Special Note: When we looked at the last chapter I neglected to mention something really interesting that Kay Arthur taught us: when we see “Lord” in the Bible it is translated from the word Adonai (Lord and Master) but when we see “LORD”, with all capital letters, it is translated from Jehovah (The Self-Existent One).  This was such an eye opener for me.  I don’t know if all translations actually do this but I read most often from the NIV or NAS or ESV and I have seen this and wondered.  So if you didn’t catch it last chapter, try to notice it next time you read through your bible, and put to use something that you have learned in this study right away!

In Exodus, God introduces Himself to Moses as Jehovah – the Self-Existent One, the One who was not created by another, the one who has always been here.  This is really hard to fathom, because everything we see has been created and had a beginning. Yet God, whom we do not see, has always been, He did not have a beginning.  This blows my mind but is just one of those things I can just accept by faith.  It is one of the many things that makes God so wonderful and powerful and exceptional.  Frequently we talk to Him like a friend, or like an earthly father, but He is so much more. Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”¹⁴God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.”And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel,’I AM has sent me to you.'” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD,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, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations (Ex 3:13-15).

KA gives another insight that is so wonderful to learn: the name Jehovah was spoken to Moses to teach the people that He is the God who fulfill His promises because He does not change.  God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? Num 23:19.  This is so assuring!  Though we waver, He does not.  Though we are unfaithful, He is not.  Though we change, He does not.  This is the comfort we have when we are lost; this is the Rock on which we build our faith.  Jehovah is the God of promise-keeping, covenant-keeping…tell me what promise of covenant do you cherish the most?  Is there a Word that the LORD has you personally?  Or is do His covenants hold a personal meaning you can share?

I love the verse KA gives us; it is one of my favorites.  Notice the use of “LORD”, meaning Jehovah; He who is described here is the same always, and does not change:

The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfastlove and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands,forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty,visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Ex 34:5-7.

JustaGirl…just like you!