Messianic Jews Worshipping Yeshua Jesus

[eprom]

Yahuah is God’s Celebration Name

When Moses met God at the burning bush, he asked curious question:

And Moses said to God, Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they may say to me, What is His name? What do I say to them?' Exodus 3:13

The query I would like to pose is: why did Moses ask this question in the first place? I solicited a reaction from my son and he thought it might have been because Moses knew of so many different gods in Egypt, and after 400 years in captivity, the Israelites no longer retained the name of their forefather’s God. Interesting point, that I’m sure lots of people might have already considered . . . but probably not. Moses named his second son Eliezer, a theophoric name meaning El is help. This is the very El name in Exodus 6:3 that God says is the name by which He appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So the Israelites did retain this name, and Moses demonstrated that he himself knew about it by naming his second son Eliezer.

Think about the unique way by which God manifested His presence at the burning bush that prompted Moses to ask this question. Just earlier in Exodus 3:2, it states that, “The angel of Yahuah appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush.” Moses wasn’t talking to a burning bush. He was interacting with a messenger of God in the midst of this burning bush. And just as Sampson’s father Manoah had asked the angel of Yahuah what his name was in Judges 13:17, Moses may have felt peculiar but at ease enough with the human form of this Angel to ask the question, by what name for God should he take to the Israelites.

As it turned out, this wouldn’t be the only incident where Moses interacted with this angel. In fact, this particular manifestation of God’s presence, demonstrated by the messenger of Yahuah inside the mysterious fire that would guide Moses and the Israelites from the time they leave Egypt, to their arrival in the Promised Land. Both this angel of Yahuah and the pillar of cloud & fire are seen concurrently with each other for the first time in Exodus 14.

“The angel of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.” Exodus 14:19

There is something very special about this angel of God that guards and guides the people of Israel as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He actually has the name of Yahuah IN HIM:

“Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My name is in him.” (Exodus 23:20, 21)

There’s something else that’s absolutely remarkable about this angel of Yahuah, who appears as a pillar of cloud and fire. We find this angel preceding Moses up Mount Sinai in the following chapter of Exodus and manifesting the glory of Yahuah at the top of the mountian. “The glory of Yahuah rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of Yahuah was like a consuming fire on the mountain top.” (Exodus 24:16, 17)

How do we know it was this same pillar of cloud and fire that led the Israelites in the wilderness that manifested the presence of Yahuah over Mount Sinai?

• All of the references to this Hebrew term for cloud (Strongs #H6050) in Exodus refer to a supernatural cloud that represented the guiding presence of God.
  
• Moses and the elders could only have ascended up the mountain once the pillar of cloud / fire lifted from the camp. Exodus 40:36, Numbers 9:22, 10:34
  
• It was this very angel, enshrouded by cloud and fire that descended on the tabernacle and filled it with the glory of God’s presence. Exodus 40:34, 35, Numbers 9:15, 16:42, Deuteronomy 31:15,
  
  
  And this manifestation of God’s glory was not just reserved for Mount Sinai and wilderness tabernacle. We find this same cloud of God’s glory filling Solomon’s Temple in 1Kings 8:10,11 and Ezekiel’s temple in Ezekiel 10:3, 4.
  
  So what’s the point? Clearly, this angel of God, who appeared within the fire of the burning bush, and the pillar of cloud & fire throughout the Old Testament is a significant character in scripture, but what does this all have to do with why you and I should call on God’s sacred name? The reason we walked through this brief topical study of the angel in the burning bush will be apparent shortly, but for now, let’s first reflect on God’s response to Moses’ question.
  
  “Therefore you shall say to the sons of Israel, Yahuah, 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 CELEBRATION NAME TO ALL GENERATIONS”
  
  Resisting the temptation to write a commentary on this deeply significant passage, we’ll simply ask you to consider two simple questions:
  

1. 
   
2. Is there anything about the statement, “This is my name forever, and this is my celebration name to all generations” that would lead you to believe that God ever wanted us to stop using this name?
   
3. Since this is God’s celebration (zêker Strong’s #2143) name, why wouldn’t every believer rejoice with the prospect of releasing His true name as an act of love and worship to the one who redeemed us?
   

We’re just scratching the surface on this study, but we’ll make just one more final observation about our angel in the burning bush to tie Him together with this imperative God gave to celebrate Him by using His sacred name. Are you ready for this? This messenger of God in the burning bush and the pillar of cloud & fire would usher in the manifest presence or the glory of God as Moses and the Israelites called on and worshiped the sacred name of God.

“Yahuah descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of Yahuah.” Exodus 34:5

And all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and kinsmen, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps and lyres, standing east of the altar, and with them one hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify Yahuah, and when they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised Yahuah saying, "He indeed is good for His lovingkindness is everlasting," then the house, the house of Yahuah, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of Yahuah filled the house of God. 2Ch 5:12 - 14

This is God’s celebration name because God’s glory is manifested when His children worship and call on His name Yahuah. I believe this angel in the burning bush was actually a theophany, or a pre-incarnate appearance of MeshiYah, and as we utter the Father’s name Yahuah, we are calling on the redemptive heart of God and manifest the glory of His son into our here and now.

[GoldenEagle]

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