The Divine Name Revealed: Exodus 3.13-15
When last we left our hero, Moses had been designated God’s ambassador to Pharaoh to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses questioned, “Who am I” to free the Israelites? God promised a sign that God would be worshiped on the same mountain. We now resume the action.
Moses is still doubtful. What should he say to Israelites when he tells them he has been sent by the God of their ancestors and they ask God’s name? God responds,
I am who I am [or] I will be what I will be(Ex. 3.14)
and
I am has sent me to you.(Ex. 3.14)
and
The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.(Ex. 3.15)
and
This is my name forever,and this my title for all generations.(Ex. 3.15)
Compare God’s third identification to Exodus 3.6:
I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
God has many different names, which apparently apply for all eternity: the God of the ancestors, the God that will be, the God that is, and “The Lord.” The last of these has a rich history. The four-letter word, YHWH, which indicates “The Lord” in the bible, is known as “The Tetragrammaton,” which is Greek for “a word with four letters.”
Way back in the day, the Hebrew bible did not have vowels. That’s just how Hebrew was written. The vowels were not inserted until around the end of the first century CE. By the time vowels were added, however, the word was so sacred that people had stopped pronouncing it. (In fact, YHWH not pronounced by observant Jews to this day.) The Tetragrammaton was punctuated with the vowels for adonai, meaning “the/my Lord.” This way people reading the bible aloud would say “adonai” instead of pronouncing that four-letter-word. Whenever you see “The Lord” as a reference to God in the bible, the Hebrew word is adonai, and may or may not obscures the unpronounceable YHWH.
Those four letters, by the way, are the basis for the Christian terms Yahweh and Jehovah. Also, the Tetragrammaton looks like this, even if it sounds like this.
At this point in the story, differentiating the J and E sources becomes more difficult. Until the revelation of the divine name, a folkloric source that referred to God as “Elohim” (“God” in English) would be identified as E-source, whereas a folkloric source that used “YHWH” (adonai > “the Lord” in English) would be identified as J-source. The revelation of the divine name makes it more difficult to determine which source is which, as both sources afterwards used the term YHWH to refer to God.
One last note on this subject. Though YHWH is God’s “name forever, and…title for all generations,” there is irony in the historical fact that the God’s name is so sacred that it is not even pronounced. The eternal name is transcendent; completely differentiated from this world, not unlike the entity it describes. Sure, God can walk on the Earth, but God is utterly different than humans. Sure, God’s name is (or once was) pronounceable, but it not, because it is utterly different than other words.
All this explanation of a mere three verses! Ah, but just take a look at the commentary on the first sentence of Genesis (Bereishit) by Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, better known as Rashi. He sure knew how to write about the bible!
God Further Commands Moses, Moses Further Doubts: Exodus 3.16-4.17
Long before a doubting Thomas, apparently, came a doubting Moses.
God commands Moses to assemble the elders of Israel and tell them that the ancestral God has come to Moses with word that God has been watching and will bring them out of Egypt to the land of milk and honey (which is occupied by a number of other peoples).
God reassures Moses that the elders will heed him and go with him to the King of Egypt to request a three day’s journey into the wilderness to make a sacrifice to the Lord. God knows that the king will not agree to this “unless compelled by a mighty hand” [in Hebrew: no, not by a mighty hand] (Ex. 3.19). God is just the one to provide the hand that will force Pharaoh’s hand, so to speak:
So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will perform in it; after that he will let you go. I will bring this people into such favor with the Egyptians that, when you go, you will not go empty-handed; each woman shall ask her neighbor and any woman living in the neighbor’s house for jewelry of silver and of gold, and clothing, and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters; and so you shall plunder the Egyptians.(Ex. 3.20-22)
That is some serious foreshadowing there.
Moses is still uncertain. What if people doubt him? The Lord answers something along the lines of, See that staff in your hand? Throw it on the ground. It becomes a snake, and Moses draws back. Grab its tail. Moses does so, and it becomes a staff again. Anyone who doesn’t believe Moses has some snakes coming at him, courtesy of the ancestral God.
God has Noah put his hand into his cloak. When Moses removes his hand it is leprous, white as snow. A return to the cloak heals it.
And if these two signs are not heeded, God has a trick beyond this mere parlor magic. Noah is to take the water of the Nile, which will pour out onto the dry ground as blood.
But Moses asserts that he is not eloquent. In fact, he is “slow of speech and slow [Heb. heavy] of tongue” (Ex. 4.10).
The Lord reminds Moses that it is the Lord that gives speech to mortals, and has the power to give them speech and sight and hearing or take them away. “Now go,” the Lord says, “and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak” (Ex. 3.12).
Moses is still wary: “O my Lord, please send someone else” (Ex. 4.13). This kindles the Lord’s anger, but still God is willing for a compromise:
What of your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak fluently; even now he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you his heart will be glad. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. He indeed shall speak for you to the people; he shall serve as a mouth for you, and you shall serve as God for him. Take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs.(Ex. 4.14-17)
This is a rather frustrating tale of divine will versus human resistance. God wants to free his people from their bondage in Egypt, but the chosen messenger is extremely wary. This is what scholars refer to as a “dialectical tension.” The relationship between God and God’s people is fraught with these tensions, these dissonances of desires.
We saw this before when Abraham haggled for the righteous (read: Lot and his family) of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18.16-33. There and here God makes a number of concessions for his chosen people: Moses is given the name, the signs (magic tricks), and the power of speech, which is deferred to Aaron anyway. But finally, God has enough. Moses is commanded to take up his staff, and the conversation ends there.
Even when God offers to do the work for Moses, to put the words into his mouth, Moses wishes not to act as prophet! (Anyone thinking of a similar story? Jonah, perhaps?) The authors of the bible might be asking, “aren’t we all like this?” There are always these dialectical tensions. Following all the commandments of God is difficult. God is willing to make some concessions, but at some point, God lays down the law. This is a remarkably humane portrayal of God. God is personal and even if a bit terrifying, at least accessible. God can be spoken to and reasoned with. God understands that humans can be stubborn. But sometimes, God has to be stubborn himself.
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