Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and this is why verse five assures He will never leave nor forsake His sheep.  In fact, besides His seven “I AM” sayings, Jesus declared, before Abraham was, I Am (John 8:58).[8] Christian, the self-sufficient God can preserve you. Though things may often appear out of control, God is in control.  You cannot trust in yourself, but You Can Trust God.[9]

YHWH, the Tetragrammaton traditionally transliterated as YAHWEH[1] and translated in Scripture as “LORD,” “GOD,” “JEHOVAH,” and “JAH”[2] is the most used name for God and especially sacred.  It assumes a developing covenantal significance during redemptive history in Exodus 3:13-15; 6:1-8—there rendered “I AM.”

Robert Reymond summarizes its meaning as “self-existence” and “faithful presence.”[3]  He writes, “ … God in his yahwistic character is the self-existent, self-determining, faithful God of the covenant.”[4]  Herman Hoeksema agrees: “ … he is the eternal and unchangeable I AM … in Exodus 3:14, 15 the application of the name is such that it emphasizes God’s immutable truth and faithfulness to his people.”[5]

As completely independent, God’s covenant dependents will find Him continually dependable.  YHWH confirms in Exodus 3 and 6 that, just as with the patriarchs, He will continue to take care of each generation of His people because He always can and has so covenanted in Himself.  Responding to the worrying of Moses, God reveals this name to reassure him of Egyptian deliverance.

In Exodus 3:13-14, God says to tell the Israelites “I AM” sent Moses, which is based on the Hebrew verb “to be.”  The LORD always was there for His church and so He always will be.  This truth won’t change, for God never changes.

Exodus 6:3 explains that, though God had already technically been known as YHWH, yet not so experientially until now in that the promise to the patriarchs was being more fully realized with God using Moses to make Pharaoh let His people go.[6]

Exodus 6 came before the 10 plagues, where the LORD then proved He is the only true God over all nations.   Hoeksema explains that “Yahweh” distinguishes God from all other heathen deities as actually existing per His own self-existence.[7]

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