Exodus - What's in a name?

"...and Moses named him Gershom, saying, "I have beome an alien in a foreign land." (Exod 2:22 NIV)

The children of Israel had lived for over 200 years in Egypt...initially as guests of the Pharaoh after Joseph saved their bacon during an earlier famine. Now they found themselves slaves and captives - and Moses' new discontent at the situation is summed up in how he named his son.

In chapter 3 of Exodus, Moses meets God at the burning bush and is commissioned to return to Egypt to confront Pharaoh to let the Israelites go free....

"Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

God said to Moses, "I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "

God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation." (Exod 3: 13-15 NIV)

Israel had lived for two centuries under the polytheistic Egyption system of gods. They had multiple gods - even Pharaoh was considered the earthly incarnation of a god. You could probably argue that ten ensuing plagues that occur from Exodus chapter 7 are all designed by God to discredit a large number of these gods. The plague of the Nile turning to blood disempowers Hapi - the god of fertility; the plague on livestock - Apis the bull god; darkness - Amon Ra - the sun god - and the final plague where the first born of Egypyt is killed would have proven that not even Pharaoh was immune to the great "I AM."

God reminds Moses that He was also known as Yahweh or Jehovah - maybe some memory of Jehovah had been passed down through the 10 or so generations that had lived in captivity in Egypt.

To have one God - simply "I AM" - one single all-powerful, pre-existent and individual God was in stark contrast to the collection of gods in Egypt.

The Septuagint - the original translation of Scripture into Latin - translated "I AM" as "Ego Eimi." - a phrase that also crops up in the Latin New Testament.

In John 8:58, Jesus was challenged by the Jews about His claims of who He was. His answer was simple..."ego eimi"..."I AM!" Jesus claims to be God - a claim that was clearly not lost on the Jews who tried to catch him and kill him. (he disappeared though!)

Jesus elaborates.."I tell you the truth...before Abraham was born I am!" Jesus, as a distinct one third of the Godhead was present at creation and has watched over and intervened throughout history.

In fact the Hebrew root of God's name Jehovah means literally "I am eternally present to help you."