Exodus 3:13-15: 13 Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” 15 Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’
I want us to pause at the magnificent passage before us for in it lies such depth, magnitude and unfathomable greatness of the God we serve. If you have wondered what He is like, then this passage before us throws light into His nature and character.
When Moses asked God how He would want to be introduced to the children of Israel, he was asking God what His nature and character were like. In those days the name of a person was significant for the name revealed the purpose, character and nature of the individual. God changed names when He gave people in the Bible new destinies, purposes and promises. Sarai became Sarah, Abram became Abraham, Jacob became Israel. Names are significant.
God wanted Moses to tell the children of Israel that His Name is I AM. Not I WAS a God of your forefathers. But that I AM, I continue to be, the God of your fathers and for all generations. God wants to be remembered by this name forever. Throughout all generations. Even when kingdoms rise and fall. Even when times and seasons change. Even when new trends appear and old ones disappear. God wants to be always remembered as I AM. As an unchanging God. Who is constant. Who remains. Who is eternal. Who never changes age to age and season to season. Who has been the great I AM for our ancestors and will continue to be the great I AM to us, and to the generations to come. He was and is and will always be I AM! Forever. Unchanging.
So what does I AM mean? We see God’s nature and character revealed in Exodus 3:7-10:
7 And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. 9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
When God says He is I AM, this is what He means: He sees us in our struggles, He hears us when we cry out in the midst of our suffering, He knows and deeply empathizes with us in our pain in a way that no one else ever can or do, and He comes down to deliver us from our place of oppression and bring us into a place that He has for us that is free from oppression and sorrow. When joy abounds and every abundant provision from Him satisfies deeply.
God did so much more than just rescue the children of Israel and give them a land to call their own. He sent His own Son Jesus into the world to save us from a life bound by sin and oppression. So we may be set free and walk in freedom and in the fullness of all He has called us to be.
He is God eternal. His love is unconditional. His love for us does not depend on what we do for Him. He loves us because that is His very nature. He hears us even when those around us do not notice. He sees our pain in a way no one else sees. He is intimately close.
I want us to pause and let this truth sink in: He did not introduce Himself as the God who was. Or God who will be when Jesus comes back again to reign in this world. But He is I AM. He is here and now. In our very midst. Deeply personal. Closer than the air we breathe. Relational. Holy. Unchanging forever. One we can trust in at all times. He sees. He hears. He knows. He delivers.
God called Moses to a grand mission. Moses was already an Egyptian prince of Hebrew origin. He trained in the royal palace of the very king who was determined to annihilate all the Hebrew boys after they were born. God’s plan prevailed in not just saving Moses as a baby, but He also moved the heart of an Egyptian princess to adopt Moses as her own and even pay Moses’ biological mom to care for her adopted son. Moses was aware that his life was set apart to lead the children of Israel. God had already planted that seed of purpose in his heart. Yet Moses was unaware that when the God of generations, the Great I AM plants a grand purpose in Moses, He does not limit it to the here and now but His plans are grand, far higher than human wisdom and understanding. God weaved in His divine purpose for generations into His rescue mission for Israel. He used Moses’ skills and leadership, everything he had learned in the Egyptian palace till he was about 40, everything he had learned about the wilderness terrain for another 40 years to lead an entire nation on a spectacular rescue mission for another 40 years through the wilderness! God was absolutely behind the scenes and in full control of every situation.
Perhaps you are in a place of deep suffering and injustice like the children of Israel. You have been crying out for help and feel unheard. Or perhaps you are like Moses. You feel equipped to do far greater than what you are doing now. You feel like you are in a rut and are discouraged by what you are doing. Deep down inside, like Moses, you know you are made for a lot more than what you are doing. You sense this restlessness within you.
Whatever your circumstance or situation, God wants to remind you that He is I AM WHO I AM. The “One who brings into existence that which exists” (one of the literal translations of Yaweh in Hebrew). He sent His Son Jesus to further His eternal rescue mission for everyone who desires to have a personal relationship with Him. John 3:16 reveals God’s mission: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (Jesus), that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
God is continually on His mission to see, hear, rescue people and lead them to an abundant life through His Son Jesus. The Bible says that we have all sinned and have fallen short of the Glory of God. Sin separates us from God. BUT God, through His eternal rescue plan, sent His Son Jesus to die on our behalf on the cross and pay our penalty for sin, so that we may live forever with God after we die the physical death in this world. Jesus is the bridge who connects us back to God so we may experience God the way Adam and Eve did before they sinned- when they had a deeply personal relationship with God and related to Him as a friend. When they lived a God breathed plan and purpose in this world.
Jesus rose again after He died a physical death and took the keys of death and hell from Satan, so that when those of us who accept Jesus as our Saviour die, like Him, we will conquer death and hell -a place where we are eternally separated from God. Through Jesus we will not be eternally separated from God.
Every one of us has a spiritual tank within us that has a God sized vacuum within that only Jesus can fill. The Bible is abundantly clear about this in the following passage: John 14: 6” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus is the absolute. He is not a way, a truth, a life. But THE way, THE truth and THE life. He is very clear that the ONLY way to God is through His redemption work on the cross.
Do you want to know this God? Do you want to experience what He is like? To experience joy and peace in the midst of a world that is uncertain, chaotic and ever changing? To truly live out His God breathed grand plan and purpose in your lives that is far above your own reasoning, understanding and imagination?
Then I would like to lead you into this prayer (please pray aloud and from your heart):
“Heavenly Father, I want to thank You for You are the great I AM- the God who sees, hears, knows and delivers me into an abundant life. I thank You for You love me unconditionally that You sent Your own Son Jesus to die on the cross and save me from all my sins. I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I believe that Jesus died for my sins. I am truly sorry for my sins and for the way I have lived. I want to ask Jesus to come into my life and to be my God. I want You to give me a brand new start. I want You to breathe Your purpose upon me and to use me to live an abundant life for Your Glory. My life is Yours from this moment on. Everything I am and have is yours. I am Yours forever. In Jesus’ most precious name I ask, amen.”