Share Light: In the Darkness a Light ShinesMfano

SHARE LIGHT: Jesus Reveals Himself to Us  

Day Two

Jesus Is the ‘I Am’

Scripture Reading: Exodus 3:13-15

Today’s Focus: John 8:58 (GNT)

“I am telling you the truth,” Jesus replied. “Before Abraham was born, ‘I Am’.”

In the reading from the book of Exodus, Moses is tending sheep in the wilderness and comes up on a burning bush that is not being consumed. (For greater context you can read Exodus 3 and 4.) Out of that bush God begins to talk to Moses and reveals to him that he (Moses) will be the instrument of deliverance to take the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. But Moses isn’t sure he is the right man for the job. He seeks to verify who exactly is calling him to this duty. He asks:

“When I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ So what can I tell them?”

God said, “I am who I am. You must tell them: ‘The one who is called I Am has sent me to you.’ Tell the Israelites that I, the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, have sent you to them. This is my name forever; this is what all future generations are to call me (Exodus 3:13-15 GNT).

What is the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? God says, “I Am.” That name was so sacred to the Israelites, later referred to as the Jewish people, that it could not even be pronounced or written in full. To this day orthodox Jews write “G-d” to avoid committing sacrilege. So, it had to come as a shock to religious Jews in the first century when a certain rabbi, began to refer to himself as “I am!” 

Let us explore this shocking statement from this certain rabbi. It is the first century and the time for a new deliverance is approaching. God’s people are slaves to sin and so another Exodus is needed. This time the deliverer would be the new Moses—Jesus, who though God, who though God, became a human being and lived among us, even as a son of Abraham (see John 1:14). These facts are slow to enter the hearts and minds of the people who hear Jesus’s teachings. They argue that they are not slaves to anyone, that they are children of Abraham and that Jesus is, at best, a demon-possessed Samaritan. And then Jesus delivers the words that stun, stupefy, and shock his hearers: “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see the time of my coming; he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56 GNT). What?

They said to him, “You are not even fifty years old—and you have seen Abraham?” “I am telling you the truth,” Jesus replied. “Before Abraham was born, ‘I Am’” (verses 57-58 GNT). Drop the mic!

Reflection

Jesus said that before Abraham was born, “I am.” In other words, he preexisted Abraham. What does that say about who Jesus is? Why is it important to believe that Jesus is the Word that has always existed? What difference will that make in the lives of those who have not yet heard this truth?