In the first article I showed that God has revealed Himself.  Psalm 9:16 says,  “The Lord has made Himself known.”  The Bible teaches that God’s revelation of Himself is two-fold.  God has revealed Himself by general revelation and God has revealed Himself by special revelation.  In the first article I looked at God’s revelation of Himself in general revelation.  In this article I want us to look at God’s revelation of Himself by special revelation.  The special revelation of God has to do with God’s revelation of Himself in the Scriptures.  General and special revelation means God has not hidden Himself from mankind.

The Bible makes it clear that God is not a silent God.  God speaks.  Hebrews 1:1-2 says,  “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, ² in these last days has spoken to us in His Son….”  The fundamental conviction set before the reader is that God has not remained silent.  God has taken the initiative and revealed Himself.  The writer’s first focus is on divine revelation and then on the person, work, and status of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Biblical evidence shows us that God spoke to Adam.  God spoke to Noah.  God spoke to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  God spoke to Moses.  And then God would speak mainly through prophets to the nation of Israel.  God, lastly, would speak through His Son.

When God spoke to Moses, God revealed to us His name.  Exodus 3 tells us that God appeared to Moses in the burning bush.  Moses was amazed at the miracle he was seeing and turned to look at it more closely.  God called to Moses in vs.4 and identified Himself in vs.6.  He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”  God’s purpose in appearing to Moses was to send Moses to bring His enslaved people out of Egypt and to lead them to the land promised to the Abraham.

Moses did not want to return to Egypt and carry out the mission God was giving to him.  This led to some back and forth between God and Moses.  Finally, Moses relented and asked God for His name  (vs.13).  Vs.14  says,  “God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you”.”  In vs.15 God said, “This is My name forever, and this is My memorial name to all generations.” 

We go now to Exodus 6.  We read the following in  vss.2-3 & 6,  “God spoke further to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord; ³ and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, Lord, I did not make Myself known to them….  Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments’.”  

The names I AM WHO I AM, I AM, and LORD all come from the same Hebrew word.  The name LORD is the Hebrew Tetragrammaton YHWH which came to be pronounced YAHWEH.  There are those who believe that the name Yahweh should never be translated.

However, in most of our English Bibles the name YAHWEH is translated LORD.  A few times it is translated GOD.  In each instance capital letters are used so that the reader will know that the Hebrew is YAHWEH.  The name YAHWEH identifies God as Israel’s Redeemer or Deliverer and as Israel’s covenant God.  The truth is summed up in Exodus 20:2  when Yahweh made His covenant with Israel and gave them the Ten Commandments.  Yahweh’s preamble statement was, “I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”   Consider now the following verses:

Isaiah 42:8, “I am the LORD (Yahweh), that is My name; I will not give My glory to another,  Nor My praise to graven images (idols).”  Psalm 96:5 says “All the gods of the nations are idols.”

Exodus 15:3, “The LORD (Yahweh) is a warrior; The LORD (Yahweh) is His name.”

Psalm 68:4, “Sing to God, sing praises to His name…. Whose name is the LORD (Yahweh).”

Psalm 83:18, “That they may know that You alone, whose name is the LORD (Yahweh), Are the Most High over all the earth.”

Jeremiah 16:21, “They shall know My name is the LORD (Yahweh).”

Jeremiah 33:2, “The LORD (Yahweh) is His name.”

Amos 5:8,  “The LORD (Yahweh) is His name.” 

There are so many today who behave like Pharaoh in Exodus 5.  Moses went to Pharaoh and said,  “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me in the wilderness.’” ² But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord.”  Pharaoh would discover who Yahweh is under Yahweh’s heavy hand of judgment in the ten plagues and, finally, in his death in the Red Sea.  My exhortation to you is that you do not wait to find out who Yahweh is through the heavy hand of His judgment, the ultimate judgment being the eternal flames of the lake of fire.

This brings us to the second point I want to make.  In  Deuteronomy 4:34-35  Moses said to the Israelites,  “has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, as the Lord (Yahweh) your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵ To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord (Yahweh), He is God; there is no other besides Him.” 

What Yahweh did in Egypt was not done in a corner.  The surrounding nations also took note.  Rahab, who lived in Jericho, testified,  “When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the Lord (Yahweh) your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.”  (Joshua 2:11).  What is the clear note in these two passages?  Yahweh, He is God.  He alone is God.  Let us consider this truth. In the following verses.

Deuteronomy 4:39.  Moses emphasized to the Israelites, “Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the Lord (Yahweh), He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.”

Exodus 8:10.  Moses said to Pharaoh, “that you may know that there is no one like the LORD (Yahweh) our God.”  In Exodus 9:14 Yahweh told Moses to tell Pharaoh,  “that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth.”

Deuteronomy 32:39.  God said, “See now that I, I am He,  And there is no god besides Me;  It is I who put to death and give life.  I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.”

Isaiah 43:11 & 13.  God said, “I, even I, am the Lord (Yahweh), And there is no savior besides Me….  I am God.  ¹³ “Even from eternity I am He, And there is none who can deliver out of My hand;  I act and who can reverse it?”

Isaiah 44:6 & 8.  “Thus says the Lord (Yahweh), … ‘I am the first and I am the last,  And there is no God besides Me….  Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock?  I know of none.’”

Isaiah 45:5 & 6.  “I am the Lord (Yahweh), and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God…. That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me.  I am the Lord (Yahweh), and there is no other.”

Isaiah 45:18.  “For thus says the Lord (Yahweh), who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited),  “I am the Lord (Yahweh), and there is none else.”

Isaiah 45:21. “And there is  no other God besides Me,  A righteous God and a Savior;  There is none except Me.”

Isaiah 46:9.  “I am God, and there is no other;  I am God, and there is no one like Me.”

The God who revealed Himself by special revelation in the Bible, His name is YAHWEH.  He alone is God.  He is one and only true and living God, the righteous God and Savior of sinners.  There is no God besides Him.  1Thessalonians 1:9 tells us that the Thessalonians were saved through the preaching of the gospel because they  “turned to God from [their] idols to serve the living and true God.”  Do you want to be saved?  Then turn away from your sins and turn to the only living and true God.