Do you ever struggle to understand why God would allow certain things to happen? You turn on the TV, read the latest headlines, look at the world around you, or what is personally going on in your own life, and we struggle to make sense of things. A natural disaster claims the lives of hundreds and thousands. Acts of violence committed against others for no other reason than that people look different or believe differently than someone else. We see children who are abused and neglected by those who should be caring and protecting them. We watch a person battling cancer or struggle with chronic pain or a disease. Without warning you lose a job, a house or a loved one. We struggle to make sense of it, to understand why God would allow this to happen to them, or to me.
Moses was a man who was struggling to make sense of things in his life. It was right around the year 1500 BC. Moses was a Jew of the nation of Israel who had been born and raised in Egypt. He spent his adolescent and young adult life in the palace of the Pharaoh of Egypt, being raised by Pharaoh’s daughter. But one day, Moses saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite and Moses took things into his own hands and killed the Egyptian. Moses was forced to flee Egypt finally ending up in a placed called Midian (250 miles to the east of Egypt). Moses took up shepherding there, got a married, had a couple of sons, and probably thought he was going to live out the rest of his life in relative obscurity. But the Lord had other plans for Moses.
One day while Moses is out shepherding, he saw a bush that was on fire, but the bush was not burning up. He went over to get a closer look and that’s when he heard a voice coming from within the burning bush. The voice identifies himself as God, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). God then revealed his plan to rescue his chosen nation of Israel, who had spent the last 400 years in Egypt and were now being used as slave labor for the Egyptians. And guess who was supposed to lead the Israel’s exodus from Egypt. God said to Moses, “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:10).
Moses was struggling on so many different levels. Moses had settled down in Midian and now the Lord wanted him to return to Egypt! Egypt, the place where he may still be wanted for a crime he committed years ago? He’s supposed to LEAD an entire nation of Israelites? The only thing Moses had experience leading was sheep! And even if he did go back to Egypt, why would the Israelites ever listen to him? He didn’t even know the name of the God who was telling him to do all these things. It just didn’t make sense. That’s when God says, “This is what you are to say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14).
That name “I AM” is a rather interesting way for God to identify himself. In Hebrew “I AM” is thought to sound like “Yahweh” or “Jehovah.” It’s actually a little hard to know what exactly that name for God sounds like because the Old Testament Jews would never say this specific name of God out loud. They considered this specific name of God so sacred and holy that they would insert another one of God’s names in its place whenever they came across it. Many of our English translations of the Bible continue to reflect the importance and reverence of this specific name of God by using all capital letters (LORD) whenever the Bible uses this specific name for God in the Bible – and rightfully so.
The name “I AM” emphasize the uniqueness of the God of the Bible. There is never a time at which God is not. God is eternal, without beginning or end. The Psalmist wrote, “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psalm 90:2). God’s perspective of time and history is not limited like ours to what has or is happening. God’s see it all – past, present and future. Jesus, as true God from all of eternity, reminded his fellow Jews of this when they thought that Abraham was better than Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58). “I AM” is present at all times.
The name “I AM” also speaks to the fact that God is completely independent. His existence does not depend on anyone or anything. Unlike us who depended upon our parents to be born, and people to care for us when we cannot care for ourselves, who require food, drink and sleep to stay alive, God does not. God is completely independent. As the Bible says, “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them? For from him and through him and for him are all things” (Romans 11:35,36). That means that every interaction on the part of God, his involvement and interest in our world and our personal lives, is not because he needs or is looking for something from us. He acts because he chooses to do so in his grace and mercy. His countless demonstrations of love are completely unearned and undeserved by those who are recipients of it.
That was the God who was speaking to Moses from the burning bush. “I AM” was sending Moses to Egypt, not because God needed Moses to do it, or because Moses was the most qualified candidate for the job. No it was because of God’s mercy that God chose Moses. Even though the Israelites may have thought God had forgotten them as they literally slaved away for the Egyptians, “I AM” had not. He would act in his perfect time and way. Even though Moses may have struggled to figure out how exactly this whole exodus thing was going to work out, “I AM” already had it all figured out. Even though there would be times when it seemed impossible that God’s promise that the entire nation of Israel would worship at Mt. Horeb, “I AM” would be faithful to what he promised. God’s people would be led by Moses to this mountain months later. And when God’s people would complain and question God’s plans and his timing, “I AM” would be patient, faithful, and forgiving, and do exactly as he had said.
And “I AM” is still our God today. When we struggle to make sense of life, wondering why God would allow certain things to happen to us or to others, remember that your God is still “I AM.” “I AM” called into existence the universe and all that is in it with the words, “Let there be.” “I AM” created the first two people, fashioning them with his own hands, breathing into them the breath of life, not as an egotistical experiment of his power, but as a demonstration of his loving heart that wanted to share his eternal glory with them, with all. And when those first two people doubted what their Creator had told them, it was “I AM” who did not hesitate for a moment, but immediately revealed his plan to restore their broken relationship with him, by himself doing what they, what we could no long do. “I AM” chose to be born of a woman so that he could live perfectly in the place of every human being. “I AM” allowed himself to be nailed to a cross, punished for our daily doubting of what God has said, foolishly thinking we know better than him. “I AM” rose from the dead on Easter morning to demonstrate that death could not hold those who trust in him. Why did “I AM” do this? Not because he needed something from us. It’s because he chose in his love to do so for us, so that we could share in his glory for eternity.
Does that mean that suddenly the world around us and what we personally go through in this life all makes sense? Not necessarily. There are still some things that we don’t understand, that remain unclear to us. But what is absolutely clear is who our God is and what he has done for us. You know God as “I AM,” and that makes all the difference.
It was about 10 years ago that my daughter was having surgery at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, a surgery that we had been through multiple times before. We were glad to be the first one on the schedule for that day, and then we got bumped to the afternoon. There was another case that got moved in front of ours. I’ll admit that I wasn’t real happy as a parent of a 3 year-old that hadn’t eaten for nearly 15 hours. Surgery went fine and the next day we were in the hospital playroom. We met a little girl who was a few years older. We figured out she was the one that we got bumped for. She was down the hallway from us and so we would regularly see her and her parents. We started following her “story” on the CaringBridge website since we had some similar circumstances. A few months after we met her in the hospital she went home to heaven. I know that because that’s what Jesus promised her on the day of her baptism. While I know that to be true, I still don’t understand the Lord’s timing and why he allowed her and her family to go through what he did. But because we know “I AM” – a God who is faithful to all that he says, a God who knew that little girl was going to be in the hospital before she was even born, and so in his mercy chose to enter human history in order to give his life so that people like that little girl can right now and forever live safely with him – I can be absolutely sure he knows exactly what he is doing.
Dear friends, “I AM” is your God. The LORD is his name. A God of faithful and forgiving love, a God who is patient, powerful, personal and passionate for you and your salvation. A God you can trust. Amen.
