Exploring My Strange Bible - I am who I am Part 1: Yahweh Is Our God

Episode Date: November 13, 2017

This first teaching explores the word “God” both in English and in the Bible. I discuss the divine name of God revealed through Moses to the people Israel. If you’re going to get to know someone, you have to start with their name. We explore what God’s name means in this episode.

Tim Mackey, Jr. utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 10 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find those resources at thebibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. All right, well, this is going to be the first of a pretty long series. It'll be 10 episodes total. This represents a group of teachings that I contributed to a series we did while I was a pastor at Door of Hope.

It was called I Am Who I Am. And essentially, it's a whole bunch of teachings that explore all of the portraits of God that are found and developed throughout the scriptures, which sounds like a pretty heady theological type of series. And it is like it's full of dense biblical interpretation and theology. But, you know, I love that stuff. But the motive for it was actually very pastoral. One thing that I noticed in the years that I was in local church, pastoral ministry, I was really surprised by this.

How many people, huge numbers of people that I met and learned their stories and their experience of the Christian faith or connected to local church communities from growing up or in their adulthood or whatever, I met so many people whose spiritual journey was one of shame, of guilt, of constant self-criticism, and feeling like God didn't like them or was just putting up with them. And the Jesus part of the story for them was, well, of course, you know, he loves me and he had to do that because he's love and so he died for me. But essentially, God's actually just putting up with me and he could really would just squash me if he had the chance. And most people wouldn't say it like that, although I've had people put it to me in words that are pretty similar to that. Most of us, I think, operate with a sense of who God is that just actually isn't true. And even if we aren't aware of it, we can get into patterns of thinking and relating to the God presented to us in the story of Jesus that are not healthy and they're not true

to the portrait of God revealed in the scriptures and in Jesus. And so I was surprised by this because, especially in my early years as a new Christian in my 20s, for me, following Jesus was the most liberating, mind-opening experience I'd ever had in my life. And it completely transformed my sense of self-identity and self-worth and purpose in the world. It was incredible. It was the most positive experience I'd ever had. And I was dumbfounded when I met Christians who were having the exact opposite experience. And so I wanted to get underneath it. And there's lots of reasons why people experience their journey of following Jesus as one big negativity fest.

And their ideas about God or their theology or understanding of God's character is only one piece. But it's a significant one. If you fundamentally misunderstand the character of a person that's in your life, it's going to really, really harm that relationship and harm you if you fundamentally misunderstand someone and never understand them for who they really are. So that was the pastoral heartbeat behind the series. It's aimed at just innumerable people that I met over the years in my local church who really didn't believe that God liked them or loved them and weren't able to live in the light of that fundamental truth. So this is a series essentially on the Trinitarian portrait of God in the story of the Scriptures,

God as Father, Son, and Spirit. This first teaching is diving into just the word God, both in English and how unhelpful and what a muddy word that is, and also the word God in the Bible and specifically the name of God revealed through Moses to the people of Israel, the covenant name of God, what God's name means and what it reveals about God's identity and character. If you're going to get to know someone, you have to start with their name. And so that's where this series is going to start. So I hope this is helpful for you. Let's dive in and learn together. What do Christians mean when we use the word G-O-D?

And the reason is that it's our conviction that there's quite a lot of ambiguity and fogginess for Christians in America when we use this word. We often assume that we're all talking about the same thing, and I'm pretty convinced that we're not a lot of the time. And that's just within, you know, within the church. Within Western culture in general, it gets even more complicated. And it's funny because, especially in American media and politics and so on, the word God gets brought up quite a lot. And the general assumption is we all know what we're talking about when we use that word, or that we're all talking about the same being or the same thing. And as Christians, I think we need to begin to discipline our thinking and to think carefully and intentionally about who we are referring to when we hear this word.

And another major factor, you know, we all come to our definition or what we understand this word to refer to by lots of different things. We talked about those last week, by our family of origins, by our experiences growing up and so on. Another major factor, at least for cities, especially in the West, is the fact that over the last 50 years or so with increased immigration and mobility, the world's urban centers have become what America was 200 years ago, i.e. the melting pots. And so, you know, odds are if you, you know, were born in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and you grew up in a city that you grew up knowing and just like have neighbors and school friends and so on, people of different ethnic or cultural backgrounds, different religious backgrounds,

and that you had a very different experience that way than your grandparents did growing up, say, in a city here in America. Our cities are much more diverse. And so you have a Chinese Buddhist or you have a Catholic from South America or something, from Costa Rica, and you have a Catholic from, you know, from South America or something, from Costa Rica, and you have a Hindu from India, and then you have you, wherever you happen to grow up, and people learn English, and what all these different religious backgrounds and so on, and we have one word to talk about God. But yet all of those people do not at all mean the same thing when they use that English word. You guys with me?

