I AM that I AM
Exodus 3:1-15
It was business as usual in all the rest of the world. The world was entirely ignorant of an event that was to take place in a remote desert. Yet it is what happened here that has changed the world and not whatever decrees might have come that day from the throne of Pharaoh or the talk in the street about politics, the economy, or some other subject. This often is the way that God works. Yet when He speaks to a fugitive in the middle of nowhere, His word comes to pass.
Moses was a miracle child, a type of the miracle child who would later be born in a mange in Bethlehem. The decree had gone forth from Pharaoh that all the Israelite male children were to be cast into the river (Exodus 1:22). His mother hid him for three months but eventually complied with the order. But Moses instead of being cast out into the river to drown was placed in a little boat and left to the mercy of God.
We read that this child floating in a boat was caused to be found by Pharaoh’s daughter whom God put pity in her heart. She knew this child was a Hebrew, yet had her raided in her house as her son. So Moses was raided as the Scripture says in all the learning and wisdom of Egypt. He would have learned about Egypt’s gods and his standing as part of Pharaoh’s family his being enrolled among them.
Moses who had to be nursed was providentially nursed by his own mother. From this he seems to have learned his true identity as an Israelite. When he was older, he saw a Egyptian taskmaster mistreating a fellow Hebrew and killed the man and hid his body. But he was found out and betrayed by one of his own countrymen and had to escape for his life. This was the occasion for his removal to the backside of the desert. Thus ended the first forty years of the life.
Moses would spend the next forty years of his life as a shepherd guiding sheep through the wilderness. It seems like quite a demotion in life. But in forty years, Moses knew where to find forage for his sheep and to know good water from bad. In order to survive, he had to be an expert.
Moses had probably seen dry bushes erupt into flames before in the dry hot desert, but today was different. The bush he saw on fire did not disintegrate into ashes. The fire kept on burning. God used Moses’ curiosity to attract him to this place.
What we see here is a magnificent encounter between the Lord and Moses. Moses was in no need of some sort of argument about the existence of God. He did not chance upon the ontological argument or teleological argument. Rather He was personal encountered by God Himself. What we learn here is that God is self-authenticating. Moses did not find God through his advanced learning and wisdom, not even the truths that his mother had shared about God. Rather God allowed Himself to be found.
God is not in any way bound by human wisdom and expectation. He cannot be found by such means. He only can be known by His revelation and only to the extent that He wishes to be revealed. The Lord did not reveal Himself to the world that day but just one person. And He did so to reveal to Moses that he was chosen by the Lord as His instrument to deliver them from the cruel bondage of Egypt and lead them out.
We as fallen human beings always seem to demand more. God has to prove Himself God on our terms or we will not believe. Show us miracles and we will believe, the world says. Yet even when God revealed Himself to all of Israel by signs and wonders, they still did not believe. When He revealed Himself to the world as Jesus Christ, they did not believe Him either despite signs, wonders, and teaching. Instead, we crucified Him.
Even when we look at nature, we should see and admire the handiwork of God. He is revealed in nature as well as Scripture. Yet people do not believe but suppress the truth. Such is the wisdom of the world. The Scripture records that man in his wisdom did not find God. Why man for all his wisdom cannot even find himself!
So how does God reveal Himself? Well Moses asks for a name for God. In a sense a name becomes the means of power and influence. But God instead gives a cryptic reply. “Why do you ask me for a name when it is secret?” Instead, tell them I AM sent you. I am is the shortest sentence imaginable a simple subject and a verb of being. It queues us to ask more. We see this in a document like the Westminster Confession where it states: “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, etc.” We want to supply some sort of descriptive adjective in the predicate.
But all descriptors are also limiters. By using them, we make God to be less than He really is. The Westminster Confession is good in that it rightly says things which are biblical about God. And God by His grace allows limiters so that we who are limited can come to some sort of understanding about Him. But we must be aware that by supplying predicate adjectives, we are not saying all that can be said about God. God is always “I AM.” So even if the Westminster Confession added a hundred other things about God such as “love” it can not say everything.
