Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 12 – December 1979

 

“I Am Who I Am”

 

Sermon by Rev. Dirk J. van Garderen on Exodus 3:13-15

Scripture Reading: Exodus 3

Psalter Hymnal: 194; 94:1,2 (Hymn of confession), 178:1,4,5,6 178:1.4,5,6; 53:1,3,4,11; 408 (After the sermon); 493

 

Dear Congregation,

God had chosen Moses to be the instrument to work out His plan to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt into the Promised Land. Not surprisingly Moses was al very unwilling liberator. “Anything but THAT!” Who would believe himself adequate for a task of this magnitude?

Moses would be given the task of confronting Pharaoh. He would also need to convince the Israelites that he was indeed God’s divinely chosen leader whom they must trust. Even more, Moses would need to be the person to make God’s person, God’s being, God’s ways and laws known to Israel. At that point of time the Israelites knew precious little if anything about God’s will for their lives at all! Who would feel equipped to fulfil this task? Who would volunteer for this?

Not Moses! He pleads: “Who am I, that I should go the Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” A run-away prince. A nomadic shepherd.

This plea of Moses was heard, understood and fully known by God. Therefore God said: “I WILL BE WITH YOU.” THAT is a wonderful assurance, isn’t it? God HIMSELF will be with Moses every moment and every step of the way. God will be there to guide, to strengthen, to help, and ultimately to lead him to victory. You would agree, that is the kind of assurance any struggling saint needs in times of fear and uncertainty. After all, isn’t that what we hear Christ Himself assuring His Church of all ages? Our ground, our basis for assurance, and our greatest comfort is always the knowledge that God Himself is with us. Countless believers have found true solace in Christ’s words when he said: “Surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mat.28:20). And do we not have the Comforter, the Holy Spirit in our hearts and do we not have the “sword of the Spirit” (the Bible) in our hands as well? God Himself is with us. Said Jesus of the Holy Spirit… “I will send Him to you!”

But somehow, in a very fundamental sense, this promise of God did not seem to be enough for Moses. Furthermore, he did not think that this statement would have satisfied the Israelites either.

The REASON for this is simple: “God”, that is, His ways, His power, His will and His abilities, was essentially a huge question mark for Moses and Israel at that time. They knew next to nothing about God. If a person about whom you know next to nothing says to you:”I will be with you” there is in fact little comfort in his promise. He might be as helpless as you yourself are in coping with a crisis.

To illustrate:

You are going to climb a high mountain renowned for its difficult ascent. Never having climbed it before you hear a person say: “I will come with you. That is no comfort at all if that person turns out to be a complete novice. However, if that person turns out to be an experienced mountaineer who has climbed that mountain several times previously, his words will be a great comfort!

To trust someone, to be reassured by him, to have confidence in him, you must KNOW him.

Similarly, for Moses to be comforted and assured by God’s words: “I will be with you”, he would need to know WHO God is, and WHAT He is like and able to DO. The same went for the Israelites, and the same goes for us.

1. THE LORD REVEALS HIMSELF AS ” I AM WHO I AM”

You can now appreciate the conversation that took place between Moses and God so long ago in the wilderness of Sinai. Said Moses: “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you’, and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” (3:13).

Here we should keep in mind that the word “God” or “Elohim” in Hebrew could refer to any of the “gods” currently worshipped in the world at that time. The Israelites knew of the many Egyptian gods, and more likely than not the “God” who had spoken 400 years previously to Abraham could, in their minds, have be been any one of the Egyptian gods! Which of the many gods of that age is the God who commissioned Moses to deliver Israel?

No, for the Israelites the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was just about as unknown as was the god to whom the Athenians erected an altar in Athens in Paul’s day. How could the promise of a virtually unknown God comfort? How can you trust your life, your future and your every hope to a God of whom you know hardly anything?

Therefore the questions. Who is this God Almighty who covenanted with Abraham? Who is this God of Moses? Was he worth trusting, obeying and surrendering life for? Would He really be able to deliver the people from the Egyptians and their mighty gods? Would He really possess power, might and strength enough to give Israel freedom in a land flowing with milk and honey?

