— JEHOVAH/JAH —

“I AM”

(Exo. 3:13-15; 6:2-5)

[This name is the Hebrew behind every instance in the OT where we find (in the KJV) the LORD in all caps. Whereas Lord (first letter only upper case) stands for the Hebrew “Adonai”.]

This name was declared by God unto Moses in the holy mount, in Exodus 3, and then further expounded to Moses in Exodus 6. This was a truly revolutionary declaration to the perpetual generations of God’s people! “I AM THAT I AM”, or “I AM” (Exo. 3:14). That is to say, “HE THAT IS,” or, “ THOU THAT ART”; so is the sense given in Heb. 11:6, “He that cometh to God must believe that HE IS…”

In further developing the significance of this proclamation to Moses his servant, the Lord stated, “I am the LORD [JEHOVAH]: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty [El Shaddai], but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them” (Exo. 6:2,3). In declaring this the Lord was not intending that none of the patriarchs themselves knew this name of the Lord, for even from the beginning did men begin to “call upon the name of the LORD” (i.e. Jehovah, Gen. 4:26); Eve said, “I have gotten a man from the LORD” (i.e. Jehovah, Gen. 4:1); moreover, Abraham himself in one of the most ubiquitous scenes of his own pilgrimage, was called by the Lord to go “into the land of Moriah” (i.e. “Chosen of Jehovah”), and himself called the name of the place where he met with the Lord, “Jehovahjireh” (Gen. 22:2,14). And yet as we pass through the annals of these early scenes of the people of God, we are persuaded that this name was yet un-renowned among the people of God, in respect to the name El Shaddai. Still, to say that these invocations of the name were mere insertions by Moses himself afterwards, would be to call into question the verbal plenary inspiration of the scriptures of truth, concerning which the Lord Jesus Himself said, “And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail” (Luke 16:17)! Thus coming to a sound conclusion of the brand new declaration of the name of Jehovah is critical to understanding its reformational power in the Exodus Generation, their children, and all future generations in succession who would afterwards invoke this great and terrible name.

The revolutionary intensity in the name Jehovah was manifested in reference to His covenant; therefore, when introduced in the two references above, it is directly intended to confirm to the consciences of the people the eternal momentum of God Himself in motion to perform the covenant which He made with Abraham! And this act was as yet unrevealed, even to the holy fathers in the former generations, but was then, in the Exodus Generation, suddenly coming to pass!

God would make known through this name that He is, of a truth, a covenant keeping God!

He wanted the people to not only feel the almighty arms upholding them, in all of their sojournings, merely, while they awaited the promise, but that eternity itself, was powering the performance of the same, and nothing could stop the purposes of JEHOVAH!

And not only so, but the shocking declaration of the name of Jehovah set together with the name Elohim (or, particularly speaking, “El-Shaddai”, as in Exo. 6:3, as well as all other names theretofore revealed), meant the immortalizing, and everlasting crystallization of the names, ways, offices, and attributes of God, which were aforetime only dimly revealed to the patriarchs! This eternalizing of the memorial of God’s ways, through the name Jehovah, serves as a swift witness against all of the controversies which swirl over the heads of unassuming “church-goers” nowadays, which vie that all would believe that, in fact, Jesus Christ is NOT the same “yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb. 13:8); or, in other words, that the God of Sinai is different than the God of Zion… which is masterfully struck down in the doctrine of Hebrews 12, wherein it is revealed that the Lord Jesus is the consuming fire, which was the same glory of God that appeared to the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai (Exo. 24:17, Heb. 12:29)!

In declaring His name as “I AM”, He is clearing all doubts, evermore, that He has changed, is changed, or ever will change from these holy characters He bears, nor yet the offices He’s taken before the eyes of His people throughout the history of redemption. His ways cannot change or diminish, but shall only swell and crescendo in their eternal increase, in the raptured heart’s and understanding’s of His people, world without end! Without contest, saith the Lord, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Rev. 1:8)!