Day 1: God Has a Name!

For Week One of the series, we will conduct a word study to explore the depth of the name of God, Yahweh. Word studies explore the origins of the biblical word in the original language. Then the historical context is layered on to provide further depth of understanding. A final purpose of the study is to expose any potential misconceptions that our own cultural lens may cause.

Wow! Pretty hard to wrap our brains around, right? Another way of understanding it, according to John Piper, is God’s name for Himself is “I AM WHO I AM.” Based on His revealed name, here are some principles about God we can assume are true:

1. God has no beginning.
2. God is without end.
3. God is absolute reality.
4. God is utterly independent.
5. Everything depends on him.
6. Nothing compares to God.
7. God cannot be improved.
8. God sets the ultimate standard. 9. God always does right.

10. Nothing is worth more.

• Which do you find most comforting? Why is that?
• Which of these truths do you find most challenging to understand?
• Which do you feel would help you strengthen your faith? Why?

  The above list of truths about God is, again, from John Piper.

  You can check out Piper’s full sermon/transcript here.

Day 2: God Has a Name!

Sometimes Yahweh is translated, “self–existent one.”

• How is this translation a little different than the others we have examined so far?

• What is implied about God as creator in this translation?

  The name, Yahweh, occurs 6,828 times in the Old Testament (see worshipexposed.com). The Jews considered this name so holy, they were careful not to speak it! They often substituted the name Adonai (Lord) for Yahweh.

• Consider the depth of reverence implied by not speaking the Name of God. How may understanding the specialness of His name inspire reverence from you toward God?

• How may our culture minimize the name, Yahweh? What could hold us back from understanding the importance of this name of God that God Himself revealed?

Day 3: God Has a Name!

Jesus claims the name, Yahweh, in Mark 14:62 and John 8:58. Read both of those verses and answer the following questions:

• Jesus is revealing His true identify as Yahweh. Why would this have been a shocking statement to the Pharisees?

• What are the implications for us as followers of Christ that he is Yahweh?

  Read John 1:1-5 and Colossians 1:15-20.

• In what ways do these verses illustrate how Jesus lives up to the

name, Yahweh?

o Asself-existentone? o Ascreator?
o As pre-eminent one? o AstheimageofGod?

Day 4: God Has a Name!

At this point of this study, it is probably safe to say we have made the point that names are important. God’s name for Himself reveals to us mysteries of Who He is. As we progress in our study of Exodus 34: 6-7, we will learn more about God’s character revealed to Moses in these verses. But here’s a cool thing to consider. Let’s explore the biblical passages that explain how believers are promised a new name. Consider how Abram was given a new name to better represent him once he was

in relationship with the Lord. In the new kingdom when Jesus reigns, we, too will have a new name!

Read Isaiah 65:15 and Revelation 2:17.

Day 5: God is…Compassionate and Gracious!

Let’s start off week 2 with another word study. Actually two word studies. The first is the Hebrew word, rahum, may be translated, “to be soft; used of the love of parents toward children.” The second word we will be focused on this week, hanun, means “grace.” In his book, God Has a Name, John Mark Comer provides a helpful explanation of how these two words connect. He explains that rahum we-hanun is a word pairing in Hebrew. The words sound alike and help explain one another. He claims that rahum is from the Hebrew root for “womb” and intimates a mother’s love for a child. It is a feeling word. In contrast, hanun is an action word, meaning to show favor or to help someone in their time of need (Komer, p. 128). When these words are paired together, we can understand God’s nature a little better!

• When you think of God loving you like a parent, what comes to mind?
• How would you describe the feelings a perfect parent (as only God can be) would have toward their child?
• Describe how you feel loved by God as His child? What are the aspects of being love that mean the most to you? Write a prayer of response to Him thanking Him for specific ways he shows you that type of parent-like love.

Day 6: God is…Compassionate and Gracious!

Compassion is feeling. Read Psalm 103: 13-16.

• God knows how we are formed (vs. 14-16). Knowing that He is acquainted with our bodies, emotions, and humanity, how can you rest in this knowledge? What can you hand over to Him that only your Eternal Parent can understand and take care of?

Continue ruminating on God’s parental love by reading Psalm 139:13-18.

• React to the truth that God was with you, knitting you together in your mother’s womb. What kind of confidence does this give

  you?

• Just like an earthly parent thinks all the time about their child, God thinks about you! How can you learn more about His love for you as you consider how a parent mulls over their children? What comes to your mind about this type of love?

Day 7: God is…Compassionate and Gracious!

Grace is action. Read Psalm 40:1-4.
In some versions of the Bible, verse 1 is translated, “I waited patiently for the Lord; then he stooped down and heard my cry.” The phrase, stooped down, is also translated “inclined,” “stretched out” and “bow.”

