Episode #1213 He Is Series YHWH (I AM) When You Feel Unworthy but God Draws Near Anyway Exodus 3:13-15 “But Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, 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 title for all generations.” Today, we are discussing a name for the Lord that was not spoken out loud for a very long time, and eventually it was only spoken by priests in the Jerusalem Temple. This name is YHWH (Yahweh), which means I AM. Did you know Yahweh (yah-WEH) occurs more than 6,800 times in the Old Testament? It appears in every book except Esther, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. I am learning so much through this series. I had no idea that this name occurred so many times. In the English edition, they usually replace the word Lord, with Adonay and then for Yahweh as “LORD” in all capital letters. When trying to figure out what this name meant and why it was so important, I found an article called, “The Meaning of Yahweh: Why It Matters in Biblical Studies,” by Jenna Martin. (https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/why-it-matters-that-god-is-yahweh.html) This article gives 7 attributes that we know to be true about God. I would like to share them with you now. 1.) Yahweh Is the Self-Existent, Eternal God- God has no need for us. He doesn’t need anyone or anything. The rest of us need a lot to go in the right order to keep existing. If we don’t have our health, then no matter what else we have, we will eventually no longer cease to exist. God is not like this. He is eternal. He has always existed. He is the beginning and the end. He needs nothing to continue to exist. 2.) Yahweh is a Relational God- Yahweh is only used in the Bible when the author is talking about His personal relationship with people. A great example of this is Psalm 19. The author talks in the first 6 verses about Elohim (another name for God) and his relationship with the material world. Then, in verse 7, he shifts and starts to write about Yahweh and his relationship with those who know him and who are in covenant with him. God is making sure we know that He wants to have a personal relationship with His people. He does not want to be far from them. He doesn’t want to be held at arm’s length. God wants to be very close to us. 3.) Yahweh Is with Us- Yahweh is here, interacting with our world, among us. And he does that out of love. God is under no obligation to remain close to us, working in our lives and writing a love story between himself and the world. And yet, he chooses to do so. In fact, he chooses to build his very kingdom among believers. Luke 17:21 says, “Nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.” God’s kingdom is right here. 4.) Yahweh Is the Unchanging God- God is the same yesterday, today, and always. (Hebrews 13:8). God is, who He is. He does not change because His teachings are difficult. He does not change because people don’t like Him. He is always the same. You can rely on that. In John 6:66, it says, “Because of this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.” Jesus talked about how He was the bread of life, and then in John 6:53, He said, “So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ' “ Jesus said something that was hard to understand, and He lost followers. He still said it. He knew they would leave. He knew it would be hard, and yet He said it anyway. He did not change so that He would be more popular. He didn’t teach what people wanted to hear. He taught the truth no matter what. Knowing that God is never going to change, we need to decide whether to follow Him and conform to His ways or not. 5.) Yahweh is Wholly Other than Us- Psalm 50:21 says, ”These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.” We tend to think God is like us. We know on some level that He isn’t. We know He is almighty. We know He is God. Yet, we also tend to think He is like us. For instance, we think He gets mad at us for no reason, because those around us do. We think His love is conditional because the love of those around us is conditional. We think that God thinks we are too much, just like everyone else does. God is not like us. He relates to us more deeply than we can imagine, but he is not like us. His ways are ...
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Apr 13 202611 m