What is God’s name?

In Exodus 3, God speaks to Moses from a bush that burns but is not consumed. In this study, Dr. Toby Holt unpacks this holy encounter and the name by which God reveals Himself.

Moses, now an eighty-year-old shepherd, turns aside to see the strange sight and meets God on holy ground. God tells him He has seen Israel’s suffering and will rescue them — through Moses. When Moses asks who he should say sent him, God answers, “I AM WHO I AM.” Dr. Holt explains that this name reveals God as the self-existent, unchanging One. And He chooses a weak, reluctant shepherd, so that the power and glory would clearly be God’s, not man’s.

Questions this study answers:

1. Why did the bush burn without being consumed? It pictured God’s holy, fiery presence — and His promise that He would not consume His people but save them.

2. What does “holy ground” mean? That God’s presence makes a place set apart. Moses had to remove his sandals before the holy God.

3. What does the name “I AM” reveal? That God is self-existent, eternal, and unchanging — dependent on nothing and no one. He simply is.

“And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.”’” — Exodus 3:14 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.

Listen and go deeper: This sermon is part of the Exodus Explained study from New Geneva Theological Seminary. Find more verse-by-verse teaching across the Bible at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.