Can we truly ask God questions? Would He even bother to answer?
Check out the questions that people asked God in the Bible, throughout the next 40 days.
The first question we usually ask anyone is, ‘What’s your name?’. We could refer to them as human, or by their gender, or by their designation or citizenship. Yet, there is something in us that tells us that a general category name wouldn’t be sufficient to grow in a relationship.
When there are so many humans around us, it is intuitive to have names to distinguish us from each other. Yet, why does God have to have a name? Does God have to distinguish Himself from any other? I don’t think so. I think by definition God is distinct from His creation. Then, why a name?
Let’s read how the conversation went between Moses and God, where he asks God His name.
Exodus 3: 13-15 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord (Yahweh), the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me, from generation to generation. [Link to the passage in the Bible]
Israelites used to refer to God as ‘El’ or ‘Elohim’. But this is a title and not a name. When Moses asked for God’s name, God replied, ‘I am who I am’, or more accurately ‘I will be what I will be’. His name means that He is the self-sufficient, self-sustaining God who was, who is, and who will be. A God who was not created, and a God who alone existed before time began. This name became very sacred to the Israelites, that they would put it in all capital letters, and say Adonai (Lord). They put the vowels of Adonai into the consonants of Yahweh to get YAHOWAH, which is translated into Jehovah.
From the answer God gave Moses, we can learn three things.
From His name we know of God’s being - Self-sufficient, self-sustaining, who was and is and will be.
God gave us His name and mentioned the reason why He gave us His name. He gave us His name so that we can call on Him!
When no Israelite dared say this name aloud, there was one Israelite, centuries later who referred to Himself multiple times as ‘I am’.
Link to the next article: Can I see You?
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