The Trinity Part 1

The Opening Prayer and the Plan to Study Genesis

We're going to open with a word of prayer and we're going to get into the book of Genesis and it's going to take us About nine years to get through it. Luther lectured in Genesis for a better part of two decades.

So, you know, I promise I won't take that long. Yeah, although reading Luther's commentary on Genesis is at times is a scream, but I'll explain that as we go. Let's pray Heavenly Father we pray that you would bless us with the reading of your word feed us open our eyes as to what you would have us.

Believe in what you've revealed regarding our origins the problem that we face as human beings in the solution that you have provided for us. To your glory. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, we are in Genesis chapter 1 verse 1.

And I.

Must let you know ahead of time that there is a very small chance that we're going to get past chapter 1 today. In fact, it's there's a small chance that we're going to get past chapter 1 verse 1. There's so much going on in verse 1 and by the way If if you take notes in Hebrew Okay, when we do the final when we have the final in the class you get extra points.

If you can actually communicate to me in Hebrew some of the points that I'm making I'm joking. I Can read Hebrew? Yes, sir, and Anima vena vreet. I understand Hebrew as well as I speak it. So, okay now Sentence number one of the Bible is a one of the most fascinating sentences in all of Scripture because the Bible begins with something that as English speakers get we don't get the full import of what's going on here.

Something is lost in translation and we're gonna have to tease this out now I don't expect you to know this but I'm gonna point this out to you. The way the Hebrew reads it says better sheet better. Ah Elohim at Hashem.

I am va at ha Eretz Translation in the beginning God Created the heavens and the earth. Here's the problem. This word right here is the word Elohim. Does anyone know what the word Elohim means? Now in Hebrew the word for God is L Singular the word for God's plural is Elohim.

Now here's the weird thing better sheet in the beginning bar. Ah, this is third-person Singular and it's a verb. Now if you were to translate this literally it would be in the beginning God's He created the heavens and the earth now we're either dealing with some really bad grammar or We're confronted with something unique regarding God and in the first sentence of the Bible we are confronted with a God we could have never expected and This very first sentence begins to hint at the doctrine of the Trinity.

The Trinity Hinted at in Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:26

Now I anyone here can can you just give me some of the finer nuances of the doctrine of the Trinity? Anyone here understand that doctrine? I.

Don't.

Okay.

How many of you if a Jehovah's Witness showed up at your doorstep this afternoon while watching? Minnesota lose. I'm joking. I'm joking. Yeah, the Indianapolis lost last week, so I'm still kind of bitter about it.

But how many of you if a Jehovah's Witness showed up at your door? Claiming that the doctrine of the Trinity is a pagan doctrine not taught in the Bible that you could open up your Bible and easily. Demonstrate to them that the scriptures teach that there is one God who exists in three persons.

Anyone up for the task?

You're you up for it.

Okay, you do. Yeah, yeah, see this is the Genesis 126 also. Hints at this where God says let us make man in our image. What's this us stuff, right? So this again hints at the doctrine of the Trinity so as we study Scripture this is kind of an important thing one of the things I'm going to be teaching you and I'm gonna hammer you guys on is This idea that when Scripture speaks we speak when Scripture silent we stay silent.

And if you don't understand a biblical text the first place you go to understand what the Bible is teaching is the Bible. The Bible interprets the Bible. Scripture interprets Scripture. Does that make sense so in this first sentence?

We don't see it in English, but if you read Hebrew you get it. There's something funky going on here, and how are we to reconcile this? Well this first sentence then begs us to deal with the doctrine of God who is God?

What's he all about and what can we learn about him from Scripture? So we're gonna do a little bit of a survey. We're gonna hop around the scriptures a little bit and take a look at different passages now.

The Shema and the Bible’s Exclusive Claims About One God

Who knows biblical passages that say explicitly that there's only one God? Hero Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one that the Shema Shema Israel right okay? So that's Deuteronomy 6 4. Hero Israel the Lord our God the Lord is echad.

He's one. Now that becomes a little bit of a challenging verse because the question is what is meant by echad by one? Echad could mean one in the sense of a plurality it kind of hints at that, but it's not always that case.

Does that make sense? So but that is a place that you would go hero Israel the Lord our God the Lord it is one that's Deuteronomy 6 4. How about anyone else?