• Can you remember a time when you waited patiently for Yahweh? What was that like for you? What emotions do you recall having during that time?

• How has God bowed, stretched, inclined Himself toward you?

• Can you describe a time when God delivered you and set you upon a rock, gave you firm footing, stabilized you in a rough patch of your life?

• Once rescued, the psalmist offers God a “new song.” What makes a song new? Can you write a “new song” to Him today here below?

Day 8: God is…Compassionate and Gracious!

Jesus shows compassion. Read Matthew 9:35-38 and John 10:11-18.

• In Matthew 9, Jesus is moved to compassion when he enters the synagogue and sees “sheep without a shepherd.” What does it mean for sheep to not be shepherded? What happens to them?

• Jesus claims to be the Good Shepherd. He draws a contrast between good shepherds and those who are not. Describe the differences below.

• How have you received the care of the Good Shepherd? Read Psalm 23 for some ideas!

Day 9: God is…Compassionate and Gracious!

We show compassion, mercy, and grace, too! Read Matthew 5:7, Ephesians 2:4-10.

• What is the relationship between receiving mercy and extending mercy?

• We have received a great gift, one we do not deserve and cannot earn…Christ’s righteousness for our sinfulness. How does knowing this inspire you to live out your faith?

Day 10: God Has…Blasting Nostrils and a Big Nose?!?

Different cultures and languages sometimes use different figures of speech to express similar ideas. When we hear someone described as “hot–headed” or “short–fused,” we interpret that to mean that the person tends toward anger and it doesn’t take much to set them off to blow up in your face. Gunpowder and the ignition fuse wouldn’t be invented until roughly 2,400 years after the time of Moses, so “short– fused” would be meaningless to the ancient Israelites. However, a Jew from 1440 B.C. would totally relate to the idea of “hot–headedness.”

The Hebrew language equivalent to a “short fuse” was actually a “short nose” – stemming from the idea that heat radiating from an angry person’s head would extend out to heat up the nose protruding from their face. The Hebrew expression translated in Exodus 34:6 as “slow to anger” is ‘erek ‘apayim. The literal translation of that phrase is “long of nose” or “long of nostril.” The term for anger used throughout the Old Testament is literally “heat of nose.”

Day 11: God Has…Blasting Nostrils and a Big Nose?!?

In the Bible Project’s Character of God: Slow to Anger Study Notes, they point our own modern cultural attitudes about anger that we should understand as we try to understand God and God’s anger:

There are two important ideas associated with the emotion of anger in our cultural context— one positive, one negative.

• Anger as protection: Anger is a physical response our bodies generate when something we value is threatened, compromised, or lost. There is almost always a deeper feeling or value at stake that generates an angry response.

• Anger as abuse: Anger is a sign of losing self-control, and when it’s expressed by someone in a position of power, it can be used to bully, threaten, and intimidate subordinates into compliance and submission.

  These are primarily psychological (anger as protection) and sociological (anger as abuse) perspectives on anger. They have deeply influenced not only the way we talk about anger but also the way we conceive of anger and how we evaluate it.

  When we come to the Bible, how we react to God’s anger will depend on our life experience, our disposition to the Christian faith in general (open-minded, faith-friendly, skeptic, or hostile), and our core beliefs about God’s character.

  For example, if I already think of God as a distant, all-powerful sovereign, then His anger will seem more like a dangerous and volatile expression of a deeply angry being. But if I already think of God as a generous, creative father, then His anger will seem measured, fair, and a reasonable expression of his justice and fairness.

  So what we need to do is clear the deck and trace the development of God’s anger through the storyline of the Bible.

Day 12: God Has…Blasting Nostrils and a Big Nose?!?

From the Fall of Eden to the Flood of Noah, the book of Genesis is full of stories of God’s reactive judgment upon a humanity gone wrong. However, believe it or not, when those accounts describe God’s emotional response and personal tone, there is not one instance specifically identified as anger in the entire book of Genesis.

The first mention of God’s anger, specifically, doesn’t appear until Exodus 4:14, where the anger of the Lord burned (literally, “his nose burned hot”). What drove God to this first historically documented expression of anger? It was some objections raised toward God spoken by Moses – Moses, the author of the book of Exodus!

Read Exodus 3:10 – 4:17.

• Why was God angry with Moses in Exodus 4:14? What in the previous verses led up to that anger?

• God’s angry response to Moses is documented in the second half of Exodus 4:14 through verse 17. This being the first specific mention of God’s actual anger in the Bible, what does it tell us about ways that God’s anger manifests itself?

Day 13: God Has…Blasting Nostrils and a Big Nose?!?

In the famous parting of the Red Sea with Moses and the Israelites escaping Egyptian slavery, God’s response to humanity is specifically described as burning anger for the second time in Scripture, in Exodus 15:7. This time, the object of God’s hot nose is the actions of Pharoah.

