I Am Who I Am
Then Moses asked God, “If 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?’ what should I tell them?”
God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”
~Exodus 3:13-14
Read: Exodus 1-6:13
Today, we begin our “I AM” series. The “I Am” statements in the Bible have long been a fascinating subject for me. I can still recall the Gospel of John class I took back in my first year of college, where I was first introduced to the “I Am” statements of Jesus. Ever since I have loved how these statements reveal more about who God is and what He does. I am excited about this blog series since it means I get to really dig deep!
We will start in the Old Testament with the earliest “I Am” and, ultimately, the foundation of all the “I Am” statements we will discuss throughout this series. After that, we will journey into the book of John, where we will spend the bulk of our time with 10 of these statements. Finally, we will wrap it all up with a few more “I Am’s” in the book of Revelation. This journey will take us into the new year, as we will also take a break for the Advent season. With the housekeeping out of the way, let’s get this show on the road!
The book of Exodus continues the story of the Israelites in Egypt several hundred years after Jacob and his sons escaped from the severe drought in Canaan and reunited with Joseph in Egypt (see Genesis 39-50). An ominous tone is quickly introduced in chapter 1 when the author (assumed to be Moses) writes, “A new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt” (1:8). The Israelites are ruthlessly oppressed and enslaved as they are forced into difficult and demanding labor. Their male children are also endangered with Pharaoh’s orders to kill them upon birth.
Moses enters the story as an innocent child miraculously delivered from Pharaoh’s death warrant by Pharaoh’s own daughter. As an adult, Moses kills an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew this causes Moses to run away to avoid Pharaoh, who wishes to kill him. Whether this is the same Pharaoh as when Moses was a baby is not clear. Nonetheless, Moses’ life is, yet again, in danger. This time, he flees into the wilderness to Midian.
After 40 years in Midian, Moses is now approximately 80 years old. He has a wife and children. He is a shepherd. His life is no doubt vastly different than his life as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter in Egypt. But then, on one ordinary day, while Moses is shepherding his father-in-law Jethro’s flock of sheep, he sees something different, something he would have encountered nowhere in his many years– a bush on fire but not burning up. His curiosity naturally gets the better of him, and Moses draws near.
Exodus 3:4
When the LORD saw that he [Moses] had gone over to look, God called out to him from
the bush, “Moses, Moses!”
Now, we not only have a bush on fire and burning up, but we also have a talking bush?! Not to mention a talking bush that knows Moses’ name! Can you just imagine all the thoughts that must be tumbling through Moses’ brain at this point? This is as supernatural a situation as one could imagine – the laws of nature are completely superseded by a fire that does not actually consume and a voice from a thorny bush. In any case, Moses is able to respond quite logically, in fact.
Exodus 3:4
“Here I am,” he answered.
A burning, talking bush calls your name, and you respond, “Yep, that’s me.” I might very well have high-tailed it out of there by that point. Moses is made of something else, though, because he not only stays, he also responds. I have to think God set this scene perfectly. He knew exactly what would draw Moses in and exactly what to say to get him to stay. God’s next words to Moses deepen the mystery, though.
Exodus 3:5
“Do not come closer,” he said. “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where
you are standing is holy ground.”
Can’t you just picture an elderly but spry Moses fumbling with his sandals at this point? This is such an unprecedented scenario that I would probably listen to the bush, too (I mean if I haven’t fled screaming before then, of course). For something to be holy, it must be pure, sanctified, and set apart. Mere mortals cannot just walk into holiness. As an attribute of God, holiness is what effectively separates God from us. We cannot approach Him due to our lack of holiness; our sins separate us, hiding God’s face from us (Isa. 59:2).
Exodus 3:5-6
Then he continued, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.
