Editor's Note: Look for devotions from Ann Spangler's books every week for the next few weeks. Today's devotion is from Praying the Names of God.
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 by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation" (Exodus 3:14–15).
To the Egyptians the name Yahweh would have been a terror—a name to forget because it conjured plagues, darkness, defeat, and death. But to Moses and the Israelites Yahweh would forever mean deliverance, freedom, promise, and power.
The amazing events of Exodus define who Yahweh was in extraordinary detail. Yahweh—Israel's faithful, wonder-working God, the One who out of pity and love reached into human history to untie the bonds of an enslaved people—that was the name by which this God wanted to be forever known. When you bow before Yahweh, thank him for the deliverance he has wrought in your own life through the work of Jesus.
Technorati tags: Ann Spangler, God, Devotion, Praying the Names of God, I Am, Zondervan
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