Moses & Marriage
Exodus 3-20
More on the Divine Name
In Exodus 3 Moses encounters God at bush that was burning, yet was not consumed. It is here that
God calls Moses to go to Egypt and rescue His people. Something else happens here though, God reveals to
Moses His name: Yahweh. Names in the Old Testament meant far more than they do for us today in that
they spoke about a person’s identity and their place in the world. Moses’ name is similar to the Hebrew
word meaning to draw out. He was named this because Pharaoh’s daughter drew him out of the water.
However this name also speaks to how God will use him to draw out His people from slavery in Egypt.
In Exodus 3:13 Moses asks God for a name that he can give to the Israelites that will convey to them
who is behind it all. God says, in verse 14, “I AM WHO I AM” and that Moses should tell the people that “I
AM has sent me to you”. The name Yahweh, which is used in verse 15, comes from the Hebrew verb that
means ‘I am’. The longer name that God uses could also be rendered “I AM WHAT I AM” or “I WILL BE WHAT
I WILL BE”. The idea though is that God gave his name as an active verb not a noun. When the Old
Testament was translated into the Greek (the Septuagint, or LXX) the phrase was rendered a little differently.
Whereas in the Hebrew God refers to himself by using an active verb, in the Greek the divine name gets
turned into a substantive adjectival participle. To clarify, a particle is a verbal adjective, and an adjectival
participle is a participle that is primarily acting as an adjective. A substantive adjectival participle is a verbal
adjective that is acting adjectivally in place of a noun. The whole point is to say that when the divine name
got translated into Greek it went from I AM to something along the lines of The One who is Being. It went
from being an active verb to being more of a descriptive noun.
The Greek name fit well with Greek philosophy’s idea of divinity that was unchangeable and
completely outside of the realm of our reality. And though the nuance is slight, the Greek name connotes
more of a static God, one that cannot change, feel, or engage a temporal existence. The divine name in
Hebrew is fully verbal. It speaks of a God that acts, a God that engages, a God that is closely connected with
the inner workings of His creation, a God that IS. Our conception is often closer to the Greek than the
Hebrew, and we tend to want to describe God rather than engage with God.
Sermon Notes



God’s identity is both rooted in ______________________ and in the
______________________.
The plagues were ________________ _______________________ between the ____________
_____ _______________ and the God of Israel.
Biblical freedom isn’t autonomy, or self-rule, it is ______________________
_________________________ _______ _______________.


True freedom is only found in the _____________________ of God.
A committed marriage is the closest humans can come to ________________________
____________________.
Questions for Reflection:
1.
2.
3.
4.
In what ways does God’s relationship with his people inform our view of marriage?
In what ways does our view of marriage inform our view of our relationship with God?
What popular notions of marriage distort our view of God’s relationship with his people?
How does God’s khesed fit into our view of marriage?