As God turns to comfort and encourage his vexed prophet and appointed deliverer in Exodus 6, he makes the point that he revealed himself to Moses’ forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as El Shaddai, God Almighty (Exod 6:3). Now, however, he is revealing himself to Moses as YHWH. In that contrast, we should discern a significant point of encouragement to Moses. He is experiencing the God of his fathers in a way that is different from, and also more developed than, what his fathers experienced. It is, of course, the same God who revealed himself to Abraham as El Shaddai and to Moses as YHWH. In Exod 6:4-5, God positively ties his covenant making activity with Abraham to his covenant keeping activity in Egypt. But in that unity there is still diversity in its expression, which is the point that God is making to Moses. There is an expanded knowledge of God that is tied to his mighty work in the Exodus; there is a richness that is developed in our understanding of God as time unfolds and God’s plan of redemption is worked out. This reflection will consider how God’s names offer rich soil for cultivating our love of and devotion to our God.
In the first place, we should remember that there is a difference between descriptions of God and names of God. The Scriptures are filled with vivid descriptions of God that use similes and metaphors to capture something of the greatness of him. God is a rock (Ps 18:31, 46; 19:14; 28:1; etc.); he is a shepherd (Ps 23:1); he is the King of glory (Ps 24:7-10). These descriptions are not the same as God’s names, for “God’s proper names are designations by which he chose to reveal himself. … [W]hen God names himself, he is announcing who he is.”[1] El Shaddai, God Almighty, is one of God’s names, and so is YHWH. God’s self-revelation, however, his self-naming, “reaches its climax in his new covenant name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).”[2] With the incarnation and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, the richest development of our understanding of God is made possible. Through Christ, we know that God is triune; in Christ, we discover what true love really is. Because Christ is the ultimate self-revelation of God, there are no further names of God to be revealed to us.
But does that mean there is no further development of the richness of God’s names for Christians after Christ’s ascension? Perhaps we could say that because Paul received direct revelation from the risen Lord Jesus, the terminus for the development of the richness of God’s names extends at least to the end of the apostolic era. But what about Christians that lived after the apostles? What about us? Do we still experience the development of the richness of God’s names? These questions can be asked in a different way. After all of the time that has elapsed since the time of the apostles, “can we say that we know more than Moses and Paul?”[3] In a very basic way, we can say that we at least know that Christ’s second coming did not happen in the decades and centuries following the apostles. But Henk van den Belt prefers to say that we know different things than Paul and that we bring different questions to God.[4] Indeed, our circumstances are quite different from Paul’s own situation, and so we experience the revelation of God differently. But when we bring our new questions and new experiences to God, we find that he answers them through the application of his word, which has revealed him to us.
There is a sense, then, that God continues to unpack his name from generation to generation. Though his authoritative revelation has ceased with the ministries of Christ and his apostles, the Scriptures are the living and active word of God that continue to provide rich soil for cultivating our love for and devotion to God. As we bring new questions that are drawn from our novel circumstances, we discover the depth of the riches and wisdom of God that cannot be exhausted. So, then, while we may not be standing in the midst of a great act of redemptive history like Moses or Paul, we may nevertheless wonder with Moses and Paul at our God who continues to unpack his name for us, to make himself known for our good and his glory.
[1] Robert Letham, Systematic Theology (Wheaton: Crossway, 2019), 160–61.
[2] Letham, Systematic Theology, 161.
[3] Henk Van Den Belt, Geestspraak: Hoe We de Bijbel Kunnen Verstaan (Utrecht: KokBoekencentrum, 2024), 312.
[4] Van Den Belt, Geestspraak, 313.
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