Jehovah: The Self Revealing One

I am who I am. I am not necessarily what you want me to be. Dr. Tony Evans says God's character isn't defined by our notions of what he ought to be, but by what he chooses to reveal about himself. So if you're going to know who I am and what I am, I am's got to tell you. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans. Author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative.

Saying you know a celebrity because of what the media tells you is ridiculous. But people claim to know God through pad answers and catchy phrases that are every bit as unreliable. Let's join Dr. Evans as he explains how to recognize and understand what God is telling us about himself. A little boy in school was drawing a picture and the teacher came over to him and said, Son, what is that that you are drawing? The boy said, Well, I'm drawing a picture of God. She said, You can't be drawing a picture of God because no one knows what God looks like.

To which the little boy said, Well, they will when I'm finished. Everybody has their view of what God looks like. Today, I want you to look at a name that all of us are familiar with from one way or another. And that is the word Jehovah. Jehovah. Jehovah is the most frequently used name for God in the Old Testament.

It is used six thousand eight hundred and twenty three times. It is God's favorite name for himself. It is God's most famous name. In Exodus chapter three, Moses is being sent to Pharaoh to say, Let my people go out of Egypt. Moses, through a series of events in his life, has become a very insecure person. He says, When I go down here and tell them that I'm supposed to set you folks free from Pharaoh. Then they're going to want to know who sent me. In fact, they're going to want to know in verse 18, the last sentence, what is his name?

So what am I supposed to tell them? God says to Moses in verse 14 of Exodus three, I am who I am. And he said, Thus shall you say to the sons of Israel, I am have sent you. He ends verse 15 by saying, This is my name forever. And this is my memorial name to all generations.

What kind of name is that? I am who I am has sent you. I am is made up of four consonants. It's made up of a YH, a W, and an H. YHWH.

To this date, nobody knows how to pronounce it. When God said I am in the Hebrew, YHWH. That was the name he gave.

It is derived from a word that means to be or to become. He told Moses, you tell them YHWH, I am sent you. And then he says in a second time, YHWH, I am who I am or that I am has sent you. Now, this name is important not only because of the many times it's used, but this name is important because it is God telling you his name.

He says, Who shall I say sent me? And God says, You tell them this, YHWH, however that is pronounced, has sent you. So sacred was this name because God declared it as his own name that the Jews would not speak it. Because that would be to speak the name and they would be too afraid that they would misspeak. Because this name was viewed as the highest expression of the name of God.

These four letters are called the tetragrammaton, the tetragrammaton. It was the holy designation of who God was. When the scribes were writing or copying the Bible and they came to that name.

When they would read over what they had copied, they would not pronounce that name, just write it, lest they say it wrong. When it came to helping us pronounce it, some verbs were added to help us pronounce it in a way that wouldn't mispronounce what God had declared to Moses. That gave us the word Yahweh. When you hear Yahweh, you're hearing YHWH with some vowels. In order to be able to pronounce a name that we could not pronounce with just the four consonants, then when it was flipped over to English, it became Jehovah. So in Exodus 3, it's YHWH.

They couldn't pronounce that and didn't want to make a mistake. They added vowels, so you could call it Yahweh. Then when it became English, it became Jehovah. We're referring to Yahweh and Yahweh is referring to I Am. I Am is Yahweh, Yahweh is Jehovah, so it all comes back to Exodus 3.

You with me? There are three primary words for God. We've discussed two of them. Then they start becoming compound words to show how He's unveiling in a specific situation. See, and that's when it gets good, because then you see Him exposing Himself in your drama. See, so you ain't seen nothing yet.

All this is introduction. But when Jehovah exposes Himself, it's always in somebody's drama. It's always in a situation, a circumstance. Whenever you see Him come up with a new name, it's actually not a new name. It's we in a new situation, and He comes up with a name for it. When God wants to make a special point about Himself, He is Jehovah unveiling Himself in the context of the creation of His people. That's Jehovah.

It is the self-revealing One. That's what He did here, verse 1. Now Moses was pastoring the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came the horror of the mountain of God. The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst. The angel of the Lord, that's Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, appeared to him.

Notice the word Lord. Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. So now we're talking about Jehovah appeared, because He's the self-revealing God. Jehovah appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, I must turn aside now and see this marvelous light which the bush is not burnt up. When the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, Jehovah, Yahweh, saw that he turned aside to look. God called him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here I am. Then he said, okay, I'm going to tell you something.

Don't tell nobody I told you this. You know when God is ready to expose something new about Himself to you. You know when God is ready to expose something new of Himself to you, when He puts you in a contradiction between a rock and a hard place, upper creek without a paddle, out on a limb, He allows or creates a situation that confuses you, contradicts you, messes over you.

You want to know why this, why now, why then, why? Well, Moses sees a bush burning. Moses looks over and I say, I see a bush on fire and it's still green. He says, that makes no sense. That is a contradiction.

