And God said moreover to Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you. This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
At the burning bush God gives Moses two names: the "I AM" of the previous verse, and then this one, tied to three men who had already died. The second is the one He calls His name forever — so why does God tie Himself to three human lives, and how long does "forever" last?
The two names answer two different questions. One says what God is in Himself. The other says who He is to people on earth — and where that leaves Israel.
This name expresses the essential being of God — His name as the self-existent One. So it affirms His eternal being... But this is not all. After revealing what He is in His own essential existence, He adds... This is pure grace on the part of God. "I AM" is His own essential name. But when it comes to His rule over the earth and His relationship with it, His name is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob — the name all generations are to remember Him by. This gave Israel a very special place under His name. It points to their being chosen by the sovereign grace of God, and to their being loved for their fathers' sake. It also reveals that Israel will always be the centre of God's ways and the key to His purposes on the earth.
(The writers quoted here use older translations. Those read "this is my memorial unto all generations," and print God's name as "Jehovah" where the ESV has "the LORD".)
God does not keep the towering name as His permanent title. Kelly sees the choice itself as the kindness.
How infinitely gracious of God! The name He takes forever in connection with Israel is not the one that reduces every other creature to its own nothingness. It is not the one that makes everything merely the result of His word and His will. He loves and cherishes the name in which He has bound up the objects of His choice with Himself.
Who were these three? Darby sums up their whole standing in one phrase.
So God made Himself "the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob" — heirs of the promises, and pilgrims upon earth.
"Forever" is not a decorative word here. Mackintosh notes what God refused to add to it.
This statement contains a very important truth — one many professing Christians seem to forget. God's relationship with Israel is an eternal one. He is just as much Israel's God now as when He visited them in the land of Egypt... He does not say, "This is my name for a time, as long as they continue what they ought to be." No. He says, "this is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations." Let my reader think about this. "God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew." (Rom. 11:2) They are His people still, whether obedient or disobedient, gathered together or scattered abroad.
A memorial name is something later generations can appeal to. Darby follows that use of the name into Israel's worst failure, the golden calf.
In Exodus 3:14-15, His name is the memorial for His people forever. He remembers His covenant with the fathers (2:24), and His name is pledged on behalf of His people. And in the utter failure of the people soon after (Ex. 32), where they practically give up God, Moses pleads the name, the revealed character of the Lord.
The rescue from Egypt is what filled the name with meaning.
Israel's deliverance was meant to show what the name Jehovah means, and so make it His memorial name for all generations. And in it Israel would find their lasting ground of confidence.
Death raises a question about this name. Darby presses it: a name is worthless if it points to nobody.
Suppose Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had ceased to exist. Could God still have taken their names — the name of nothing — to describe Himself to Israel? He might have said, I am He who was with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when they existed. Even then it would have been a completely unworthy relationship... He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. But this truth went further. As far as soul and body go, Abraham was dead. Though living for God, he was not what God meant him to be... He was to be complete, and so raised from the dead.
- Two names. "I AM" tells what God is in Himself. "The God of your fathers" tells whom He has joined Himself to — and that is the name He calls His forever.
- Chosen, not required. He passes over the name that reduces every creature to nothing. He keeps the name that ties His people to Himself.
- Forever, unqualified. He never says "for a time, so long as they behave." So the bond survives Israel's disobedience and scattering.
- A name to plead. It is a memorial name. Moses could appeal to it after the golden calf, and Israel could rest on it.
- A name that outlasts death. God cannot be the God of people who no longer exist. So Abraham, Isaac and Jacob must rise.
Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, Jehovah the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, hath appeared to me, saying, I have indeed visited you, and [seen] that which is done unto you in Egypt;
God speaks to Moses at the burning bush and gives him a message. It goes first to the elders of Israel, not to Pharaoh. The words He chooses are old: the names of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and a promise Joseph spoke as he lay dying.
God could have introduced Himself by sheer power. Instead He ties His name — Jehovah, which the ESV prints as "the LORD" — to three men long dead, and to the people who came from them.
God takes care to say another word: "Jehovah the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you… This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations." How infinitely gracious of God! The name He takes forever in connection with Israel is not the one that reduces every other creature to its own nothingness. It is not the name that makes everything merely the result of His word and His will. He loves and cherishes the name in which He has bound up the objects of His choice with Himself.
This title also has something to say about death itself.
God had sent Moses out from "the bush" to be their deliverer. He sent him under one title: "the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob," the "I am" who had looked on His people and cared for them. A living God in covenant with men meant life, not death; and if death were there, then a life supreme above it. So resurrection had to fill out such a declaration. The hand God held out to man was not going to clasp the limp fingers of a corpse.
Where the ESV reads "I have observed you," older translations have "I have surely visited you." Joseph used that same phrase as he lay dying in Egypt.
On his deathbed Joseph "took an oath of the sons of Israel, saying, 'God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here'" (Gen. 50:25)… To the natural eye there was little likelihood, when Joseph was dying, of his people leaving Egypt. But this dying saint rested on the sure word and promise of God… Nearly four hundred years passed away. Then God did visit His people, the oath still held, and Joseph's bones went with them when they left Egypt.
The message is not only that God will act. It is that He has watched, and knows the details.
He began to show more than His grace in giving His promises to the Seed, which faith could lay hold of. He showed His own thoughtful love, caring for the need and sorrows of His people… He took notice of every circumstance of their trouble and sorrow.
The promise does not stop at leaving Egypt. It runs on to a good land.
Salvation by such a One must be a complete salvation. It is not complete until the land of promise is their own… The land is good and large, flowing with milk and honey. It is not a land of narrowness, as Egypt is… There is all "fatness," which is the literal meaning of the word for milk. There is all sweetness, as the honey implies. Salvation for us must end in satisfaction, or it is not salvation.
God sends Moses to a small group, yet the message is for a whole nation. The elders stood in for everyone.
In Ex. 4:29, Moses and Aaron gathered the elders of the people. In verses 30 and 31 these same men are called "the people." So "the children of Israel" are seen here in the persons of their representatives, and get credit for what they do. Yet in fact they may have, and must have, been a small number compared with the whole nation. They were the heads of the people, and represented the people then and always.
The message reached the people, and their answer was worship.
Moses had said, "They will not believe me or listen to my voice." But the people did believe, just as the Lord had said. They heard how He had visited them and looked on their affliction. Touched by His grace, they bowed their heads and worshipped.
- Surely seen. God's first word about His people in Egypt is that He noticed. He already knew every detail of their trouble and sorrow.
- Surely visited. The phrase answers Joseph's dying oath, spoken four centuries before. Delay never cancelled the promise.
- Surely named. He comes as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — That name binds Him to His people forever, and it means life, not death.
- Surely gathered. The message goes to the elders, who stand in for the whole nation; what they receive, Israel receives.
- Surely brought in. Rescue is not the goal — a land of fatness and sweetness is. Salvation that stops short of satisfaction is not yet complete.