Ephesians 4 what's it say one. God give us the reference again, okay?

So in order to reconcile this grammatical issue where it says that there's Elohim. Okay, we have to look in other passages of Scripture the Ephesians passage is one of them. Let's take a little bit of a survey here and if you have your Bibles, let's open up to the book of Isaiah the prophet and.

Let me real quick check my notes to make sure I'm going to the right address. Yeah, we're gonna go to Isaiah 43. Verse 10 is the verse that we're going to look at. But we're going to apply our three rules for sound biblical interpretation.

Does anyone know what the three primary rules for sound biblical interpretation are. And Stephen you have to keep your hand down? That's right. Context context context. You remember when you're selling a house.

They you know or you're buying a house. Location location location. Whenever you're studying God's Word, or you're having somebody teach it including me. Context is an important thing. So what's going on in the book of Isaiah here and.

And we need to understand what's going on and that is as well people of Israel have once again Started worshiping other gods. When you read the Old Testament. You're going to find that the God who is revealed in the Old Testament is not the same kind of God that you see on The bumper stickers being touted by certain people.

Yeah, I'll ever seen that coexist symbol okay, where it says coexist and like there's the C is like the. You know the Islam symbol. And then you got you know the buddha symbol and and then the cross and and all this kind of stuff.

The idea behind coexist is that somehow all Religions are true, or as they like to say are there are many trails to take you to the top of Mount Fuji, right? Well the thing is we're not climbing Mount Fuji and the God of scripture has revealed that there are no other gods besides him.

So in other words a law of Islam doesn't exist. Period. Shiva of Hinduism does not exist. These are man-made deities and back in the day Israel prior to Christ's birth they kept struggling with Temptation to worship false gods and so God sent prophets.

Isaiah being one of the prophets and the prophets generally had messages that went along the lines of this repent repent. Repent of your idolatry. Return to the Lord. He is merciful. He will forgive you repent.

Turn from these worthless idols. Worthless is the way they talk about it, right? And of course Israel responded by generally killing those guys. They were not well liked. They did not just blend in and try to get along they were particularly obnoxious.

So we're going to look at Isaiah 43 and I'm going to start at verse.

8.

Lead out those who have eyes but are blind. Who have ears but are deaf. All the nations gathered together the people's assembled. Which of them foretold this and proclaimed to us the former things. Let them bring in their witness to prove they were right So that others may hear and say it is true.

And then God says this. You are my witnesses declares the Lord Servant whom I have chosen so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am. Hey, ah, I am he before me. No God was formed. Nor will there be one after me.

I even I am the Lord and apart from me. There is.

No.

Savior.

How many gods were created before the Lord. Zero. How many will be created after him. Now this is going to step on some toes. This rules out Mormonism.

Mormonism, the Divine Name, and Taking the Lord’s Name in Vain

Why?

Mormonism teaches let's talk about this. Mormonism teaches that God's name is Elohim, which is kind of funky. It means that Joseph Smith didn't know Hebrew, but they claim that God's name is Elohim and Elohim lived on a planet Long time ago and he was a man and He followed his God and by being obedient to his God his God exalted him so that he became a God himself and Now Elohim lives on a mysterious planet near a star named Kolob.

He and his his spirit wives they are procreating and creating spirit babies and those spirit babies are being sent to earth when people conceive and They are given the choice as to whether or not they want to become gods themselves.

In Mormonism they teach was called the law of eternal progression. The law of eternal progression states and this is a direct quote from Mormon doctrine as man is God once was as God is man can become.

As man is God once was as God is man can become. That's called the law of eternal progression. So all the Mormon missionaries who come to your door and they wear this special underwear and they're doing their missionary work, right?

They have as their ultimate goal for themselves to become gods. I'm not making this up all in the name of Jesus and Jesus is different to Jesus. They're Jesus. Although they use the word Jesus Jesus is One of the firstborn children of Elohim his brother's name is Lucifer.

So.

Jesus is a creature just like you and I are. This is what Mormonism teaches. Isaiah 43 cent 10 says let me read it again. You are my witnesses declares the Lord and my servant whom I have chosen. So that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he before me.

No God was formed Nor will there be any after me. What does that mean about Mormonism? You're gonna notice something as you study your Bible. The Bible makes truth claims.

