The "I am"...

Week 14:

Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.  This is what you are to say to the Israelites:  ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

The great I AM, the God of the universe who spoke existence out of nothing.  I love this phrase, “I AM.”  When speaking to Moses and Moses was doubting himself and hiding it as doubting God, God straightens him out with ‘I AM’.  When he told Moses that, Moses knew he was dealing with God and he knew the Israelites would know the same. 

Jesus used the phrase with the Pharisees in John 8:58 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”  The Pharisees, setting themselves as the true keepers of the law and understanding Israel’s history, knew right away that Jesus was claiming to be God.  They were going to stone him over it.

To me the phrase ‘I am’ is God’s way of stopping his people in their tracks.  It’s as if he says, “Enough, I am God, you are not.”  I just love the power of the almighty in that phraseology. It makes me reflect to times where God used an ‘I am’ statement (figuratively) in my life.  Now, I have never heard the audible voice of God and I know of no one close to me who has either.  I know God has the power to speak audibly to any of us at any time…he did in the Bible.  But, I know he speaks to me in other ways.  And I have had some of those ‘I am’ moments.

 

Now, I probably was like Moses in some of those ‘I am’ moments, and really did not want to hear the ‘I am’ at the time.  However, I know that it was for my own good.  There are other ‘I am’ statements that Jesus made that were powerful but not direction changing.  Like “I am the true vine”, “I am the way, the Truth, the life.”  As I was looking up the John passage, there were many ‘I am’ statements made by Jesus, because he was the extension of the great ‘I AM’…the one that stopped Moses in his tracks.  The one who is our ‘I AM’.  I take great comfort in the strength of the ‘I AM’.

“I AM WHO I AM.  This is what you are to say to the Israelites:  ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

Questions/challenges:

1. What came to mind first when you read this passage?
2. What do you think God’s temperament was when He spoke these words to Moses?
3. What do you think Jesus’ temperament was when He spoke these words to the Pharisees?
4. Describe an ‘I AM’ moment for you.

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