The burning bush is packed full of important details about our God. The one we focused in on this Sunday was the name of the Lord. Here again we have a very large topic because his name encompasses everything that we know about our God. Not sure what I mean? All I need to do is drop the names Bush, Obama, and Trump – say nothing else – and no matter who you are, your mind is probably swimming with emotions and memories for better or worse. Your God is no different. It might be that you don’t know nearly as much about God as you might the three most recent POTUSes, but there is alot there.
In the account of the burning bush Moses asked God a good question. Moses was charged with leading God’s people out of exile in Egypt to the Promised Land of Canaan. Moses’ concern was what if the people ask who sent you? God’s answer is I AM. You need to know a little Hebrew grammar to understand that the name of God in the Old Testament that is translated as The LORD in your NIV is the Tetragrammaton – yod-he-waw-he (יהוה). That is the word transliterated Jehovah. Jehovah, however, was never said out loud by God’s Old Testament people because they believed that the name of the Lord was too holy to say. So, instead, they said something else, like Adonai, the generic term for Lord or Sir.
The message this morning dives into what we can do with God’s name? The easy answer from catechism class is pray, praise and give thanks. We’ll talk about how God’s name makes people stop in their tracks. God’s name is the “on-brand” sort you can trust in. Finally how it’s not what you know – it’s who you know. God’s name opens doors. In this case, God’s name opens the door to heaven.
Want to hear more? Watch this Sunday’s message taken from Exodus 3.
Book(s): Exodus
Tag(s): Lent, Moses
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg