How Moses Saw GodSýnishorn

 I Am Who I Am: The Greatness of God

It was a pivotal moment in biblical history. God appears to Moses in the burning bush to call him to lead His people out of slavery. In the poignant exchange, Moses asks about God’s name. Keep in mind that in the Israelite culture, your name was more than a label; it was a disclosure of who you were. Names mattered.

So God replies, “I Am Who I Am…Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I Am has sent me to you.’” That reply is not so clear, is it? What is God saying about Himself? “I Am Who I Am?” At the very least, this name is rather enigmatic and mysterious. But that fits, doesn’t it? There is mystery with God. He’s incomprehensible. Who else but God would have a name like this: “I Am Who I Am?”

But we can say more about this name. It suggests that God has life in Himself. He is completely free, self-existent, and sovereign. He is eternal and unchanging. He is not dependent on anything else and therefore invincible. He does as He chooses. His Word cannot be stopped. This all means that God is trustworthy. He has sovereign power to come through for us. This is who God is: sovereign, unchanging, eternal, self-existent, free. The source of all life everywhere. Independent. Mysterious. Incomprehensible in His greatness. Completely trustworthy. 

God gives Moses a shortened version of His name when He says, “Tell them that ‘I Am’ has sent me to you.” This is where things get interesting. Because when Jesus shows up on the scene in the book of John, He uses seven “I am” statements to describe who He is, such as “I am the door,” “I am the vine,” and “I am the bread of life.” These echo the burning bush passage of Exodus 3. 

But there’s more. In one discussion, Jesus tells the Jews that He was alive during Abraham’s lifetime. At this, the Jews become apoplectic. They are furious at what Jesus is suggesting, but Jesus doesn’t back down an inch. “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am.” Jesus does not say, “Before Abraham was born, I already existed,” or “I was already alive.” No, in a pointed reference to Exodus 3, Jesus proclaims, “Before Abraham was, I Am.” 

The Jews understood exactly what Jesus was saying. So they picked up stones to kill him, for He was claiming to be God. This is Jesus, the same one who spoke to Moses in the burning bush, the great ‘I Am,’ sovereign and eternal and unchanging, here to rescue His people from bondage.