And.

We as Christians are not to challenge those truth claims were to understand them and believe them. This is what scripture commands us what God commands us through his word to do. So if you say, you know Chris The God I believe in wouldn't be so exclusive as to say something as exclusive as that.

To hurt people's religious sympathies and feelings by telling them that their deities don't exist and before him. No, God's existed. Isn't it? Okay, isn't it? Just good that people believe in a God and that they're good people.

No.

No, if the God you believe in is not the God revealed in Scripture you believe in an idol. You believe in a God of your own making. Harsh words, right? But this is most certainly true. So we learn that God makes exclusive truth claims now.

I need to introduce you to a word here. This word right here. The word is Yahweh.

Y H W H.

Okay, whenever you see in your Old Testament the words capital L capital O capital R capital D what that is is that is the divine name of God Yahweh and There's a certain thing that's picked up in our English translations that kind of goes back all the way back to the Jews and Here's the idea.

The commandment says you will not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

So.

Kind of a Jewish tradition whenever God's Actual name showed up. They wouldn't pronounce it. They would pronounce the Hebrew word Adonai.

Lord.

Why well because if you're not saying his name you can't take it in vain now, can you? Right, I don't particularly like that tradition. I Don't particularly like it. So oftentimes when I'm reading through the Old Testament and I come across the word Lord capital.

It's all capitals. I will put in the word Yahweh God has revealed his name and we can use his name, but we cannot use his name to deceive people. Does that make sense? Remember what Luther said in the small catechism?

What does it mean to take the Lord's name in vain? Let me pull up my catechism here. Second commandment you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God Luther asked. What does this mean bassist us?

Yeah, we should fear and love God so that we do not curse swear. You satanic arts lie or deceive by his name, but call upon it in every trouble pray praise and give thanks. Now this is kind of on a little bit of a tangent because we're talking about the divine name here Yahweh.

What it means to take God's name in vain. God's name is taken in vain when a Mormon says That you can become a god in the name of God. When somebody says if you send a thousand dollars to my ministry God's going to send you give you a hundredfold blessing.

That's deceiving by using God's name. So using God's name in vain literally means to hijack God's name his brand if you would and.

Use it.

To sell cheap knockoffs of sound doctrine if you all ever been to New York. Anyone been to New York City and been accosted by the people trying to sell you, you know. Like, you know Gucci bags and you know and Rolex watches and stuff like that on the street, right?

You know, I. Funny story. I used to have a boss who he wanted a Rolex in the worst way and. Of course who can afford such a thing, right? Okay anything. Why do you want a Rolex. And so he actually made a trip and when he came back from the trip?

He was wearing a Rolex. I'm thinking where'd you get the Rolex? And then I took a closer look at it and didn't quite have the sweep. The second hand kind of stopped, right? I think that's a cheap knockoff.

Where'd you get that thing? It's like he's all I bought it. I bought it from a vendor, you know, he's a you know. And and so what was funny is is that we were getting ready to go into a meeting and okay and the way he had.

His sleeves rolled up. Okay, he wanted he wanted, you know. The the guy that we were having the meeting with to see the Rolex. But he wanted to be far enough away so he couldn't see that it wasn't sweeping.

Okay, really?

Okay.

And then ultimately his wrist turned green and he had to get rid of the thing.

A.

Colex, uh-huh. Colex.

Colex so the idea of taking God's name in vain is like taking the Rolex name or brand or logo and Throwing it on to a cheap knockoff. The cheap knockoff is never going to be the original, right? So when you take God's name you hijack his name and then you tack it on to a theology that you've invented.

That's what it means to take God's name in vain. So the the word is Yahweh and let me pull it out for you here. We'll do it this way so that you can so from time to time. You'll see me actually put this on the overhead and it reads this way.

Okay, the Hebrews got it all backwards. So Yod. Hey. Wow. Hey, and it's pronounced Yahweh. Right. So whenever you see L-o-r-d all caps in the Old Testament. It's referring to that Yahweh, right. Now you can do it this you can do it this way.

Mm-hmm. Y-a-h-w-e-h.

Yahweh.

