The Name of Names

Sermon Summary:

We explore this year’s unifying theme, “Together,” which was inspired by the collective longing for unity in the aftermath of the pandemic. We’ve woven this concept into our approach to scripture and community engagement, and I share insights into the development of our spring theme, “Together for God’s Glory,” which will guide us through a study of the book of Exodus, complete with a new devotional guide and weekly Bible focus to enrich your personal and family devotionals.

This conversation also casts a light on the profound theology found within the Exodus narrative. As we revisit the momentous encounter of Moses with God at the burning bush, where the divine name ‘I Am’ was revealed, we gain a deeper understanding of God’s judgment on Egypt, the ensuing plagues, and the eventual liberation of the Israelites. The theological richness of Exodus offers us a fresh lens to view themes of redemption and freedom, challenging the American individualistic interpretation. Our discussion illuminates the unique decision by the author, likely Moses, to honor the humility of Hebrew midwives by naming them, while leaving the powerful Pharaoh nameless, thus prioritizing the humble over the mighty.

We invite you to understand how the Exodus story is intricately woven into Jesus’ identity as the Messiah and explore the profound challenge theologians face in articulating God’s boundless nature. Together, let’s reflect on the divine attributes of compassion, grace, and justice revealed in Exodus 34, and how embodying these qualities can transform our lives and identity as followers of God.

Sermon Points:

• EXODUS: These are the names!
• The narrative of the Exodus and its theological implications can hardly be exaggerated as we consider the development of both Jewish and Christian theology.
• At the heart of the Exodus story is the revelation of God Himself.
• Who is God? I AM!  — YHWH in Hebrew – LORD in English. (Some Jewish theologians combined the Name YHWH with the Hebrew Name for Lord – Adonai – resulting in the English Name Jehovah.)
• The God of the Bible simply is!
• He is eternally present, eternally active, eternally sustaining, eternally causative, eternally creative, eternally relational, eternally powerful, and eternally eternal!

Key Takeaways:

• The sermon discusses the profound traditions of Easter, particularly focusing on the transformation from Palm Sunday to Ash Wednesday, highlighting the cyclical nature of life.
• The spring theme, “together for God’s glory,” is explored in the context of the post-pandemic yearning for unity and how this shapes the community’s scriptural journey and fellowship.
• A new study guide is introduced to enhance devotional practices, encouraging a spirit of togetherness in worship and daily life.
• The sermon takes a deep dive into the book of Exodus, analyzing the theological implications of Moses’ encounter with God at the burning bush and the revelation of God’s name as ‘I Am.’
• It discusses the significance of naming within the book of Exodus, noting the intentional focus on humble individuals over the powerful, exemplified by the Hebrew midwives being named while the Pharaoh is not.
• The multifaceted character of God as revealed in Exodus is examined, particularly in relation to Jesus’ life and mission, showing how the Exodus story is intertwined with Jesus’ identity as the Messiah.
• The attributes of God—compassion, grace, patience, love, faithfulness, forgiveness, righteousness, and justice—are highlighted, emphasizing the call to embody these qualities as followers of God.
• The sermon encourages a transformation of the heart and soul through a theological journey informed by the lessons of Exodus.

Scripture References:

• Exodus 3: The encounter of Moses with God at the burning bush and the revelation of God’s name.
• Exodus 34: God reveals His character to Moses, encompassing compassion, grace, patience, love, faithfulness, forgiveness, righteousness, and justice.

Stories:

• The tradition of transforming palm branches from Palm Sunday into ashes for Ash Wednesday as a symbol of life’s cycles.
• Reflections on the unnamed over the named in Exodus, particularly the decision to name Hebrew midwives while omitting the Pharaoh’s name.
• Parallels between the 40 years of Israelites in the wilderness and Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness at the beginning of His ministry.
• Jesus’ reinterpretation of the Passover and His positioning as the ultimate sacrifice, linking to the Exodus narrative.
• The tearing of the temple veil at Jesus’ crucifixion as a fulfillment of the Exodus story, indicating the obsolescence of the sacrificial system and the direct access to God through Jesus.

