"I AM THE YAHWEH / EL SHADDAI"

Then the LORD (YAHWEH/JEHOVAH) said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. I will use my great power against him, and he will let my people go. He will be so ready for them to leave that he will force them to go.”  Then God said to Moses, “I am the LORD (YAHWEH/JEHOVAH).  I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They called me God All-Powerful (EL SHADDAI). They did not know my name, the LORD (YAHWEH/JEHOVAH).  I made an agreement with them. I promised to give them the land of Canaan. They lived in that land, but it was not their own.  Now, I have heard their painful cries. I know that they are slaves in Egypt. And I remember my agreement.  So tell the Israelites that I say to them, ‘I am the LORD (YAHWEH/JEHOVAH). I will save you. You will no longer be slaves of the Egyptians. I will use my great power to make you free, and I will bring terrible punishment to the Egyptians.  (Exodus 6: 1-6 ERV)

YAHWEH/JEHOVAH (traditionally rendered Jehovah) - The true and proper name of God. This is also a name of being independent, I AM WHO I AM only belongs to Jehovah God.  As we consider His greatness we should fall upon our face in awe of this One who possess all authority.

The Bible does not seek to prove the existence of God; it just simply states IN THE BEGINNING GOD.  But all through the Bible the revelation of  YAHWEH/JEHOVAH is seen.

YAHWEH/JEHOVAH  -  is a verb meaning to be, God is stating I will be who I will be.  God is the author of life and salvation.

The words, “I AM” expresses that God is the person and the being behind everything, and without Him there is nothing made.  I AM THAT I AM, expresses the truth that nothing or no one defines who God is but God Himself.

When you and I are convinced that we alone can do nothing and put our dependence upon a Holy God and our expectations upon God instead of man we shall see God’s hand revealed.

It seems that God usually brings us to the place I SURRENDER ALL.  I tried my way and failed.  Moses had been trying what he could do and accomplished strife and bitterness.  Then God answer’s with I will show myself as YAHWEH/JEHOVAH, I AM THAT I AM.

I AM THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE AND THE SOURCE OF THAT LIFE

I AM THE FOUNTAIN OF BLESSINGS AND THE SOURCE OF BLESSINGS

I AM GOD AND BESIDES ME THERE IS NONE OTHER

Sit the other false God’s around me and they will fall and crumple. YAHWEH/JEHOVAH: I will now perform what I promised.  A God that perfects what he has begun and finishes it.

You might know God in name today, but do you know Him in the Power of the One who gives Life?  Church God wants you and me to know He is YAHWEH/JEHOVAH.  He has not left you for He said I will never leave you,  He said I will restore,  He will restore for He is YAHWEH/JEHOVAH/EL SHADDAI.

The Meaning of El Shaddai -   El: "mighty power".  EL is found 250 times in the Bible.  EL means, "Mighty power, omnipotence, the strong one."  Shaddai - "all sufficient provider."  "The most preferred explanation is that Shaddai is derived from the verb shadad ("to overpower, to deal violently, or to devastate"). ... God as 'El Shaddai is presented as the all-powerful One, totally self-sufficient, absolute ruler, and the One who can and does make final disposition."

"Shaddai" is probably related to the word "Mountain" and suggests the power or strength of God.  So the two names together mean, "The Almighty all-sufficient God who protects and provides."

Gen.17:1-8; 15-22    El Shaddai supplies the impossible.   God's future promise should make us happy in the present.

Gen.28:1-8    El Shaddai blesses the obedient.  Are you finding your joy and happiness in God as your El Shaddai?  Are we passing on a joyful confidence in God to those around us?

Gen.35:1-4; 9-12    El Shaddai doesn't share worship.

"It is significant that the covenant was introduced with a revelation by God of His name. This may not seem of great importance to us but in Eastern thought to reveal the name was to reveal the person and to invite intimacy." ~D. Stuart Briscoe and Lloyd J. Ogilvie

Names of God... "There is something in every Name of God which may breed faith in our souls. Whether we know him as Jehovah, Elohim, Shaddai, or Lord, or by whatsoever other name he has been pleased to manifest himself, that title becomes the ground of our confidence, and is the means of fostering faith in his people's minds, when they come to understand its meaning. To a trembling people the Lord enlarges on his wonderful names. I think he also does it to excite our wonder and our gratitude. He that loves us so much is Jehovah: he that can create and destroy; he that is the self-existent God; he, even he, has set his heart upon his people, and loves them and counts them precious in his sight. It is a marvelous thing. The more one thinks of it, the more shall he be overwhelmed with astonishment, that he who is everything should love us who are less than nothing. It is the Holy One who has deigned to choose, and to love unholy men, and to look upon them in grace, and save them from their sins. That you may bow low in loving gratitude, God lets you see who He is."  ~Spurgeon