And so this is a reality of living in a religious and culturally pluralistic society that we need to gain clarity just for your own sake, but also for the sake of understanding who is this person that you're trying to get to know? understanding who is this person that you're trying to get to know? What God are you trying to get to relate to in some way and trying to understand and connect with? So one way to think about this in terms of our culture is think about it like this. And I think why for many of us, we have trouble relating to God. It's because we just have such a muddled idea of who God is in our minds, but yet we have a word for it that we think we know what it means. So think of it this way. This will underscore the problem, I think, that many of us have. So my name's Tim. Hi. If I didn't say that already, my name's Tim, right? So Portland's not the biggest city in the U.S. by a long shot.

What are you, medium city, large city? I was just thinking about this the other day. Large, small, medium. Those are your three options. So that didn't help anything, did it? Okay. I suppose it depends on where you're from and your perception of what big is. Okay. Well, that didn't help. Nevermind. So Portland is a city. It is a city. All right. it is a city. So my name is Tim. How many Tims do you think there are in the city of Portland? Hundreds or thousands? Thousands, probably.

Probably. How many thousands? I have no idea. I have no idea. So using the word Tim, if you're in, how many Tims in the room right now? Any other Tims? Hey there. Hey. Hey, man. How's it going? Any other Tims? Hey there. Hey.

Hey, man. How's it going? Any others? You and me. All right. So that's great. That's a great example. So right in this room right now, the word Tim

will not be helpful because we're both going to go, well, if we say our name. And so it's the same word, but it could identify and refer to different people altogether. So how would you gain clarity on which Tim you were talking about? What further would you want to say or get to know whether you're talking about me or Tim? So the last name is the first thing we would go. And so you would learn, my name's Tim Mackey.

Mackey is my clan, Scottish and proud, right? So Scottish and proud, right? If it's not Scottish, it's cropped, right? And you know that thing. And so Scottish Lowlands tribe, the tribe of Mackay, that's me. So that's how you would further know my identity is my name, my full name. So that would get you a step of the way there until you discover that there are actually a handful of Tim Mackeys in the city of Portland. Like not a small number, actually. I discovered that a long time ago.

And so how would you further clarify what Tim Mackey you were talking about? And you can't say middle name, pretend middle names don't exist right now. That's a loophole in my argument. So pretend the middle names don't exist. How would you go about doing that? You could do it a number of ways. The easiest one would be to tell my story. How do you, well, which Tim Mackey are you talking about? The one who was born at Adventist Hospital, grew up on Southeast 22nd and Hawthorne and went to such and such a school, you would tell someone's story. That's how we identify people. Name by someone's name and by someone's story. Are you with me? This is just,

this is not complicated. You're not really learning anything right now, right? But this is, this is so commonplace when it comes to people that it's funny that we never think to use the same type of categories or ideas when we're talking about this word right here. So, well, what God are we talking about? Well, I guess it would help to know this God's story to help you identify what particular God we're talking about, and also to know if this God has a more specific name other than the generic title of deity or God. And as Christians, generic title of deity, right? Or God. And as Christians, both of those are incredibly important things both to know and to learn and to internalize that the God that we worship, revealed in Jesus, has a name and a story. So think about the first sentence of the Bible, for example. We'll just

throw it up here. It was there, and it'll come back again, I'm sure, soon. So think about the first. What's the title for God in the first sentence of the Bible? You know how it is with me. You're going to learn some Hebrew words today. So the Hebrew word for God is the word Elohim. Elohim. So Elohim is the same in Hebrew as it is in English. It's a title. It's not a name. It's a generic word, title, referring to deity. So here's something interesting to think about then. If you only read the first sentence of the Bible, you've narrowed the list down pretty good, right? Because we're talking about gods who have the power or the generosity or the creativity to spin a world into being. So that takes a whole

bunch of deities off the list, right? Because not all gods world into being. So that takes a whole bunch of deities off the list, right? Because not all gods are gods that could do that kind of thing. But many religions and cultures believe in some kind of being that did this. So the first sentence of the Bible narrows the list kind of, but not entirely. You still don't know, well, what kind of creator God are we talking about here? And so what do you do? So what you do is you learn as a Christian to develop this discipline of reading the Bible as a way of helping you clarify the identity of God and letting these stories begin to shape your thinking about the character qualities and the purposes of this God that we say that we

believe in. And so to do that, you have to simply continue on in reading the story with that set of glasses on. So why don't you grab your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Exodus, the book of Exodus chapter 2. And we're going to ponder and contemplate a story that both reveals the name and the story of God in a really significant way. Exodus chapter 2. Let's just dive right in here. Verse 23. Exodus 2 verse 23. During that long period, the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. Or say it in Hebrew, even. Went up to El Gajab.

You spoke a bit of Hebrew there. Okay, so pause. We're jumping right into the middle of a fast-paced developing story here. So this God who created and spun a world into being commissioned a particular creature that he made in his world, this creature called Adam. Humanity is where we get our name Adam. And humanity was made in and made to reflect the Creator's image out into the world. And they're very much, in the story, they're depicted as partners with the Creator God in responsibility and in management of the flourishing of God's good world.

