I AM - part 1 - Exodus 3:13-15

3:13-15 - The next part is very interesting because it’s significance spans over millennia and the whole concept has never really made sense to me. It appears that Moses has accepted the fact that he is being called by God to a big task, but then he asks a question that I’ve never understood, and that is “when I come unto the children of Israel… and they shall say to me, what is his name? what shall I saw unto them?” And here’s God’s response, “I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou saw unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”

TB really brings the point home for me when, after reading this passage, he asks, “Does anyone else find this a curious question? What’s the big deal about knowing God’s name that Moses is just so sure the Israelites will demand? What’s wrong with just saying, ‘the God of our fathers sent me’?” This was really the question for me, like who cares what his name is, if someone is giving me $100, I don’t care what he wants to be called, and I don’t need convincing to take it from him. TB reminds us to consider the spiritual state of the Hebrews at this time. He says, “The sad reality is that the Israelites had succumbed to nearly 4 centuries of living amongst the pagan worship practices of the Egyptians.”

We also need to keep in mind that when the Hebrews got to Egypt with Jacob, they weren’t super clear on the gospel of their fathers either. Rachel and Jacob both still held idols in significance, etc so it’s not like they had the pure form of the gospel and now 400 years later are trying to make it stronger, but what they believed was a variation of different gospel principles mixed with the surrounding religions and now God and Moses are both trying to work within that understanding.

Anyway, TB points out the commonly held ancient Egyptian practice that if you knew a god’s name you could control that God. But also, “just like in Hebrew, in the Egyptian language personal names held meanings. So, the name of a god denoted that god’s characteristics… understand that God have Moses what he knew Moses was looking for: a name that indicated God’s characteristics. Because, this is NOT the same thing as God’s personal name which He will soon tell Moses.” So in ancient Egypt, a god had a proper name but also a descriptive name, TB likened it to “oh great Electro, god of the TV, please make my picture come in clear.” So Moses was looking for a proper name but also the thing that God was in charge of. If the name was Dave and he was god of the water, Moses could go to the Egyptians and say, “Dave the water god said let me people go,” and then Moses could control the water to force Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go.

The answer “I AM” doesn’t say to me what God’s characteristics are, but to the ancient world it was understood. The article on this verse from gotquestions.org says, “the phrase translated ‘I am who I am’ in Hebrew is ehyeh asher ehyeh. The word ehyeh is the first person common singular of the verb to be. It would be used in any number of normal situations: ‘I am watching the sheep’… However, when used as a stand-alone description, I AM is the ultimate statement of self-sufficiency, self-existence, and immediate presence. God’s existence is not contingent upon anyone else. He plans are not contingent upon any circumstances. He promises that He will be that He will be; that is, He will be the eternally constant God. He stands, ever-present and unchangeable, completely sufficient in Himself to do what He wills to do and to accomplish what He will to accomplish.”

In comparison to the other ancient Egyptian gods that the Hebrews would have been more familiar with, this is God’s way of saying, “I’m not just the god of water or the sun, or animals, I AM the God of everything, I hold all power and all knowledge.” This is similar to God’s introduction at another time of “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” That’s not a proper name as we understand it, but it speaks to His nature, characteristics, longevity, and state of being. Another article on this verse from BibleHub answers that this name is “not the idea of inactive, abstract existence, but the active manifestation of existence.” God is saying that he’s not passive, he hasn’t been simply sitting back enjoying or ignoring the Hebrew’s suffering this whole time, he’s been involved and waiting for the right time to retrieve them. He not only is and always has been, but he will be everything that they ever need. The Hebrews don’t need to look to multiple gods and trick them into helping out the people, they only need one God who will take care of all their needs, and that God is Him, the great I AM. I AM everything, everywhere, all the time, in any capacity needed.