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Exodus 3:15
“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.’ ”
In the ancient Near East, to give one’s name to someone who demanded it was a sign of submission. This is reflected in Genesis 32:22–32, where God demands that Jacob reveal his name but does not give His own name when Jacob asks for it. Were God to have given His name to Jacob when Jacob called for it, it would have meant that our Creator was submitting to Jacob’s authority. But, as the supreme authority over creation, God submits to no creature.
For God’s name to be known, God must choose to reveal it. Thus, God’s revelation of His name to Moses on Mount Horeb was an act of grace, a free choice on His part to help His people know Him. Yes, Moses did ask to know the name of the God who was calling him, but note that Moses did not ask Him for His name directly (Ex. 3:13). He understood that he had no right to demand God’s name or even to know it, so his request was made in a spirit of humble reverence. God graciously gave Moses His covenant name, Yahweh or “Lord,” but He was by no means required to do so.
God’s covenant name Yahweh, we have seen, is at the same time a designation by which His covenant people call upon Him and also a metaphysical statement about God as the independent, self-sufficient source of all existence. We depend on Him; He does not depend on us in any way. The name Yahweh—“I am”—also tells us something about God’s relation to time, as the great Christian thinkers have understood. By speaking of Himself in the present tense, the Lord indicates His own timelessness. Though God could enter into time in the incarnation and though He knows that creatures experience the passage of time, He Himself stands outside time, and each individual moment of time—past, present, and future—is present to Him. Augustine of Hippo writes that the “immutable and ineffable nature [of God] does not admit of was and will be but only is (for it truly is, because it cannot be changed).” To experience the passage of time is to experience change, and since God cannot change (Mal. 3:6), He cannot experience in His divine nature the passage of time.
We can hardly imagine how God stands outside time and never changes, but it is good news for us. It means that when He says He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He is the same faithful, loving, and holy God for us that He was for the patriarchs of Israel.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
It is a gracious thing that God reveals Himself to us. He was by no means required to tell us about His character and plans, especially after we fell into sin in the garden. Often we forget that having access to the Lord’s Word is a privilege for us, and our lack of appreciation for His Word can be seen in our slowness to study and believe it. Let us not fail to be grateful for God’s Word, and may we be ever ready to know and follow it.
For Further Study
- Deuteronomy 29:29
- Psalm 102:25–27
- Galatians 1:15–17
- Hebrews 13:8