And he gives them real responsibility and real dignity, real freedom and real choice of how they're going to go about building this world with God. And how does that story go? So it's page two. So it doesn't go well at all. The humans begin to doubt the Creator's goodness. They believe the Creator's holding out on them. And instead of trusting the Creator's definition of good and evil and wisdom, they seize the opportunity and define good and evil for themselves and in ways that are most convenient for them. And it leads to the ruin of our world, as the story of the Bible tells us.

And so what do we learn about this creator God? This creator God is so passionate and committed to the goodness of his world and committed to these human beings that have totally turned away from him, that he sets in motion a plan to rescue and bless and to redeem and to save this humanity and his world. And so he does that by having a conversation with this random guy named Abraham and says, through you and your family, I'm going to do something that's going to bring blessing and salvation to all of the nations. And so this is the God that we're talking about here. Let's keep reading here. Verse 24, God, Elohim, he heard Israel's groaning

and he remembered his covenant with whom? With Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And so he looked on the Israelites. He was concerned about them. So this people group is crucial to God's plan somehow. We don't know yet. You've just got to keep reading the story of how he's going to bring blessing and salvation to all of the nations. So we're still using the generic title, but we're cluing into this God's story. This is the God who made a covenant with Abraham and through whose family he's going to somehow

bring blessing and salvation to the world. So God looks and he's concerned because Abraham's family is now in slavery in Egypt and oh my goodness, what's going to happen? What's God going to do? Chapter 3, verse 1. Now there's this guy named Moses and he was tending the flock of Jethro,

his father-in-law, the priest of Midian and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness. And he came to Horeb, which is the mountain of God. Now, this is good stuff. This is good Old Testament storytelling style, right? And so you're like, oh, the people are enslaved. And they're crying out, help us, help us. And God says, yes, I'm going to help you.

And then you cut the scene. And it's just like this guy wandering in the wilderness with his flock of sheep or something. What just happened, right? So I want to know what's God going to do to rescue the people. This is called good storytelling is what this is called, right? This is called literary art and beautiful storytelling. There's some connection, but you don't know yet. You got to read the story. So there's this guy, Moses, and you know about him from chapter 2, Rescued Out of the Water, and you've seen the movie. So he's leading his flock to the far side of this mountain.

He comes to this mountain that's called Horeb here. Its other name in the Bible is Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai. And that's where all the Israelites are going to go later on in the book of Exodus. So he's out of their prison with his flock. And there, the angel of, not Elohim, the angel of, so it says Lord. And this is something, I've mentioned this a few times before, but when you see Lord in all capital letters in your Bible, that, it's kind of funny, because you're like, why did they spell it in all caps?

And that's your English translators giving you a little clue that the Hebrew word used is not just the word for master or Lord. It's actually the divine name that's going to be revealed in this very, very story here. And the traditional and most likely way that this name was pronounced by ancient Israelites is Yahweh. And this story is actually about the revelation of that name and the meaning of this name. And so it's the angel of Yahweh who appears to Moses, and he appears in the flames of a fire from within a bush. Now, Moses saw that even though the bush was on fire, it didn't burn up. That's quite strange. Are you with me? That's weird. If you would freak out if you saw that, you

wouldn't be calm and collected like you are right now, right? And it's not strange to see a bush on fire, right? Any little kid could light a bush on fire. But it's like going on and on. It's not burning up. He's starting to freak out. So Moses thought, why will God go over and see this strange sight? I mean, why isn't the bush burning up? Now, when Yahweh saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, Moses, Moses. And Moses said, here I am. So am I on camera? Like what's going on right here? So the bush is talking to me. This is quite strange, quite strange. Verse 5. Don't come any closer, God said. Take off your sandals, for the place that you are standing is holy ground.

So here's another way that the story is trying to shape our view of the character and attributes of this Yahweh Elohim, of this Yahweh God. And this God is holy. This God, which doesn't mean like, you know, morally uptight or something like that. That's kind of what it means in our... She's so holy. She thinks she's so holy or something like that. It doesn't mean morally uptight. That's not what it means in the Bible. It means unique and different. And this is foremost used of Yahweh Elohim, that this God is so utterly other and unique and transcendent. This God has within God's own self the resources to spin a universe

into being and the creativity. And this God is the very definition of justice and moral goodness and beauty and purity and so on. And so to come into the presence of such an utterly unique being means to come into the proximity of unique and sacred and holy space. That's the concept here. And so just like you would never, I was in the habit of, I don't know why, but I would come into my house when I was a little kid growing up, and, you know, you take off your shoes, and you bring them right into the dinner, into the kitchen or something. And I don't know, my mom got on me about this.