What is your NAME God?

We must notice that Moses, in assuming that the Israelites would ask him this question, was really seeking an answer to all of these questions. By revealing His NAME God was asked not so much to provide a convenient tag to distinguish Him from other Gods, rather, God’s NAME IS God. His name reveals His PERSON and His WAYS. God’s name would describe who He is, what He can do, what His power is and how He will deal with His people. By revealing His name, the unknown God would become KNOWN.

The answer Moses received from God was simple, short and really beautiful. “I am who I am”, or, since the Hebrew language knows no tense as we do in ours: “I will be who I will be.” THAT is God’s name by which He desires to be known forever. We still use it even today. The name “Yahweh” or “Jehovah” as our Psalter Hymnal has it, is derived from it. The English translations of the Bible use the word “LORD” in four capital letters to translate the Hebrew. An extremely important name, for it makes God known. By this name He desires to all eternity to reveal Himself. In Ex 3:15 God Says: “The LORD (Yahweh), the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob THIS is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.”

But suppose someone asked you: “What does this name by which God makes Himself know from generation to generation tell YOU about God?”, how would you explain? Or, ask yourself, “How does the name “I am who I am” increase my knowledge of God so as to provide me with ever greater comfort and assurance and trust in Him?”

2. THE MEANINGS OF THIS NAME.

Two important features stand out as regards the meaning of this name.

1. In the first place the name “I AM WHO I AM” points to the incomparable nature of the Lord. He is absolutely and totally without equal. He cannot be compared with anything. He stands infinitely highly above and over the entire created universe and no one, no thing can even begin to challenge His authority, sovereignty, power or greatness. “I AM”…. that is, I simply cannot be compared with anything you can devise or imagine. This knowledge about God’s person is of fundamental importance to believers of all times.

For example:

a) Consider the Israelites to whom Moses would reveal this name. He would appear “out of the blue” so to speak and announce that he, Moses, was God’s appointed deliverer to rescue the people from the Egyptians.

Can you visualise the raised eyebrows and the looks and stares of utter disbelief? DELIVER US? ? ?

Are you in possession of your senses Moses? What about the Egyptians and their mighty gods? These Egyptians are a mighty military nation, a world power, and we have not so much as a trained soldier amongst us, let alone weapons to face their mighty war machines – the chariots! These Egyptians have powerful gods whose might is invincible! Look at their priests, magicians, and look at the way in which their gods have favoured them by making them so many, so prosperous and so powerful! Who would dare challenge Isis and Osiris of the Egyptians? And in the face of this dread and terror of the Israelites Moses would proclaim: “I am who I am is with me and you!”

“I am” whose greatness, whose strength and power is infinitely greater than that of the Egyptians and their gods. Why, “I am” holds the mighty nations in derision and laughs at their antics. “I am” is the one who rules, who controls and commands absolutely.

Pharaoh and his chariots? Why, within three months from the day the Lord spoke to Moses at the burning bush this mighty man, army and chariots would be floating in the waters of the Red Sea!

The Egyptian gods? In ten mighty strokes each of the major gods of the Egyptians would be revealed as doddering spectres, as empty nothings. Each of the ten plagues “I am” would inflict on Egypt would show His absolute rule over each of the so-called mighty Egyptian gods. “I am”, and none can compare with the Lord God, the Lord of Hosts, holy is His Name!

b) And what about ourselves?

We have heard the name that is above every name. We worship the Lord, “In am who I am” as the One whose power, strength, sovereignty mercy and compassion is second to absolutely nothing. Every time we pray to the Lord our God and call upon His name He reveals to us and reminds us of who He is. No force, be it the might of men with all their might, wealth or whatever, or be it the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places can destroy the out-working of God’s will for our lives. Nothing whatsoever can separate us from the love of Christ because He is able to do all things and always causes ALL things to work together for good in our lives.

