SUMMARY
MosesProphet who led Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land and received the law at Sinai. asks for God’s name, and God reveals it to him. God goes on to describe what will happen in the exodus event.
ANALYSIS
When Moses asks for God’s name, he is anticipating two different issues at stake for the Israelites. The first is forgetting: this is the God of their ancestors, but they will need to be reminded or told who this God is—the one their ancestors worshiped and they have drifted away from over the generations. The second issue is one of identity. In the polytheistic milieu of the ancient world, a particular god or goddess, or a small subset of them, was often associated with a place or a people. Those deities would advocate for their particular set of humans in the divine pantheon. If every other group had a favorite deity, the Israelites might wonder: “There are lots of gods being worshiped around here; which one are you talking about?” Thus, the revelation of God’s name serves to identify this particular God, but also to underscore the particular relationship this God has with Israel.
God’s response, “I AM WHO I AM,” can also be translated as “I am what I am” or “I will be who/what I will be.” The phrase in Hebrew—’ehyeh ’asherThe name of a son of Jacob and tribe of Israel. ’ehyeh—comprises two identical verbs of being connected by a relative pronoun. It is an enigmatic construction that preserves a lotNephew of Abraham and Sarah. of mysteryA mystery is something secret, hidden and not perceived by ordinary means. In the book of Daniel a significant mystery is revealed through divine revelation (Daniel 2); Paul speaks of a mystery of God in Romans 11 and again in Ephesians 3. In speaking of... around God, even as it also emphasizes God’s singularity and abiding presence. The name of God itself, YHWH (vocalized as Yahweh), is related to the consonants in the phrase’s verbs. In Jewish tradition the divine name is not uttered aloud, and so most English translations will substitute LORD in capital letters every time the name YHWH appears. It is important to remember that when “LORD” appears like this, it is not a generic name for any deity, but rather refers very specifically to YHWH, the God of Israel. The name distinguishes Israel’s God from other gods, and it is the LORD who will fight against—and defeat—Pharaoh and his gods on Israel’s behalf.