I thought this was very common for kids. I shared it at the 9 a.m. Apparently this is quite uncommon. I would just throw my shoes on the kitchen counter or something like that. We're supposed to take off our shoes. We come into the house. It was one of these old houses in Portland

with nice hardwood floors. And so I just toss them on the counter. And of course my mom, you know, was not happy about that. And she's not happy about that for the same reasons that Moses is supposed to take off his shoes. What have I been walking on? On Hawthorne, 20th and Hawthorne. All kinds of things, right? So you have like the oil from the cars and so on, people who drive these vintage cars that are cool but drip oil everywhere all over our streets,

you know, and you have like a piece of gum and cigarette butts and so on. And so I bring that into the house. What are the kitchen counters for? What's their unique specified purpose? that into the house, what are the kitchen counters for? What's their unique specified purpose? The preparation of food, right? And so that's sacred space. That's what that is. That's sacred, unique, holy space that's for that one purpose. And my shoes, like what I bring in off the streets, does not belong there. It's a similar principle here. Moses is a shepherd. What's he probably walked in today, you know? And so, take him off. This is a unique experience, a unique and holy being that you're coming into proximity with. And this God, this Elohim further clarifies his identity. Verse 6, he says, then I said, I am the Elohim of your father,

the Elohim of Abraham, Elohim of Isaac, Elohim of Jacob. He's identifying himself by a story of what God has been up to. At this, Moses hid his face. He was afraid, afraid to look at God. Then Yahweh said, I've indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I've heard them crying out because of their slave drivers. I am concerned about their suffering. So I've come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians, to bring them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey,

which doesn't mean the rocks are just oozing milk and honey, right? So when I first heard this, that was the image that came into my mind. So what does it mean that a land's flowing of milk and honey? What makes milk? Goats, cows. What makes honey? Bees. It's a land full of goats and bees. That's what this land is. The land flowing with goats. In other words, just by itself without full farming and cultivation, it's just flowing with resources. That's the idea. And it's the home of these people groups already. The Canaanites, the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. So now, the cry of the Israelites has reached me. I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. Now go.

I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. Again, if it's our stories that reveal who we are, what is this story revealing about the character of Yahweh, Elohim? This God cares deeply about how human beings treat each other. Let's just put it at its most basic, right? So this is a God who cares deeply about how His image-bearing creatures treat other image-bearing creatures. And when there's oppression, when there's evil, when there's injustice, this God cares, this God internalizes the pain and the grief and is driven to do something. Now, this God is driven to do something, and what does this God do? How is this God going to act? He says, I'm going to do something. And what does he do? He says,

Moses, you go. You go. And we think, why doesn't God just get directly involved? And that's, stop it, stop it. That you have a view of God. That God, if He's involved in the world, what that means is that He drops down miracles from heaven and just kind of pulls the strings. You know, that's how we think God ought to act. Have you actually read the Bible and realized that's how God almost never acts? That's how God almost never acts. Very rare are the moments when God actually works in history without any human mediation whatsoever. If you actually read the story of the Bible about Yahweh Elohim, he almost always acts through his people, through commissioning people. And we might say that's a

very inefficient way of going about things, right? And so clearly, efficiency is not one of the huge cares of this God. This God has other high items on his agenda than simply being efficient, namely the shaping and cultivation of the character of his people, which takes time. And so he's going to send Moses. I'm going to send you to Pharaoh, bring my people, Israelites, out of Egypt. What does Moses think about this plan? Bad idea. It's a really bad idea, right? His first response is an objection. Moses says to God, who am I? Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? And God's response answers his question by ignoring his question. Look at God's response. What did God say? I will be with you. Just think about what's happening

here. Who am I? I am not the candidate, not qualified. I don't actually want to do this. Who am I that I should go? And God says, in essence, it doesn't actually matter who you are. What matters is who I am and what I am is with you. Do you get what's happening right here? Now, this is very powerful. And I'm going to actually teach you the Hebrew word for I will be, because this is all connected here. So God says, I will be. And how you say that in Hebrew is a very breathy word that you shouldn't say after eating lots of garlic.

It's the word echyech. Why don't you say it with me? Now, Hebrew, just like English, has developed and changed over time. You know, just like how they talk funny in Shakespearean plays versus how you talk now. So actually, the way this is super geeky Hebrew grammar, but come on, I'm already, look at this. So anyway, the way great-great-grandpa would have said this is echweh, echweh, and that's significant for a reason that you'll see in a moment. Would you say that with me? Echweh. What God says to Moses is, Echweh, and then with you, Imach.

I will be. Now, is God saying, in about five minutes, I'm going to be with you? Is that what it means? It says it's future. I will be with you. But is that what he means? Oh, excuse me, seven.

I have something else I've got to do real quick. It means I am and will continue to be with you. It's a statement about the present and ongoing into the future. And that's why some of your translations have not I will be. Some of your translations might have simply I am with you. And that's because God's not saying in the future one day I'll be with you. Here I am and from here on out. I am, will be with you. Tuck that away. Let's keep reading.

