“And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exodus 3:14).
God has a great many names given throughout the Scripture. Each provides special insight into His character. Our text is but one of the many places in Scripture that this particular name for God is found. “I AM” is a statement about God’s eternal existence outside time. He forever lives in the present, unchanging and unchangeable. Like the sun that appears at morning and “goes down” at dusk, God appears to move throughout history. In reality, He is the fixed point and we are moving around Him. Indeed later in this passage God would reveal His complete knowledge of future events before Pharaoh (v.19).
This name is also a statement about God’s exclusivity. “Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God” (Isaiah 44:6).
In the New Testament we see that Christ identifies Himself using this name reserved exclusively for God. “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him” (John 8:58,59).
The Jews understood well that this claim was equivalent to His claiming to be God. Note also that when Jesus was betrayed, He identified Himself as “I AM.” So powerful was this simple statement that “As soon then as He had said unto them, I am He, they went backward, and fell to the ground” (John 18:6).
Revelation 1:17,18 tells how today Christ is the ascended and glorified I AM: “I am the first and the last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen.” DW
