Encountering God: Identity, Compassion, and His Name

Beginning there later on in the chapter after God had spoken to Moses and said, "I have seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. For I know their sorrows." Now there are three verbs here that I want to get ahold of that tells us something about God. [00:00:41]

At first, it says, "I have seen -- I have surely seen the oppression of my people." So God sees what's going on. The second thing he says is, "I have heard their cry." So we know that the God who is revealed here is not blind, nor is he deaf. Nor is he ignorant because he goes on to say, "I know of the sorrows that they have borne." [00:01:13]

Calvin begins the Institutes by saying, "We never know who we are until we first know who God is." Again, remember in Isaiah 6, after Isaiah saw God high and holy, lifted up, and he heard the angelic chorus of the three times "Holy," what was his response? He pronounced a curse upon himself saying, "Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips. [00:03:43]

Because, for the first time in his life, dear ones, Isaiah found out who God was. At the same time, for the first time in his life, he found out who Isaiah was. And that's what Calvin is getting at. He said, "If we just look at ourselves and then judge ourselves among other people around us and compare ourselves with each other, pretty soon we'll have such an inflated view of our own greatness that we will address ourselves as only slightly less than demigods." [00:04:30]

So Moses has this momentary encounter with the Holy, and the closer he gets, the more afraid he becomes. When he hears the voice of God, and the voice of God sends him on a mission, "Wait a minute. Who am I that I should go on this mission?" So God said, "I will certainly be with you." He doesn't really answer Moses' question as to who Moses is. [00:05:43]

He just said, "Don't worry about who you are, because I'm going to be with you." "And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain." Now we get to the crux of the matter. Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?'" [00:06:22]

I said, "I know everybody in the world knows that God is, because God has so clearly manifested himself to all of them in creation that men are left without excuse because his general revelation has pierced their minds. They know he exists. They hate him." I said, "In a large measure, that's because they know he is, but they don't have any idea who he is." [00:07:56]

The fellow said, "Fine, but what do you think is the most important thing that Christians need to know in this day and age?" I said, "That's easy." He said, "What?" I said, "Christians need to find out who God is." I think the greatest weakness of the church in our day is the virtual eclipse of the character of God, even in our churches. [00:08:34]

She said, "You know, I get the feeling -- I go to church every Sunday, and get the feeling that our minister is doing everything he can to conceal from us the character of God. Because, he knows if he really opened up the Scriptures and proclaimed the character of God as he is portrayed in the Bible, he's afraid the people would leave the church, because they're uncomfortable in the presence of the Holy." [00:09:11]

One thing about this nebulous, amorphous, nameless, characterless power is that first of all, it is impersonal and second of all, and most important, it is amoral. You see, there's an upside and a downside to worshiping a higher power -- a nameless, faceless force. Like gravity or cosmic dust, or lightening or thunder. Here's the upside to a sinner. [00:13:32]

A force that is impersonal and amoral makes no ethical demands on anybody. Gravity does not make judgement about people's behavior unless they jump out of windows six stories high. But even at that, there is no personal condemnation that comes from gravity or an earthquake. Gravity has no voice. It says nothing. It sees nothing. And it knows nothing. [00:14:28]

And the very first thing that God reveals about himself in that name is that he's personal. That he can see. He can hear. He can know. He can speak. He can relate to those creatures he made in his own image. He is the God who brought up his people out of the land of Egypt. He is a God with a name, a God with a history. [00:18:48]