Who am I? It doesn't matter, Moses. I, Echwe. I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it's I who have sent you. If you in faith move out and do what I'm asking you to do, when you've brought the people out of Egypt, you're going to come worship God on this mountain. And this is the

mountain that the Israelites are going to camp out for a year upcoming later on in the book. Moses said, okay, that didn't work. That evasive technique didn't work. So let me try another one, right? Evasive technique number two. Verse 13, Moses said to God, well, you know, suppose I go to the Israelites and I say to them, the Elohim of your fathers has sent me to you. And they're going to ask me, what's his name? Then what am I supposed to tell them? I don't know your name, so I'm probably not your guy. That's the implied, there's another objection here. And God responds as if his question is actually a question that he's now equipping Moses to go do. And God said to Moses, he says,

echwe, asher echwe. I will be what I will be. Or because of this dynamic of it's not, in about five more minutes, I will be what I will be. Or because of this dynamic of it's not, in about five more minutes, I will be what I'm going to be. I am who or what I am, is what many of our other translations read. If you look at the footnote for that little word in verse 14, you'll see a whole bunch of different notes

about the translation of this phrase right here. So that's what's going on here. God's saying, I, whatever it is that I am, I am that. That's my name, and that's the significance of my name for you and for these people in slavery right now. Let's just pause. This is very profound and powerful, what he's saying. And maybe you've heard this phrase before, I am what I am, or I am who I am. And you think, ooh, that sounds philosophical and cool. Okay, keep reading, you know, and we just kind of move past it or whatever. So no, this is actually not that philosophical at all. This is a deeply personal character statement about Yahweh,

who is the Elohim that we say we worship. And so we should hone in on this. What is God saying here? I am and will continue to be what I am and will forever be. So what God's saying is whatever character traits or whatever attributes that God displays, He is that. It's as if He's saying, like you look up in the dictionary, merciful? Oh, there's Yahweh. You'll find me there, right? So Yahweh's merciful. Whatever Yahweh is, He's merciful. He is the perfect embodiment, the most consistent, reliable mercy that you will find anywhere in the universe. This God is a God who clearly cares about how human beings treat each other and that

they do so with love and with justice. This is a God of justice. He is just. Therefore, he is the very definition, the embodiment of perfect, beautiful justice. That's what he's getting at right here. Whatever character trait Yahweh has, he is that. He defines it in its very being. Now, this is in contrast to you and I, for example, right?

Because you and I are only sometimes what we are. You have a friend, and you're really enjoying getting to know each other and get along famously, and you're like, man, what a great person of integrity, and they're so generous and kind and so on. They'd be a great roommate. And so then you guys get an apartment together, and maybe even with a third person. And then what do you find out about this person who you think is kind and generous and gracious? You will find out that they are only sometimes kind and generous and gracious. You will find out that they are only sometimes kind and generous and gracious. If you're dating someone and you're like, the most amazing man, he's so incredible and he's so generous and he's kind, and then you marry him and then you realize that he is

only sometimes amazing. Right? This is human beings. We are only sometimes what we are. human beings. We are only sometimes what we are. Yahweh is what He is. Do you see the difference? That's the idea here. You can depend on human beings sometimes to be what they are. You can always depend on Yahweh to be what He is. You never have to worry about Yahweh all of a sudden changing the rules on you and like being somebody else than what you thought Yahweh was all about. You always know where you stand with Yahweh. He keeps his word. And not only is he what he is, he's actually already revealed his first character trait by using his name right here. Because his name is Ehweh, Asher Ehweh. And what did he already say? Look back up at verse 12. He already said something that Yahweh is. What does he say to Moses? I will be, or I am

what? With you. So this is yet another character trait of Yahweh Elohim. So we look out at the world, and we assume it's super screwed up, and you don't feel close to God, or you don't sense God in our lives. I certainly feel that way a lot of the time. And you go, where is God? And in the Western conception of how we've come to define this word, we think of some detached, remote being who, if you believe in this God, set the universe into play by whatever laws of physics or something, and then just kind of lets it spin out, and he's on a perpetual vacation, right?

And occasionally will answer a prayer or two. That's the basic default, I think, American conception of God. And so the story of Yahweh Elohim is exactly the opposite, is that this God is with us. He is what He is, and He is with us. And so where people are suffering in slavery and being abused by other human beings, this God is right there. And we think, well, if God was right there, why doesn't He do something about it? To which the story of the Bible would say, well, if God was right there, why doesn't he do something about it? To which the story of the Bible would say, well, what people are doing something about it because God is calling

them to do that. That's what God is doing something about. Are you with me here? It's allowing these stories to redefine God's identity for us. When Christians are called to pray, like, may your kingdom come, may your will be done, I think our American conception of God would say, okay, God, work a few miracles and solve the problems of injustice and so on and just kind of do that, would you? Whereas Jesus' conception of God is very clearly that you actually begin to participate through your obedience to his teachings in the actual ushering in of the kingdom of God in your day-to-day lives and relationship. You are part of the answer of that prayer.

