Reading Exodus: Encountering God (1)—What is His name?

“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?”（Ex 3:13）

Apart from the incarnation recorded in the 4 Gospels, Moses’ encounter with God stands among the most striking accounts of human-divine encounters in the whole Bible.

In Ex. 3, Moses is tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro when he comes upon a strange sight: a bush that burns and yet is not consumed. There, God appears to him, speaks with him, commissions him to bring His people out of Egypt, and reveals His name to him.

Rembrandt, Moses at the Burning Bush, 1655

Well of course, long before Moses’ encounter, God had already revealed Himself to the patriarchs such as Abraham and Jacob. And after Moses, He continues to reveal to Joshua, the judges, the kings and the prophets. However, the God who revealed Himself to the forefathers now discloses His name, and any subsequent encounters with God has their understandings and insights shaped by this self-revealed name of God in this encounter.

This divine encounter of Moses is, hence, a defining moment in the unfolding of who God is in the book of Exodus.

 

In this encounter, two interesting features stand out. One concerns the name of God; the other, the commissioning of Moses. 

 

When Moses hesitates at God’s commissioning and resists the task before him, God’s mind is not changed. Finally, Moses raises what appears to be a practical concern. He mentions the possible scenario that the Israelites might ask for the name of the God of their forefathers, and ask God, “What shall I say to them?” (3:13)

To appreciate the weight of this question, it is good to look at the naming practice in the Ancient Near Eastern world from which Moses came.

(to be continued...)