Today’s reading: Exodus 1-3.

What’s in a name? Quite a lot, actually. It’s the “handle” by which we grasp someone, the “label” which we use to categorize, the “moniker” by which we get familiar, the “title” by which we honor, and so on. In Genesis, God named himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was “their” God. Now, as God prepares to lead the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt, he meets Moses in the wilderness and gets much more personal.

Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” God also…