Read Exodus 6:1 – 11:10 and then Exodus 14:1 – 15:21.

• While reading these passages, be sure to note how Exodus 15:8 describes how at the blast of God’s nostrils, the waters piled up. That blasting nostril imagery sure becomes even richer and more complex when the previous verse is viewed in a hot nasal anger context!

• As you work through this long account across these eight chapters, imagine yourself in God’s and Moses’s place as, repeatedly, Pharoah refuses to respond to God. Find the point in the story where Moses is first mentioned to burn with anger. At what point in the story would you have blown up in anger in frustration with Pharoah?

• What does reading the entire long story starting in chapter 6, leading up to God’s anger in Exodus 15:7 describe about God’s slowness to anger?

• What similarities are there between God’s anger at Moses earlier in Exodus 4 and toward Pharoah in later in Exodus? In what ways were Moses and Pharoah acting the same way?

• What is different between the Exodus 4 and Exodus 14-15 stories in how God’s anger displayed itself? What do those differences reveal about what “righteous anger” might appropriately look like in different situations?

Day 14: God Has…Blasting Nostrils and a Big Nose?!?

Read Exodus 32:1-14. This is the third scriptural account specifically describing God’s anger.

• Why was God angry? Thinking back to that idea of anger as a protection response, what was the “deeper feeling or value at stake that generates an angry response in God’s relationship with His chosen people?

How did God respond in His anger here in Exodus 32:14? Why did God respond that way? How does this story paint a picture of God staying true to all of the characteristics as described in the main verses of this series (Exodus 34:6-7)? Also think about God’s relationship history with the Jews up to this point and how that long history represents a slowness to anger

Day 15: God’s Love Defies Defining

We will continue to explore how God describes Himself, this week, exploring the next phrase of Exodus 34:6-7: God’s love and faithfulness.

The translation of this Hebrew phrase has been hotly contested for centuries. Unfortunately, the English language fails to have a 1-1- word translation for hesed, the word translated “love” in most of our English Bible translations of Exodus 34:6. Some translators have used “steadfast love,” “unfailing love,” and “covenant loyalty” (Comer, p. 193). However, this word means so much more than love; it is one of the key concepts of God’s character that will root us in understanding Him! According to Hebrew scholar David Block, as cited in Comer’s God Has a Name, hesed is a covenant term that encompasses the sum of God’s character. Wow! This word that is so often translated “love” means the completion of God keeping His promises in a long-lasting, faithful manner, illustrating His patience and mercy.

There’s a BibleProject video about hesed on YouTube (but they use a different English- letter spelling of the Hebrew as “khesed”).

You can view this video here.

The Hebrew word emet is the second word in this phrase, translated as “faithfulness” in some of our contemporary English Bibles. In today’s youth culture, its equivalent is when an audience member exclaims, “Word!” or “Truth!” to emphasize their agreement with a speaker. Strong’s Dictionary translates the word as reliability, truthfulness, sureness, stability, and continuance.

Day 16: God’s Love Defies Defining

This idea of steadfast, covenant love that is stable and secure, hesed, is illustrated well in the Old Testament book of Ruth. This love, supremely exemplified in Yahweh, is also exemplified in the story featuring characters of the book of Ruth: Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz.

Read Ruth 1 and Psalms 89:1-8; 14-18.

• Who are Naomi and Ruth and where are they living at the start of the book of Ruth?

• In Chapter 1, the narrator begins to contrast the two women. In the space below, compare the two women’s responses to the situation they find themselves in at the start of the book.

• How is God’s covenant love depicted in this chapter?

• According to the psalmist, what are the characteristics of God’s

  faithful love to Israel?

• Describe a time you have questioned God’s faithful love to you? What were the circumstances in your life that clouded your accurate vision of God’s love?

Day 17: God’s Love Defies Defining

Read Ruth 2 and Psalms 136:23-26.

• Describe Ruth’s action in Chapter 2. What do you think motivated these actions?

• A new character, Boaz, is introduced. How is he described in this passage? What actions does he take? What do you think motivated his actions?

• Recall a time you trusted God to provide your most basic needs, i.e., food, water, shelter, clothing, and He delivered. What stands out to you from this memory?

• In response to God’s faithful, steadfast love for you, write a few more personally relevant refrains to Psalm 136. For example:

  He remembered me when I was alone in my middle school

  His love endures forever.

  And provided a good friend for me in my history class

  His love endures forever.

  He helped me be brave and not give in to peer pressure

  His love endures forever.

  And secured for me opportunities for meaningful work.

  His love endures forever.

Day 18: God’s Love Defies Defining

Read Ruth 3-4 and Psalms 89:19-29

• The relationship between Boaz and Ruth develops in exciting ways in Chapter 3-4. Describe what happens.

  o What is Ruth requesting of Boaz?

  o How does Boaz respond?

