are some names that immediately paint the picture of an entire persona when spoke out?

I think of:

Bro. David – everything that brings to mind

LeBron or Tom Brady

Lady Gaga (or some other more relative infamous singer)

Probably can ask them for names and what images pop in their head when that name is mentioned.

The words for I am, and Yahweh are different, but we see in this passage, confirmed by when Jesus said, “before Abraham, I am”, that the two ideas and words kind of form to begin to tell us who God is. They are kind of a package deal.

The meat of the sermon will probably come from this text.

Exodus 6:2–5 ESV

² God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. ³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD, I did not make myself known to them. ⁴ I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. ⁵ Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.

It’s interesting that God did not reveal himself to the patriarchs as Yahweh. Moses is the first to hear this. Scripturally this is true because this is the first mention in scripture, but also this text proclaims that God did that on purpose.

My question is why?

Application for us:

There are people in this room that do not know God. I’m not necessarily talking about being “not-saved” or lost. I mean you feel so unsure of who God is and maybe God hasn’t revealed himself to you. I think this series is for you. I think this series may be a good time for you to spend some time hearing from God on who He is. I think you need to pray for that. I think you need to dig in and spend extra time out of Wednesday night’s investigating who God is. Do not let this opportunity pass you by. You cannot keep saying, “I want to know God, and I just don’t know God, i don’t feel him.” and continue to not put any effort into finding out.

The other application is that the patriarchs had much less knowledge of who God was, yet they took him at his word and covenant. Moses had more knowledge, and we see he followed that God.

What about you? You have so much more understanding written in this book; do you take God at his word? Are you sold out obedient to him?

Or are you the Israelites that Moses went to that couldn’t see past their present circumstances?

Exodus 3:13–15 ESV

Exodus 6:2–5 ESV

Take homes:

1. God’s name is directly tied to his actions. They cannot be separated.

a. This is why he can use a verb as his name. (i am)

b. His name tells how he acts and who he is, his actions confirm and fulfill his name.

Probably won’t get to these:

Exodus 20:7 ESV

⁷ “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Numbers 6:22–27 ESV

²² The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²³ “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,

²⁴ The Lord bless you and keep you;

²⁵ the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

²⁶ the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

²⁷ “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 (ESV)

⁴ “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Yahweh-Exodus 3:14-15 and 6:2-5

Sermon Script

Intro

Facts about the name Yahweh:

Time of Response:

Social Media

Exegete

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