The Name of the LORD

Everything in life, including the possession of enduring faith, is born from an encounter with the living God, and all of this depends on God revealing himself to us. He has done this supremely by the incarnation, making himself known in Jesus Christ, his life, death, and resurrection. In both the testimony of nature and the testimony of the Scripture, he is making himself known to us in preparatory ways that lead us to salvation through the ultimate revelation he offers in Christ, “the express image” of his being (Hebrews 1), the One in whom “the fulness of deity dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2), the One offered to us in the Gospel.

The significance of God's self-revelation in the Old Testament is seen supremely through His name, given to Moses as the burning bush, as recorded in Exodus 3:1-15. When Moses met God that day, his life and history were changed. The one named “deliverer” met the ultimate Deliverer who fashioned the water that Moses’ basket floated in, the One who would get his attention through a flaming bush in the middle of a mountainous pastureland.

The Revelation at the Burning Bush

The story of Moses and the burning bush is a cornerstone of faith. It marks a defining moment where God reveals Himself, making His nature and character known through His name, "I AM." This name appears over 6,800 times throughout the Bible, translated as "LORD," signifying His eternal, unchangeable, and self-sufficient, holy, and gracious nature.

God's Self-Existence and Sovereignty

God's revelation to Moses as "I AM" underscores His independence and all-sufficiency. He exists in and of Himself, unbound by time and space, needing nothing beyond Himself, yet the source of everything that exists (Romans 11:33-36; Acts 17:24-25). This revelation is not merely about power but about the very essence of being; as theologian Herman Bavinck notes, God is "the only source of all existence and life... His name is 'being.'"

Fire must have fuel to live, but the fire Moses saw left the bush unconsumed. The fire did not depend on the bush for life but instead had life in itself. This is God’s nature, his self-existence that is present with us but independent of us or any aspect of anything he has made.

God's self-description in Isaiah 46:9-10 and Jeremiah 23:23-24 reveals His omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. He is not a distant deity but a God intimately involved in the cosmos and human history, declaring, "I make known the end from the beginning... My purpose will stand." This intimate knowledge and presence assure us that God is both near and knowledgeable of all our ways while infinitely transcending time and space. Present in creation, he is not part of creation nor dependent upon it; far from it, creation exists only because of him, and in his mercy, he will cleanse and restore every particle of what he has made for his glory.

God's Holiness and Personal Nature

In the holy ground of the burning bush, Moses encountered God's holiness—a "dangerous light" that even the seraphim could not face directly. This holy encounter is not meant to drive us away but to draw us nearer to God's saving mercy, transforming fear into a face-to-face friendship. We can see this in the transition from Moses' initial encounter in Exodus 3, in which he hides his face, to his deeper relationship in Exodus 33, in which God “speaks to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.”

God as Personal and Present

God's name further reveals His desire for personal communion with us. He is not an abstract force; He is knowable and present, desiring a relationship with His creation. This aspect of God's nature is crucial for understanding the depth of His commitment to us, illustrated by the phrase, "I Am Present has sent me to you”, as a Rabbinic source translates it. Astonishingly, the infinite, self-existent, holy creator, the LORD, is also personal and near to all who call on him.

God has called us into communion with Himself. This is the “end” of his saving work in us - knowing him is eternal life (John 17:3). While we can’t know God exhaustively, we can truly know him because of the truth he has given us concerning himself in the Scriptures. He has reconciled us to Himself so that we might “know him and the power of his resurrection” (Philippians 3). It is this communion with God for which we have been created and redeemed. That was Paul’s great purpose - and it can also be ours (Phil 3:7ff).

The Grace of God's Presence

The grace of God's self-revelation is fundamental to the Gospel. God created humanity for communion in His perfection, choosing to be our peace, physician, provider, and righteousness through Jesus Christ. This culminates in the profound truth of Matthew 2, "You shall call his name 'Jesus' for he shall save his people," linking the Old Testament revelation to the New Testament's fulfillment. Jesus’ very name reveals the I AM who is with us to save, renew, and restore.

The Saving Power of God's Name

The New Testament echoes the power of God's name in salvation, with Acts 4 affirming, "There is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved." This statement underscores the exclusivity and sufficiency of Christ's salvific work. This theme reaches its full expression in the assurance that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow" (Philippians 2), echoing the very words God speaks about himself in Isaiah 45. No wonder Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8).

Called to Faith and Communion

The name of God—His character, presence, and power—invites us into a story much greater than ourselves. It calls us to turn to Him and be saved, to engage in a faith that sees the unseen and trusts in the promise of God's enduring presence. As C.S. Lewis aptly puts it, the God we often invoke lightly is not a distant, indifferent figure but the "consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds."

In recognizing the profound nature of God's name, we find the foundation of biblical faith and the invitation to live in communion with a God eternally committed to our holiness and salvation. This is why the Scriptures tell us that “all who call on the Name of the Lord will be saved.” God has given himself to us by first giving himself for us at the cross. Let’s call on His name and make knowing him the great passion and mission of our lives.