I AM Yahweh

Dearly beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come this evening to one of the high points of Biblical revelation. This text is a highly disputed text; the commentators have run roughshod over it since Classical Antiquity. There are many books on what the name of God is and what it means; indeed, my own brother-in-law, Jared McKinney, wrote his bachelor's thesis on the name of God during our time together at Patrick Henry College. So just know, going into this sermon, that the critics, philosophers, theologians, and others have all aired their views on what the name of God is and what it means. The classical interpretation, and the one that I believe to be correct, is that God's personal name is Yahweh and that it means "He is," and that this name and its meaning refer in the final analysis to God's ultimate, underived, and self-existent being. In other words, the truth that Moses saw in the self-feeding fire in the beginning of the chapter is the same truth that God revealed by sharing His name with Moses in our text this evening. Well, that is the short version of it. What I hope to show you tonight is that God's presence with His chosen deliverer, and thus with His people, is underwritten by His underived self-existent personal (and thus named) being.