Yeah, let's take a look some other passages here. Isaiah 43 10 makes it painfully clear that there is only One God no God's form before the Lord. No God's formed after the Lord. I'm gonna read some other passages for you that I've pulled out and I'll read them to you.

Deuteronomy 4 verse 35. To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord Yahweh is God there is no other besides him. There's no other God besides him.

None.

Deuteronomy 4 39. No, therefore today and lay it in your heart that Yahweh is God in heaven above and on earth beneath there is.

No.

Other so if you believe in the flying spaghetti monster, he doesn't exist. It's kind of a current cultural thing up here. I don't know if people know what that is if you're praying to Vishnu. If that was a phone call you'd hear.

We're sorry. The number that you're trying to reach has been disconnected or is no longer in service. Please try again. Right. He's not there. All right, Deuteronomy 32 39. Here's what it says. See now that I even I am he and there is no God beside me.

This is the Lord speaking. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. All right. We already looked at Isaiah 43 10. Let's take a look at Isaiah 44 verses 6 through 8.

Here's what it says. Thus says Yahweh the king of Israel and his Redeemer the Lord of hosts. I am the first and I am the last besides me. There is no God who is like me. Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set before me since I appointed an ancient people.

Let them declare what is to come and what will happen. Fear not have I not told you from of old and declared it and you are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? There is no rock. I know not any. It's pretty emphatic.

It's unambiguous. So polytheism is ruled out period. Okay, Mormonism claims that Joseph Smith received a revelation from God. The problem is the revelation. He received is contradicted by Scripture. Whenever somebody comes to you claiming prophetic revelation.

You are always to test what they say against Scripture if they contradict Scripture. You know with certainty that they did not get the information from God. That leaves two other possibilities either they made it up or they received it from the devil or one of his demons straight up.

So if someone comes to you and says hey, there's lots of gods out there. Doesn't matter which God you believe in. It's not what Scripture says. We as Christians we believe what the what the scriptures say.

Isaiah 45 verse 5. I am the Lord. There is no other besides me. There is no God I equip you though. You do not know me. Isaiah 45 14 thus says Yahweh the wealth of Egypt in the merchandise of Cush and Sabine's men of stature shall come over to you and be yours and they shall follow you.

They shall come over in chains and bow down to you. They will plead with you saying surely God is in you and there is no other there is no other no God besides him. Over and again. We have these very exclusive claims now.

Does anyone remember? From your Bible the name of the God that Israel would sacrifice their children to Manassas the tribe. What's the name of the God?

Molech.

That's the name in Hebrew Molech mem lamed cough. Now what people don't know is that that Molech is not that God's name. It's not. That's the Hebrew word for King Melech. Now, you notice Hebrew doesn't have vowels.

It's pointed in the Masoretic text so that you can read it. But what's fascinating is is that no Jew in the time of people? Worshiping Melech would ever call him Melech because to call a false. God a king is an abomination.

So they changed the vowels. They changed the vowels rather than it being Melech. They called him Molech. Changed it to an O Melech means King Molech means shame. Shows you a little bit about how The worshipers of the true God Came off as kind of being subversive.

They refused to call that God by the name that his worshipers called him by. They couldn't do it. So, you know a worshiper of Molech would come up to a Hebrew and say, you know Hey, we're going over to a Melech temple tonight and we're gonna be sacrificing some children and the Hebrew would say Oh, you mean Molech?

No, I worship Melech. Oh, yeah, Molech. Stop it. Knock it off. His name is Melech. No, it's not. It's Molech. Shameful that you would sacrifice your children in the altar like that. That's how these you know, it's kind of fascinating how they get these little things these little tidbits when you start understanding Scripture.

Shame.

Melech means King Molech means shame though. The consonants are the same. The vowels are different. Let's do a little bit more work here. So we're still looking at the Genesis in the beginning. God's he created the heavens and the earth.

The Deity of Christ in John 1 and the Trinity in John 8

Now, here's the question I have for you. Is Jesus God?

Yes.

Truly you are the Son of God. Yeah, this is the you are my son whom I am. Well, please. Okay. Yes, John 1 1 which is a perfect parallel passage to what we're what we're looking at here. If you have your Bibles open up to John 1 1.

And let me pull this up here. In fact, we'll spend a little bit of time in John because John is the gospel that you go to when it comes to understanding the deity of Christ but this is only going to. We got to keep certain things in order here because.

