Who is God or What is God Doing?

Open Your Bibles to Exodus 3, Exodus 3, we will be in verse 13-15

Introduction

The sermon is entitled tonight “Who is God or What is God Doing?”?

Often we go focused on what God is doing rather than who God is himself. This fixation on God’s doing often costs us dearly because it is God is that is our greatest source of freedom. 2 Corinthians 3:17 reads

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." (2 Co 3:17–18, ESV)

In our text for tonight Israel has no freedom, they are bound in slavery until the I am comes to free them.

Lets read Exodus 3:13-15

Exodus 3:13–15 ESV

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: ‘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.

Lets Pray

Body

Main Body Division 1

Text

Exodus 3:13 ESV

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?”

Explanation

John Calvin writes “It will not, however, be far from the truth, if we suppose that the faith both of Moses and the Israelites had grown somewhat faint and rusty”[1]

It was a long time

“The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years.” (Ex 12:40, ESV)

The US is only 245 years old.

No signs, no word, only promises. Only the word of their parents.

I want to read real quick Exodus 6:16-21

“16 These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, the years of the life of Levi being 137 years. 17 The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, by their clans. 18 The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, the years of the life of Kohath being 133 years. 19 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites according to their generations. 20 Amram took as his wife Jochebed his father’s sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses, the years of the life of Amram being 137 years.” (Ex 6:16–21, ESV)

Have you ever been reading along and get to a part like this, and he was the son of, the son of, the son of, the son of, the son of, the son of that one dude. The people of these passage is the connection.

This is 4 generations after Jacob.

Its no wonder that Moses and Israel are “somewhat faint and rusty” in their faith, as Calvin said.

What or why is Moses Asking?

Moses already knows God’s titles and names.

Yhwh Yirah “The LORD will provide” (Gen 22:14, ESV)

Commonly Jehovah Jirah

Moses knows that if he goes to the Israelite and says God sent me, they are going to ask, well what is God coming as this time.

Illustration

I want us to make sure we take into account the whole picture here. Its has been more than 430 years since God told Jacob he would bless them. That is like hearing from your great grandfather about what happened to his grandfather. A good example might be that my grandfather on my fathers side once told me that our family tree goes back to Nathan Hale, who said “I regret I only have one life to give for my country.” I don't know if that is true, all I know if that my grand father told me about it who heard it from his grandfather and so on. Nathan Hale lived 240 something years ago. The stories the Israelites are believe hearing are over 430 years old.

Application

How does this apple to us. We need to ask the same question the Israelites did. If someone comes and says, thus says the Lord, we better be asking for Chapter and Verse. The author of Hebrews says, “has spoken to us by his Son” (Heb 1:2, ESV). As in finally spoken everything needed for his and Godliness in and through the prophets, the OT testament, and the Apostolic deposit, the New Testament.

Transition

So Moses asked, who are you, by what name do you come this time and God answers him. Look at verse 14.

Main Body Division 2

Text

Exodus 3:14 ESV

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.’ ”

Explanation

Alan Cole, Tyndale Commentator, “points out that since this is the only place in the Old Testament where there is any explanation of the meaning of the name YHWH, we ought therefore to take very seriously the association with ‘being’ which is clearly stated here.”[3]

That is what we see here

Possible translated “I will be what[who] I will be” [4]

R C Sproul put it this way, “God will be who He is. He does not change in His perfections. What He is now, He will be in the future. Other designations of God usually draw attention to some particular aspect of His nature. This expression is all-inclusive.”[5]

Progressive revelation in scripture. This is the first time in scripture we are told what God’s name is. We have seen Yhwh used several places for the name of God in the Text like Yhwh Yirah “The LORD will provide” from (Gen 22:14, ESV)

Lets take a look at John 8:57-59

“57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. (Jn 8:57–59, ESV)

Through the text of Scripture God is pointing to himself, as the one who is self-exsistant.

