Between Fear and Faith: Bible Study blog for June 19

Tonight, we journeyed into the story of God’s miraculous deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.  Our discussion was centered around two topics:

When God appeared to Moses, God commands Moses to go to Pharaoh and demand the release of the Hebrews.  Moses asks God, “when the Israelites ask me, ‘what is the name of the God who sent me to you,’ what do I say?  God’s answer is “I am who I am.  Say ‘I am sent me to you.”  If we are to interpret the original Hebrew in the best way possible, the name would be “I will be who I will be.”  So God does not reveal the divine name—only a promise.

At first, this may be a disappointment—for why wouldn’t God want to reveal the divine name?  The reason why is to define the terms of the relationship between human beings and God—God is God and people are not.  Knowing God’s name would put a person at an equal relationship with God—which is basically the same reason why you never addressed your teachers by their first name! At the same time, the hiddenness of the divine name speaks to God’s greatness and holiness, so far beyond human comprehension.  In the same way as no one could see God and not die, one cannot know God’s name.  A human mind simply cannot understand.

Note: the names Yahweh and Jehovah (which are transliterations of what is referred to as the tetragrammeton—the four-letter symbol for I am, which in actuality is an unpronounceable word.  Any time you see the word Lord written in small caps, the original Hebrew uses the tetragrammeton.  Since God does not reveal a name, we should therefore not name God Yahweh or Jehovah.  (That being said, Jesus invites us to pray to our God as Abba, Father—but again, this is a symbol for God—not God’s name! )

Our second topic centered around what will be a recurring theme throughout the exodus and wilderness narrative—God makes a promise, but the dismal present state of affairs dashes the people’s faith to pieces.  As soon as Moses declares God’s Word to Pharaoh, Pharaoh increases their yoke of slavery—and the people direct their wrath squarely at Moses.  They will continue to do this in the desert.

Almost all of us can easily identify with their situation.  God promises to listen to our prayers and deliver us from our darkest trials, but we look around us and see no sign of God’s presence.  Sometimes troubles multiply instead of going away.  When this happens, we assume that our prayers aren’t working and that God isn’t doing anything.  Often, it will feel as though we are falling further and further away from God’s promises.  It is then that we must hold fast to God’s promises.  Faith holds onto Christ and his promises, even when there are no other reasons to do so.  In the same way as the Hebrews’ liberation came only after great suffering and difficulty, we will often see God’s power revealed most greatly as God delivers us from the largest and most painful trials we face.

Our next Bible study will take place on Thursday, July 10 at 7:00 p.m.  We return to our regular schedule of meeting on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month.