SHARON ROCKWELL | CONTRIBUTOR

When our granddaughter turned five, her parents took her to Disneyland as a surprise birthday gift. She was telling me all about it – her favorite rides, the food she ate, and then suddenly she said, “Do you know the best part Grandma? Almost everyone there knew me! Wherever I went, they called me by my name, and they knew it was my special day. They all said Happy Birthday.” Only later did her parents remind her that she was wearing a big Disney button that said Happy Birthday, Charlotte!

We all want to be known. We were made to be relational, just as God is relational. We want to be known on a deep heart level. And we want to know someone who understands us and loves us anyway. Remember Adam and Eve hiding in the garden after sinning? God searched them out and invited them to be known in a way that would provide a road to repentance and forgiveness.

When Moses found himself tending sheep near mount Horeb, he heard God speak to him from a burning bush. God called him by name, twice for emphasis, “Moses, Moses” (Ex. 3:4). He answered confidently, “Here I am,” (Ex. 3:4) but God cautioned him to keep his distance and to take off his sandals in reverence because he was on holy ground. Only then did God tell Moses who He was, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, The God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face. There was nowhere for him to turn his head from God’s blinding purity. Naked and exposed, he understood that God knew every sin he ever committed, and he was overcome by godly fear.

But while it was clear that God knew everything about Moses, Moses is offered the reassurance that God understands the Israelites’ plight and has a role for him in their release. Moses is not left in the darkness of his sin. The Lord says, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex, 3: 7-8). Moses’ task is to go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. He has now been humbled by forty years of sheep tending, is full of self-doubt and aware that he is too old to fight any battles. Even with God’s promise to be with him until the end, Moses sees this will be a hard sell to the Israelites.

So, Moses says 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?” And God answers Moses, “I am who I am.” “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” (Ex. 3:13-15). “And they will listen to your voice” (Ex. 3:18).

Much later in Exodus, when the stiff-necked Israelites complained about their circumstances and prepared a golden calf for worship, Moses pleaded with the Lord to continue to be present with the Israelites, to show their distinction from every other people on earth. And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name” (Ex. 33:17).

That God who is the creator and sustainer of the universe knows us by name, should give us such comfort. He is the LORD of our fathers, the one who first established a covenant with His people. The one who knows everything about us and still loves us. And the fact that God’s own name reveals so much of His character to us, that He is the great “I am,” the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, the One whose covenant we are to remember always, assures us that He loves His people, and we are His forever.

Lord, you have made yourself known to your people. And you have shown us that you know us intimately and call us by name. In humble thankfulness, we give you all the glory now and forever. Amen.

Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash