Word of Salvation – Vol. 25 No. 15 – January 1979

I Am Who I Am

P. G.Sermon by Rev. Van Dam, M.Sc., B.D. on Exodus 3:13-15
Scripture reading: Exodus 3
Psalter Hymnal: 195; 272:2-4; 193:4; 482:1, 2, 5; 164:4-5

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,
While God’s people are suffering oppression in Egypt, God comes to Moses with the message given in the words of verse 10 of the chapter which we have just read: “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”
But this word of his God raised in Moses’ mind the difficulty of the question: “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you’, and they ask me ‘Who is He?’, what then must I say?” With that question Moses might well have meant to say to God: “The people have been under strain too long; just nice words only would not mean much to them.”
In His reply to Moses, God says, “This is My Name: ‘I AM WHO I AM!; tell them that I AM has sent me to you, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
Now, this name ‘I AM WHO I AM’ has two meanings.
The first one is: I do not change, I am the same always, the God of your fathers, and no one will ever be able to make someone different out of Me, no matter how often people may try to do just that. No matter also what people may say concerning Me.
In the second place this name does not only speak of God’s being but also of His deeds. Tell the people: I AM WHO I AM means: I shall do what I promised their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; to give them the land of the Canaanites. And, indeed, we remember the word of the Lord for His people in Phil.1:6, where Paul writes: “And I am sure that He Who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
This, then, is how God Himself has said that “I am to be remembered throughout all generations” (v.15):
   a) as the God Who does not change and Who will always be with His people throughout their generations, and
   b) as the God Who fulfils His promises to them.
So, this is our God. This is Who He is. Even if generations come and go. If they want to know Who their God is, then this is the answer: My Name is I AM, the God of your fathers. What I was for them is what I am for you. What I have done for them is what I will do for you. What I have promised them, I will fulfil in you!
If you, young or old, would want to know Who your God is, you will not find the answer in what the world of today says about Him. As Israel did not see Him clearly in Egypt either!
Neither will you find Him in the way you might want to find Him in the answers you would like Him to give you. Israel did not find Him that way either.
If you want to know Who I am, you will have to go back. I am the God of your fathers. I am not the God of the ‘spur-of-the-moment’. Neither am I like the Egyptian magicians, performing miracles ‘on-the-spot’. My name is I AM, the everlasting God Who does not change. And because He does not change, He will forever remain faithful to His people, in all His Word and works.
I am the God of your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with whom and through whom I established and maintained My covenant with My people throughout their generations, to be an everlasting covenant. I am the God of your fathers; a very beautiful name of our covenant God. And, indeed, it is in what He did for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and in what He did for our fathers that we can see how true it is that our God does not change. That He does fulfil His promises to His people, in His faithfulness to them!
Your God – and this concerns our young people – is the God of your fathers. The God of His chosen race throughout their generations, right down to yours today. He is the same God for you today as He has always been for His people. Faithful to you too, in all His Word and works.
He promised His people that they would be a great nation. That is why at one time He led them out of Egypt, so that you should now be that great nation today. And would you have any reason to deny this, that you are that great nation now? That is why He saved His people from the power of Satan, through Jesus Christ your Lord, that you should be that great nation now. No, not for your numbers, but in what you possess and because you belong to Him, the only true God and Saviour.
His faithfulness to His people has been shown right throughout history. Always did His people fail Him, but never did He fail them or forsake them. Never! He will never fail you either, young people!
To use an illustration: from a place like Genesis 31:5 we learn of God’s faithfulness to His people in the Old Testament times. That verse reads: “But the God of my father has been with me…!” These words were spoken by Jacob, after he had discovered that Laban did not really favour him. With these words, “But the God of my father has been with me”, Jacob in fact confesses that God had been with his father Isaac so that Jacob should also know Him and be His. And so on, throughout all the generations of His chosen race, right to the present day.
Likewise did God keep our fathers – that is to say, our parents – and their church, so that we, their children, should also know Him and be His. Know that we too are the people to whom belong the promises. He kept our parents so that we should know that we too are His.
Somehow it is not popular today to speak of our fathers. Kids often say: Oh, yes, we all know about it, how things were in our parents’ days, how they know what is right and wrong. But we live ‘here and now!’ Things are different today from what they were in our parents’ days.
In a way they are right. Today, people have different ideas than our parents had. What our parents believed were true values were not always true values; perhaps some of those were customs rather than values. But, then again, by what measure do we say that what people consider to be values today are true values indeed, and not just a certain way of thinking?
We are not sure at all what the world of tomorrow will look like. And by the way things are going, we really do not have all that much hope or all that many reasons to believe that the world of tomorrow will be better than that of today. Really, only people who are blind or who do not want to see would expect the world of tomorrow (which will be the world of our children’s children) to be better than it is today.
On the other hand, there are several parents who use fear of what the world of tomorrow will be like as a reason or an excuse for not wanting to have children.
But either way, whether we are optimistic or pessimistic, whether we expect more of the world than the world offers, or adopt an attitude of despair, no matter the changes and uncertainties, your God will remain the same. And that must be your first thought, always! He alone is the truth; He alone is your hope and surety.