You can't have a bush that's on fire and still being green. He says, that doesn't make sense. He said, let me go over here and check this out. It says when Jehovah saw that Moses, when he saw the contradiction, went to investigate it, the Lord said to Moses, Moses, Moses, take off your shoes.

This ground is my territory now. And then he unveils to Moses the purpose for Moses' life. What I'm trying to tell you is that the contradiction you're in right now, the conflict you're facing right now, don't just look at the bush that's burning, look at the God who wants to talk to you through the burning bush, the God who's got some new information for you, some stuff you haven't thought of first.

You see, it's the problem. God told Abraham, go up, we'll talk about that, that's Jehovah Jireh, and sacrifice your son, your only son. That doesn't make sense. That's child sacrifice.

That's not fair to ask a parent to do that. It doesn't make sense. But on that mountain that day, the Bible says Jehovah unveiled himself to Abraham. When God wants to show you a new side of God you've never seen before, it's usually because you're in a problem. So when you're in your mess, your problem, your circumstance, don't just look at it.

Look for him because he's about to call your name and introduce you to another dimension of Jehovah, the self-revealing God exposing himself to you. He says, take off your shoes. Why does he tell Moses to take off your shoes? When I was in Israel and I went to the mosque, you had to take off your shoes. It was a sign of homage. It was a sign of respect. It was a sign of holy recognition. You see, when God created man, he created him from the dirt.

From the dirt. Taking off your shoes means you're now standing on the dirt, which means whatever length of leather is on your shoes has got you standing too high in the presence of God. God wants you to go back to being a creature in the presence of a creator. You see, we want to come before God with our shoes on.

We want to elevate ourselves off the ground. God says, take off your shoes, because even though you only got a quarter inch of leather, in my presence, you're still standing too high. When you're in my presence, don't forget your creatureliness in the presence of my creatorness.

That is, if you want me to call your name. Because he said he didn't do anything until Moses turned aside to see what was going on. And what did he do? He revealed the next stage and plan of Moses' life. A plan Moses never thought about or could consider. He said, wait, you want me to do that? You talking about me?

He said, I can't talk. God said, who made your lips? It was an experience with God with Jehovah. More from Dr. Evans on how that experience with Jehovah changes us forever when he continues our message in just a moment.

Stay with us. God has been faithful. When the world was topsy-turvy due to all kind of pandemics, God still touched the heart of donors to come alongside of us and keep us strong at a time when the world needed spiritual strength. And we were able to maintain and even expand ministry during the pandemic because that's how faithful God has been.

So I am not a doubter about the greatness of God nor his faithfulness. And I'm very grateful that for 40 years we've seen his kind hand of favor on this ministry. One of the goals of this ministry has always been to provide the tools and resources to help listeners like you dig deep into the subject matter that Dr. Evans presents in these daily broadcasts. You can do that right now with the help of Tony's devotional, Experiencing the Power of God's Names.

It goes hand in hand with the message we're hearing today. When you learn the deep meaning behind the many ways God has referred to in the Bible, you'll find out there's a description that matches up to any situation you find yourself in. These daily studies will help you work through them one by one, unlocking their meaning and learning what they say about how God wants to relate with you. If you contact us right away, we'll send you a copy of Experiencing the Power of God's Names as our thank-you gift in return for your donation to help us keep Tony's teaching coming your way on this station. Along with the devotional, we'll also send all 14 full-length messages on CD and digital download from Volumes 1 and 2 of Tony's current series, Knowing God's Names. Time is limited on this special double offer, so don't wait. Make the arrangements today by visiting TonyEvans.org, or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are standing by day and night to help with your request.

That's 1-800-800-3222. And now let's get back to our teaching time. Here's Tony. Let me show you something. Turn back to Genesis 1. All you see is G-O-D. That's Elohim. Beginning in chapter 2, verse 4, we're introduced to Yahweh. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day the Yahweh Elohim made heaven and earth.

Well, wait a minute. I thought Elohim made heaven and earth. Why does he begin now introducing the term Jehovah to us in chapter 2, verse 4? Because in chapter 2, verse 4, he's going to interface personally with his creation as the self-revealing God. So from here, you see Lord God, Lord God, Lord God, Lord God every time.

You can't even find Elohim by itself. Verse 8, the Lord God planted a garden. Why did he plant a garden? That was the homestead for Adam and Eve.

He gave them their personal home because he's interacting personally. He created all the vegetation as Elohim. But when he made somebody's personal home in the garden, that was Jehovah Elohim because he's interacting with them. Verse 15, the Lord God took man, put him in the garden. Now God is introducing him as a realtor to his personal home because he's involved as Jehovah in the relationship. The Lord commanded man. He gives now guidelines for how man is to operate because he's interacting with his creation. Verse 18, the Lord God said it is good for man not to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him.

