“Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask 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.” Exodus 3:13
Do you ever have times when you fear that people will not believe what you have to say or perhaps will not take you seriously? You feel like you will be put in a situation where you won’t have the right answers and you will end up being mocked and laughed at. If you do rest assured that many people have these same struggles. Moses worried that the people would not believe that God had sent him, so he asked, “If they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" (Exodus 3:13).
Prior to this moment with Moses, the Israelites called their god “Elohim” or “El” – this is a title, but it is not a personal name. Other names used would have been “El Shaddai”, often translated as God Almighty. But Moses wanted God to reveal his particular name. Having been raised in Egypt as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, Moses would have been familiar with the names of dozens of Egyptian gods like Ra, Anubis, and Hathor. During his wilderness years in Midian, Moses would have also known the names of Canaanite gods like Baal and Asherah. Each of these foreign gods had a particular name and was associated with a particular domain. Ra was the god of the sun, Baal was the god of war, and so on.
When Moses asked God for His name, the response was a surprising "I AM WHO I AM… This is my name forever" (Exodus 3:14–15). This response set God apart from all the foreign gods the people may have known. This God was not limited to a first name or a particular domain. This God was not created by human hands nor named by human language. The statement "I AM" comes from the Hebrew verb "to be or to exist." With this statement, God declared that He is self-existent, eternal, self-sufficient, self-directed, and unchanging. But this statement also declared that He is present. Despite His nature being so different from humans and their man-made gods, God is present with His people. He was aware of their suffering, He desired to deliver them, and He intended to be known throughout all generations (Exodus 3:7–15).
What does this mean for us today?
Right now as you consider God as “I AM”, you are stating the present tense. In this very moment God is! He is with each of us. Showing himself in all our different circumstances but more than that He is in our midst. When I was thinking about this I was reminded of the verse, “Be still and know that I am God”. Psalm 46:10. Sometimes we might struggle to know him as our healer, our provider, our protection, as the good shepherd, the light, the living water because we have failed to just stop and be still and draw close to him. To just be conscious of the fact that He is, He has always been and will always be. The more we rest in his presence the more we will be aware of him throughout every moment of the day. Leading us and guiding us and being everything that we need simply because …HE IS!
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Who Do You Say I Am Series – Exchange Church Belfast 2020