Ordinary Days: Owen #4

I am Yahweh,

   and I will set you free…

   (Exodus 6:6)

Dear Owen,

How do we get the name “Yahweh” from “I AM WHO I WILL BE”—the Divine Name given to Moses at the burning bush (Ex 3:14). Comer, our author, knows that this will be tough going:

Okay, stay with me, this is a little technical. Okay, it’s really technical. But strap in tight, because there’s a huge payoff if you can survive the next page or two…” (pp 048-049).

I’ll let Comer do the dense stuff. The sum of it is, we can’t say “I AM” because we are not God; but we can say, “God is who he chooses to be.” That is the meaning of the Divine Name. God has revealed himself to us as the God who IS and who DOES—Y-H-W-H.

So, the Divine Name, Yahweh, means something like “God is who he will be.” The God who makes himself known to us is the God who IS and who DOES. He is known by his “mighty acts, …wonderous works, …awesome deeds, …and abundant goodness” (Ps 85:4-7). The God who IS, is about to DO:

I am Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will set you free from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with mighty acts: and I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am Yahweh, who will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will bring you in to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for a heritage: I am Yahweh. (Ex 6:6-8)

It is the name that is ever present, yet ever new—always up to something big. Hang on, God is saying, watch this. We come to know God by his action. The rest of the Bible will fill us in on his “mighty acts, …wonderous works, …awesome deeds, …and abundant goodness” (Ps 85:4-7). The God who IS “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and bounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex 34:6); is the God who, out of his absolute freedom, is about to act—to make things happen.

Love, Papa