Why Your Name Doesn't Mean Anything (But God's Does)

Episode description

Moses wants to know God’s name. Not a title, not a family tree, an actual name. What he gets back is not what he expects, and it changes what it even means to talk about God at all.

Pastor Harry Jarrett walks through Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3 and asks a question we don’t sit with often enough: why isn’t “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” a good enough answer? In the ancient world, a name wasn’t a label, it was a description of character. Jacob’s name meant “heel grabber,” and it described exactly the man he became. Nabal’s name meant “folly,” and folly is exactly what he was. So when Moses asks God’s name, he’s really asking, “what are you actually like? What can I count on you to do?”

Harry also gets personal about a season when his own name carried no weight at all, and what it took for that to change. He closes with three practical things to carry into this week, and a story about a boy whose name meant “God hears,” long before anyone heard him.

If you’ve been telling people you don’t believe in God, this one might ask you a harder question first: which God don’t you believe in?

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Pleasant Valley Church of the Brethren, Weyers Cave, Virginia