Yahweh the Champion King

Exodus 3:13-22 KJV - 13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.

16 Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt:

17 And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.

18 And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.

19 And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand.

20 And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.

21 And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty:

22 But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.

     In the beginning of the third chapter, God is telling Moses about his plan to send him to Egypt to deliver the children of Israel. When we get to the 13th verse, Moses begins asking God about his personal name. God responds to Moses, saying, “I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” In the Hebrew tongue, God tells Moses, I am Yahweh. Sometimes we hear the saints call him Jehovah, because Jehovah is the English pronunciation of Yahweh. The word Yahweh means “the God who is'' which means he is the only true God there is. In the 15th verse, God says, “…this (Yahweh) is my name forever.” Today, the Jews call this name the forbidden name, because they have great reverence for that name. It was not often that the Israelites called God by his personal name, because they remember the commandment in Exodus 20: 7 where God tells them not to take his name in vain. It’s sort of like a child and his mother and his father. That child may know his mother’s name, but he calls her mama. He may know his father’s name, but he calls him daddy. Hebrew and Arab children call their father Abba. That’s what Jesus calls him in the Gospels. He even taught us to pray as such, saying, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name” (Mat. 6: 9-13). Jesus called him Father, and he recognized that his name is hallowed which means his name is to be highly revered and sacred. And then he taught us to call God father. If you believe it, say Amen. At this particular moment in history, the Israelites did not know God as father. So, they would either call him “Adonai'' which simply means his title as Lord, or they would call him Elohim or Eloi which means my God, because “hallowed be his name.”

     After God tells Moses his personal name, he begins to give Moses an agenda for everything he was about to do for his people, the children of Israel. The first thing God tells Moses to do is tell the children of Israel I have sent you unto them. We can see this in the 14th and 15th verse where God says to Moses, “…I AM THAT I AM: and he said , Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you.” This is a critical portion of our text, because God says to Moses, “Tell the children of Israel that I sent you to them.” And what makes this portion of scripture so critical is that God told Moses that he must tell the children of Israel that he was sent by God twice. I am a teacher, and there are a good number of  teachers who belong to this church. Most students understand that if their teachers tell them something twice, it is important. They will tell you important details twice , because they don’t want you to forget. If a teacher tells you a piece of information twice, it is likely that you will be tested on the information you have been given. You see God is the Master teacher. So, he tells Moses twice, “Make sure you tell them that I sent you” so that they won’t forget.  This is very important, because we live in a day where the man of God is disrespected in the worst way. People disobey the man of God. They lie on the man of God. They try to put hexes and curses upon the man of God.They spread rumors about the man of God.  They plot and scheme on the man of God. They try to destroy the reputation of the man of God. They try to rob and kill the man of God. They get on social media, and scoff at the man of God. They mock the man of God, and they call it comedy. Many people have become irreverent, careless, and forgetful that the man of God is sent by God. In Jeremiah 3:15, God says, “Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you knowledge and understanding.”

     So, God tells Moses to let them know that I sent you. And in the 16th verse, God tells Moses to tell the people “I have visited you, and I have seen that which is done to you in Egypt.” The children of Israel were under hard labor. They lived under inhumane conditions, and their newborn sons were being killed by the Egyptians. God told Moses to let his people know that he is with them and that he can see the affliction they are suffering. Just like the children of Israel, sometimes we Christians suffer. Sometimes we times we are afflicted by the enemy, but God wants you to know that you are not alone. God can see your pain. God can see the mental battles you go through. God can see the health challenges you are going through. He can see your financial troubles. God can see that there are 2.3 million men and women locked up in the prisons and jails of America. He can see how men are still enslaving other men, women, boys, and girls all over the world for greed and selfish ambition. God can see the poverty and hunger in our communities, and he wants you to know he can see your heartbreak. He can see the tears you cried, and he wants you to know that he is with you and he will deliver you. Psalms 34:19 says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD will deliver them out of them all. If you believe it, shout Hallelujah!

In Exodus 3: 17-19, God said:

17 And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.

18 And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.

19 And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand.

20 And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.

     God told Moses that he would deliver his people from the bondage and slavery of Egypt. God literally waged war on the Egyptians. Not only did God wage war against the Egyptians, but he also waged war against the gods they worshiped. According to the Egypt Exploration Society, the ancient Egyptians worshiped approximately 1,400 gods and goddesses in their shrines, temples, and homes. It is estimated that the ancient Egyptians worshiped these gods for 3,000 years. When God waged war on the Egyptians, he proved that their gods were useless. In his book “The City of God” St. Augustine, the bishop of Hippo said that “…the gods of the nation  are demons.” St. Augustine was talking about the gods of Roman mythology, but the ame is true concerning the gods of ancient Egypt. They are demons who God crushed in battle. He turned all of their water into blood, and made their fish die (Ex. 7:14-25). He caused a nationwide infestation of frogs (Ex. 8: 1-15). He caused a nationwide infestation of lice and gnats (Ex. 8: 16-19). He made flies to irritate and bite them and infect them with diseases (Ex. 8: 20-32). Their livestock was filled with diseases (Ex. 9: 1-7). The men and the animals had sore boils all over their bodies (Ex. 9: 8- 12). He rained down hail and fire that destroyed their harvest and it killed the Egyptian men and their animals (Ex. 9: 13- 35). Then, he sent locusts to eat up all of their plants and vegetation; and after all that, Pharaoh still wouldn’t let the children of Israel go. Pharaoh did not let the children of Israel go until he woke up one morning and found that his first born son was dead and all of the first born sons of Egypt were dead. God’s power against  Egypt was so great until Moses called him a man of war (Exodus 15:3). God waged war against the demons of Egypt, because they put his people in bondage and slavery for 430 years.   