~Bits and Pieces of sermons by Jim McCurry and David Scudder

For an indepth study of the names of God view:

Hebrew for Christians

Blue Letter Bible - Study Tools

Fearful to Faithful

“The elders will listen to you.   And then you and the elders will go to the Pharaoh.  You will tell him, YAHWEH is the God of the Hebrews.  He came to us and told us to travel three days into the desert.  There we must offer sacrifices to YAHWEH our God.’ “But I know that the Pharaoh will not let you go. Only a great power will force him to let you go,  so I will use my great power against Egypt.  I will cause amazing things to happen in that land. After I do this, he will let you go. And I will cause the Egyptians to be kind to the Israelites. They will give many gifts to your people when they leave Egypt.   (Exodus 3:18-21)

When you say the name Moses, what do you think of?

Man of Faith?
Great divider of the Red Sea.
Great leader who took Israel out of Egypt.
Great law giver of the Old Testament.
Extraordinary man of God?

Moses was all of those things.  He is not someone we think of in any way as ordinary, but even Moses had some ordinary times in his life.  And even for Moses, the great man of God, it was not he who was extraordinary, but it was the God he served who did extraordinary things through Moses.

In the Bible we see Moses described as: 

A faithful servant (Hebrews 3:5)

The servant of the Lord (Deuteronomy 34:5)

Faithful in all God’s house (Numbers 12:7)

Someone who spoke with God “as a man speaks with his friend” (Exodus 33:11)

He was definitely an extraordinary man of faith.

Imagine the Situation

Ok, you have got to get this picture in your head.  You are having a conversation with the God of the Universe, the creator of everything and He is telling you how He is going to rescue your countrymen through you.  He is showing you some unbelievable miracles and you are questioning Him concerning if He has the right person, or if it doesn’t go as God is expecting?

What are you thinking Moses!

But that is just the thing. When we are afraid sometimes, we stop thinking. Moses is focused on his fears and his fears are hindering him from doing what God is leading him to do.

Fear can Keep Us from Doing Things God Wants Us to Do

Have you ever been afraid of doing what you think God wants you to do?  So often we think if God would just tell us what He wants me to do, that would make life so much easier.

The problem is that we don’t want God to tell us to do what He wants us to do.  We want Him to tell us to do what we want to do and if it is something different from that, we start to do just what Moses does.  We try to question God about it.  God you don’t really mean me, do you?  Lord have you completely thought through what you are doing?  Let’s go over your plan and I will help you think it through.

Serving and Free Time - Maybe you feel God has been urging you to start serving him in the church, but you are afraid that it will eat up your free time and you won’t enjoy life.

Full Time Service vs. Provision - Maybe you are feeling that God has been calling you to full time service in the church or in the mission field and you are afraid that you will not be able to afford to live if you quit your job and follow that call.

Evangelism vs. Being Liked - Maybe your feeling that God has been urging you to share your faith with some neighbors or coworkers but are afraid that they might not respond favorably and they will think poorly of you.

Those things can all make us afraid and Moses faced some of these fears as well.  If fear keeps you from following God, then how do you overcome fear so you can follow God?  How do we move from Fear to Faith?

Well, God gives Moses some practical helps that ultimately helped him face these fears and obey the Lord and be used in such a way that he would be known as a great and extraordinary man of faith.

The first thing we see here is that we are told to focus on God’s presence with us.  ( Exodus 3:11-12)   When you have experienced the presence of the Lord, you know what a great comfort it is when we are facing fears, even the fear of death.  Not only does His presence give us comfort, it gives us courage.  After Moses had this experience with God, he finally understood that God’s presence in our life is an awesome thing, especially when we are facing a fear of following God.

Listen to what Moses said near the end of his life,   "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."  (Deuteronomy 31:6)

His Presence Provides Courage

We need to understand that having faith and experiencing God’s presence doesn’t mean that we are never fearful. It means that we can overcome our fear by our faith so our fear doesn’t incapacitate us.

When the Lord is leading us we can find comfort and take courage because He promises to be present with us.   Not only will His presence help us overcome our fears, but we are told also to focus on God’s Power through us.

Focus on His Power to Work Through You

Finally, if we are going to overcome fear to walk in obedience to the Lord, we need to focus on God’s provision for us.  There may be times when you just don’t think you can get through a circumstance and don’t think you can follow God in what He wants you to do.

He will provide just what you need to accomplish what He is calling you to do, just like He did for Moses.