That's how God's kingdom is coming. These stories are trying to redefine even what it means for God to be present and active in the world. And so this God is fundamentally, his commitment is to be with his people. Even when they're in deep suffering and slavery, that doesn't mean God is not with

them. It's precisely that's one of the most powerful moments where he can reveal who he is, and who he is is with us. Keep going here. So verse 14, God said, I am what I am. Whatever it is that I am, I am that. And so God says, this is what you were to say to the Israelites. So God says, this is what you were to say to the Israelites. Ehweh has sent me to you. Look at the next verse. God also said to Moses, okay, so say to the Israelites. And then he says, not Ehweh, he says, Yahweh,

the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name. Forever, this is the name you should call me from generation to generation. Now, so here's what's interesting. When God says his own name, he says, I will be. When he puts the name of God in Moses's mouth to go speak to other people, he says, Yahweh. And the difference between these two is the difference between these letters right here. This is full-on Hebrew grammar in church right now. I don't know what's happening right now. I don't know.

So the ech is I. The yach is he. He will be or he is. In other words, when Moses goes and says, okay, here's the name of God, he can't say, because it would be like, I am has sent you. Like, you are what, Moses? I am? That's bad grammar, right? So when God's name is on other people's lips, we call him Yahweh, which means he is. Only God can say about himself. When we use God's name, we use he. We say he is what he is, or he will be what he will be. And so this story, we just read it right here. This is the kind of foundation story for the revelation of God's name. What God is it that creates the

heavens and earth and whose story is told in the Bible? It's Yahweh. It's Yahweh Elohim. Now, let's take another step forward here. So this is the name by which Yahweh said he's to be known. And it's a name that's just not, you know, any other name. It's a name that has deep meaning and insight into this God's character. Flip forward with me to the book of Deuteronomy. This is just a dump truck of content today, and I don't apologize at all. All right. So Deuteronomy chapter 5. And if you look at the heading, if your Bible has little headings, summary headings

of chapters and so on, what do you find in Deuteronomy chapter 5? Hey, 10 commandments. You've heard of those before. Right. So I just want to look at the first commandment right here. It begins in verse 6. And this ties all the pieces together here. And this is where this starts, why this is all significant for people who live in a culture of religious pluralism. This is where this hones in. Look at verse 6. He says, I am Yahweh, your Elohim. So name, here's my name.

Remember the two ways we identify people, by someone's name or someone's story. And God appeals to both right here. Here's my name. I'm Yahweh, your Elohim. And just in case you forgot, I'm the particular Yahweh Elohim who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. This God is characterized by his mercy and concern to rescue his people. So look at the implication. Verse 7. You shall have no other Elohim before me. So just stop right there.

What does this verse assume? Are there other Elohim on offer in the culture around them that they could give their allegiance to? Answer? Yes. Should they? No. What did those gods ever do for Israel? Like, that god didn't rescue you out of slavery in Egypt. Like, what are they going to do for you that I haven't done for you a hundred times over? Even better, you know? That's the idea here. They're not your God. They didn't rescue you. I rescued you. I'm your Elohim. It's acknowledging that there are, in fact, other Elohim. Now, this might spin some of your brains, because you might have learned a fancy word somewhere along the way that refers to a belief common to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam,

namely the belief in one God. And what is that fancy word? It's a monotheism. And what that's often mistakenly thought to mean is, oh, I believe that there only exists one spiritual being, and that spiritual being is my God. And that's not, that's just nowhere in the Bible. The Bible acknowledges the existence of many, many spiritual beings. And in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word that they're usually described with is the word Elohim. And Yahweh is among these spiritual beings, but Yahweh is the only one who is the creator of all that is. In fact, he is the maker, even of things visible and invisible, of those other spiritual beings

themselves. And so in the New Testament, they are sometimes called gods. More often, they're called by another Greek word called daimon, daimon, which means lesser deity or demigod. It got transliterated into English, not as what word, daimon, as demon, right? And so immediately we're led astray by Dante's Inferno and red tails and pitchforks and so on. And it's utterly ridiculous, right? And none of that is in the Bible. So these are real spiritual beings. There are people in other cultures, other religions that worship another god, and they're not worshiping nothing. There's something that they're really in touch with, and it's not Yahweh.

And this is where we get into the scandalous claim of the story of the Bible, is that Yahweh, who will continue to reveal himself as we believe in Jesus, is the one true Elohim, that when you connect yourself to this God and give your allegiance to this God, that you will find life. That you will rediscover your humanity and who you were made to be. And that when you connect yourself to other Elohim, you will slowly die. You'll slowly be destroyed. Because these other Elohim that are out there don't have your best interests in mind. They might seem to, but they

don't. And immediately you become unpopular at a Friday night party here in Portland, right? When you say something like that. And we'll talk about that in a second. How do you handle the party conversation, right? So anyway, so just like replay this whole talk for them and talk about Hebrew grammar. Yeah, that's what you should do, right? So no, don't do that. So here's the idea. No, I don't have any other gods. Flip the page to Deuteronomy chapter 6. This is the last passage we'll look at.

