God the Father

 On December 18 I wrote about the "I am" name that God gave Himself. I stated that it was less of a name and more of a state of being. Lately I have been reading a book by John Murray. He brought the topic to my mind again. He wrote that God was telling Moses that "I will be what I will be"(The Problem of God, pg.9).  The imperfect tense has a continuous force to it, so Murray is within boundaries of interpretation to use the future tense. I disagree with this, but that is not what I am writing about. What I do like about what Murray says is  that throughout the Old Testament the Jewish people served a God that they did not know by his name. I agree. He goes on to say that the New Testament reveals that name to us. This is a bold statement. For the Jewish mind, today as in the Testament days, the name of God is ineffable. Even though they treat YAHWEH (h`Dwh◊y) as his name, they feel no one can say or know His name. Many orthodox Jews use "Adonai" as a substitute when they are reading from the scriptures. God is too unapproachable to even say his name. (Thought:Has the name Yahweh become an idol?)
When we reach the NT, Christ reveals the name of God as "Father". A good example is the "Lord's Prayer". Pa◊ter hJmwÇn oJ e∆n toiæß oujranoiæß`
aÓgiasqhvtw to; o[noma◊ sou`   (Matt.6:9)
Christ was teaching the disciples to pray and he addressed the great Unnamed, Unsayable, Unapproachable and certainly Indescribable, as "father" and added that "your name is Holy".
Now we know. God is our Father. Christ is His son. To the Jews this must have been shocking.
The Nicene assembly in 325 CE set it firmly down in the "Creed" that is still formative in a number of confessions, "I believe in God, the Father almighty...." The great work of the Nicene ecumenical council in 325 CE was to overcome the heresies that wanted to make Christ less than the Father. So it historically settle the matter once and for all. The relationship was of true son from true God. Son of the same essence as the Father. The same essence, essce, or same substance. In our hearts we worship our Father as true worshipers, and are saved evermore by His Son, Jesus the Christ.
So let us go back to the burning bush and Moses. God must have been looking for "His People" to come out of Egypt not just delivered but delivered to have this relationship of Father with his children. "I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people"(Lev.26:12).  It took His son Christ coming into the world to finally help us connect to our Father. Making the relationship complete and whole, by becoming himself a true son. When God spoke of Jesus He voiced it from heaven as "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"(Matt. 3:17).  God is always going to be "ego eimi", the I am, but maybe to finish that statement we might say he is the ever-present Father, who is  with us always. He is our Father we are his sons and daughters. Hopefully we can be pleasing to Him, also.