Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Reading)
YHWH in the Old Testament
(Essay Installment 5)
Back to the Burning Bush
Getting back to the conversation at the burning bush, notice what is said next – that is, in the 15th verse. Notice especially the occurrence of “LORD” in ALL CAPS:
Exodus 3:13 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”
Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
Exodus 3:15 God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.
By printing “the LORD” here Exodus 3:15, the NASB 1995 translators are signaling that the Hebrew word they are translating is YHWH. And they follow this rule throughout the Old Testament – as do most other English translations. Therefore, whenever we read “The LORD” in the Old Testament, our minds should treat it as “YHWH” and as meaning “I am.” There is more I will explain, but this is all that needs to be said for now.
Other Nations, Other Gods, Other Names
While God was establishing the nation of Israel through Moses, the surrounding nations had gods of their own. Therefore, what would distinguish Israel from the other nations would not be that Israel had a god. On the contrary, it was probably because all the other nations had gods that Moses was motivated to ask for the name of Israel’s god. What distinguished Israel from those other nations was 1) only Israel’s God was named YHWH, and that 2) most of those nations had multiple gods – not just one.
The Egyptians surely had multiple gods, and YHWH (“the LORD”), through the ten plagues, was going to demonstrate His superiority over them.
Exodus 12:12 ‘For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments–I am the LORD.
Joshua, the successor to Moses as human leader of the Israelites, was in the following verses reminding his fellow Israelites of the gods of three different regions and three different time periods: 1) the gods of Mesopotamian nations and city-states (who were served by contemporaries of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), 2) the Egyptian gods (in Moses’ day), and 3) various Canaanite (also called Amorite) deities with whom Joshua and his contemporaries were all too familiar. That’s a lot of gods!
Joshua 24:14 “Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.
Joshua 24:15 “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
I haven’t peppered you with the names of the numerous gods to which the Israelites had been exposed through their neighbors, because those names are not necessary to our study of YHWH. It’s only enough that we recognize that in the day of the burning bush, the surrounding world was thoroughly polytheistic. Lots and lots of gods. Israel’s would be just one more.
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