Sermon Points:

Transcript

Wow, what a great day we’ve had. I just want to say a word of thanks for all of our folks who make it possible for us to worship on Sunday morning. It’s really incredible. I’m so grateful for all of them and can I just say the Easter season has been incredibly meaningful for us and our staff, our lay leaders that work so hard for us to have the Easter season at the level we have it. It doesn’t just happen, and so I’m grateful for them.

Y’all may or may not know this, but on Palm Sunday, you know, our Easter season begins on Ash Wednesday, and on Palm Sunday, you know, the children bring palm branches in and lay them at the foot of the cross, and, whether y’all know it or not, every year Curt Grice gathers up those palm branches and he stacks them in his office and they stay there while they are what do you call it? Decomposed. I don’t know what are they doing. They turn colors. I do know that much. And then those palm branches, eventually, as we get close to the next Easter, we give them to Barry and he takes them and he burns them and he brings the ashes back, and that’s what we make the ashes out of for Ash Wednesday, and so we’ve already started preparing for next Ash Wednesday. And if you wanna come by and see the palm branches, you can come see them. They’re in Kurt’s office over in the corner, where they always are. But that’s how we started the year for the Easter season, and each Sunday walking through the Psalms of Ascent was a really powerful journey. And then, good Friday, we gathered here for a very meaningful, very powerful time of worship, and then, certainly last Sunday morning was a great day of worship for us as a church, and so I’m grateful for it. And so you know by now, if you’ve been here with us at all this year, that our theme for 2024 is together.

Last July, when I was away from the pulpit, you know, normally in July we will go somewhere and spend some time. I will praying. You may remember this year, in May of this year, our daughter was diagnosed with cancer, so we didn’t go anywhere, we stayed close to home to help take care of her and her family. But I still had time to pray and think about the year, and as I was thinking about coming out of the global pandemic, this word just kept coming to me together, and I just began doing a search in the scripture. You know, the New Testament’s written in Greek and the Old Testament’s written in Hebrew and there are numerous words in Greek and Hebrew for together, and so I’ve spent some time just researching and studying, and so this year we’re just exploring various aspects of what it means to be together as the people of God, and so our theme, of course, for Advent was together for the ascent that we made our journey to, the ascent to Jerusalem.

But our theme for the spring is going to be Together for God’s Glory, and we are going to make our way through, spend some time studying the book of Exodus during the spring. There’s a new devotional guide for you. If you hadn’t had a chance to get one, I’d encourage you to get one today. They’re at all of our welcome areas Together for God’s Glory. Our staff puts these together for us, and there’s a you remember that we chose this year to do a weekly Bible focus rather than providing a daily Bible reading. Remember that we chose this year to do a weekly Bible focus rather than providing a daily Bible reading. There’s a passage of scripture each week we ask you to focus on. We’re calling that Together in Word and we want you to spend some time together in the word of God, and there’s some material about that in this devotional guide. And then we have some practical suggestions Together in Deed, – ways that you can take the teaching of the Scripture and put it into real practice. And parents, we have material in there for you so you can do family devotionals with your children. So the resources are available for you. We’d love for you to take advantage of them.

And y’all know that every week, Katy Reed-Hodges and Luke Stehr and I do a podcast called Tell Me More, where we explore the teachings of the text that we address on Sunday morning a little more deeply. The name of the podcast came from Katy because there were times we would be talking about the sermon or the biblical text and she would say, well, tell me more about that. So that phrase became the name of our podcast. So wherever you get podcasts, you can find it, and each week we explore everything a little. So, with all of that said, we’re going to begin a journey today in the book of Exodus and we’re going to look at two pages in Exodus today. So if you have your copy of the Old Testament, I’ve entitled the text of the sermon today rather than name of names. The text is found in Exodus 3 is the first text and then Exodus 34 is the second one. And actually these two texts go together Because Exodus 3 is where God gives a statement about his existence and Exodus 34 is where we learn about his essence, his character. So let’s look at the first one, exodus 3.

