ED ROSS
Ed
Ross has served as the pastor of Moses Encounters "that Name"
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a
beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the kings command. By faith Moses, when he became of age,
refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of
God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the
treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward (Hebrews 11:23-26).
And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and
behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed....And God said to Moses, I AM
WHO I AM. And He said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you (Exodus
4:3, 14)
Seventy souls of the family and household of Jacob (whom God renamed, Israel, Gen 32:28) went into
Egypt under Joseph. In just a few generations, they lost their favored status and became slave labor to the
pharaohs. As God had prophesied to Abraham (Gen 15:13-14) they remained there for four hundred years;
but, during this time, their number had grown to perhaps over two million. In an effort to reduce and control
the Hebrew population, the pharaoh commanded that every newborn male child be drowned in the river. It is
at this point we first meet Moses.
Hidden by his mother for three months, he is then placed into a basket and set afloat on the river. Found by
the pharaohs daughter he is taken out of the water for her own. She names him, Moses (drawn out) and in
a most remarkable display of providence, his own mother is hired as his nursemaid. She is blessed to raise
him for the first few years, and get paid for it! No doubt she was able to use these formative years to instill in
Moses his Hebrew roots, which would emerge many years later.
Moses grows up as the son of Pharaoh s daughter and heir to the thrown. But, at about age forty, he is
compelled from within to identify with the oppressed Hebrews, and having killed an Egyptian, he flees into
the wilderness. As the story unfolds, we see that Moses life is broken into three acts: forty years in Egypt;
forty years in the wilderness as a shepherd; and forty years as deliverer and leader of his people (again,
mostly in the wilderness).
The most pivotal event in Moses life is his personal encounter with God at the burning bush (Gen 4).
Should space permit, we could glean volumes (as others have) from this account about the character and
nature of God: His holiness (fire, holy ground), His grace (the bush is not consumed by the all-consuming
fire. Who shall dwell with the everlasting burnings? Isaiah 33:14), etc. But it is the revelation of that Name
that captures my attention presently.
To Moses, for the first time since creation (Ex 6:3), God reveals Himself as Yahweh (or Jehovah)-I AM that I
AM! ...the Eternal, Transcendent, Selfexistent, Ground of all being. In four Hebrew letters, YHWH (Y H W H
), God has packed the infinite. Some have objected that this name appears previous to Moses in the
Genesis account; but we must remember that it was Moses who wrote this account, and as he unfolds the
narrative, he, on occasion, supplies the true Name of the God of creation - the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob.
In the presence of that Name, Moses, who was previously mighty in word and deed among the Egyptians
(Acts 7:22), and who once launched out on his own to free his people, is now reduced to a stammering
lisp, and overcome by feelings of total inadequacy. In that Name, Moses is commissioned to lead Gods
people out of bondage; and by YHWHs mighty hand alone, Moses fulfills his commission.
So holy was that Name in the minds of the Hebrews that many traditions grew up around it (though there is
no biblical authority for them, except possibly the third commandment). One tradition has it that that Name
could never be spoken, except by the high priest on the Day of Atonement. Another, that the scribes only
wrote that Name with a sanctified pen which was then immediately destroyed. Whatever the realities,
JHWH is the preeminent name of God in the Old Testament from the time of Moses.
Now this brings us to a strange anomaly: that holy Name, so revered by the Hebrews as the personal
name of their covenant God, is never once mentioned directly by the Hebrew writers of the New Testament.
How could this be? I should think, on that ground alone, many an orthodox Jew might well reject the NT
writings. Furthermore, because our translations obscure YHWH beneath the English, LORD, we may not
see the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room; for we see Lord used both in our OT and NT. But the
reality is, it should seem almost incredible to us that no attempt was made to bring YHWH, or some Greek
transliteration thereof, into the New Testament...
Or, ...is this really the case?
