God reveals his name
God revealed himself to his people Israel by making his name
known to them. A name expresses a person's essence and identity and
the meaning of this person's life. God has a name; he is not an anonymous force. To disclose one's name is to make oneself known to
others; in a way, it is to hand oneself over by becoming accessible,
capable of being known more intimately, and addressed personally.
God revealed himself progressively and under different names to
his people, but the revelation that proved to be the fundamental one
for both the Old and the New Covenants was the revelation of the
divine name to Moses in the theophany of the burning bush, on the
threshold of the Exodus and of the covenant on Sinai.
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The living God
God calls Moses from the midst of a bush that bums without
being consumed: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." God is the God of the
fathers, the One who had called and guided the patriarchs in their
wanderings. He is the faithful and compassionate God who remembers
them and his promises; he comes to free their descendants from
slavery. He is the God who, from beyond space and time, can do this
and wills to do it, the God who will put his almighty power to work for
this plan.
I Am Who I Am
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? God 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. . . this is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered
throughout all generations.
In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH ("I AM HE WHO IS",
"I AM WHO AM" or "I AM WHO I AM"), God says who he is and by
what name he is to be called. This divine name is mysterious just as
God is mysterious. It is at once a name revealed and something like the
refusal of a name, and hence it better expresses God as what he is -
infinitely above everything that we can understand or say: he is the
"hidden God", his name is ineffable, and he is the God who makes
himself close to men.
By revealing his name God at the same time reveals his
faithfulness which is from everlasting to everlasting, valid for the past
("I am the God of your father"), as for the future ("I will be with
you"). God, who reveals his name as "I AM", reveals himself as the
God who is always there, present to his people in order to save them.
