“They will pay heed to what you say; and you with the elders of Israel will come to the king of Egypt and you will say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now, please, let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’” (Exodus 3:18)

The Old Testament is filled with polemics. In contrast to an apologetic (a defense of one’s faith), a polemic takes the offensive and goes up against other faith systems. Our present-day Western culture considers that all religions are equally valid, following the assertion that religion itself is a construct of human need and imagination. Further, the supposedly enlightened view is that all religious roads lead to heaven, in the way that all wells, though different in size and depth, are designed with the same thing in mind, namely, to provide water. Our culture views religion as man’s effort to frame the unknown in a way that meets human emotional and physical needs.

However, God as recorded in the Bible doesn’t sit back and wait for attacks on His existence or on the Jewish approach to knowing God. Rather He defines Himself and makes Himself known to humans. He does not leave it up to theologians or philosophers to create an image of Him according to their own earth-bound, limited, egotistical thinking. The 10 commandments of Exodus 20 begin with, “I am the LORD your God … You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above …” (Ex 20:2-4). That includes any images of God, physical or imagined.

After the descendants of Abraham had spent 400 years in Egypt amidst rampant idolatry—the religion of their task masters—the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, intervened. He was not a creation of Moses’ desert-baked imagination. He revealed Himself in a burning bush, and with instructions to lead the Jews away from their idol-worshiping masters, wanted everyone to know who He was. He is “the LORD,” that is, Yahweh. And He is the Hebrew God. Not just any god—not just one on a level with other gods, maybe stronger—but Yahweh Elohim. Enough is enough; He was now going to intervene, and there would be no doubt about who He is.

Today, we Christians believe in the Yahweh, God of the Hebrews, as the one true God, who revealed Himself in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord, help me have the courage to make You known in this pagan culture in which I live. Reveal Yourself in me and through me so that others would see Christ because of me.