To Be or Not to Be

While it's early morning where I am, top of the morning to you, it's the month of March, and this is stories from the road with Dick Voth. We've been chatting the last podcast or so and going forward about this thought that words matter. They're the Lego bricks, the building blocks of communication, and last time we were on a podcast with you, the idea of God who creates and we are the maker, that word to create was a big one. This time I want to talk about something that really matters when life feels stormy. We were looking for something that's real and solid. When I was a young boy in Oakland, California, sometimes when I was dark in my room, I would sing all the songs I knew just because I wanted something to sort of keep me solid in a way or help me sleep, actually. And pretty soon I'd start calling my mom. You say, well, why don't you just get out of the bed and go find her? You're not getting out of the bed when you're a young kid because the guy out of the bed would grab your ankle. He doesn't the guy in the closet will. So mom, pretty soon she'd say, what is it honey? And I'd say, oh nothing, I just needed to know you were there, that presence, that solid presence that gives us comfort. So now here I am 75, eight years down the road and we have a phrase around our house Ruth and I say, well, it is what it is. Acknowledging that in all the different seasons in life we want something or someone that is solid or present or real. So the word for this podcast is B, not B like the buzzing B, just B, B or is or am. It's one syllable and the verb to be means to exist. I am. It's the most common verb in the English language. Now if you're an English major or you read a lot of Shakespeare, you're familiar with this question. To be or not to be, that's the question. It's the famous opening line of Prince Hamlet's soliloquy in act three scene one of Hamlet. I'm not a huge Shakespeare fan, I don't read him a lot, but I'm familiar with that phrase. And that question that he raises represents the debate he's having on whether it's better to live and suffer through life's hardship to be or to end one's life to escape, not to be. But that line is widely regarded as I read as one of the most famous in English literature highlighting the struggle between action and inaction. The verb to be is am that idea and that's exactly where we find ourselves in Hebrew writings that challenge between action and inaction in the Old Testament. The verb becomes a noun and a name. In Genesis 2nd chapter, fourth verse, this is how it reads. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. In the first chapter of Genesis, you have this word for God, Elohim, which means all powerful, mighty creator. But in this fourth verse of the second chapter, they add this word Yahweh or Jehovah to it, the Lord God. And that phrase is an entry or those letters are an interesting thing. In the Hebrew language, there are no vowels, right? So you have to put the vowels in. And there are these four letters, Y-H-W-H scholars call it the tetragramaton, these four letters, speaking of God. Yahweh is the God who is He is the covenant-making, caring, compassionate God. That word was thought to be so holy by Jewish people, I understand, that they wouldn't say the name, that they took letters from another word, meaning Lord Adonai. And made those the vowels that made that word Yahweh or Jehovah. But the most important text for talking about this word Yahweh, which means to be or is, is Exodus the third chapter, 13th through the 15th verses. God has commanded Moses to go and lead the captives from Egypt and they have a dialogue. It's sort of what I call the burning bush dialogue. In Exodus 3, 14th, this is what it says. Moses says to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you and they ask me, what is His name? What shall I say to them? Because they are gazillion gods, you got the desert gods, you got the river gods, you got the moon and so forth. What shall I tell them? And God said to Moses, here we go, here's the verb to be, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, the Lord that is Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever and thus I am to be remembered through all generations. It's interesting because he gives them not an action verb, although there is action connected with it. He gives them the name Yahweh as the first and most important truth about God, which is simply, he exists. There's a well-known pastor, I believe, now retired, written a lot of books, his name is John Piper and he has some very interesting observations about this. And just a couple of thoughts from him. And so here's the God who is, he doesn't change. That's the most secure name in the universe. Okay, in this context, it's not a verb so much as it's a noun and a name. He doesn't change. I am who I am, just says that. Secondly, he's an inexhaustible source of energy, Isaiah 40, 28 says it this way, Yahweh is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth, he does not faint or grow weary. Here's the God who is and doesn't get tired. How Piper says it is, all motion and combustion and fusion and fission originate in him. Somehow all the energy in the universe must get started and since God is the first and absolute reality, it all starts in him. He's an inexhaustible reservoir of power. Next point is that God is who he is and nobody's opinion of him makes any difference. I like that thought. Next thought is we must conform to God, not he to us. Implication of the name, I am who I am, is that we must conform to God, not he to us. The thought is if children should learn their manners from their parents and not the parents from the children, if players should learn their moves from the coach, not the coach from the players, if soldiers should learn their strategy from the general, not the general from the soldiers, surely it is plain that creatures should conform all their lives to the will of their creator. And then finally this God is drawn near to us in Jesus Christ. I am who I am. Listen to how Jesus answers a criticism in his walk on this planet. When he's criticized by some leaders, he says, your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day. He saw it and was glad. Then the Jew said to him, you're not yet 50 years old, and have you seen Abraham? And Jesus said to them, truly, truly I say to you before Abraham was, I am. He took up all the majestic truth of the name of God. Piper says it this way, wrapped it in the humility of servanthood, offered himself to atone for all our rebellion and made a way for us to see the glory of God without fear. If in fact the I am comes to us in the person of Jesus, the God who is solid, who is real, who exists, I can trust that. Hamlet asks himself the question to be or not to be. Should I act? Should I stay in this life? Should I leave? That's a question, but it's not the question. I'd opt for the Moses question of God. Who are you? Who shall I say has sent me? And he says to me, I am who I am, the most secure person in the universe. And that thought harkens back to me calling out in the night, you know, singing every song and calling my mother, and she says, what is it, what do you want? And I say, oh nothing, I just need to know you are there. Here is the scripture that echoes that when it says, be still and know that I am God. When the world is going up for grabs, when my personal life is going up for grabs, that solidity, that reality is a comfort to me. So that's our word, be I am is, oh, and one more thing, one of my favorite stories in the scriptures in the gospels is Jesus walking on the water. Remember that one where he comes walking in. He scares the be jeepers out of his disciples. And his comment is this, these are his words in the middle of the storm. Take heart. I am. Don't be afraid. So my closing thought is so there. That's it for today. God bless. This is both signing off. We'll catch you next time. God bless. .