I AM - Part 2 - Exodus 3:13-15

3:13-15 – There is a second reason why the name “I AM” is significant, and we see it centuries later during the mortal ministry of Jesus Christ. From what I understand, the name/phrase/word “I AM” became associated with the revered name of God YHVH which becomes Yahveh, which was shortened to only those letters to become unpronounceable. The name was purposefully made to be unpronounceable because, as the IM demonstrates, “this practice shows deference to the reverential feelings of the Jews who never pronounced the name, substituting instead their word for Lord-Adonai.” I don’t remember where I saw it previously, but this practice was tied to the verses in the D&C that cautioned against using the name of God too frequently, showing that this has been an issue throughout human history.

The name “I AM” was translated in such a way that people were not meant to use it frequently, and during the time of Christ, I think that the Pharisees had made it a cultural issue to the point where even using “I AM” or YHVH was considered blasphemy. In Jesus the Christ, James E Talmage notes, “Jewish traditionalism forbade the utterance of the sacred Name,” further confirming the significance of just saying the words.

This sets the scene for the other important reason for this name, which is found in John 8:58 when Jesus is teaching in, I think the temple treasury, and the Pharisees came to argue with him, while discussing Abraham and whether or not Jesus was possessed by the devil, Jesus stated “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it and was glad.” The Jewish leadership is not impressed and responded, “Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”

There was no confusion about what Jesus had meant by these words, especially considering he used the forbidden name of God to refer to Himself. JTC notes, “This was an unequivocal and unambiguous declaration of our Lord’s eternal Godship. By the awful title I AM He had made Himself known to Moses and thereafter was so known in Israel… Jewish traditionalism forbade the utterance of the sacred Name; yet Jesus claimed it as his own.”

In further explanation from the article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com, the author asks, “Was Jesus Christ trying to identify himself as the God o the Old Testament? The scribes and Pharisees usure though so for ‘they took up stones to cast at him.” There is a further quote from Robert J. Matthews saying, “(The fact that) they intended to stone him indicates they got the message that Jesus Claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God, the great Jehovah… There can be no doubt that Jesus was successful in putting his point across… They didn’t always believe him, but they knew what he said about himself.”

Jesus’ use of “I AM” was indeed so well understood in meaning as a declaration that He was in fact the Messiah, JTC further says, “In an orgy of self-righteous indignation, the Jews seized upon the stones that law in the unfinished courts, and would have crushed their Lord.” They knew exactly what He had meant by his statement and was so convinced that it was blasphemy that they intended to bludgeon him to death with big frickin rocks. But almost as if to prove His point, that he was the Messiah, “unseen of them He passed through the crowd and departed from the temple.

Not only did he claim to be the Messiah that Israel had been waiting for, but also taught another eternal truth. He proclaimed Himself to be “I AM” after saying that Abraham had rejoiced to see His day, to which the Pharisees noted that Jesus was in fact thousands of years younger than Abraham and therefore any interaction between them would have been impossible. JTC explains, “(Jesus’) seniority to Abraham plainly referred to the status of each in the ante mortal and preexistence state; Jesus was as literally the First-born in the spirit-world, as He was the Only Begotten in the flesh. Christ is as truly the Elder Brother of Abraham and Adam as of the last-born child of earth.”

The significance of the name “I AM” has a large part to do with Moses and the Hebrews coming out of Egypt, but it’s also the way in which Jesus declared Himself as the Messiah during his mortal ministry as well. So basically in both cases, Jesus used the name “I AM” to introduce Himself and his mission to many different groups of people, thus fulfilling the rest of verse 15 in Exodus 3, “this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.” It’s an eternal name, and Jesus using it so many centuries later demonstrates that.