Upon closer examination we find, "Thou shalt call His name JESUS, for He shall save His people from their
sins..." (Matt 1:21). Jesus!... "yehoshua" ... Jehovah-Savior! "I am He: before Me there was no God
formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am YHWH; and beside Me there is no savior..." (Isaiah
43:11; see also Hosea 13:4). Throughout the New Testament, Old Testament passages pertaining to YHWH
are ascribed to Jesus. John the Baptist was to prepare the way of the YHWH (Isa 40:3; Matt 3:3). Isaiah
saw YHWH high and lifted up and His train filled the temple (Isa 6:1-3; John 12:41). Jesus is the Good
Shepherd (Ps 23; John 10:11 ), He is the Creator (Isa 44:24; John 1:1-3), He is the First and the Last (Isa
44:6; Rev 1:11,17; 2:8; 22:13). "He has been given a Name that is above every name, that at the Name of
Jesus every knee should bow", "...and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord..." (Phil 2:9-10).
And so, "that Name", by which Moses is commissioned to bring God's people out of bondage, is the very
Name by which we have been commissioned to bring His people out of bondage. Go into all the world
(Egypt) and preach the Gospel "He who believes shall be saved!" (Mark 16:15-16). The commission of the
Apostle Paul is the commission of the Church, and answers to the typology of the commission of Moses: I
now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan
to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by
faith in Me. (Acts 26:17-18).
Having been revealed, "that Name" - YHWH - was to be proclaimed as the Deliverer of men; but a veil was
over the eyes of the Hebrews, so that they could not see the intended outcome of that which Moses brought
from Him; that veil is removed in Jesus Christ (2Cor 3)...
Jehovah-Jesus, Yahweh-Yeshua, My Lord and My God!
- ejr3
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Andrew Bonar (1810-1892)
on Christ in the Law * (emphasis mine, ejr3)
The one great principle of interpretation which we keep before us is apostolic method and practice... We find
the sacred writers adduce the likeness that exists between the thing that was typified and the type itself,
and there they rest satisfied... And next, we search into these types, in the belief that Christ is the centre-
truth of Revelation; and surely no principle is more obviously true. The body or substance of the law is Christ
(Col. ii. 17), and types are a series of shadows projected from Christ, the body. It is this Messiah that has
been, from the beginning, the object to be unveiled to the view of men; and in the fact that New Testament
light has risen lies our advantage in searching into what these things signify.
Mr. MCheyne, of Dundee, thus expressed himself, on one occasion, regarding this point, in a letter to a
friend :Suppose, said he, that one to whom you were a stranger was wrapt in a thick veil, so that you
could not discern his features. Still, if the lineaments [contours of the form, ejr3] were pointed out to you
through the folds, you could form some idea of the beauty and form of the veiled one. But suppose that one
whom you know and lovewhose features you have often studied face to facewere to be veiled up in this
way, how easily you would discern the features and form of this beloved one! Just so the Jews looked upon
a veiled Saviour, whom they had never seen unveiled. We, under the New Testament, look upon an unveiled
Saviour; and, going back to the Old, we can see far better than the Jews could, the features and form of
Jesus the Beloved, under that veil: In Isaac offered (Gen. xxii.), in the scape-goat (Lev. xvi.), in the shadow
of the great rock (isa. xxxii. 2), in the apple- tree (Song ii. 2), what exquisite pictures there are seen of
Jesus! and how much more plainly we can see the meaning than believers of old!
To the same purpose John Bunyan writes. He represents Mansoul, in his Holy War, as feasting at the
Princes table, and then [having] riddles set before them. These riddles were made [concerning] the King
Shaddai, and Immanuel his son, and [concerning] his wars and doings with Mansoul. And when they read in
the scheme where the riddles were writ, and looked in the face of the Prince, things looked so like, the one
to the other, that Mansoul could not forbear but say, This is the Lamb! This is the Sacrifice! This is the
Rock! This is the Red Cow! This is the Door! and This is the Way!
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* Bonar, Andrew, Leviticus, first published 1846,
Reprints, Edinburgh, Banner of Truth, 1966-1989, pp. 8-9
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