Moses went out and followed the Lord and did the things God told him to do and God used this weak and fearful individual and built him into a great man of faith that was used to do the extraordinary.

Where are you today?  What Fears have got you to the point of thinking you aren’t able to follow the Lord in Faith?  Keep your focus on Him, on His presence, on His power to work in you and through you and on His provision for you during this time.

Live focused on God and live extraordinary.  God is good and desires to use us to not just do the ordinary but to accomplish extraordinary things through us for His own glory.

~Bits and pieces of sermon by Scott Kircher

(Exodus 3:2-22 and 4:1-17)

Repentance and Restoration

1Then Job answered the LORD and said: 2“I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. 3You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’ 5“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. 6Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:1-5 (NKJV)

Job was a man who, according to the Bible, experienced life’s greatest turn of events. He went from riches, to rags, and back to riches again. And all of this was allowed by God so that Job could prove his faithfulness and experience more deeply a relationship with Him.

In chapter one Job is put to the test. Satan has asked God to test Job. The testing becomes more severe in chapter two. The rest of the book is Job’s response to the testing.

A basic truth is – life is a test and it is a trust. How we handle the bad stuff in life is important – so too is how we handle the good stuff. Things like faithfulness, hope, endurance are important. How do you know if you will be found faithful if you are not tempted with unfaithfulness?

James 5:11 asks: “Have you not heard of the endurance of Job?” Endurance counts. Job endured the test. He has set an example for all of us to follow.

When we, like Job, have a FIRST HAND experience with God several things happen.

I. We Understand God (v.2)

The Bible says that the just shall live by “faith.”  Well, Faith in God can only come when we come to experience the truth of Job’s statement: “I know that you can do all things....” It signifies Job’s confidence in God’s ability.

And, many of God’s people do not live with this confidence because they have not “experienced him first hand” as Job had. 

When you experience him first hand, as Job did, you begin to understand God as an all loving and all powerful God. 

II. We Understand Life (v.3)

B. But when we experience God FIRST HAND, and I mean experiencing him in spiritual growth, we come to understand life itself.

III. We Understand Ourselves (v.6)

That is an important lesson that everyone here needs to know.

John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, apart from me you can do nothing.”

Our fruit bearing as a Christian is totally dependent upon our connection with God.

Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

We cannot afford to forget this important truth!

Job had been humbled. And in his humility he experienced God like never before. And when he did, he came to understand more about God, Life and himself.

God does not leave the scene just yet, but goes to Job's friends and speaks with them about their judgement towards Job.  Though Job's friends spoke truths, they wrongly applied them and falsely accused Job.  They did not speak rightly about God nor did they understand His perspective as a result, they provoked God.

We need to pursue diligently an understanding of God's perspective when trying to apply truth to a given situation.  Do not be like Job's "friends," do not assume that someone's illness or trial is a result of sin or judgment.  Encourage the downcast; strengthen the weak; comfort the afflicted. 

7And so it was, after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has. 8Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.”9So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the LORD commanded them; for the LORD had accepted Job. Job 42:7-9 (NKJV)

In verse eight God now prescribes to the three friends of Job what they are to do. “Take seven bulls and seven rams – go and make an offering.” Notice that God also gives them another task in the middle of this verse – “go to my servant Job.” God always has given us two tasks – to love Him with all our hearts and to love our neighbor as ourselves. If we think that we can love God without loving our neighbor – we are mistaken.

First John four says:  “If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” 1 John 4:20-21 (NASV)

Jesus said:  "Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.” Matthew 5:23-24 (NASV)

¹⁰ After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.  Job 42:10 (NIV)

In verse ten we find that Job too obeyed what God had instructed in verse eight. Job had been instructed to pray for his friends – and he did. A good man will not just pray for himself but will also pray for others – even if he is at odds with them. The prayer for others often is profitable for the one who is praying. When we pray for a change in our enemies we are often changed ourselves.

Pray for those who misunderstand you.  God restored all that Satan had taken when Job prayed for those who had falsely accused him. Forgiveness is a key to restoration. 

Jesus said:  “I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:44 (NASV)

The remainder of the chapter tells us how Job is restored and in the end blessed. But let me say – our adversities in life affect us. We can become bitter or we can become better. Job could have turned his back on God. Job could have cursed God and died – yet he didn’t. Throughout all of his trials and testing he never turned his back on God. Did he get angry – frustrated – depressed? Yes! But he endured. He set an example for all of us to follow.

~Bits and Pieces of the sermon by Tom Shepard and Mike Hamilton

Humility the Beauty of Holiness by Andrew Murray