The Mystery of Christ

WHAT’S IN A NAME?” The nation God first promised to Abraham eventually becomes quite large, and, unfortunately, in bondage to Egypt. When the cry of the people rises to heaven, God has already picked out His chosen vessel of honor: Moses. God finds Moses on the backside of the desert, where He reveals Himself to Moses in a burning bush as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the personal God of the family of Abraham. Moses is called to set the captives free and present instructions—God’s plan of deliverance—to Israel’s 70 elders. When they follow these instructions their suffering labor is increased. Moses goes back to God and asks, “Lord, why have You brought trouble on these people? Why is it You have sent me?...You [have not] delivered Your people at all.” God answers by informing Moses that He has another name. ‘What?! Disaster is at hand and you want to talk about a name change?’ (At least this is what I would be thinking if I was in Moses’ sandals.) And God spoke to Moses and said to him: ‘I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD I was not known to them…And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant. Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God.’ “I AM THE LORD” I am wondering how a name could affect Pharaoh to the point where he decides to let God’s people go. I think it has something to do with signs, wonders, and miracles—letting the world know He is bigger than the personal God of Abraham. Now He will show Pharaoh and Israel that He is God of heaven and earth. The stakes are much larger from now on. God does indeed rescue them out of the hand of the Egyptian Pharaoh and brings them to Himself, to the mountain in the Wilderness of Sinai. It is here at Mt. Sinai that God makes His plans to dwell among men; something He has not done since the Garden. God asks Moses to tell the people, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. KINGDOM OF PRIESTS AND A HOLY NATION Names give us our identity. Just as God’s identity is larger than the personal family God of Abraham and is now reflected in His new title LORD, God moves to give His people a new name and new identity. By calling the people to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, God reveals how He intends for them to live before Him and before a watching world. No longer are they just the family of Abraham, but they are a holy nation, a nation that will be worthy of the respect of the world. No longer will the people relate to a “personal family God,” but the LORD God of heaven and earth. God’s name and man’s name are connected by their relationship to one another, meaning: if God is to dwell on earth among men and reveal Himself to the world, then the man in union with God needs to be holy, in order to minister before the Lord and before the world God’s rule of heaven and earth. Francis Frangipane said, “That which God would empower He must first make holy.” If God and man are to have a relationship, where will they meet? By choosing Mt. Sinai, I believe God revealed a type or shadow of a future meeting place—Mt. Zion, the heavenly city of the future, for she will rise above Jerusalem, and from there God in Christ will rule over the whole earth. When I meditate on Exodus 19:10-11 I feel the excitement and anticipation of this meeting. God says to Moses, ‘Tell them to get cleaned up, I’m coming in three days.’ On the third day, Moses gathers what scholars believe to be about 3 million people, bringing them together at the base of Mt. Sinai to meet with God. Contrary to today’s practice of being silent when preparing to meet God in a church building, God comes with much fanfare—trumpets, thunder, lightning, fire, smoke, and shaking of the earth. Moses speaks and God answers him by voice. The Lord comments on this later when He says, “You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.” This was truly the grandest of all invitations! There were some rules to meeting God, like taking off your shoes and not touching things, but still, what an invitation. I am saddened by the people’s response, for while they accepted God’s law, they rejected Him, saying, “[Moses], You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” What were they thinking? Fear. Almost all were thinking fear, save the 74 who met with God on the mountain. They ate and drank with Him and did not die. However, because the majority of the people would not meet with God on the mountain as He planned, God persists and introduces another plan.