The Burning Bush
In Exodus 3, Moses records the account of God interacting with him in a very unique way. He had fled the life he had in Egypt when he discovered it was known he’d killed an Egyptian overseer, and is now living with a family that shepherded flocks in the wilderness. While he was helping to tend the flocks, he noticed a bush on fire that would not burn.
Immediately, when approaching the bush, he is commanded to remove his sandals to show reverence for even the ground that surrounds the object God has chosen to use to interact with man. The purpose was to communicate to Moses that he would be sending him as his messenger to Egypt that they ought to let the people of Israel free to go worship him.
After ensuring Moses that God is sufficient in his lack to make him the messenger he needs to be, Moses has one more important question.
What’s in a Name?
He was concerned that, when he came to the people of Israel claiming to speak on behalf of their God, they would expect him to at least know the name of the God who sent him.
The name he was to give them (YHWH, generally represented in modern Bible translations with all caps “LORD”) meant simply “to be”. God is in a position unlike anything or anyone else in all of creation. He says “I am who I am” because there is nothing comparable to him, he alone owes his existence to none, and there is no other who can ascribe a name to him.
When God created man, he set him over creation to subdue it. Adam was tasked with naming every animal as part of that authority over creation. Man himself was given his name by his creator. All of creation had one in higher authority who could give a name to him. God, who alone has no beginning, has none to give him a name. He has always been, he is who he is, and alone receives a name from no one else.
Such an existence is unique to God. Unlike Pagan gods, who each have names and can be related to as if fellow man, having their own origin stories, there is a sense in which the true God is beyond our ability to relate.
Defined in Relation
However, this God, who is so far beyond our understanding and comparable to nothing and nobody else, is not far off. While we cannot work our way into relating with him, he has condescended to relate with us instead. He doesn’t stop with the fact that he always has existed. Instead, he tells Moses to explain how he relates to the people of Israel.
God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people 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 thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
Exodus 3:15
He is the God who has no equal, no beginning, and answers to nobody also has chosen to define himself in a relationship with mankind. Later, this same God would take on the nature of man and be given the name of Jesus, relating with mankind even to the point of dying in their place for their sins.
The same God that is so far beyond our understanding much less our compare has yet chosen, in his love, to relate with his creation. He has done so most intimately in his incarnation. The God who is, was, and always will be is also the God who took on the nature of man, lived in a fallen world, and conquered death on our behalf so he could have a relationship with all who would believe in him.
Because of his nature, he is unapproachable in our strength. Because of his nature, he decided to approach us anyway. What an amazing, relational God we have!
