every story whispers his name -- part 2

The Word for today:
Genesis 19

mark this: Exodus 3:14 --
And God said to Moses, "I AM THAT I AM." And he said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I AM has sent me to you."

and this: John 8:56-58 --
"Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad."
So the Jews 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."

and this: Acts 4:12
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

The Bible is, above all else, a story. (Yesterday's part 1 was devoted to that crucial concept.) It is the progressive revelation of Jesus Christ. It must be read that way, from start to finish, to or it will never be understood. In fact, it will seem altogether senseless.

The elements of a story are character and plot. Character is the "who" of the story. Plot is the "do" of the story.

One of the first things we learn in most stories is the name of the "who." In the Bible's first pages, many of God's most prevalent names have already appeared. So we thought we'd better get formally introduced before we proceed any further.

The various names of God constitute a vast subject. If comprehensively taught, it would consume at least a year of blog articles. Stand in the Rain hopes to give you an awareness and appreciation of this subject, and point you in the direction of further self-study.

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We first meet God as Elohim, the cosmic creator:
"In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth" is the best way to read Genesis 1:1.

Later we will meet God as Yahweh, the Redeemer-God, who promises and performs the covenants between God and man. Yahweh is the God with whom we have a relationship. (Mind you that Elohim and Yahweh are one and the same! We use names in the same way: a doctor's patients might know him as "Doc," but his kids call him "Dad.")

You will also hear Yahweh called 'Jehovah,' because no one knows how to pronounce this name. All we know are the consonants of his name--YHWH. We can only guess at what vowels belong between the consonants, so we guess at the pronunciation. To further confuse the issue, most of our Bibles don't include the name Yahweh or Jehovah at all. Instead, they just render YHWH as "LORD"--all in capital letters.)

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It may sound confusing (because at first it is!) until you remember that all the names point to Jesus. Each one of them reveals some wonderful new facet of his personality or his character. Every name whispers "Jesus," in one way or another. Here's how scripture makes that clear:

YHWH (see above) is the comprehensive, all-inclusive name that is revealed in the Old Testament. It is associated with the Hebrew verb hayah, which means "to be." It means "I AM THAT I AM," thus encompassing all the other revealed names of God. (This name was revealed to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3.)

I've got to be careful here because the name of God is never to be misused, but -- just between you and me -- "I AM" doesn't really tell me much. It begs the question: You are what?

God knows it begs the question, so he shows us:
"Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad."
So the Jews 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." (John 8:56-58)

Jesus is YHWH! Return tomorrow and we'll find out just "what" Jesus AM!

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