Whatever you believe the world may be saying, your God says to you:
I am the God of your fathers, Who does not change.
I am the same God to you Who came to Moses and led My people out of Egypt.
I am the same God to you Who sent My Son to be the Saviour of My people.
I am the same God to you Who has always saved, guided and kept My people.
I am the same God Who kept your fathers and guided them so that you, too, should be Mine, and know that you are Mine!
Yes, when you say as young people that your parents are or were different than you, or that you are different than them, you are right. But so what? The same criticism which you may sometimes have of them as being old-fashioned, out-of-touch, and so on, your children will have of you.
But while you may want to spell out in which ways they were different, or why you think you should be different (and you may find it difficult to give valid reasons…), this is the point: your God is the same God Who He was for your fore-fathers, your fathers, you, your children, your grand-children, etc. He was the God of Abraham, of Moses, of Jesus Christ; He is your God also. Today, tomorrow, forever!
And whatever else you might want to say, that is your only hope and surety.
You may well be critical of your parents. But then there are two things you must not forget. Jesus Christ died for them, too, as much as you like to believe that He died for you. They were as dear to Him as you are; you are as dear to Him as they were.
But there is also another point. You may not agree with the ways your parents believe we should honour the Lord. But that is not really the issue, you know. It is in the way in which your parents believe that they should honour, obey and serve Him. It is in that way that the Lord kept and guided them and their church. It is in that way He kept and guided them for you! That you too, should be His and know Him.
It is in that way that He is your life, the anchor for your soul in a turbulent world. So that you should not drift away either with the world, drift along without aim and without any real hope at Not drift along with the world because you belong to the church of your fathers and of your fore-fathers and of Jesus Christ.
(And this should bring home to us all the truth of what Paul writes in his second letter to the Thessalonians, ch.2 vs.15: “‘So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the tradition you were taught by us.”) This is a word for older and younger people alike. Yes, very much also for our young people who will be the parents of the next generation. You will want to remind your children, too, of these traditions of the Word. You will want them, too, to know this God Who was your God, Who was the God and Father of Jesus Christ.
If you want to teach them who their God is, you will want to go back to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. You will want to go back to Jesus Christ and explain that it was He Who established the church in the world.. And how they are members of that church. And could only have been members of that church of the Lord Jesus Christ because our faithful God kept that church in His faithfulness to His people, which were our fathers.
No, our hope is not in our parents. Quite true! Our hope is in the God Who had remained faithful to them.: It was not in their goodness; they will never claim this either. It was in His faithfulness to them. In having kept them in the ways in which they believed the Lord wanted them to serve and honour Him.
This we would want to ask of you, our young people, can you see the beauty of the language of Jacob in his words, “But the God of my father has been with me…”? Of the words of the Lord Himself to him, “I am God, the God of your father, do not be afraid…!” (Gen.46:3)? And when we read of Jacob’s assurance in the God of his father when he “offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac”, at Beersheba; that is, on the altar his father Isaac had built?
So, then, that is why we come to worship our covenant God where He led our fathers to worship Him. And He led them to worship Him there so that we, their children, should also know how to worship Him and live. Worship Him, their God; their God and ours! Worship with them.
Two generations, one people, one God, one faith, one hope. As we, our fathers and we, were all baptised with the same baptism into Him (Eph.4:4, 1Cor.12:12-13).
This is your privilege, your riches, for you who are our young people: that the Name of your God is I AM WHO I AM, the God of your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God and Father of Jesus Christ.
Your God is a glorious God! There is no god like Him. And He wants you to know that, through His Word.
God does not change; neither does His Word. It is never old, it is always new. It was the Word through which He kept your parents, that you, too, should know that Word and be kept by it, and teach your children in your days to come.
Yes, that Word is always new in all its reality. For example, does it not speak to us in the days in which we are living when we read: “Let marriage be held in honour among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will judge the immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from money, and be content with what you have; for He has said ‘I will never fail you nor forsake you’. Hence we can confidently say: ‘The Lord is my Helper, I will not be afraid; what can a man do to me?’ Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God; consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings…!” (Heb.13:4-9a).
Indeed, Jesus Christ: the same, yesterday, today and forever.
Jesus, in Matthew 22:32, repeats the words that our God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. There He mentions this name of God in speaking of the resurrection of the dead. In using this name, Christ tells us that God still is the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob. He was their covenant God Who had promised that He would never fail them nor forsake them. That is why they still live and He still is – and evermore will be – their God.
Forevermore will He be the God of our fathers and our God. In Jesus Christ all His people, our fathers and we all, will live for ever.
In this world of dying and death, we, young and old together, join in confessing the God Whose Name is I AM WHO I AM. The God of our fathers. Yes, this is hope: not the world of today or of tomorrow (as the evolutionist reasons) but the God of our fathers. Therefore, we younger ones thank Him for our fathers; for in them, in their worship and their love for Him, we see His care and love for us today. Do we have that hope for our children tomorrow?
AMEN.