God's glory is on display when He initiates the exodus and as the children of Israel enter the desert, He continues to show them who He is.
He is the Great I Am...such a label implies that His children have to get to know Him.
He isn't the god of the storm, the land, or the sun. His identity is not tied to any natural phenomena.
If it rains, the Canaanites say, "Oh, see how Baal is providing us rain to water our crops!"
When the sun rises and sets, the Egyptians say, "There goes Amun-Ra. He rises every morning, dies at the close of day, journeys through the underworld and rises again, all due to our Pharaoh's obedience to the rituals prescribed to us."
A one-to-one correspondence exists between some natural force and the presiding god's characteristic.
Yahweh is fair too majestic and lovingly complex for any such correspondence. Instead, He has a one- to-one correspondence with love and mercy to His creation--especially us.
His characteristics are revealed in how He interacts with His people. We get to know the Great I Am by interacting with Him and He shows us the many facets of who He is.
He judges the gods of Egypt by subverting the supposed kingdom they preside over. Egypt's sun god is trumped by darkness. The frog god multiplies to disgusting levels. The cow god can't prevent the livestock from dying. The center of the Egyptian universe is the pharaoh himself, who holds the universe together with his devotion to the gods through ritual and rule; he is a god himself. But his son dies. This supposed giver of life cannot save his own son.
God allows death to be His agent--a dog on a cosmic leash--to cause the firstborns to die. He is not the god of death; actually, He presides over life and death, for the children of Israel survive that night called Passover.
He demonstrates not only His superiority to the gods that the Israelites had lived under for over 400 years, He pronounces these gods null and void. He is the Great I Am who holds the universe and everything in it in His hands. There are no gods before Him, beside Him or around Him: "Shema Israel! The LORD our God is the God, the LORD is one." (Deut. 6:4)
How He presents Himself shows different aspects of His character, so His children can grasp a deeper understanding of who He is. He isn't just an ancestral god--the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob--for His reach touches the Egyptians, the dwellers in Canaan, as well as the Israelites. He is sovereign over all creation, and is not bound to any one location. The earth is His footstool. Heaven is His court.
Let's look at the ways God revealed Himself as the children of Israel wandered in the desert:
He is the Shepherd who leads His people with a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day; He provides water and food for His flock; He protects them from the wolves that gather (the Amalekites); He uses a human being to lead, all the while giving him wisdom and strength and He never leaves him alone to do the work He's called him to do.
He is the LORD God when Moses ascends the mountain and He gives him the Law; He appoints His people to be a holy nation and royal priesthood; He demands that Moses go down from the mountain to talk to the people, for He is holy and not to be approached without humility and deep respect.
Then He gives His people the Law--the covenant written on stone--that will create a society where His people will be those priests, showing God's holiness in how they act and what they believe.
Do you hear an echo here?
Jesus reveals Himself in our desert by being our Good Shepherd who guides us with His Word; He provides for us; defends us against the wolves (Satan and those who listen to him); He became a human being to die for us and then sent His Spirit to lead us and give us wisdom and strength; He speaks lovingly to us and never leaves us alone to do the work He's called us to do.
Jesus is also the Son of God, the Messiah, the mighty One who went up on a mountain and revealed His majesty; He came down from the mountain and talked with His people; He is holy and mighty to be praised and we can approach Him, through His blood, in humility and deep respect.
He writes the Law on our hearts, and we move through society, showing God's holiness in how we act and what we believe.
Amen.
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