Piper's Notes

September 16, 1984

Bethlehem Baptist Church

John Piper, Pastor

"I Am Who I Am" says the Lord

(Exodus 3:13-15)

Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them,

'The God of your fathers 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." And

he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" 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 for ever, and thus I am to be remembered

throughout all generations."

For the next seven Sundays I hope to preach a series of messages which was

inspired last August when I read Psalm 9:10, "And those who know thy name put

their trust in thee."

The aim of all my ministry is the advancement and joy of your faith to the

glory of God (Phil. 1:20,25).

Preaching is one means to that end, and therefore when I ponder what to preach I

look for things that will stir you up to trust God with all your heart. Psalm 9:10 says

that people who know God's name will trust him. It seemed to me therefore that the

Lord would strengthen our confidence in him for the future of our life together if I

could help you know the name of God better. "Those who know thy name put their

trust in thee." So for seven weeks, leading to a climax during our missions

conference, I hope to unfold a different name of God each week.

The reason knowing the names of God will help us trust him with our daily affairs

and with our eternal destinies is that in scripture a person's name often signifies his

character or ability or mission -- especially when the name is given by God. Adam

names his wife Eve, because she is mother of all the living (Gen. 3:20). God

changes Abram's name to Abraham to show that he had made him the father of

many nations (Gen. 17:5). God changed Sarai's name to Sarah (Gen. 17:15). He

changed Jacob's name to Israel (Gen. 32:28). And when the Son of God came into

the world his name was not left to chance: "You shall call his name Jesus, for he

will save his people from their sins."

I have four sons. The first was born in Germany. So we sought out a German name

related to the word Christian and put our prayer in his name: Karsten, in the

confidence that God would bring him to faith in Christ. Then came Benjamin whose

birth announcement was a paraphrase of Moses' blessing on the tribe of Benjamin in

Deuteronomy 33:12,

Beloved of God he dwells secure

Upon a cosmic boulder;

Though small and to the world obscure,

He rides on Yahweh's shoulder.

Then came Abraham and we put the hope of Romans 4:20 in his name -- that

someday he might grow strong in his faith like Abraham of old and give glory to God.

And finally came Barnabas, our son of consolation, and we took a name from a

great man of encouragement who was full of the Holy Spirit and faith. In other words,

we have tried to give our sons names that will be their destinies and their character.

We have given them names to grow into and to strive for and pray for.

Now there is a big difference between me and God. When I name someone, I don't

have the power or the authority to make the person fit the name. I give names in

hope and prayer that my sons will become what their names imply. But God has the

right and the power to cause anyone he names to become what the name implies.

The names he gives are sure indicators of the destiny of those he names.

And when he names himself, we may be sure the name is packed with who he is

and what he intends to do. God does not choose names for himself at random, say

for the sound or for an ancestor or to avoid embarrassing nicknames. He chooses

names for the sake of revealing things about himself that will deepen our love for him

and enlarge our admiration and strengthen our faith.

So my prayer is that these seven messages will open our eyes to God's glory, and

enlarge our acquaintance with his magnificent character, and fan the flames of our

love, and strengthen the fiber of our faith. My hope is in the word of God: "Those who

know thy name put their trust in thee."

The most common and the most important name for God in the Old Testament is a

name that in our English versions never even gets translated. Whenever you see the

word LORD in all capital letters you know that this name is behind it. In Hebrew the

name had four letters -- YHWH -- and may have been pronounced something like

Yahweh. The Jews came to regard this word with such reverence that they would

never take it upon their lips, lest they inadvertently take the name in vain. So

whenever they came to this name in their reading they pronounced the word

"adonai" which means "my lord." The English versions have basically followed the

same pattern. They translate the proper name Yahweh with the word LORD in all

caps.

This is not a very satisfactory thing to do, because the English word LORD does not

communicate to our ears a proper name like John or Michael or Noël. But Yahweh

is God's proper name in Hebrew. The importance of it can be seen in the sheer

frequency of its use. It occurs 6828 times in the Old Testament. That's more than

three times as often as the simple word for "God" (Elohim -- 2600. El -- 238). What

this shows is that God aims to be known not as a generic deity, but as a specific

Person with a name that carries his unique character and mission.

(Note: The word Jehovah originated from an attempt to pronounce the consonants

YHWH with the vowels from the word adonai. In the oldest Hebrew texts there are

no vowels. So it is easy to see how this would happen since whenever YHWH

occurred in the text the word adonai was pronounced by the reverent Jew.)

The most important text in all the Bible for understanding the meaning of

the name Yahweh is Exodus 3:13-15.