Remember, there's a plurality within the one God. Here's what it says in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. How's that for a sentence?

Who's the Word? Jesus. Jesus is the Word. The Word became flesh this is what John says and yet the sentence says in the beginning was the Word and The Word was with God and the Word was God. How can you be a God and be with God at the same time?

I Have no idea. I Have no clue. Yeah, I believe this because scripture says it. Could I explain how this works? No, I couldn't do it. The best the best I've seen on this is that since we're dealing with all these exclusive claims in scripture that there is Only one God that a good way to kind of look at it is is kind of like this and let me see here.

Okay, how many triangles are up there? Uno one. I know it was a trick question. There's only one triangle. There's not three, right?

Good, very good.

So here here's kind of a diagram that helps us with this that within the one God there are three persons. So we'll say top here is the Father over. Here's the Son and over here is the Holy Spirit. Now we know from scripture that there is only one God.

So There's one God and the Father he is God, right. Anyone anyone think I know the Father ain't God. No one ever challenges that one, which is kind of fascinating here. Now we also believe what scripture says that the Son is God and We also believe that the Holy Spirit is.

God.

But here's the fun part. The Father is not the Son. The Holy Spirit is not the Son and the Holy Spirit is Not the Father. That make sense now, how do we know this? Well Jesus when he's baptized Heavens open up the Spirit descends like a dove and a voice from heaven says this is my son in whom I'm well pleased.

Jesus when he's in the Garden of Gethsemane, he's sweating blood and he's praying father. If it be your will let this cup pass from me, but not my will your will be done, right? Who's he talking to? God the Father, but is he God?

Yes, see this is where you. Basically, you gotta keep in mind. What we do is we affirm what scripture says and we don't push beyond it. I don't know the mechanics of this. Don't know the mechanics of this at all.

Now in history. There was a heresy known as the Aryan heresy Which is alive and well today. Which taught that the Son is? God's first and greatest creation a divine like Creature, is that what scripture says?

In the beginning was the Word the Word was with God and the Word. What was God? So the Aryan heresy and it was determined. It was a heresy Denies the deity or the eternal deity of the Sun. So if somebody is believing that heresy today, are they believing in the true God?

No.

Then this is where our sinful flesh is tempted. Our sinful flesh goes thinks along these lines. I can't understand that God. He doesn't make any sense to me. How can you have one God in three persons?

That's crazy talk. It can't be that. So I'm gonna come up with a clever solution to get rid of this Rationalistic problem that I have here and the Jesus I believe in he wasn't he isn't really God. He's a godlike critter.

That's more reasonable. And then also keep in mind at the time the Aryan heresy pops up you have Gnosticism and Platonic philosophy running through the Mediterranean culture of the time and Platonic philosophy teaches that this stuff matter is.

Yeah, not so good. Okay, it's the spirit. That's the big thing. So if matter isn't so good It's kind of an accident according to the Gnostics and the spirit is the good thing this idea that God would take on human Flesh it's unthinkable.

That's crazy talk. We can't have that happening so we can have a critter taking on human flesh. That makes sense. We're okay with that, but God himself. No, and so what you see is is that Human beings impacted by their sinful nature and the culture around them are often tempted to deny what scripture Says what God has revealed about himself.

Do you know what you say to a person who's doing that? Repent. That's what you say. You say repent brother. You're believing falsely. This is not what God has revealed about himself in Scripture. Here again these passages.

Remember a few weeks ago. I preached on The story of Jesus walking on the water and at the end of that little event where Peter ended up sinking they Worshipped Jesus and they said truly you are the Son of God.

To worship any other thing than God. That's idolatry and yet Jesus received human worship. So who was he? Who is he? Well, if he's not God Then he is the biggest con man on the planet.

Right.

That's what's at stake with us. If if Jesus isn't who he claimed to be If he really isn't God in human flesh we're guilty of idolatry and We are the biggest dupes on the planet. Straight up, but what does scripture say?

So yes, ma 'am. Um, oh you want to see this in Greek hold on. In our K and halaga sky halaga stain pros tone down. Okay, the Greek word here for God is Tone thing. It's the chaos. So this is the accusative.