We’ll begin in verse 13. We’re picking up the story. Moses is at the burning bush and he’s having this incredible encounter with God, and the Lord has told him he’s going to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt and Moses will be the instrument that he’s going to use. So we pick up that story in verse 13, where Moses said to God suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me what is his name? Then what shall I tell them? God said to Moses I am who I am. This is what you’re to say to the Israelites. I am has sent me to you. God also said to Moses say to the Israelites the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation. Now, if you know the story of the Exodus, you know that what’s about to happen is God is going to reveal himself powerfully to the Israelites and the Egyptians and he is going to accomplish these plagues, pour out his judgment on Egypt and deliver Israel, and they will then make their way out of Egypt and they will come to Mount Sinai. That’s where you are in Exodus 34. The children of Israel camped at Mount Sinai. Moses is in this incredible encounter with God. We pick that story up in Exodus 34, verse 4. So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets, like the first ones. He went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the Lord commanded him, and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord, and he passed in front of Moses proclaiming the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God. Slow to anger.

Now I want to begin this morning just looking at the book of Exodus in general, real quickly. So the book of Exodus, the opening sentence. If you have your Bibles open, look back at verse 1. These are the names, if you’ll see that. Well, it’s interesting. Do you know that the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew? Do you know that the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and it was customary for the compilers of the Scripture of the Old Testament to name the book after the opening sentence in Hebrew. That’s very common in our Old Testament.

Okay, so in the Hebrew Bible this book is a book, the second book in the law or of the law. It is not named Exodus in Hebrew. The name of this book in Hebrew is these Are the Names. That’s kind of an odd name of a book, but it comes from the very first sentence. That’s very common for the Hebrews. As a matter of fact, if you were to look back at Genesis 46, verse 8, this is a direct quote of Genesis 46, verse 8. So Moses is connecting the Exodus to the story in Genesis. But isn’t that an interesting title? These are the names. So I would encourage you, if you take the time, to read through Exodus this spring.

Just look at who all gets named in Exodus. It’s fascinating to me. Do y’all remember Shiphrah and Puah. They’re not in the Lion King. That’s not who they are. You know who they were Hebrew midwives. They’re actually named in the Bible and they met with Pharaoh because they were unwilling to obey the commands of Pharaoh. Y’all remember that story. And then you have these Hebrew slaves, like these two ladies, who will receive names in the book of Exodus Moses, as a baby, will get that name Miriam, aaron. You have a whole list of Hebrew slaves who will be named in the book of Exodus. So I want you to think about when this story took place. Who would have been the most famous person in the world when this story took place? Pharaoh, and guess what? He’s never named in this book. Isn’t that interesting. Moses writes this and he gives you the names of Hebrew midwives, and he doesn’t even give you the name of Pharaoh. Tells you something about Moses. True, it’s also something about the Lord and the way God is unfolding this witness for us, and so it’s a message, I believe. So the book of Exodus called the book of names, or these are the names, and there’s some interesting choices about who gets named. Now I want to say this about Exodus If you and I read it as Christians, here’s what I would encourage you to do.

We have to do this as Christians. Christians, here’s what I would encourage you to do. We have to do this as Christians. We have to put on our theological lenses and our theological minds. We have to engage this theologically because the narrative of the Exodus and its theological implications can hardly be exaggerated as we consider the development of both Jewish and Christian theology. What I would say to us is, if you want to understand the theology of the Old Testament and the burgeoning, growing theology of the New Testament, you have to take in consideration the book of Exodus and all the theological lessons in the book of Exodus. And theologians, ever since Exodus has been written, have spent time evaluating and unpacking the theology of this incredible story In the Old Testament. Creation, of course, is the foundational story, but after creation, this is the story of the Old Testament, the story of the Exodus. So men like Alan Cole from Australia, douglas Stewart, who’s a theologian at Gordon-Conwell, these brilliant men have influenced people like me as I’ve studied and prayed and read through the book of the Exodus. So, for example, here are some things we learn theologically in Exodus we learn a theology of redemption and freedom, and it’s one that we, as Christians, need to make sure we understand Because, as Americans, many of you in this room and many of you here joining us online right now are Americans and Americans.