Now he's Cupid. He's creating a match, then becoming matchmaker because he's interfacing with his creation. You don't want to just know God as Elohim because then all you can say is he's big, he's powerful, you know, he can do a lot of stuff. You want to know Elohim also as Yahweh or Jehovah because you want to know that the powerful God is talking to you. In Genesis chapter 3 verse 1, Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God, Jehovah Elohim, had made. And he said to the woman indeed, hath God said, You shall not eat from any tree of the garden. The woman said to the serpent, From the fruit of the tree to the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, You shall not eat from it or touch it or you will die. The serpent said to the woman, You surely will not die, for God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.

Why am I reading you this? Because when the devil shows up, he drops Jehovah and only wants to discuss Elohim. Up until that time, when he talked about man and woman, it was the Lord God. But when the serpent came in the garden, he says, Let's talk about Elohim, but we don't have to bring in that Jehovah stuff. Let's just keep God way out there.

We don't have to deal with this personal side. He duped the lady into dealing with Elohim and not wanting to deal with Yahweh or Jehovah, which means I can just deal with the God out there and not the personal relationship. See, the devil wants you to have religion. He wants you to come to church to meet Elohim. He wants you to have talks on your job about Elohim as long as you don't bring in Jehovah. Because the moment you bring in Jehovah, you've got to relate to Elohim. The moment you bring in Jehovah, you've got to relate to the true God. And the reed and the devil can trick us if he keeps us worshiping God without knowing Jehovah. And if he can keep you worshiping Elohim but keep you from not discussing Jehovah, he can keep God out there and never have God dealing with you in him.

But that leaves one final question. How do I get to know Jehovah? Flip over to chapter 33 of Exodus. Thus the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that's Yahweh or Jehovah, used to speak to Moses face to face just as a man speaks to his friend. Moses says, I want to know your name.

But wait a minute. I thought he knew God's name in chapter three. I thought God told him, I am that I am. God introduced him to his name in chapter three. But having been introduced, Moses says, I want to know more. You know why we don't know God's name as Jehovah?

We too busy and too distracted to want to know more. We are satisfied with an introduction. We got saved one day, we met Jesus, and we satisfied, I'm going to heaven one day, and we are satisfied with an introduction. Moses was not satisfied with an introduction. Moses said, having been introduced to the I am that I am and have discovered what he could do with the little I've already seen, I need to see some more. So he took time, made time, to get into the presence of Jehovah and to say Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, Jehovah, I want to know who you are. He says, show me your glory.

He says, you have found favor in my sight. That is, you are living life to know me and to please me. See, a lot of us say, I want to get to know you, but I don't have time right now.

I can't schedule it right now. I can't focus on it right now, but I want to get to know you. Girls, if God says, I want to get to know you, but he never calls. If a guy says, I want to get to know you, but he never offers to see you. If a guy says, I want to get to know you, but he never wants to take you out, that brother is lying. He don't want to get to know you, because if he want to get to know you, he going to find time, make time.

He going to stay up late and get up early. Moses says, I want to get to know you. He went to the tent of meeting. He spent time in his presence, so the L-O-R-D, that is the Yahweh and the Jehovah, could reveal himself. God says, you found favor in my sight, so I'm going to put you in the cleft of the rock.

I can't let you see all of me, because it'll kill you, but I'm going to let you see enough of me that you'll know I have so much more to offer. He put him in the cleft of the rock. It says his hinder parts passed by. When God removed his hand, guess what Moses saw? The exhaust.

You know when a plane goes by and you can't see the plane, but you see the hinder parts. When Moses saw the exhaust, he picked up a pen and he picked up some paper, and he wrote, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was a form of void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God grew, and God said, let there be light, and there was light. The Bible says Moses wrote Genesis, but Moses wasn't alive in Genesis. So how did Moses know what happened in Genesis? Because God let him see Jehovah. He let him see some stuff he hadn't seen before so he could write some information that he didn't have cognitive knowledge of. He could write some things down that he didn't know in advance, and God wants to show you some stuff you ain't seen before. He wants to give you an experience you never had before, but that won't come because you know he's Elohim. That will come because you know Yahweh is Jehovah. He is the self-revealing God.

Let's give him some praise. Dr. Tony Evans, talking about how God wants us to know him firsthand and face-to-face. Part of his series called Knowing God's Names. This two-volume, 14-message collection is available on CD and digital download, and if you contact us right away, we'll send you the complete collection as our thank-you gift when you support Tony's ministry with a financial contribution. Remember, we depend completely on your help to continue bringing you this program and to support our work with pastors, their families, and churches looking for new ways to impact their community. Let us send you Knowing God's Names, along with Tony's popular devotional book I told you about earlier, Experiencing the Power of God's Names. Just visit tonyevans.org for details on this limited-time double offer. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Experts will tell you that a healthy self-image begins with knowing who you are. Well, tomorrow, Dr. Evans will explain why it's far more important to know whose you are as he reminds us who's the creation and who's the creator. I hope you'll join us. The alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you. ? ?