This is the nominative form and RK in the beginning was the word and the word was toward or face-to-face with God and God was the word is what it says. Well, you're getting a hint at the plurality, aren't you so the law goss is with God and the law goss is God.

How can you be with and God at the same time? So there's a plurality even kind of hinted at here. Remember the baptismal formula. Go ye therefore into all nations baptizing in the what name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit.

Notice it doesn't say names Baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit. Singular the one name Father Son Holy Spirit. Let's take a look at some fun passages here and I don't know if you've noticed but Jesus had this really bad habit of upsetting people and We're going to take a look at the Gospel of John.

And I think we're in chapter 8 and we'll do a little bit of cross-referencing and all of this by the way is Dealing with that first verse that first sentence in Genesis chapter 1. John chapter 8 we're going to start at verse 12.

Jesus’ Divine Authority, His Word, and the “I Am” Claim

When Jesus spoke again to the people he said I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Jesus sounds like he's got a God complex. Does he he's the light of the world?

So the Pharisees they immediately picked up on this their little radars are going off ding-ding-ding-ding-ding blasphemy blasphemy, right? So the Pharisees challenged him here. You are appearing as your own witness.

Your testimony is not valid. Jesus answered. All right, even if I testify on my own behalf. My testimony is valid for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going.

You judge by human standards. I pass judgment on no one, but if I do judge my decisions are right because I am not alone. I stand with the father who sent me. That's what he's doing here. He's talking about himself as if somehow this this is going with John 1 1 word was with God word was God.

In your own law, it is written that the testimony of two men is valid. I am one who testifies for myself. My other witness is the father who sent me so then they asked him Where is your father? Do you not know me or my father.

Jesus replied if you knew me, you would know my father. Also, he spoke these words while teaching in the temple area near the place where the offerings were put yet. No one seized him because his time had not yet come.

Once more Jesus said to them I am going away and you will look for me and you will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come. Now this made the Jews ask is he gonna kill himself. Is that why he says where I go you cannot come.

But he continued you are from below. I am from above. You are of this world. I'm not of this world. I Told you that you would die in your sins. If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be you will indeed die in your sins.

Bad Translation and let's clean this up a little bit here better way to say this. Is that he says if you do not believe that I am. You will die in your sins in the Greek here. It's it's emphatic because in Greek a verb can actually carry the subject that it works with it.

So a me is first person singular of the verb to be so he's saying I am. You can just if I were to in Greek just say I am. I would just say II me but he adds to a go. Which is saying I I am. He's very emphatic about this if you do not believe that I am.

You will die in your sins. What's Jesus saying? Yeah. Well, yeah, but where? What's this I am stuff? Well, hold on.

Marilyn, right.

Exactly, let's take a look at our cross-reference here. If you would open up your Bibles to Exodus chapter 3 Here's the story now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law the priest of Midian.

Now Moses is at this point. He's a fugitive. He's already left Egypt. He's murdered an Egyptian Taskmaster hidden his body and it was found out. And so now he's fled to Midian which is actually in Saudi Arabia and On television there in Egypt.

He was on Egypt's Most Wanted.

Okay.

Yeah, if you've seen this man, send us a carrier pigeon with you know. This before telephones right. And TVs too.

All right.

So Moses at this point is like 80 years old and the text says he led the flock to the far side of the desert and Came to Horeb the Mount of God. And there the angel of the Lord L-o-r-d appeared to him in flames of fire within a bush.

Moses saw that though the bush was on fire. It did not burn up. So Moses thought I will go over and see this strange sight. Why the bush does not burn up when the Lord Again, notice Lord Yahweh. When Yahweh saw that he had gone over to look God called to him who called to him.

God did. God called to him from within the bush.

Moshe.

Moshe that's Moses in Hebrew. And Moses said Here I am do not come any closer. God said Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy ground. Then he said I am the God of your father The God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob.

At this Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. Yahweh said I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers and I am concerned about their suffering.

So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land a land flowing with milk and honey the home of the Canaanites the Hittites the Amorites the Perizzites the Hivites the Jebusites the uptights and the ballet tights and.

Now the cry of the Israelites has reached me and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now go I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses said to God Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?

God said I will be with you and this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you when you have brought the people out of Egypt you will worship God on this mountain. And Moses said to God All right.