Chapter 6, verse 4. And here is one of the most famous prayers and passages in the whole of the Old Testament. Hear, O Israel. This is Moses calling the whole people of Israel. Listen, listen, O Israel. Yahweh, our God, Yahweh is what? Is one. Love Yahweh, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These lines right here, they're called the Shema in Jewish tradition. And they are prayed and have been prayed by devout Jews for over 3,000 years, morning, noon, and night. And this is the fundamental confession here, that of all the other Elohim that you could give your allegiance to. Yahweh is our Elohim. Yahweh, the one and only. Now, what's interesting

is after... Now, this is a history lesson. I told you a dump load of content. A dump load of content. A dump truckload of content here. So, after Christianity and Judaism parted ways, after Christians began to betray Jesus by persecuting Jewish people, all of a sudden this verse came to be used by Jewish rabbis interpreters as arguing against the Christian view of God, namely that God is three and one, Father, Spirit, and Son. But as you can see from the original setting, this is not talking about the internal being of God to say God is one. It's saying there are lots of Elohim out there on offer. We have only one Elohim and it's Yahweh. That's what this prayer is all about.

Many Elohim, Yahweh is our Elohim because he's the God who rescued us. He's the God who looked down on us in our plight and had mercy and sent a deliverer so that we could be rescued. So that's what this prayer is about. Now, okay, last two pounds of dirt that I'm going to heap on you, all right? So this is who Yahweh reveals himself to be in the storyline of the Old Testament. And this is all in a setting of religious pluralism. Many Elohim on offer. Yahweh is our particular Elohim. So as the storyline develops and as Jesus

comes onto the scene, he begins, and we'll talk about this later on in the series when we get to Jesus, he both in his teaching and in his symbolic actions is walking around the place acting as if he's Yahweh. He's walking around doing and saying things that in their culture only Yahweh had the prerogative to do. And in his cultural setting, it was sending loud and clear signals to everybody about the claim that he was making about himself. And so when, after Jesus' life and his death and his resurrection, when the apostles and the earliest Christians started talking about Jesus, they began to use this language from the Old Testament, but redefined in light of who Jesus is. So watch this. This is so awesome. This is one of my favorite verses in the whole New Testament. Okay. And I won't make you

look it up. It's right here in Paul's letter to 1 Corinthians. So Paul's writing to a bunch of new Christians who are living in a city, Corinth, that is full of diverse gods and religions and so on. And these Christians are a minority. No one believes what they believe or thinks what they think. Sound familiar to anybody in the room, right? So this is Paul's counsel. How do you go about discerning and growing as a Christian and talking about God? He says, listen, even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven and on earth, and indeed, let's be clear, there are lots of gods and lords out there. There are many spiritual beings to which you could connect yourself or give your allegiance. Yet for us, there is but how many gods?

Yet for us, there is but how many gods? One. What's he quoting right here? What passage from the Old Testament is he quoting? He's quoting the Shema prayer that we just read, right? We have but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. This is so great. This is so awesome what Paul's doing here. Now, that second half of the paragraph here is a little poem. And look at the next slide, and I kind of outline the poetry for

you. Okay. So look at what Paul's doing. This is a pastoral and move, but also a move of deep theology here. So he's using the language of the Shema. The Lord is our God. The Lord is one. And he says, listen, there's lots of gods out there that your friends worship or that people say they're in touch with. But for us, no, no. There's one.

There's one God. It's the Father. From whom are all things, and we exist for him. And we also only have one Lord. Now, when he says the word Lord there, what is he referring to? What does the word Lord mean when it's in Hebrew? Your jaws should be on the floor right now, right? So do you see what he's saying here? He's saying we have one God, one Elohim,

and that's the Father. And we have one Lord. We have one Yahweh. And who's that? Wait, the Shema says God is one. Yes. So who's God and Lord, the Father or Jesus? Yes.

Well, how can that be? Well, this God is the most unique and holy thing in the universe, we believe. the most unique and holy thing in the universe, we believe. And so if there's one thing that you need to have room for that utterly breaks any categories you have about how things work in the universe, this being is the best candidate, right? And so there you go. There you go. I mean, we're right here. He's broken the Shema open and stuffed Jesus right into it. He's broken the Shema open and stuffed Jesus right into it. So who's God? Jesus and the Father.

And this leads us right back to where we were last week. Father, Son, and Spirit are God for Christians. Not for a Buddhist, not for a Muslim. This is a different God. And it doesn't mean you have to hate on each other. What a ridiculous idea. But it does mean that you need to be able to disagree and then go have a beer and talk about it, right? And be friends, but recognize, like, we don't agree.