God has just commanded Moses to go to Egypt and to bring his people Israel out of

captivity. Moses says to God in verse 13, "If I come to the people of Israel and say

to them, 'The God of your fathers 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." And

he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God also said

to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, "The LORD (that is, Yahweh!), the God

of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent

me to you': this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all

generations."

Now notice that God gives three answers to the question, "What shall I tell them

your name is?"

First, in verse 14 God says, "I AM WHO I AM."

Second, in verse 14 God says, "I AM has sent me to you."

Third, in verse 15 God says, "Yahweh … has sent me to you … this is my name

for ever …"

So two facts persuade me that this text provides an interpretation of the name

Yahweh. One is that the name Yahweh and the name I AM are built out of the same

Hebrew word (hayah). The other is that Yahweh seems to be used here

interchangeably with I AM. "I AM has sent me to you" (v.14). "Yahweh … has sent

me to You" (v.15). I think it would be safe to say that God's purpose in this meeting

with Moses is to reveal, as he never had before (Ex. 6:2), the meaning of his

personal name Yahweh. The key is in the phrase I AM and especially in the phrase,

I AM WHO I AM.

So here is where we ought to spend a lot of time meditating. What does it mean

when you ask your God, Who are you? and he answers, I AM WHO I AM? I hope

you can begin to feel this morning how important these words are. There aren't any

words more important than these. Any words that you think might be are important

only because these words are true. The more you ponder them the more awesome

they become. I know I can't do them justice. But perhaps the Holy Spirit might take

my stammering attempt and open some vista for you.

I want to try to unfold at least seven implications that I see in the divine

name, I AM WHO I AM.

First, God exists. Or as Francis Schaffer never tired of saying, God is there. At first

this may seem so obvious and so basic that we wouldn't need to mention it. Well, it

is obvious and it is basic, but the reason we should mention it is that most people

live as if it were not true, or as if it were a truth that makes no difference in life.

Suppose the President of the United States invited you and a few of your friends to

the White House for a reception. As you enter the cozy green room the President is

sitting by the fire place and you walk right by him without a glance or a greeting. For

the whole evening you neither look at him nor speak to him nor thank him nor inquire

why he called you together. But every time the one reporter asks you if you believe

in the existence of the President you say, Of course. You even agree that this is his

house and that all this food came from his kitchen. But you pay him no regard.

Practically speaking you act as if you do not believe he exists. You ignore him. He

has no place in the affections of your heart. His gifts, not himself, are the center of

your attention.

The vast majority of people who say they believe in God treat him this way. He is

like hydrogen. You learned once in school that it is in the air you breathe, but after

that your belief in it has made no difference in your life. Every time someone takes a

poll you say, Of course, hydrogen exists. Then you return to things that matter.

Put yourself forward a few years to the day when every human being will give an

account of himself before the living God. God will say to millions of people, "Now it

is my understanding that you said often during your life that you believed in me. You

affirmed my existence. Is that right?" "Yes." And is it not true that in your life the

more honor and importance and virtue and power and beauty a person had, the more

regard he was paid and the more respect he was shown and the more admiration he

received? Is that not the case?" "Yes." "Then why is it that I had such an

insignificant place in your life since you say you believed in me? Why didn't you feel

more admiration for me and seek my wisdom more often and spend time in

fellowship with me and strive to know the way I wanted you to make all your every

day decisions? Why did you treat me as though I were like hydrogen?" What, I ask

you, what is the world going to answer? What are thousands of so-called Christians

going to answer, whose faith in God is virtually the same as their faith in hydrogen?

O how easy it is going to be for God to condemn the world at the judgment!

Sometimes in our self-asserting pride we actually think that God is going to have

trouble finding enough evidence to be just in sentencing people to hell. But if you

allow yourself to think clearly for a moment about the overwhelming implications of

the statement, "God exists," you will see that it is going to be very easy for the

Judge on that day. The defendants will be utterly speechless because of the

manifest inconsistency of their lives. The portfolio of the prosecuting attorney will not

have to be opened beyond page one where it says, Defendant affirmed that God

exists; personal life lived as though God made no difference.

Contained in the name Yahweh is the first and most important truth about God: he

exists. And for those who will stop pursuing their own glory and their own private

pleasure long enough to consider it, that makes all the difference in the world.

The second implication in the name I AM WHO I AM is that God's personality

and power are owing solely to himself and to no other.

Push back with me before there was any earth or any solar system or galaxies or

universe at all. Push back in your imagination to when there was only God. Then, if

you can, push back behind God. Where did he come from? How did he get to be the

way he is? If you asked me how I got to be the way I am, I would answer that my

father and mother gave me a set of genes and they reared me a certain way and I

have been surrounded by thousands of influences in my environment -- that's how I

got to be the way I am.

