His Name is… Yahweh

After ELOHIM, I think of the personal unique name of God; translated as Lord but always in capital letters.

Genesis 2:4 When the Lord God (YAHWEH ELOHIM) made the earth and the heavens…

This name was so sacred to the Jews that they would not pronounce it and consequently wrote it down without vowels so that it could not be read out loud.  This is apparently where the shortened word of YHWH comes from.

Now it is impossible to explain this Name above all names…the whole Bible was written so that we could get a glimpse of who this Almighty - All Powerful - All Encompassing God is but the amazing aspect is that He allows us to approach Him on a personal level and that He desires to converse with me.
 
Let’s go to Exodus 3.
Moses as a prince of Egypt, had fled from there and had spent 40 years looking after sheep in the desert.  From being an over-confident young man with a calling on his life, he had been humbled to become a man with a stutter.  In the fullness of time again, The Angel of the Lord appears, this time in the form of burning bush which is not consumed by the fire.

It has been said that some bushes in the desert can spontaneously erupt into flames because these certain plants give off volatile gases that are highly flammable.  But it is clear from the text that Moses turned aside to investigate this particular bush because it was not consumed by the flames.  Wood in the Bible often refers to humanity.  So the first thought that crosses my mind is that in the presence of this Almighty God we are not consumed and obliterated because we come firstly to Jesus.  Then when the Father, Son and Holy Spirit make their dwelling within the heart of a born again child of God, we are also not consumed by the Almighty God.
 
So to get on with this narrative…Jesus warns Moses that this encounter is a holy one requiring reverence, humility, and respect.  Moses complies by removing his sandals.  I think this could be understood in the same way that dirty shoes are removed and left outside before coming into your clean house.

God tells Moses that He has seen and heard the misery of His people and that He would rescue them, using Moses as His man of the hour.  We all know the story of Moses’ life and how he come to spend forty years in the desert.  Any self-confidence and self-reliance had clearly evaporated during all these years and Moses quickly tells God as much.  Moses is however called to go to fulfil his purpose from this point of humility—to set the enslaved Hebrews free from the yoke of Pharaoh. But in this place of total inadequacy and fear and inability, God reveals His personal name “…This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation” to His servant Moses.

Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses I am who I am

ELOHIM tells Moses that YAHWEH who is everything, will be the One who would be with him throughout this great quest.  Moses is thus assured that the God of all creation and all power and all-purpose will go before him and will be with him as he follows with trust and obedience.  God chose to Moses as the vessel or instrument to be used to set His people free from slavery and the bondage of Pharaoh—a picture of the Redeemer sent to set us free from the slavery to sin and bondage to the devil.  Little did Moses know that this rescuing of the Jewish slaves was the forerunner of the salvation that God had already prepared for all of mankind.

Like Jesus called Moses to an eternal purpose, Jesus has now called us to go with the Great Commission; for He will go before us and be with us. We just need to obey and do His bidding.  
I am who I am always goes with each of us …and His people are always rescued!