Who is this Lord who meets Moses? We can tell that He is personally aware of the sufferings of His people. The Lord is personal and not a force. The implication is, of course, that He is also aware of our groanings and sufferings as well. And we also see is that God in His own way and time was going to provide the remedy to the suffering of His people through the arm of Moses. Even so, God will in His own way and time deliver all His children. The means He has already revealed to us in Jesus Christ the Son. This we know not because some pundit figured this out, but rather by the revelation of Scripture through the prophets and apostles.
It is not enough to know the cognitive facts about God. Even the devils recognize that the Lord is God and tremble. It is of course a serious matter to understand what God has revealed to us through the means of Scriptures which testify to Jesus. But the knowledge of God also requires a sense of encounter. It is one thing to know about God, even rightly about Him. It is another to know Him personally.
Moses was not in charge of this encounter. He wasn’t looking for God that day. God was looking for Him. It is God who is sovereign in this revelation. He is under no necessity at all to reveal Himself or to offer grace to anyone. God is entirely free to do or not to do according to His good pleasure. Even faith to believe is the free gift of God’s grace which removes the right of any human to boast. God found Moses and this history of the world was changed. If God encounters you by the Holy Spirit you will be forever changed as well.
Another thing we learn is not only does the Lord know about human struggle, He also knows that we are sinners. Moses is told to remove His shoes because the place upon which he stood was holy. God enters into the common of the world, but where He does, He transforms the place. Moses who is educated in all the ways of Egypt is reduced to stuttering. It will not be the wisdom of Moses that will win deliverance but rather the demonstration of God’s power. And it would not be Moses’ expertise of the wilderness that would fing water and food for the children of Israel in the wilderness. It was not Moses’ knowledge of the topography of the wilderness which would lead the Children of Israel to the Promised Land but the pillar and cloud. If any man was able to be Israel’s guide there it would have been Moses. If anyone’s knowledge of the affairs of Pharaoh’s court could deliver Israel, it would be this same Moses. And Moses was apparently physically strong as well. He tried to deliver an Israelite by his own strength. Yet God did not work deliverance through any special ability of Moses.
God raised up the Apostle Paul as well. If anyone know the Scriptures it was this man. He also seemed to be well educated in the wisdom of the Greeks. If ever there was a ready made man ready to be God’s spokesman, it was Paul. All he needed, some might think, was a change of heart. And change of heart there was! He does make a short preaching tour at Damascus but then disappears for years. It took three years for Jesus to equip and teach the fishermen. But it seems to have taken a lot longer to prepare Paul for public ministry including several years in the desert. It seems strange of us, but such is the way of God. Paul would certainly become a great apostle for the Lord, but first he had to learn to rely on the wisdom of God and not his own wisdom.
I think the same is true today. God encounters many people to call them into ministry. He calls the wise as well as the unwise and in His way and time equips them to shepherd His flock. But it must be by his power and means and not that of the minister. If anything, eloquence gets in the way of the message of God. The stutterings and stammerings of those who have been humbled man of God is often far more effective when they rely on the power of the Lord.
God hears the cries of His people. He who was broken feels our brokenness. He who never sinned tasted the bitterness of our sin upon the cross. This cross which is such a stumbling block to Jews and absolute foolishness to those who are wise in this world are the Father’s appointed wisdom. This is why Paul the stammerer can say that his glory is solely in the wisdom of the cross. This is to be our message. God wants to deliver His people, but by His way and not ours. It is the same Lord who encounters us through the Word of God and by means of the Holy Spirit and says that anyone who believes that God has raised Jesus from the dead and also confesses that Jesus is Lord shall be saved. This is God’s way. It is the only way you can come. You may not be looking for God today, but God is looking for you. He is trying to get your attention that you for a moment will be distracted from the affairs of this life and come to His Son Jesus. Come to Jesus on the terms the Father has revealed and you shall be His new creation. Then come, follow Him.