When they hear the word freedom, when we hear it, we think one thing you see, americans are very individualistic, so when we hear the word freedom, what we mean by that is individual determinism, self-determinism. When we talk about freedom, we mean self-determinative behavior. We get to choose to do what we want to do. That’s what freedom means to us. That is not freedom in the story of the Exodus. It’s also not the theological understanding of freedom in the New Testament. It’s tied to redemption, and so when you study the book of Exodus, the theology of redemption and freedom means this God has delivered you from being slaves to a tyrant, and you now are given the opportunity to serve him and worship him and give him glory and be the people of God. In other words, that’s why you’re redeemed In the New Testament. You’re redeemed from bondage to sin so that you then can live as the people of God and serve God and give God glory with your life. Think about what Moses said to Pharaoh. Did God tell Moses to tell Pharaoh this Let my people go so that they can go and do whatever they want to do. Moses to tell Pharaoh this let my people go so that they can go and do whatever they want to do. No, let my people go so that they can go serve me and worship me. And so the freedom that we experience is not individual self-determinism, that’s not it. It’s the freedom now to live as the people of God, in service to him and give him glory. That’s why we’ve been redeemed, and that theology is woven into this story.

There’s also the theology of a personal God in the book of Exodus, and we’ll talk about that in a moment. He’s a God to be known. He’s a sovereign God. The God of the Exodus controls history. He can make things happen and he can stop things from happening, just like that you read the plagues. And God can bring judgment when he needs to. He can also remove that judgment as he chooses. He can also protect people from the judgment if he so desires, because he’s a sovereign God. He’s a covenantal God. The God of the Exodus makes a covenant with his people, and his people live in covenantal relationship with him. The God of the Exodus is to be known and followed, and so, in the New Testament sense of that, we’re supposed to know him and follow him. He is a God who provides. You think about what God does for Israel. He provides for them. They get to the wilderness and they can’t provide for themselves. They can’t grow crops, they can’t feed themselves. What does God do? He provides food, provides water.

Israel has an interesting story, you know, every year when we go to Rome, we talk about ancient Roman history and if you want to understand the Roman psyche, you have to understand their core story. They tell the story of these two twins, romulus and Remus. Y’all remember this story, these two brothers, and they have this battle and one kills the other. Had Remus killed Romulus, they’d be known as the Remans, you know, but Romulus killed Remus, so they’re known as the Romans. They get his name. But it’s this fanciful, mythological story about Troy and these gods and goddesses, and there’s this incredible victory and the Romans believed there was no one else like them because they had this grand story.

Think about the Jews’ story. Where do they find their beginning? Well, they were slaves in Egypt. They were unable to deliver themselves. They had to be delivered by God and then they couldn’t provide for themselves and he actually had to feed them in the desert. That’s their beginning, that’s their story. It’s a very different kind of story in antiquity, but the God of Exodus is a God who provides. The God of the New Testament is a God who provides, if you need to be reminded of that today, and also he’s the only God there is Now.

If you want to understand most fully the theology of Jesus’ expression of what it means to be the Messiah, then you’ve got to take the book of Exodus into consideration, because the Exodus story and the theology of the Exodus, all of that is woven in to the expression of what it meant to be the Messiah by Jesus. So, for example, just think about it when Jesus began his ministry, how long did the children of Israel wander, if you will? Or they were led around in the wilderness? For how long? 40 years? Jesus starts his ministry, one of the very first things he did. He went to the wilderness. For how long? 40 days, symbolically, beginning his journey, much as the Jews did many years ago. Beginning his journey, much as the Jews did many years ago.

The apostle John will tell us about the Son of God. He calls him the Word of God. John tells us in John 1, verse 14, the Word became flesh, and we translate it like this into English he dwelt among us. But the New Testament is written in Greek, and the Greek word that John uses in John 1, verse 14 is the word for tabernacle. John says the word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And then John says this and we beheld his glory, the glory of the one and only, just like the glory of God descended on the tabernacle. In the story of the Exodus, the glory of God is on display through the Son of God who tabernacled among us.

And think about the in the name of the book in English for us is Exodus. Well, that’s actually a Greek word, and the reason for that is about the third century before Christ. Many Jews were living outside of Palestine and they had lost their connection to the Hebrew language and they spoke Greek like most of the world did, and so they decided to translate the Hebrew Bible into Greek. It’s called the Septuagint, and that Greek Bible, that Greek Old Testament, became the book for the Hebrew people, and the titles of the books changed. And so Exodus was not known as these are the names in Greek. It was known as exhodos. Hodos means way, exhodos. The way out is what that word means, and so the book of Exodus is known as the way out.

Well, jesus comes. And what does Jesus say in John 14, verse 6? I am the hodos, I am the way, I am the way now. So, and then think about when Jesus came to Jerusalem for the final week of his life. What week on the calendar did Jesus come to Jerusalem? It’s the week of the Passover.