Up to this point, I can envision Moses staring, enthralled with the burning bush. The bush is such a surprising site, but the flames of fire are mesmerizing in their own right. The way they flicker and undulate, weaving in amongst themselves. It is hard to look away, but Moses does. This bush is just a bush, but the flames within represent something, Someone quite other. God reveals Himself to Moses by reminding Moses of the promises God has made to Moses’s ancestors. To Moses’ credit, he quickly grasps that He does not just have some crazy out-of-body experience, but he is in the presence of the one true God – the God who promised Abraham and his descendants a hope and a future (Gen. 15)
Exodus 3:7-8
Then the LORD said, “I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings, and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey…”
God continues by stating that He knows exactly what the Israelites have been experiencing in Egypt. He knew long before they ever went to Egypt what would happen. When God first institutes His covenant with Abram in Genesis 15, He says, “‘Know this for certain: Your offspring will be resident aliens for four hundred years in a land that does not belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed. However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions’” (15:13-14). The Israelites would have been very familiar with God’s promises to Abraham, which were also re-established with Isaac and Jacob. Now, God is telling Moses that He knows what is happening and the time has come for God to fulfill His promises to Israel.
Exodus 3:9-10
So because the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them, therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.
I do not know how long the whole conversation with Moses has been going, but I get the impression that it has not been long. In whatever time it has been, though, Moses has been getting the surprises piled on each other: a burning/not burning bush, a talking bush, God Himself, and He wants what? To be fair to Moses, he has not been given much time to process anything happening. Notice, though, that Moses does not question once that he is in the presence of God. His next question proves this point quite well, actually.
Exodus 3:11
But Moses asked God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the
Israelites out of Egypt?”
Moses is the man who, while he may have been raised in Pharaoh’s household, fled Egypt for killing an Egyptian. Moses is a Hebrew; he is not Egyptian. For Moses to approach Pharaoh, a man worshipped as a god, and ask him to free the Israelites, Moses could very well be risking his life. But now this is where things get particularly interesting (if you can believe it!) in Moses’ conversation with God.
Exodus 3:12
He [God] answered, “I will certainly be with you…”
Moses is essentially asking, why are you picking me? How can I possibly be any good at this job? Yet God’s response has nothing to do with Moses and everything to do with Himself. Moses’ qualifications do not matter. The only thing that matters is that God will be with him, implying that anything Moses needs will be accomplished by God being with him. Moses might not be questioning that he is talking to God, but he is undoubtedly revealing that he does not really know who God is.
Exodus 3:13-15
Then Moses asked God, “If 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?’ what should I tell them?”
God replied 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 said to Moses, “Say this to the Israelites: The LORD [Yahweh], the 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; this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.”
Finally, the moment we have been anticipating. God tells us exactly who He is. God is the I Am. The Self-Existent One. The absolutely Real and True One. The Covenant-making and keeping God of Israel. In John Piper’s sermon “I Am Who I Am,” he writes, “I think It would be safe to say that God’s purpose in this meeting with Moses is to reveal, as he never had before (Exodus 6:22), the meaning of his personal name Yahweh.” The names I AM and Yahweh are used, more-or-less, interchangeably here, and they suggest multiple things about who God is.
God exists is perhaps the most important revelation. He is. However, what we further see is that not only does God exist, but He is self-existent, meaning that He is the cause and source of all reality. Additionally, God does not change. Who God was to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is exactly the same as who He is to the Israelites at this point in history. And on this side of the cross, we can know that God is still the same for us. John Piper writes, “But if who God is is not determined by any forces outside himself, then he is not subject to the changes we are.” He is the ultimate source of life. I love how Piper says, “God is the first and absolute reality.” We are because He is. This is perhaps the perfect humbling statement. I am not in charge of anything, I am not in control of anything, and, ultimately, I must respond to God. Like Moses, it does not really matter who I am; all that matters is who God is because in Him we find everything.
We will see Jesus make multiple claims in the gospel of John starting with the statement, “I am…” He is absolutely saying that He is the I AM of Exodus. He is the I AM who witnessed the oppression of the Israelites and responded to their cries for salvation. He is the I AM who met Moses in a burning bush and set the course for salvation history. He is the I AM who still meets us where we are today. I can’t wait for us to get to know Him better.
Note: If you would like to read John Piper’s sermon that I referenced in the blog, I have linked it below. It is a fabulous read that I highly recommend!
Sermon: John Piper’s “I Am Who I Am”