The words translated I am in John are ἐγὼ εἰμί. (ego eimi) both of the words have the meaning of existing. Jesus is saying he is the I am I am.

The Septuagint is the a Greek translation of the old testament that the Apostles quoted from almost exclusively at Genesis 3:14 it reads “Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν” [6]

The Jews of Jesus say knew what he was saying, they were ready to stone him.

The same I am that came to rescue his people in Exodus 3 is the same I am that came to rescue his people in the Gospel of John.

Application

In the first Gospel God condensed to his people, he killed the animal that covered their shame.

God promises that he would bless all the nations of the world to the patriarchs.

God used Joseph to save many alive and continue his promises.

God is the I am that is doing all these things (Isaiah 45:7)

Transition

God gave moses his name and then sent him to say to the people lets look at verse 15.

Main Body Division 3

Text

Exodus 3:15 ESV

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.

Explanation

The LORD, the God,

Lord is the name for God Yhwh. (tetragrammaton)

the God of Abraham

The one that made the promise to Abraham

the God of Isaac

The open that made the promise to Isaac

the God of Jacob

The open that made the promise to Jacob

“This is my name forever”

I am not coming back as something else God says. I am the I am from the start to the end.

“and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”

Not just for you be for your children and there children.

Illustration

I may not know for sure if I am release to Nathan Hale. But I do know that 10,000 years from now God will still be God. The Israelites were asking, who are you coming as this time. What need are you going to meet for us. God’s reply is all of them. I am, life, right, good, justice, all powerful, all wise, all loving, and all destroying.

Application

We can applies this for ourselves in our lives. Are we asking who God is today or are we seeing him as the all of our lives. When we read of the ego eimi in Exodus and then hear Jesus say I am (ego eimi) in John does out heart leap and this wonder? Moses wrote,

Deuteronomy 18:15 ESV

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—

The author of Hebrews said

Hebrews 3:3 ESV

For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.

Transition

Moses has been sent as a messenger to Israel to tell them the “I am” will save you from your slave masters. Jesus is the I AM and he is the one that rescues us from the slavery sin. The 1689 says in chapter 7 article 2 says

“Moreover, man having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall, it pleased the Lord to make a covenant of grace, wherein He freely offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Him, that they may be saved; and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life, His Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe.”[7]

As we conclude I want to drive one point home for us.

Conclusion

Is God your you I AM?

Is he all sufficient for you.

If you need food do you pray give us our daily bread, also if you need food let me know, no one should be going hungry around here.

What is your first stop when you have a need?

The hymn says, i am bid to make all my wants and wishes know at my father’s throne[8]

Lets Pray

Benediction

“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Heb 13:20–21, ESV)

Go in peace or stay and talk, that works to.

References

[1] John Calvin and Charles William Bingham, Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony, vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 72.

[2] To ask the question, ‘Under what new title has God appeared to you?’ is equivalent to asking, ‘What new revelation have you received from God?’ Normally, in patriarchal days, any new revelation of the ancestral God will be summed up in a new title for him (Gen. 16:13) which will in future both record and recount a deeper knowledge of God’s saving activity. We may therefore assume that, in asking this question, they were expecting a new title for the patriarchal God.

R. Alan Cole, Exodus: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 2, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 76.

[3] R. Alan Cole, Exodus: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 2, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 76.

[4] Ibid.

[5] R. C. Sproul, ed., The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015), 101.

[6] Henry Barclay Swete, The Old Testament in Greek: According to the Septuagint (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1909), Ex 3:14–15.”

[7] R. C. Sproul, ed., The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015), 2482.

[8] Sweet Hour of Prayer verse one, second stanza.

Bibliography

Calvin, John, and Charles William Bingham. Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010.

Cole, R. Alan. Exodus: An Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 2. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973.

Sproul, R. C., ed. The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition). Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015.

Swete, Henry Barclay. The Old Testament in Greek: According to the Septuagint. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1909.