We concluded yesterday with Moses asking the Lord, "What shall I tell them?" if the Hebrew people ask him who sent him to deliver them. In today's passage the Lord gives Moses this answer: "God said to Moses, 'I Am Who I Am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I Am has sent me to you.'" (Exodus 3:14) He says in Hebrew, "Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh".
"Eyheh" means "to be" but is frequently translated as "I am" because this is the less awkward form of the phrase. A literal translation of the Lord's words in verse 14 would be something like, "I am the being One," or "I am the self-existing One", or "I will be who I will be," or "I am the One who has always been and who always will be". The Lord Jesus Christ---God the Son---said something similar of Himself in Revelation 22:13: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."
This name that the Lord shares with Moses---and with the Israelites--- has so many deep potential meanings that it would be impossible for us to think of and discuss them all, but we are going to take a look at the four top translations that I mentioned already in today's study.
"I am the being One" refers to God's permanence. He has always existed and always will exist. We never have to fear that He's a fair weather friend. He's not here today and gone tomorrow. No matter how far back into eternity we go, God is already there. No matter how far we go into the future, God is still there. It's difficult for the human mind to comprehend anything that never had a moment of non-existence, but there was never a time when God wasn't there. He didn't suddenly start existing somewhere way back in the distant past. He didn't need anyone or anything to create Him. Somehow He just always was. We may not understand this, but that doesn't make it any less true. The One who has always existed and always will exist is One we can count on to always be there for us.
"I am the self-existing One" means that God is all-powerful. He needs nothing from outside Himself to sustain Himself. That ought to humble us in a beneficial way when we realize that God didn't create us because He needed us. He was entirely complete and fulfilled and whole long before He ever formed the first human being out of the dust of the ground. He wanted us to exist, but He didn't need us to exist. That means we have Someone so much greater than ourselves to lean on. We ought not make the mistake of thinking everything depends on us when instead everything depends on Him. As He says in the Scriptures, He is the One who existed before all things, who created all things, and who holds all things together. (Colossians 1:17) When we fall into the trap of thinking things depend on us more than they actually do, we're in danger of making little gods of ourselves, and when we think more of ourselves than we should, we think less of God than we should. I remember sitting in women's Bible study one night at church and suddenly feeling like I might be coming down with something. I was already completely worn down and exhausted by some personal struggles that were going on in my life, and I thought, "Oh, no! If I get sick, then what? Things are already starting to fall apart and they'll really fall apart if I'm not at my best and in charge." Immediately the Holy Spirit brought to my mind the words of Colossians 1:17 where the Lord says He holds all things together by His powerful word. I didn't even know I knew that verse! But I'd read it and it was stored someplace deep in my mind and the Holy Spirit brought it to the forefront at just the right moment to remind me that the Lord is the One holding all things together, not me. We're going through a time of disaster in our world right now, and we may experience moments of feeling like things are falling apart, and we need to remind ourselves that God is still in charge and is still holding all things together.
"I will be who I will be" means that God is able to meet the needs of our changing lives. Who I needed Him to be yesterday may not be who I need Him to be today. Who I need Him to be today may not be who I need Him to be tomorrow. This doesn't mean that God changes but that there always has been and always will be elements of His personality and of His power to supply whatever we need at any particular moment in time. Some days I need Him to be a father to me. Other days I need Him to be a deliverer. At other times I need Him to be my healer or my counselor. You see where I'm going with these examples. He's always had the ability to be each of these things, but I may not need Him to be all these things to me all at once. If Moses presents God to the Israelites as the One who will be who He will be, Moses is saying, "God is whoever you need Him to be today. Right now you need to trust that He's going to deliver you from Egypt. That may mean some of you need to regard Him as a father figure. Some of you may need to consider Him as a mighty warrior. Others may need to think of Him as the One who sustains you and supplies your needs. God is able to be whatever each individual person needs Him to be. He will meet you where you are and interact with you in a way that works with your personality and with your needs in that moment in time."
"I am the One who has always been and who always will be" means we can never lose God. There's nothing we have in this life that can't be taken from us in an instant. If we've placed our trust and confidence in our own strength, we need to remember that our continued health is not guaranteed. If we've been finding our security in our marriage, we need to keep in mind that marriages fail every day of the week. If our confidence is in our jobs, or in the economy, or in the government, or in the media, all we have to do is look at what's going on in our nation right now to remind ourselves that businesses sometimes fail entirely or sometimes have to lay off employees, that the stock market can crash and the economy can tank, that fake news abounds, and that the normal day-to-day things that typically go on in a nation can come to a grinding halt because of the sudden emergence of a new virus that we can't even see with the naked eye. What do we have that's permanent in this life? Who can we trust to the uttermost? Friends, we can't even trust ourselves to the uttermost! I've let myself down a number of times in my life. Haven't you? Haven't we all made mistakes we didn't foresee ourselves making? So who can we really trust if we can't even trust ourselves? What can we count on when it feels like the world has gone mad? Who will be with us not only in this life but throughout the eternal ages to come? No one but the everlasting God! No one but the "I Am"!
I went through a time in my life a little over a decade ago when it felt like each thing I'd ever trusted in was being taken away from me one at a time. My marriage? Falling apart and headed for divorce. My health? Experiencing a new odd symptom almost every day and catching every virus going around. My mind? Losing it, it felt like, with frequent panic attacks and so much depression and anxiety I could barely get out of bed in the mornings. My friends? Some whom I'd treated like family shockingly betraying me. My finances? Facing bankruptcy. It felt like each of these things had been a rug under my feet and that, one by one, each of these rugs had been pulled out from under me. I was wobbling on my feet, desperately trying to find some unshakable ground upon which to stand. But you know what I found once all these temporary and impermanent rugs were snatched from under me? The One known as the Rock of Ages and the Solid Rock was Who had been beneath them all the time! But I couldn't see Him for all the things I'd placed between Him and myself. I'd obscured Him by all the things I'd erroneously placed my trust in. When at last nothing lay between the Lord and me, I learned that the things I'd heard and read about Him were true. He was the supplier of my needs, the sustainer of my soul, the strength of my life, and the all-sufficient One! He was and is and always will be the "I Am"!
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