Exodus 3:14: “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” How do you describe the indescribable? How can the language of a finite people contain anything of the quintessence of the transcendence? It is the great problem of theology and ministry. God’s people must know who has called, who is going before them, who is coming along beside them, and following after them. What name can answer that pressing question well enough? There are a variety of answers on offer in today’s marketplace. Some seek to describe God by analogy to lesser things which we are more familiar with, and others seek to elevate language to its highest heights attempting to reach an intellectual plateau from which a worthy conception can be formed. So, seek to descend and others to ascend, but all are reduced to throwing words into the sea of listeners and hoping something is caught. Our languages cannot contain the infinite, nor can our minds. If we try to go up to Heaven we fall short, and if we try to bring Heaven down to Earth we fail. Either path places us in danger of reducing God into something less than He is. Thus, our question becomes more difficult as one potential answer clashes with another and we react to one danger or the other. The beginning of a good answer is the confession that we are unable to provide a good answer. Do we go high or low? Do we emphasize this or that? What shall be our priority? We debate and debate swaying ourselves from position to position. I pray we are beginning to grasp the futility of the task.
Exodus 3:14 Meaning
Why? Well, it is only when we come to the end of ourselves that we truly appreciate help. In this grand question, we have the help of the most excellent kind, but we too fail to appreciate the helpfulness of that help. That is the tragedy I wish to address for your good and God’s glory. You see the question has been answered for us in full. We have a full and satisfactory answer provided, and if we will only copy down that answer we will certainty ace the test. The answer is not hidden somewhere, it is given to us freely. Indeed in the verse above it is given to Moses and so to us all!
The answer God gives Moses as he asks this very question is at once simple and profound. He summarizes His transcendent majesty in two words, “I AM.” There is enough in those two words to fill every library mankind might ever construct, and yet God does not leave it at that. No, the Almighty goes on to recall the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob which expound upon and explain the true meaning of “I AM” within the context of the call to His people.
God makes Himself known to His people and tells us His name, and then He recalls us to the history of His mighty deeds (see verse 15) in which we perceive His character and His attributes via demonstration. In every way He has come down to meet us where we are. See Exodus 3:15: “And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.”
Indeed, the Second person of the Godhead took on flesh and dwelt among us. See John 1:14 and Philippians 2:11:
- John 1:14: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
- Philippians 2:11: “And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity dwells within all believers. See 1 Corinthians 3:16 and Ephesians 1:13-14:
- 1 Corinthians 3:16: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”
- Ephesians 1:13-14: “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”
These are blessings unknown in other religions where it is up to us to work our way up to where God dwells. The God of all grace comes to us to call us and bring us up where He is.
Surely the all-wise and all-knowing Creator knows precisely how far He must descend in order to be known by us. The revelation is precisely what we need according to 2 Timothy 3:16 and the following: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”
Indeed, in every instance, including our example with Moses and Israel, God has provided the right amount of information in the right way to satisfy the need, not the want, of His people. Yes, we want more than we are given, just as our first parents wanted the one fruit that was forbidden to them. We want to know everything, for in knowing everything we gain a sense of control, and we rest in that control trusting ourselves in our own knowledge.
O, but we are not designed to rest in such a state beloved, and we cannot find any rest there. Even if we could know everything perfectly, we would lack the ability to act on that knowledge successfully. We would exhaust ourselves, and indeed we already exhaust ourselves acting on the meager knowledge we can obtain: and even on baseless speculations. When we rest on our own understanding, we are restless.
It is only when we trust in God entirely, including the full acceptance of the sufficient revelation He has given, that we find true rest. The precept is clearly illustrated in the continuing story of Israel as they are led of Egypt and into the land of promise. Those stiff-necked and stubborn people had a hard time trusting God despite His revelation Like them we also forget, ignore, or doubt what God has already made plain. Like those people, we suffer for our faltering faith.
We need Ebeneezers (stones of remembrance) today as much as they needed them in their day. We need to heed the counsel of Psalm 1 and be planted in the streams of living waters that flow continuously from the Bible. The question is already answered for theologians and ministers, and all of us. We only need to answer moment by moment from what God has said. This we are well able to do being blessed with a great multitude of tools to help us. I pray even in reading this humble offering you have been refreshed in your knowledge of the Most High God.
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