The Specific God

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Moses was in a difficult spot. The Lord spoke to him from a burning bush. It was strange. The bush was on fire, but it didn’t burn up. How many of you have had a fire talk to you? Me neither. But for Moses, it gets even trickier because the voice declares that He is the Lord who has heard the prayers of the enslaved people of Israel, and Moses the murderer-fugitive should go bring them out of slavery. That’s a tall order! Moses asks the voice, the angel of the Lord, how he should answer the people when they ask him, “So, uh, who exactly talked to you in the wilderness?” It’s reasonable that they might also ask him how long he was in the wilderness with only sheep for company, how bored and lonely he was, and if he’d eaten any strange looking mushrooms.

The angel of the Lord gave Moses a specific answer. He declared, “I am who I am” as His name. In Hebrew, the Lord’s name is “Yahweh.” The Lord also said that He was the Lord of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush wasn’t vague or unspecified or unknown. There was no room for speculation, and there was no chance for Moses to understand anything other than this is the God of his people.

The Lord had no problem giving His name to Moses. When it comes to our God, there is no ambiguity. There is no room for you to say, “Well, the God I want to believe in is like this - so that’s the God I believe in” without what Scripture says about God. Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Moses, the God who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, the God who called His people out of slavery in Egypt is a specific God with a specific promise. He is the Lord who hears the prayers of His people.

That specific God with a specific name has a specific promise for you today: Jesus Christ is God in the flesh who has come to bring you eternal life. He is the living of God who has brought you to life. For Yahweh, slavery is not a problem. Neither is your sin or your death. The Lord Jesus Christ has come to die and to rise again to forgive your sin and to give you eternal life. That’s not a vague or unspecific promise. No, that promise is sure, certain, and permanent.

To bring that eternal life to you, the Lord did something very unique. In fact, when you think about it, it seems strange. Here, in a wooden stand with a bowl of water in it, water was poured on you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and you were baptized. That’s no mere ceremony or symbol, but it is Yahweh uniting you into the death and resurrection of Jesus. In that washing of baptism, your sin was forgiven, your death was undone, and the condemnation for your sin was reversed and you were declared a holy, faithful child of God. In that baptism, you were given a a divine inheritance.

Don’t take the Lord’s specificity for granted. There are times when you would like God to do many different things for you. The Sadducees in the reading from Luke give an example of this. These religious leaders didn’t believe that God would raise the dead, but they asked Jesus a question about the resurrection (yes, the one they didn’t think would happen.) They thought about the practice of raising up children for a brother who died, wondering whose wife the widow would be in the resurrection. They wanted to trap Jesus in His teachings.

But Jesus wouldn’t be led away from the clarity of the Gospel. The Gospel isn’t to answer trivia questions. The Gospel isn’t a means of controlling others. The Gospel isn’t a way to feel good about yourself. The Gospel isn’t a way to win friends and influence people. The Gospel gives hope, comfort, and peace to sinners. The Gospel brings life to those who are dead in sin. The Gospel changes and transforms you.

Today, hear this specific message. The Lord has come into the world, not merely speaking in a bush that won’t burn up, but as the perfect divine-man on the cross who then rose from the dead. He has come to forgive your sins and give you new life. He has come to rescue you from death. He has come to be your Savior. He has come, not as a generic God or a God that you can put specific limits on. Instead, He has come telling you exactly what He has done for you.

Moses asked the Lord how he should convince the people of Israel that the Lord talked to him and that he hadn’t gone crazy in the wilderness. The Lord gave His name - Yahweh - to Moses and to the people of Israel. For you, the Lord gives the name Yahweh, as well as the name Jesus. But you don’t just have a name to drop. Jesus Christ shed His blood for you and united you into His own death and resurrection in baptism. You are saved and forgiven and restored and justified by Jesus, the one and only legitimate God. That’s the Lord’s specific message of grace for you. Amen.