We don't agree. And that doesn't mean you're a bad person. It doesn't mean I'm a bad person. I think you're wrong. Let's go have a drink. I mean, that's America. And to me, that's the beauty of living in a culture of religious pluralism. And what happens, here's what happens, you guys, is here in the Friday night party,

you're seen as a hater simply because you think someone else is wrong about their view of God. And that seems like it's very in touch and very open-minded and so on. But really, you're doing such a dishonor to the people who actually believe these religions. Do you think devout Muslims in Morocco actually think that they believe in the same God as the Father, Son, and Spirit that we believe in? No.

They don't think that, right? But Americans, we get all in a tussle about this. And so here's really, I think, where this comes down to, is that in America, and especially in American kind of civil religion and so on, we've so neutered and made ambiguous this word right here that we kind of make it just one account for everybody. And so, you know, you're a Muslim, you're a Buddhist, you're a Christian. Listen, we all just want to get along,

so let's just all recognize that all paths lead to the top of the same mountain, right? And so you're worshiping your God as Allah, and you're worshiping your God as Vishnu, and we worship God as Jesus, and so on. And that seems like a very open-minded, like a very humble point of view, when in fact, if you really think through it cleanly, it's actually the most presumptuous, closed-minded view you could possibly have. Because what you're saying is, and here I am, the enlightened American, and I know that the Christians are actually wrong, that their God is the one true God. I know that the Hindus are wrong, that their God is the one true God.

You know what I'm saying? And here from my elevated vantage point, I can see that all of the religions are actually going to the same God. And where did you get that information from? Did you get a vision from heaven about that? That's actually a very presumptuous claim. But it comes off as very open-minded and so on. And so again, I think as Christians, we need in this culture of tolerance,

where we're told to simply tolerate people who disagree with us, we need to first of all recognize that tolerate is something you do to your neighbor's noisy dog. So we're not called to tolerate people. What are the two great commands? Jesus said, he was asked, what's the greatest commands in the Torah? What are they? Love God, love your neighbor as yourself. We're called to love people. And you don't have to disagree with someone. And to say that they're wrong does not

mean that you hate them. It means that you respect them as a human being and you respect their decision and that it's very different from yours. You think they're wrong. They think you're wrong. Let's go have a drink and talk about it, right? And have it out. And that's okay. And for somehow, as Americans, we have just become like allergic to those kinds of conversations. You guys with me here? And so we're unapologetic. We're a church full of people who believe that God means the Father revealed in the Son, Jesus Christ, who was empowered by the Spirit as a community of eternal love. They have worked about to bring about the redemption of a broken, sinful humanity. And this God is so committed to being with his people, with and committing himself to broken, inward-focused,

sinful human beings, that he not only just sent a deliverer, he actually became a human being in the person of the Son, empowered by the love of the Spirit, so that he could absorb the pain and the sin and the guilt and all of the wreckage that's caused in our world because I only sometimes am what I say I am. And because all of our characters are so flawed and distorted, there's seven billion of us making the world what it is, and this God doesn't sit aloof. He actually comes among us to absorb that pain and sin and death into himself on the cross so that he can overcome it and conquer it by his love and so that he can invite any image-bearing human being who will come to him in faith to be invited

into the heart of the love between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. This is who God is to us. Amen? Amen. We're not called to tolerate people that we disagree with. We're called to love them and lovingly share what we believe. And not be a jerk about it, but do it precisely with the same attributes of mercy and generosity and goodness

that Yahweh has shown to us. There you go. There's a lot to ponder here. And as we go into worship, there may be some of us, what we're just really wrestling with is who God is for you and your experience right now. And maybe there's some redefining that needs to take place. You think God ought to just do a magic thing and solve all the problems in your life,

and that's what it means for God to be with you. Could it be that God has been, is, and will be with you, and he's not going to solve your problems at all? Because he has something higher on his agenda for you, that is your growth and development, human being, that's taking place precisely through the difficulties that you're in right now. That's a new view of God that's revealed to us. For some of us, we may just be trying to figure out what we think about Jesus or if we're going to give our full allegiance to him or if you're going to turn to him in faith, to which I would just say who Yahweh Elohim is for you in Jesus and what Jesus did for you is the best thing you have going for you as a human being. Respond to his grace and see and discover who Jesus is to you.

And so the time is yours, you guys. Whatever you need to do to be real with who this God is to you, let's do that in the time that remains. We're going to take the bread and the cup and we're retelling as we take the bread and the cup the story of this God's love for us shown in the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus. And so just take advantage of the time, you guys. We're so glad you're here. It's a time to just be quiet and connect with this God who's revealed himself to us as Yahweh and as his Father, Son, and Spirit. Hey guys, thanks for listening to Exploring My Strange Bible podcast.

And we'll keep on the series in the next episode. Thanks so much for listening. See you next episode. Thanks so much for listening. See you next time.