Sinclair Ferguson

We should never lose sight of the fact that everything God has created, He has created for His own glory.

But His own glory is never adversative to His children's good.

And He has done this also for our good.

We are continuing these introductory studies to Christian doctrine with a reflection today on God the Lord as Creator.

We looked previously at this title that God gives to himself in Exodus chapter 3 when he speaks to Moses and says, when the people ask you what my name is, tell them I am has sent you.

And we might think for a moment that it's strange for us, first of all, to think about God as Lord revealing himself to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus chapter three, and then go back to speak to God the Lord as creator.

That might seem at first sight to be the wrong way around.

Don't we speak first of all about God as Creator, Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, and then move on to Exodus 3 to speak about Him as the Lord?

But there's more than one reason why this is a legitimate way for us to think.

The first is that God did not become the Lord.

at the burning bush.

He already was the Lord, and He was that same Lord at creation, because He was that same Lord eternally.

So, I AM precedes creation.

And not only that, but there's a very interesting thing that we find when we read through the Scriptures from the beginning, and perhaps a puzzle when we come to Exodus chapter 3.

God says to Moses, by my name Yahweh, by my name I am, I was not revealed to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob.

And it looks as though he's saying to Moses, Moses, this is the first time anyone has ever had disclosed to them my personal name.

Just as we saw when we were talking about the Trinity, that it's only when Jesus is about to ascend that for the first time in history, in a sense, we learn how to pronounce God's name properly.

Never before in the history of redemption had God been called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Yes, little indications that this was so.

But here for the first time, as I suggested earlier on, we have God's Christian name.