One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible is simply the way God describes Himself. In Exodus 3 Moses encounters God in the burning bush. Moses has the unique conversation with God and is told he is going to lead the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. Moses tries to get out of the whole thing, which is another conversation in itself. Moses ask God, “when they ask me what your name is what do I tell them?” God said, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” Do you know what this word means? It simply means “I exist”….
God simply says I exist…I get goose bumps when I read this. I am the one and only living God. I exist….I’m real…there are no other god’s. Jump ahead to the gospel of John and Jesus makes this statement “I tell you the truth…before Abraham was born, I am!...
Jesus is saying ‘I AM”…I exist. You can argue Jesus wasn’t saying he was God…but I have to ask you to look at the next verse.
“At this they picked up stones to stone him…why would they want to stone him? Those who heard him could not interpret his claim as anything other than blasphemy, which was punishable by stoning.
Jesus said I am…not I was. He was expressing the eternity of His being and His oneness with the Father.
Look through John and see how many time Jesus said “I am”. It’s a great study and maybe someday we can go through them together.
But until then….I exist…think about that one!
-ps
1 comment:
I love the whole "I AM" thing. Just thinking about what it was like for Moses to hear those words from God, and then the reaction that the people had whenever Jesus used the same words...wow. I look forward to one day seeing Jesus face to face and hearing Him say, "Here I AM!"
Pastor Dave
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