Well, what was the Passover? Well, the Passover is the story that’s told in the book of Exodus and the meal that was shared by the Jews to call to mind the angel of death passing over their camp so that their children were not sacrificed. And so Jesus takes that very week, comes to Jerusalem as the Messiah, and while all of these lambs are being sacrificed across Jerusalem, for that week, jesus is actually the Lamb of God who will be sacrificed on the cross for our sin. And then the veil that covered the Holy of Holies that we read about in the book of Exodus is exposed, because the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom, rendering it useless, because there’s no longer any need to sacrifice anything else, because Jesus has made the sacrifice once and for all, and then Jesus takes the Passover and baptizes it and turns it into a meal that you and I now share, called the Lord’s Supper. So are y’all still with me, okay? So if you want to understand what Jesus did, how he went about it, well then you’ve got to take into consideration the theology of the Exodus. It’s just a part of our theological journey. You can’t escape it.

Now, at the heart of the Exodus story, though, is the revelation of God. God is going to make himself known to the Jews In Exodus 3,. Here is his existence. I am who I am. Exodus 34, here is his essence, his glory, if you will. The glory of God manifests the essence of God, so that we can understand who he really is, and so the story of Exodus is actually the story of how God’s revealing himself. He’s a personal God, he’s not an impersonal force. You know, one of the things that we say often in America is, when something happens and we don’t really know how to explain it, we’re not sure what to say about it. Here’s what we will say Well, it just is what it is. Right, it just is what it is. Moses asks God what is your name, and God doesn’t say well, it just is what it is. No, he says I am who I am. He shares a personal word, his existence is, he’s existing as a personal God Exodus 34,. He is a holy God, a glorious God, and he wants to be in relationship with us and he has ethical demands. He has expectations of if you’re going to follow him. Live like this.

But here’s what’s interesting about the book of Exodus. You can’t see him fully, though, because you’d die. I mean you just can’t. Moses said show me your glory. And God said seriously I mean seriously If I really showed you who I am, you’d die. You can’t take it.

Y’all know this week is the eclipse right? Don’t look at it. That’s what we’ve been told. Don’t look at it. Every ophthalmologist I know of has said don’t look at it. That’s what we’ve been told. Don’t look at it. Every ophthalmologist I know of has said don’t look at it unless dude, you got these right here. Y’all got them. For those of you watching online, I’ll send you one of these for $9.99 if you’ll get it in today, absolutely free, guaranteed, okay, no, what they’ve told us is don’t look at it unless you’re wearing these, because you know why It’ll ruin you.

Well, god told Moses, you want to see me, you can’t see me. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. God says I’ll do this for you. I’m going to put you in this little place over here in the mountain. I’m going to pass by and I’m just going to let you have a glimpse of who I am. And that’s all you can take, because if you really got a real glimpse of me, you couldn’t take it. And so, just like we can’t look at the son, we can’t really look at him, because he is holy and glorious. So we need him to let us know who he is.

And so the good news is the God of the Bible has revealed himself, even though he still remains hidden at some level. There’s a part of him we just can’t know because he’s too glorious. Even when Moses saw him, you remember, when Moses came down off the mountain, what everybody say to Moses? Moses had been in the presence of God. Do y’all remember? Everybody was like man, dude, we can’t, we can’t even look at. They need these. You know they couldn’t, they didn’t have these. So, um, they said we can’t even look at. They need these. You know they didn’t have these. So they said we can’t even look at you. You’re radiating the glory of God, moses would have to cover his face. It’s a fascinating story.

So the good news is, god has let us in on who he is. He’s revealed himself to us, and he’s done that at the beginning at least, here, with his name. So who is God? That’s what Moses asked. And God said this I am, and I’ll be honest with y’all, that’s Y-H-W-H.

