February 4, 2024; Glynwood Baptist Church, Prattville, AL. James Jackson, Pastor
Good morning! Please open your Bibles to Exodus 3. We are beginning a brand new sermon series that will take us all the way up to Easter Sunday called “What’s in a Name.” And today, we are going to start off by looking at God’s name. His personal name that he revealed to Moses. Do you know what it is?
I heard a story about a mom who was walking by her daughter’s bedroom and heard what sounded like her daughter praying out loud. She stopped at the door and listened for a moment, and then she became confused when she heard her daughter say, “Dear Andy, thank you for this day. Andy, thank you for mommy and daddy. Andy, thank you for my teachers, and my church, and…”
The mother opened the door and said, “Sweetheart, who are you talking to?” Her daughter said, “I’m talking to God, silly. His first name is Andy.”
Mom looked at her and said, “Who told you that? Where did you hear that God’s first name is Andy?”
From the song we sang in church last week, Mommy: “Andy walks with me, Andy talks with me…”
Well, God does indeed have a name, but it isn’t Andy. Let’s look at our Scripture for this morning and see what God’s name is.
[Read Exodus 3:10-15]
10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
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.”[a] And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
Let’s pray.
So as we begin this series called God has a Name, I want us to look at four truths: Moses had a name, God has a Name, Jesus has many names, and God calls you by name.
Moses had a Name (Exodus 2:10)
I realize we are dropping into the middle of a story here, but since it’s a pretty familiar story, I don’t feel like I need to do a lot of background for most of you. This is the encounter between Moses and God at the burning bush. God’s people the Israelites had been in bondage in Egypt for over 400 years by this point.
Moses was 80 years old when God called his name from the burning bush. He is living as a shepherd in Midian for the past 40 years, pretty much as a fugitive. Earlier in his life he had killed an Egyptian and fled the country when he realized people knew about what he had done.
Moses was born in Egypt during a time when the odds were not in your favor if you were a Hebrew baby boy. The Pharaoh of the time was a guy named, Thutmose II. He was married to his half-sister Hathsheput, which made her both Pharaoh’s daughter and his daughter in law. He died at the age of 31. Most historians believe he was a weak leader and that his wife Hathsheput actually ruled Egypt. I guess he was kind of a mummy’s boy.
And being the weak leader that he was, Thutmose felt threatened by how quickly the Hebrews were multiplying that he ordered all male Hebrew babies to be thrown into the Nile River.[1]
Moses’ mother obeyed—sort of. She did indeed put her unnamed newborn son in the Nile, but not before she waterproofed a basket made of reeds and put her baby in. The basket floated down the river until it was found by a woman named Hathsheput,
Now, Exodus 2:10 is clear that this baby boy was named Moses. Look at it with me:
10 When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
But what isn’t clear is who named him that. There’s a footnote in the ESV that says, “Moses sounds like the Hebrew word for “draw out.” (ma-SHAW) But would Pharaoh’s daughter, an Egyptian, have given Moses a Hebrew name? Probably not. But it’s interesting that “Mose” in Egyptian means “born of.” So Moses’s adopted father’s name, Thutmose, meant “born of” the God Thut.[2]
So if it’s a Hebrew name, Moses means “drawn out” or “saved from” the water. If it’s Egyptian, it means “born of” the water.
And I want you to stop for a minute and think about how both of these possibilities point toward Jesus. Psalm 18:16 is a Messianic Psalm written by King David when God saved him from the hand of King Saul. It’s the only other time in the Old Testament the word ma-shaw is used. It says,
He sent from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of many waters.
[He Moses’d me out of many waters]
17 He rescued me from my strong enemy
and from those who hated me,
for they were too mighty for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
19 He brought me out into a broad place;
he rescued me, because he delighted in me.
Psalm 18:16-19
But even if its an Egyptian name meaning born of, it still points to Jesus. Look at Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in John 3:
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is Moses’d of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is Moses’d of the flesh is flesh, and that which is Moses’d of the Spirit is spirit.[c] 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You[d] must be Moses’d again.’
One of the reasons I believe that Jesus is exactly who the Bible says He is is that the Bible itself is so miraculously perfect. Every detail of the Bible, down to the name of the name of the most revered figure in Judaism, points to Jesus. How do you have eternal life? You have to be Moses’d Again!
2. God has a Name (Exodus 3:10)
So now that we’ve looked at Moses’ name, let’s look at God’s name. When God spoke to Moses and told him that he, Moses, would be the one to lead the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt and back to the promised land, he had some questions for God. His first question was, “Who am I, that I should be the one to lead the people. And God said, “I will be with you.” So Moses and God talked back and forth about that for awhile, and then Moses asked another question. Look at verse 13:
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?”
