In the Bible, God reveals His name to Moses in the book of Exodus 3:13-15. Many people may not understand the importance of the people knowing God’s name, but to Moses and the migrants from Egypt it added credence to the messages. You see, in Egypt, there were many gods, these Jews grow up asking people that very question whenever the unknown was revealed by an entity.
Moses asks God what he should tell the Israelites if they ask for the name of the God who sent him, God responds to Moses, “I am who I am.” He instructs Moses to say to the Israelites, “I AM has sent me to you.” God also tells Moses to say, “The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.” This name is meant to be remembered throughout all generations.
I find it extremely interesting, for many reasons, that God used the name “I Am”. This simplest of statements encompasses God’s eternal nature and existence. When God introduces Himself as “I Am,” He is revealing His self-sufficiency and self-existence. The Jews had the practice of using the name of the father to clarify the individual’s name. He is the uncaused cause, the Creator of all things, and is not dependent on anything or anyone to account for existence.
In Hebrew, the exact name given to Moses was, “Ehyeh asher Ehyeh,” which translates as “I will be what I will be,” which emphasizes God’s dynamic power and active nature. He is not static or confined by any boundaries; He is “THE” God who acts and intervenes in history.
It’s also a declaration of His presence and commitment to His people. By saying “I Am,” God is assuring Moses and the Israelites of His ongoing, unchanging presence. It’s a promise that He will be with them, just as He has always been with their ancestors.
Furthermore, the name “I Am” is a profound statement of God’s sovereignty. Unlike the gods of Egypt, who were seen as having dominion over specific aspects of life, the God of Israel is the ruler over all things. His name, “I Am,” signifies that He is the ultimate authority; there is no limit to His power or domain.
The name “I Am” also resonates through the rest of the Bible, where it appears over six-thousand times in various forms. It’s a name that carries the full weight of God’s eternal, self-existing, self-sustaining nature, and it’s a name that invites us to consider the depth and mystery of who God truly is.
During Jesus’ passion, one of the notable moments was when He used the phrase “I Am”; it is found in the Gospel of John 18:6. As Jesus is being arrested, He identifies Himself to the soldiers by saying, “I am.” When He says this, the soldiers, temple guards and officials drew back and fell to the ground. This powerful moment underscores the authority and identity of Jesus, connecting to the divine name revealed to Moses in Exodus.
Additionally, in John 8:58, before the passion narrative, Jesus makes a profound declaration of His eternal existence by stating, “Before Abraham was, I am.” This statement emphasizes His divinity and pre-existence, asserting that He is the same ‘I Am’ that spoke to Moses, thus identifying Himself with God.
There is seven other times Jesus used the “I Am” statement in the Gospel of John. In each, Jesus proclaims His essence: I am the bread of life (John 6:35), the light of the world (8:12), the gate (10:7), the good shepherd (10:11, 14), the resurrection and the life (11:25), the way and the truth and the life (14:6), and the true vine (15:1). These “I Am” statements are significant because they link Jesus directly to the divine name given in the Old Testament, affirming His identity as the Son of God and the promised Messiah.
As I sit and reflect on the power people’s names hold to one another, it is self-evident that some may come to believe that they too are a god, not a GOAT. When we use the phrase, “I am (this) or I am (that), how often do we take all the credit, elevating our real status. I know that many of us never dream of being like God, but based on how often we might use the phrase, I can see how it could seem like a way of claiming the credit for things that God gave us the power, intelligence, and creativity to do.
Instead, we should make the efforts to say, “I am nothing” without the Great I AM.
If this is my last post, I want all to know there was only one purpose for all that I have written; to have made a positive difference in the lives of others.
Anthony “Tony” Boquet, the author of “The Bloodline of Wisdom, The Awakening of a Modern Solutionary”