But how often we forget this. Remember how the Israelites murmured time and again and wished they were back dipping into the flesh-pots of Egypt? Remember their Golden Calf. Lord God, “I am who I am” be merciful to us for using your name and forgetting what it tells us and reminds us of concerning your person and purposes! How confidently do we really say: “If God is for us, who can stand against us?” How confidently do we really APPLY the fact of God’s absolute rule in this world and its crises, in our own family circumstances and in our own lives? “I am who I am” is God’s name!

2. The second great meaning of this name of God points us to His constancy, that God never changes or breaks His promise or acts contrary to His will and purposes. The writer to the Hebrews refers to Jesus Christ being the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb.13:8). Like the Lord God, Christ the Son is always the same and never changes His purposes and plans. What God said three thousand years ago is what He still says today. Once God has given us His word, made a covenant promise, He will stand by it. “I am” yesterday, “I am” today, and “I am” a million years from now.

The importance of this can be illustrated also:

a) Consider what Moses was to make known to the Israelites. It was more than 400 long, long years ago that the Lord God had appeared to Abraham with a promise of blessing, of a land and of His personal involvement with the people. When Moses confronted the Israelites as slaves of the Egyptians they would, by virtue of all their bitter experiences, have every reason to believe that God had forgotten His promises, or perhaps changed His mind about them. There was no sign whatsoever of God fulfilling His promises! Maybe He had said fine things to the patriarchs, but He wasn’t doing anything about it at all. They had multiplied… but what is the good of this if it merely creates a larger pool of slave labour for the Egyptians? They had no land. They had no evidence of divine blessing. Why not? It must have seemed logical to the Israelites that God, if He indeed existed and had almighty power and control, had changed His mind!

But now hear God’s name! “I am who I am”… I am always the same, I will always and eternally be true to my promises. The future will illustrate this abundantly.

c) For us too. God is ‘Yahweh’, “I am who I am” who has made many promises to us too. We too have received so many promises from God. The promise of Christ’s return and of a new heaven and a new earth. The covenant in Christ’s blood is our guarantee of God’s promise of fulfilment of His every word. Paul expresses this beautifully in Romans 8. He was inspired of the Holy Spirit to write:

“For you (who have been born again in and through Christ’s atoning blood) did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you have received the spirit of Sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are God’s children, then we are heirs heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…!” (Rom.8:15-17).

Heirs of the promise: – of salvation; – of eternal life lived gloriously with God in His Kingdom; – of a new heaven and a new earth where suffering and sin shall be no more.

And God, being constant, unchanging, who never repeals His promises, will never change His mind about this.

He will never change His mind by turning away those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who He has called are those who will also be glorified.

2. He will never change His mind and fail to fulfil the promises which He has made concerning our future and the future of the Kingdom. Why not? Because He is “I am who I am”. As the hymn puts it: “Thou changest not, Thy compassion it fails not… There is no shadow of changing with Thee.”

CONCLUDING REMARKS:

For the Israelites this revelation of God’s name would be a never ending reminder of His absolute power and control over every force in heaven, on earth and under the earth. It would guarantee them and teach them that God is ever faithful to His word and promise. They were instructed that they must never forget or ignore this. Therefore the Lord commanded Moses saying: “This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation. When you remember, meditate, pray, call or seek God, KNOW His sovereignty and His unchanging faithfulness to His every promise.

What a reminder to us too! How often do we not find ourselves fretting, worrying and being anxious about all the experiences and flaming darts that are hurled upon us in this life?

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We worry about the future… Will I be able to endure? Will I be able to stand when floods overwhelm and threaten to break my faith to smithereens? Will the church of the Lord Jesus Christ be able to withstand the onslaught of secularism, of false prophets and teachers, or a decline in God-given morality? Will there really be such a thing as life after death? Was Christ really speaking the truth when He promised to prepare a place for us?

Will Jesus EVER come again?

Will this world ever be changed?

Will Satan ever disappear and be no more?

These questions could go on and on couldn’t they?

But THEREFORE remember God’s name! We worship “I am who I am”!

He rules. His will be done. He is in control and has power over all and every trial. He changes not and will never fail to fulfil His every promise to its tiniest detail. Are we sure?

THEREFORE remember God’s name forever.

“I am who I am…. I will be who I will be!”

Amen.