3.089 I am the Lord Your God

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

Have you ever had those moments in your life where you don't just doubt the existence of God, but you seemingly say to yourself, God, if you exist, where are you? Perhaps we can take a look today and inside this week at some of the challenges that that may bring into your life and some resolutions that you may have. You'll remember the challenges that Moses is facing here with his people and with Pharaoh, both of them not really buying into Moses, even though Moses has been commanded of the Lord to do these things.

In the middle of this statement, yesterday's was verse 6 in Exodus chapter 6, today is verse 7, the Lord continuing to speak, he says this, And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God. And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. Now there's a phrase in there that I thought was appropriate for us to get started with Easter week here.

And that is the phrase, I am the Lord your God. That's not just a statement inside of here. I wanted to really understand the root of that.

And anytime I may be sharing stuff you already know, but I thought I would share it here. Anytime you see in biblical writing here the word LORD in all caps like we do in verse 7, L-O-R-D, it's actually a representation of LORD being written in the term YHWH, the name of the LORD, also known as Jehovah. And so this isn't just a statement here that's saying I'll be your God.

This is a statement that is covenantal in basis here. It is sharing his sacred name. Now add the I am piece to the front end of it and a little bit more of my research here inside of the I am, the to be verb also comes from ancient Hebrew.

The Bible is Hebrew, right? I'm going to mess this up, but I just wanted to share it. It comes from the root verb, which is haya or hawa, both of which also come into play with the look of Yahweh.

And so when you put the two of them together, I am the Lord your God, you get this presence, this being, to be and to be here, right? Like to be present, to be in existence, and you get the name of God. And so the two of them together, I'm going to read directly from my studies here a little bit.

It says, the name Yahweh is rooted in the same to be family as Haya and Hawa. It evokes self-existence, eternality, and active presence. God isn't defined by what others call him.

By the way, inside of Exodus chapter 6, he uses the phrase I am the Lord five times by my count just in Exodus chapter 6. In effect, the Lord is saying, Moses, look, I'm here. I exist.

My covenant exists and I will be here to help you out. My friends, we who have made covenants with the Lord can in effect say the same thing. We can depend on the same thing of the Lord in our lives.

He exists. He is here. He keeps his covenants.

I am grateful to that and I hope that as you continue through this week and remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ through this Easter season that we too can remember I am the Lord your God. He is here for each one of us. He loves us and will help us out in our challenging times whether we hold to the belief of his existence or not.

That is the faith I have. That's all for today. My friends, you and I have come here for such a time as this.

Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We will be here tomorrow and we hope you are too.