But when we ask God how he got to be who he is, he answers, I AM WHO I AM. In

other words, nobody gave me a set of genes. Nobody and no power brought me into

existence or shaped my personality. I had no beginning. There is no reality outside

myself that did not come from me. And so there is no force or influence upon my

character and power except what comes from me and is controlled by me. I am

utterly absolute. Behind me there is no reality.

Asking the question, Why is God the way he is? is like asking me, When are you

going to stop beating your wife? It is unanswerable because it assumes a state of

affairs that does not exist. I am not beating my wife and so I cannot stop. And there

is nothing behind or outside God that could be an answer to the question, why he is

the way he is. The utterly self-determined character of an everlasting God is the

endpoint of all our questions. There comes a point when you stand face to face with

absolute reality and realize that he simply is who he is.

A third implication of the name I AM WHO I AM is that God does not change.

In Malachi 3:6 God says, "I Yahweh do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob,

are not consumed." Within the name Yahweh is the affirmation I AM WHO I AM.

But if who God is is not determined by any forces outside himself then he is not

subject to the changes we are. People change their mind because of unforeseen

circumstances or weak resolution. God foresees all circumstances and has no

weaknesses. Nothing in all creation takes him off guard and backs him into a corner

where he might have to act out of character or compromise his integrity.

He is who he is, and therefore, as James says, "With him there is no variation or

shadow due to change" (James 1:17). He is the same yesterday, today and for ever.

His absolute name is the granite foundation of our confidence in his ongoing

faithfulness.

The fourth implication of the name I AM WHO I AM is that God is an

inexhaustible source of energy.

Isaiah 40:28 says, "Yahweh is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the

earth. He does not faint or grow weary."

If God is the everlasting absolute Reality, then he is the Creator of the ends of the

earth and of the universe. And if he is the Creator of everything, then all energy -- all

motion and combustion and fusion and fission originate in him. Somehow all the

energy in the universe must get started. And since God is the first and absolute

reality it all starts in him. He is an inexhaustible reservoir of power.

This must mean that he is energy. He is power. His personality is radiant with

infinite energy. He never needs recharging. He never needs a back up system. There

is nothing for him to plug into. Everything in the universe plugs into him. If he ever

shut down there would be absolute nothingness. In him we live and move and have

our being. He cannot faint or grow weary. He is an unending river of life and the

source or our strength every morning -- and will be for all eternity.

The fifth implication of the name I AM WHO I AM is that objectivity is crucial.

What I mean is that it is very important that we believe in objective truth that is more

than our own subjective feelings or desires. We may desire God to be a certain way.

We may feel that he simply can't be the way some people say he is. But what we

feel or what we desire does not make God what he is.

When God says I AM WHO I AM, he summons us to humble objectivity. He puts an

end to the notion that everybody's view of God is as good as everybody else's. God

is who he is and nobody's opinion of him makes any difference. Therefore, our

calling as his creatures is to strive to know him for who he is, not for who we would

like him to be.

The sixth implication of the name I AM WHO I AM is that we must conform to

God, not he to us.

If children should learn their manners from their parents and not the parents from the

children; if players should learn their moves from the coach and not the coach from

the players; if soldiers should learn their strategy from the general and not the

general from the soldiers; then surely it is plain that creatures should conform all

their lives to the will of their Creator!

But O how few of God's creatures follow this path of reasonableness. The vast

majority of God's creatures go their own way with little or no thought of conforming

their lives to the daily will and character of an absolute God. And when they think of

God they picture him arbitrarily in images of their own making, to suit their own

desires. But if God simply is who he is and not who we make him out to be, then it

is we who must conform to God and not he to us.

One final implication of this magnificent name, I AM WHO I AM, is that this

infinite absolute self-determining God has drawn near to us in Jesus Christ.

In John 8:56-58 Jesus is answering the criticism of the Jewish leaders. He says,

"Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was

glad." The Jews then said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you

seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly! I say to you, before Abraham

was, I AM."

Could Jesus have taken any more exalted words upon his lips? When Jesus said,

"Before Abraham was I AM," he took up all the majestic truth of the name of God,

wrapped it in the humility of servanthood, offered himself to atone for all our rebellion,

and made a way for us to see the glory of God without fear.

In Jesus Christ we who are born of God have the unspeakable privilege of knowing

Yahweh as our Father -- I AM WHO I AM -- the God

who exists

whose personality and power is owing solely to himself

who never changes

from whom all power and energy in the universe flows

to whom all creation should conform its life.

This is the name of God: I AM WHO I AM! And may those who know the name of

God put their trust in him.

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