Let’s stop there for a moment. Moses actually asked a great question here. You see, 400 years ago, the Israelites had worshiped Elohim- or God most high. That was how Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would have referred to God. But that was a long, long time ago. Now, Israel most likely worshiped the gods of Egypt. There were around two thousand Egyptian gods to choose from, but each region had its own group of nine gods, called an ennead.[3] The capital city of Egypt at this time was Heliopolis, so here was the ennead of Heliopolis: [each advances]
1. Osiris: God of the Nile
2. Heqet Goddess of childbirth (frog)
3. Geb: God of the earth
4. Tefnut: Goddess of Rain
5. Nephthys: Goddess of Health
6. Isis: Goddess of Healing
7. Nut: Goddess of the Sky
8. Set: God of the Harvest
9. Atum: God of the Sun
So Moses asks a legit question. Which one of those nine are you, God? I’ve seen pictures of all these gods, and none of them are a burning bush. Look at God’s answer in verse 14:
14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”
It is rendered in Hebrew—which has no vowels in its alphabet—as YHWH, usually pronounced Yahweh. So if you were trying to learn Hebrew, you would come across a word like this and ask, “How do you pronounce it?” And the answer is, you can’t.
Some rabbis taught that the name could not be pronounced, only breathed.
What did they mean? Well, try this… take a deep breath in. Hold it. Now slowly breathe out. If you tried to spell that, you might come up with something like Yaaaaaah…Whehhhhhhhh.
When God gave the ten commandments to Moses, the third commandment was “You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain.” And the Jews took that seriously and said, Not only were you not able to pronounce God’s name, you weren’t allowed to. When a scribe was writing the name of God, he would use a separate pen, because a pen that had been used to write any other word wasn’t worthy to write the name of God. And when rabbis taught about God, they would say “Ha Shem” (the name) instead of Yahweh. When they would read the name on the scroll, they would say “Adonai Elihenu” (The Lord our God) rather than Yahweh.
It was to be a name that was above every other name. We use names to distinguish someone from someone else. The Egyptians used names to differentiate one god or goddess from another. But there are no other “gods.” There isn’t anyone like I AM.
“I am who I am.” Yahweh is always the same. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. “As Thou hast been, Thou forever shalt be. Great is Thy faithfulness.”
Finally, Yahweh is the only One who has the power to act on the people’s behalf. He is the One who makes things happen according to our greatest need. That’s why the ten plagues were so significant, because each one showed that the Egyptian gods were powerless.
- Osiris: God of the Nile? I’m going to turn the Nile to blood.
- Heqet, the frog lady? If you want to worship frogs, I’ll give you some frogs.
- Geb: God of the earth: I’ll turn the dust of the earth into swarms of gnats.
- Isis: Goddess of Healing? Watch me kill all the livestock.
- You have a god of the sun? Well, I’m the god who can cause darkness so thick it can be felt.
- And if you want to worship Pharaoh as the son of God, check this out: I’m going to take the life of every firstborn son, including Pharaoh’s.
We talked about the third commandment a moment ago—that you shall not take the name of the Lord in vain. Now think about the first one: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
But when you look at the absolute authority God displayed over the Egyptian gods, I have to ask the question—why would you put any god before Yahweh? Why do you even need a commandment? But the truth is, we put other gods ahead of the Lord all the time.
We should know better. But history and human nature says we don’t. And we never will.
Which is why we needed a savior.
3. Jesus has Many Names
God knew his people would chase after other gods. He knew we wouldn’t just break the first commandment, or the third. We would break all of them. That’s what sin is. Sin is any action, attitude, word, or thought that disobeys God. And so He sent His one and only son to pay the price for our sins.
We’ve talked about God’s name. Now let’s talk about the names of Jesus. Turn with me to Matthew 1: In Matthew 1, we learn that a young virgin named Mary was pregnant. At first, Mary’s fiancé was going to divorce her, but an angel talked him out of it, saying, woman named Mary became an angel appeared to Joseph, (Matt. 1:21)
His birth name: Jesus.
His prophetic name: Immanuel (Matt 1:23)
His metaphorical names:
1. Bread of Life John 6:35
2. Light of the World (John 8:12)
3. The door of the sheep (John 10:7)
4. The Good Shepherd (John 10:11)
5. Resurrection and Life (John 11:25)
6. The Way, the Truth , and the Life (John 14:6)
7. The True Vine (John 15:1)
God calls you by name (Exodus 3:4)
4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
[Invitation]
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