• Compare Boaz to Yahweh. In what ways does Boaz, as a

  guardian-redeemer, illustrate God’s love?

• Over the story told in Ruth, Naomi’s faith seems to be transformed from despair and doubt to belief and blessing. How has God’s faithful love been demonstrated in Naomi’s life? In what ways does Naomi’s story arc resonate with you?

• Ruth went from being an observer of the Jewish faith to a celebrated member of the genealogy of King David and is named in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus’s lineage. How is hesed, God’s covenant love, illustrated in Ruth’s life?

• In the excerpt from Psalm 89, the Psalmist celebrates God’s hesed (covenant love) in His promise of a King. How is Jesus the ultimate fulfillment of the promised love of God towards David?

• Describe your growing understanding of God’s faithful love: hesed. How does better understanding His enduring, covenant love affect you?

Day 19: God’s Love Defies Defining

Read John 15:1-17 and Hebrews 10:19-25.

• What struggles challenge and make it hard for you to abide in Christ?
• Reflect on this quotation: “As we rely on God and trust his Spirit to mold us in his image, true hope takes shape within us, “a hope that does not disappoint.” We can literally become better persons because of suffering. Pain, however meaningless it may seem at the time, can be transformed. Where is God when it hurts? He is in us—not in the things that hurt—helping to transform bad into good. We can safely say that God can bring good out of evil; we cannot say that God brings about the evil in hopes of producing good.” ― Philip Yancey, Where Is God When It Hurts?
• How does knowing that God is with you–He is faithful–give you a special sense of hope for this season of your life?
• Similar to how Ruth was covered physically and metaphorically by Boaz through marriage, you are covered by Christ’s blood through His sacrifice on the cross and given new life and righteousness through His resurrection. How does knowledge of Christ’s redeeming power over you affect your faith for today as you encounter trials and temptations?
• We, too, can be faithful. God has given us the Holy Spirit to fill us with knowledge of His will and to understand His love. What does remain in Him look like in your life right now? Seek the Holy Spirit to speak to you to help you understand how you may abide today in Him and what ways you can obey Him so your faithfulness to Him will increase

Day 20: God’s Love Demands Justice

There are two common objections held by people who struggle in their understanding of the God of the Bible, particularly God as described in the Old Testament:

• How can a “loving” God have perpetrated all the horrifying, murderous acts of vengeful judgment described in the Old Testament?
• How can a “loving” God allow evil and suffering in the world? Many (most?) people who are asking one of those questions will be drawn to ask both. The fact that these two questions, reasonably, both offend our sense of justice in some way. And both when paired together have a built-in contradiction that points to the complexity of the questions and their answers. But our offended sense of justice and the tension to resolve that contradiction also points to the actual answer. The fact is, for these characteristics of God we’ve studied to be true and real, they all have to work together in harmony and make sense in combination. God must be compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and loving and faithful. But God’s anger is rooted in protection and God must also enforce justice to be loving.
  
  

  Guess what? The BibleProject has a resource about God’s vengeance; but it’s not a video, it’s a blog article!

  You can read this article – “Why Did God Command the Invasion of Canaan in the Book of Joshua?” HERE

  
  Consider a parent who doesn’t discipline their toddler after wandering into traffic or won’t defend their toddler who is getting kicked and bullied by a bigger, older sibling. That horrible, thoughtless parenting would inflame your sense of compassion, loving justice and protective anger – particularly if you were a parent yourself, but especially if you were the toddler!

Day 21: God’s Love Demands Justice

Re-read Exodus 6:1 – 11:10 and then Exodus 14:1 – 15:21, the passages about God and Moses addressing Pharoah’s oppression of the Jews, but this time think about how the story describes a God who loves people but hates evil and injustice.

As we saw in the Week 3 Exodus 3:10 – 4:17 is a story about God’s anger with Moses, yet God’s anger doesn’t necessarily result in violent judgment. And earlier acts of sometimes violent judgment documented in Genesis were not linked to God’s anger. Anger does not equal judgment/punishment and vice versa.

Read 2 Peter 3:1-9. This passage isn’t exactly about God’s slowness to anger, it describes God’s slowness to destructive judgment and punishment.

• When and how in your life have you been grateful that God extended grace and a slowness to judgment toward you? Toward others in your life?

• When and how in your life have you wished God’s judgment had come more quickly or His punishment had been more severe based on your sense of fairness or justice?

• How would you explain to a friend who doesn’t know God the relationships between all these characteristics of God and how they work together, even if they seem contradictory on the surface?

• Close your time with the Lord in prayer, reflecting on the beauty of His nature and the depth of His love. You may want to begin by praising His character revealed in Exodus 34:6-7 and thanking Him for how His faithfulness has been present in your life. Write a prayer to Him below, using words from the passage to worship Him!