EXODUS 3:13-22 NO OTHER NAME I feel like a bystander watching from a distance, a prepared man meeting with his God and being commissioned to do God's work that God might work through him. There is no question this is holy ground. I too stand with my shoes off, feeling the impression of the ground beneath my feet. Feeling as insignificant as Moses, and even more so, I sense the pressure of the moment and the awareness of being singled out by God. There is rarified air here to breathe. There is a world I am made more conscious of when my feet are bare. I can understand the phrase, "My heart is like wax." I have a real sense of the reluctance Jewish writers had rather, than mispronounce or misuse the name of God, to use the word "Adonai." Even printers had to find some way to identify the One who is indescribable, so they capitalized the word "LORD" in a feeble attempt to exalt Him.
How then can one explain who God is? We can't. He is beyond description. Anything or anyone who is infinite can not be compared with what we know by our limited experience and ability. We can only rely on what we have experienced of God personally. Anyone who comes to God "must believe that He is..." - He exists. Faith in God is essential. There are evidences of Him all around us, and even in us. The Creator wired into our being an unrest until it finds rest in God. Anyone who comes to God must not only believe He exists, but must be willing to earnestly seek Him. Many seek Him in ways of their own design. They may seek Him in nature, but that is a work of God - not God Himself. Some will even stop there and say, "Nature is God." Others may seek God in themselves and so will contemplate their own person and personality, thinking that the "image of God" is God. These begin to worship the creature rather than the Creator, and come to a self-centered decision that they themselves have become a god. They say man is his own god.
The best way we can overcome our reluctance to give people the truth of God is to tell them of our own experiences with God. Moses was instructed by God as to how to do this. We are not left without guidance in this ourselves in this regard. "Go home and tell what great things God hath done for you." Our testimony of faith in Christ and He working in and through us, cannot be refuted. It cannot be claimed that what a person has experienced is not true. We can form an opinion as to it being of God or not. If an activity in our life's experiences has evidence of godliness in it, it will bear the imprint of the life of Christ on it. The things written in the scriptures give us portraits of the Lord Jesus and His life as an example, "that we should walk in His steps."
This I do know: God is a Personality - He is not an idea or a figment of mans' imagination. There cannot be less in the Creator than is in His creation. He is in everything but is distinct from all. The uniqueness of the Lord Jesus Christ when He was here revealed God to us. He was like us but different. Because He made us, we bear certain characteristics of Him. Our contact with God comes when our dead spirits are awakened. and the quickening power of the Holy Spirit of God gives us life. Then we begin to understand what previously were only questions. Then there comes real life which grows and nurtures, rather than a deadness which lies motionless in spiritual darkness.
This I know: God is changeless. The passing of time and years do not affect God. He exists in an eternal "NOW." He has nothing to learn, for He is omniscient. He has nothing to acquire because He is omnipotent and has created all things "by the word of His power." He is full of grace and mercy. He is by His nature, love. He has "all power in heaven and earth." God is changeless in that He has nothing further to become. He is the Creator of life and glory. He is the upholder of all things. He is the Father of the fatherless and the husband to the widow. We know in the Lord Jesus Christ "dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." He is changeless. "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever."
This I know: God is Reality. He cannot be nor does He need to be in any way altered. He is without the need to adapt to anything for "by Him all things consist." His creation changes by the word of His power. We change by our nature and the passing of time. There is nothing to compare Him with. There is no way to describe Him. If we could describe Him, He wouldn't be God. We can, in a limited way, describe what He is not. At our disposal are the few words to speak of Him in the negative. "He is of holier eyes than to look upon sin." "God is greater than... " and we use the greatest things we know of to make a kind of negative comparison.
This I know: God has plans. There is a unity in His creation. There are divine imprints in everything from an atom to the universe. There is an obvious order to things from seasons to years. Those are mere physical, and to a degree, observable things, that give evidence of a plan. From His Word we know He has a plan to redeem lost souls, the same as He revealed to Moses a plan of deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Redemption was planned by God to be accomplished when the sinless substitute died in the place of the sinful person. In Egypt it was going to be the sinless Passover lamb for the firstborn of each family. For us it is the reality that "Christ died for the ungodly." He became one of us so we would have a substitute who permanently meets our need. God has a kingdom to come in His plans. He has a family He calls His own in His plans. "We become children of God by faith in Jesus Christ." He has been choosing out from among the nations "a people for His name." He wanted Israel to be a kingdom of priests, but Israel failed to fulfill His demands of a holy nation. Now He has created by means of a "new creation," a kingdom of priests from all people who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and will "worship the Father in spirit and in truth."
The nature of God is described and observed by Moses as a flame of fire. "Our God is a consuming fire," is another description. He is like the Sun that reveals what has been hidden by the dark. The warmth of the sun gives comfort and has power to bring forth life hidden and dormant in the seed. The sun can purify and give light to guide the footsteps of the traveler. God is a covenant keeping God. He formed covenants with those of old. Now by means of a new covenant with the blood of Christ to ratify it, He has formed this agreement with those who believe. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." "I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish." "He that hath the Son hath life." Those who have already died in Christ are secured forever with Him. We who are alive now are assured that we have the life of God that He promised. Even though by His very nature, God cannot be described, we do know Him as the Great I AM. We know there is "none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." God, in the perfections of our Lord Jesus Christ, has drawn near to us, and we do not need to be afraid. Moses had his commission to fulfill in his day to the people of Israel. We have ours in our day to the lost in the whole world.
"Father, I am not wanting to avoid the thoughts of Thee, Thy glory, Thy purposes, Thy will - but it seems to me right now, it would be wrong to multiply words. I know my thoughts are read like a book by Thee. So I just want to honor and praise Thee - and thank Thee for revealing Thyself to me as a Gracious, Loving, Heavenly Father, Amen."