The Old Testament’s written in Hebrew and there are no vowels there, so we don’t know for sure exactly how to pronounce that it’s. I am, we would say Yahweh, and in English, if you’re reading your Bible in English, every time the name of God appears as Yahweh, y-h-w-h, it’ll be translated into English with all caps L-O-R-D, all caps. Does that make sense? So every time you see L-O-R-D and all caps in Hebrew, underneath, that is Yahweh. But here’s what Jewish theologians started to do. They were nervous about saying the name Yahweh for fear that they might take his name in vain. So what they did was they took the Hebrew title Adonai, which means Lord, capital L, small o, small r, small d. Does that make sense? So in your Bibles, whenever you see capital L, small r, o or d, that’s Adonai. The Hebrew theologians took the vowels of Adonai and plugged them in to Yahweh, and that’s how you come up with Yehovah. Okay, and they would use that so that they wouldn’t be threatened in their own hearts, if you will, about blaspheming God by using his name in vain. So Yehovah was invented by them as a safeguard, if you will.

Well, here’s the point when God answers Moses and he says Lord, who are you? He says I am who I am. I cause to be what I cause to be. I will be who I will be. In other words, you can translate that in various ways. But then that last little piece where he says you tell them I am sent you, that’s who I am. He is the eternal subject. If you will Now just think about I am, jesus is going to get in trouble with. I am Right, he’s going to get in trouble Because Jesus will be talking to the Pharisees one day in John 8.

And he’ll start talking about Abraham and how Abraham longed to see this day. And they’ll say you’re not even 40 years old. What are you talking about? You’re Joseph and Mary’s son. Are you talking about Abraham? What do you know about Abraham?

I’m paraphrasing, but I’m not paraphrasing John 8, 58, because here’s what Jesus said Before Abraham was I am and man. They just started tearing their clothes because they were like you can’t. You can’t say that that’s God. You’re saying you’re God seven times in John I am, I’m the good shepherd, he said. I am the sheepfold, I am the resurrection and the life. I mean Jesus is going to use that to call attention to who he is. So here’s what we learn from I am resurrection and the life. I mean Jesus is going to use that to call attention to who he is. So here’s what we learn from I am.

Let me just give you a couple things to think about. God. The God of the Bible simply is. When he says I am, that just declares so much about him. That means he’s eternal. He has no beginning and no end. Our God, the God of the book of Exodus, the God of the Bible, the only God who is. He is in time, he’s beyond time and he’s always on time.

Theologians struggle with how to describe Him, so we have to use other. We’ve used all kind of languages, we’ve used Greek and Latin to just try to explain who he is. It’s just hard to do, and so when you’re studying this idea of I am, you come across phrases like immensitas di. That means that he’s unlimited by space. He’s immense.

The theologians will say he is sine mensura. It means he’s without measurement. You can’t measure God. He’s transcendent, he’s beyond all, he’s above all, he’s imminent. He’s transcendent, he’s beyond all, he’s above all, he’s imminent, he’s eternally present. So let me just close with this. Here’s how I would try to put it, because I don’t know how to put it. It’s just beyond my ability to communicate it. But I would say it like this he is eternally present, eternally active, eternally sustaining, eternally causative, eternally creative, eternally relational, eternally powerful and eternally eternal.

I am Now, if you want to know what he’s like, well, exodus 34. Here’s what he’s like. He reveals himself, he proclaims his name. The Bible says Well, what’s he like? Well, turns out.

If you go back and look at Exodus 34, I encourage you to look at it this week he’s compassionate, he’s gracious, he’s slow to anger, he abounds in love, he abounds in faithfulness, he loves deeply, he loves lastingly, he forgives wickedness, rebellion, sin, and he’s righteous and he’s just. In other words, he’s the perfect balance of grace and truth. The very essence of God is manifested through the glory of God. His glory is on display. So guess what?

Here’s what the Bible teaches us. That same glory revealed in Exodus 34 is supposed to be on display in me. That means, if I’m going to follow Him, I’m supposed to reflect that glory to my world. That means I, dennis Wiles, I’m supposed to be compassionate and gracious and slow to anger, and abounding in love and abounding in faithfulness, loving deeply and lastingly, forgiving and behaving in righteous behavior. Because I’m supposed to bear his image and reflect his glory. We are his people. He is our creator and our sustainer. He delivered Israel and he will deliver you. May it be so. Let’s pray together, father, today we thank you for this incredible story of the Exodus and just how powerful it is and meaningful it is. And, lord, we’re grateful for it. And I just pray, as we make our way through this spring, as we learn and grow, that we’ll take the time to have a true theological journey, embracing the theological truths that we find in the book of Exodus. May they guide us in our true understanding of who you are, and may we be shaped and blessed and encouraged.