When God repeats Himself, we should give Him our full attention. In today’s passage, He is clearly making a point for Moses to emphasize to the Israelites:
When God shows up1 and sends Moses to the Israelites, the Lᴏʀᴅ uses an identity that more fully states who He is. While the word ‘Lᴏʀᴅ’ has been used in Genesis about God, it was not His known identity. ‘Elohim’ spoke to Moses and gave Moses this full identity found in ‘I am the Lord’ which is ‘Jehovah’ ‘the existing One’. Five times in this passage it is ‘Lᴏʀᴅ’ as the identity who does more than conceivable. The Israelites had just spent 400 years in slavery to a nation with a multitude of gods. Jehovah is beyond the gods of their experience and they are to know Him as distinctly different, unlike any other. The promises being given through Moses to the Israelites rests upon the supreme-ness of the Lᴏʀᴅ to be able to fulfill what He says He will do. He is not limited to their notions about Him but He is able beyond their experience. God is raising their awareness of not only who He is but His ability to bring to pass what He has promised.
1 Editor’s Note: our use of the expression ‘God shows up’ does not imply He wasn’t already present, only that He was unrecognized in the situation.