     That’s why Jesus came to this earth, to wage war against Satan and the kingdom of darkness and deliver God’s people from the bondage of sin. One day Jesus was in the synagogue, and he read Isaiah 61: 1-2 which explains why he came to the earth. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn” (Isaiah 61: 1-2). Jesus tried to tell the Pharisees that he has come to set men from the bondage of sin; to set them free from the bondage of sin. In their pride and arrogance, the Pharisees said, “We are not in the bondage of sin, because Abraham is our Father.” Then, Jesus said, “Verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM.” Yes he did.  Jesus said that he is the I AM.  In that very moment, Jesus declares that he is Yahweh. Jesus is the God who delivered the children of Israel from the hands of the Egyptians. Jesus is the champion king. Remember how God delivered  the children of Israel out of Egypt. The same God who delivered the Children of Israel is able to deliver you today. Jesus came to seek and save those who are lost. He came to deliver those who are oppressed of the devil. I heard Jesus say, “The thief comes not but for to steal, kill, and destroy, but I am come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.”

I want to share with you a little story about another man named Moses. Throughout Christian history he is known as Moses the Black, because he was a black man. He is also called Moses the Ethiopian because of his extremely dark skin.  Historians say that Moses the Black was a slave. He was the slave of a state official. Legend has it that Moses was a wicked man. He was so wicked that his slave master could not control him. One day, Moses killed a man, Moses’s master drove Moses out from him. Moses went from bad to worse. He continued to be wicked. He was a robber, and he was a killer. He was a womanizer and a fornicator. He was feared by everyone, even the men who followed. He became known as the Prince of thieves, because he led a band of seventy thieves.

     The historian Palladias wrote that one day Moses was filled with “compunction” for all of the evil things he had done in his life. To be filled with compunction means to be filled with guilt. He was convicted for the sins he committed. To be filled with compunction and conviction for our sins is a gift from God. Some people are afraid of compunction and guilt, because it makes them feel bad for the wrong things they do. But compunction and conviction is a gift from God, because God uses conviction to bring us closer to him. That’s what happened to Moses the Black. When he was filled with compunction, he repented and he turned his back on his old life of crime. He submitted himself to a monastery and became a Christian monk. In the process of time, God made Moses the Black a preacher, and all of the seventy men that used to follow him in the life of crime gave their lives to Christ.

What am I saying? You don’t have to be a slave, bound in sin. You don’t have to be a slave to fear. You don’t have to be afraid of the kingdom of darkness, but you can be free in Jesus’s name.  Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Before Jesus came into the world, all men were bound in the slavery of sin. All men were in the prison of sin. All men were on death row in the prison of sin, because the wages of sin is death. But one day, Jesus died. He died, and three days later he rose from the dead with all power in his hands. Jesus is the champion king. He’s so much a champion that He defeated death when he rose from the dead. I can hear the Apostle Paul say, “O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? For the sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

     No wonder the saints used to sing “Victory is mine. Victory is mine. Victory today is mine. I told Satan to get thee behind. Victory today is mine.” Victory is the children’s bread. The love of Christ is the children’s bread. I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor sickness, nor the kingdom of darkness can separate us from the love of God. Glory to the Champion King! Glory to the Champion King! Jesus is Yahweh, and Yahweh is the Champion King! All Glory to the Champion King!

   In 1897, God gave us another Moses when he gave us Bishop C. H. Mason. In 1907, Bishop Mason incorporated the Church of God in Christ as a Holiness Pentecostal church. Many people think of us as Pentecostals, but they forget that we are Holiness Pentecostals. The word holy comes from the Hebrew word Kodesh. Kodesh means sacred; it means set apart; it means separated from common things; it means set apart from sin; it means to be separated from ungodliness. Not only does it mean to be separated from sin. To be holy means to be set aside for God. To be holy means that you only belong to God. Every now and then we should ask ourselves, “Who do you belong to?” Do you belong to God? Or do you belong to the devil?” Who is the lord of your life? Is God the Lord of your life, or have you made the devil your master? Hebrews 12: 14 says, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” If you want to see the Lord in peace, you must be holy. Without holiness, no man can see the Lord. I can hear Moses say, “It’s time to come out of Egypt land. Tell O Pharaoh “Let my people go!” It’s time to serve the one true God. It’s time to serve Yahweh the Champion King. Come out of your prison. Come out of the slavery of sin. You might be slave to drugs. You might be a slave to sex. Some of you have been slaves to sickness and fear, but it’s time to be free in Jesus’s name. You don’t have to be oppressed by the devil. You can be free from depression. You can be free from rejection.  You can be free in Jesus’s name. In 2 Corinthians 3:17, the Apostle Paul said, “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

Let us pray,

Heavenly Father, thank you for being our champion and our savior. Every time we found ourselves in snares and bondage, you were there to rescue us. Please forgive us for our sins, and help us to live the rest of our lives in allegiance to the kingdom of heaven. We believe in your son, Jesus Christ, that he died, was buried, and was raised to redeem us from sin. Grace us so that your light will shine in us and you will be pleased with our lives. In Jesus’s name, Amen