Exodus 3:13, 14
Moses asked God what he should say if the children of Israel were to ask him who had sent him to be their deliverer. God responded, “I AM THAT I AM”. “I AM” becomes a name for God in this passage that is translated in Hebrew as hayah, meaning “to be, exist”. God is saying that He just IS. There is no other explanation as to how He became or how He got “to be”; He just is what He is.
This revelation of the name of God was not given to Moses to tell Pharaoh. When Pharaoh asks a similar question to the one posed by Moses, Moses answers, “The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go” (Exodus 5:3). There is no need to prove God’s existence before Pharaoh, for he is not under the covenant of God. For Israel however, they know the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so they are looking for a revelation of who this God is.
The establishment of “I AM” doesn’t last long, as we don’t see God calling Himself this again, but instead He refers to Himself as “JEHOVAH” in Exodus 6:3. This is translated in Hebrews as Yehovah and it means “the existing one”. Elsewhere it is rendered by the English spelling of LORD, using all capital letters. Its reference is to the God of the covenant. Each time it is used it is hearkening back to the fact that God is not only powerful, but is faithful to honor covenant.
Following His encounter with the woman caught in adultery, Jesus gives a discourse on being the light of the world, telling the Pharisee’s that they are of their father the devil (John 8:44). He continues on by explaining that if a man keeps His sayings, “he shall never see death” (John 8:51). This infuriates the Jews because they know that Abraham and the prophets were great men, but they are dead, and they feel that Jesus is setting Himself up as greater than all that preceded Him.
“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56), Jesus said. “Then said the Jews unto him, ‘Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?’” (John 8:57). By claiming that Abraham had seen Jesus’ day, He can only be insinuating one of two things. Either He is claiming to be hundreds of years old, having lived in the actual time of Abraham or He is claiming that He is God, having seen Abraham with His own eyes. Recall what Jesus has just said in verse 38, “I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father”.
“Jesus said unto them, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am’” (John 8:58).
The New Testament was written in Greek, so the words are not going to be exactly the same, but can you guess what “I am” means in the Greek? If you guessed, “to be, exist” then you are exactly right. Jesus, who would be speaking in Hebrew to a group of Jews, uses the phrase, hayah, which everyone standing there knows is what God called Himself to Moses. This is Jesus saying, “I AM”.
You must decide for yourself if Jesus was and is God in the flesh, or if he is psychotic. There really are no other explanations. If He was who He claimed to be, then it was Jesus saying to Moses, “I AM THAT I AM”. For those of us who believe, He is still THE GREAT I AM!
Moses asked God what he should say if the children of Israel were to ask him who had sent him to be their deliverer. God responded, “I AM THAT I AM”. “I AM” becomes a name for God in this passage that is translated in Hebrew as hayah, meaning “to be, exist”. God is saying that He just IS. There is no other explanation as to how He became or how He got “to be”; He just is what He is.
This revelation of the name of God was not given to Moses to tell Pharaoh. When Pharaoh asks a similar question to the one posed by Moses, Moses answers, “The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go” (Exodus 5:3). There is no need to prove God’s existence before Pharaoh, for he is not under the covenant of God. For Israel however, they know the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so they are looking for a revelation of who this God is.
The establishment of “I AM” doesn’t last long, as we don’t see God calling Himself this again, but instead He refers to Himself as “JEHOVAH” in Exodus 6:3. This is translated in Hebrews as Yehovah and it means “the existing one”. Elsewhere it is rendered by the English spelling of LORD, using all capital letters. Its reference is to the God of the covenant. Each time it is used it is hearkening back to the fact that God is not only powerful, but is faithful to honor covenant.
Following His encounter with the woman caught in adultery, Jesus gives a discourse on being the light of the world, telling the Pharisee’s that they are of their father the devil (John 8:44). He continues on by explaining that if a man keeps His sayings, “he shall never see death” (John 8:51). This infuriates the Jews because they know that Abraham and the prophets were great men, but they are dead, and they feel that Jesus is setting Himself up as greater than all that preceded Him.
“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56), Jesus said. “Then said the Jews unto him, ‘Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?’” (John 8:57). By claiming that Abraham had seen Jesus’ day, He can only be insinuating one of two things. Either He is claiming to be hundreds of years old, having lived in the actual time of Abraham or He is claiming that He is God, having seen Abraham with His own eyes. Recall what Jesus has just said in verse 38, “I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father”.
“Jesus said unto them, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am’” (John 8:58).
The New Testament was written in Greek, so the words are not going to be exactly the same, but can you guess what “I am” means in the Greek? If you guessed, “to be, exist” then you are exactly right. Jesus, who would be speaking in Hebrew to a group of Jews, uses the phrase, hayah, which everyone standing there knows is what God called Himself to Moses. This is Jesus saying, “I AM”.
You must decide for yourself if Jesus was and is God in the flesh, or if he is psychotic. There really are no other explanations. If He was who He claimed to be, then it was Jesus saying to Moses, “I AM THAT I AM”. For those of us who believe, He is still THE GREAT I AM!
