One of my favourite ads currently is the KFC one where a girl orders a coffee.  When the barista asks her name, she responds, “Oh no thanks, I already have a boyfriend” Her delightfully awkward misread of the situation is well highlighted when the barista simply points his pen towards the cup. Did somebody say KFC?

A name is a segue into a relationship.  When someone tells you their name, they are making themself known to you and starting a connection with you.  Often, though, a name is more than just a label.  A name can be a title and can convey the fullness of a person’s identity, purpose and power.

In Exodus 3, God shares his name with Moses.  Yahweh.  I am who I am.  I will be who I will be. God’s identity is derived from nothing other than his own being.  Who he is is not contingent on anything else.  More than that, however, his name prioritises “being” over all else.  IN introducing himself to Moses, he does not lead with “I am the God who HAS this” or “I am the God who DOES this”.  Certainly, God does possess all things, and he is a supremely active God.  But his “having” and “doing” issue from his “being”.  His name conveys his command of existence as a whole.  His name is life.  

Those who know God as the one from whom all life comes and to whom all life is going can do nothing else but surrender their own life to his care.  Knowledge of his unique majesty rightly evokes trust.

Why?  Because when you come to know this God, you learn that he will not cast you off.  He has never forsaken those who seek him.  A genuine desire for God is generously blessed by God.  Always. He will never turn his hand of fellowship away.  And when we come to know him like this, we learn there is nothing better to know, because as Jesus wonderfully prays in John 17:3: “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”