In Exodus 3 we find Moses keeping his father-in-law’s sheep and he comes to Horeb, the mountain of God. He sees a bush on fire but not consumed by the fire. Fires burn and destroy, but not this one. So he comes closer, and God calls him from the fire, “Take your shoes off, you are walking on holy ground,” and He introduces Himself, “I am the God of your father, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” God is revealing Himself to Moses in a very personal way, as the God who has revealed Himself to, and been known by, the predecessors.
God says, “I have seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, and I know their sorrows, and for this reason I am come down to deliver them.” (I preach on this verse in Ukraine!) The children of Israel are in affliction, they’re slaves in the land of Egypt. In the English, God doesn’t say, “I WILL come down,” but “I AM (already) come down!” He’s already here. He is the God of the past, the present and the future! His promise to the predecessors was to deliver Israel, to take them into Canaan and give them their own territory. (One of the miracles of the Bible is that, today, after more than 2000 years, Israel is once again a sovereign nation.)
But here God commands Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt!” Moses is just a shepherd, a man who had fled Egypt, because 40 years before he killed an Egyptian. So humbly he says, “Who am I that I should do this?” This is a question we all must ask. I know God has called me, I know what He has called me to do, but who am I? God’s promise to Moses is, “I WILL BE WITH YOU.” In 75 years of ministry, God has always been with me, there has never been a time when I’ve not been conscious of His Presence, His Power, His Leading.
Moses continues, “When I come to the children of Israel and tell them that the God of their fathers has sent me, they will want to know, what is Your Name? What shall I say? Who ARE You?” God replies, “I AM that I AM (אני זה שאני, eh yeh a sher eh yeh)!” I AM THAT I AM is the English translation, and I’ve always been intrigued by it. I AM is EXISTENCE. God always has been, in the past, and always will be – in the future! Not created. He EXISTED before the very beginning of time. We cannot imagine it, but God has always been and always will be! He says to Moses, “Tell them, I AM ( אני, eh yeh) has sent you.”
God’s Name in Hebrew can equally be translated as ‘I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE’, as Biblical Hebrew has no future tense, instead a continuous present. I am whoever I want to be, whatever I want to be, whenever I want to be. Whatever I want and say, I do. I am EVERYTHING. I am EVERYWHERE. Hence the fact that in Exodus 3, God is in the burning bush! And speaks from the fire! But to Elijah God does not speak from the wind, earthquake or fire – but in a still small voice.
When we preach the Gospel of Jesus in the Power of the Holy Spirit, GOD is in the Power, He’s in the Fire! He’s in the miracles! God worked the miracle that got me out of the communist prison in 1973 when British Prime Minister Harold Wilson came for me. When I was healed of throat cancer in 1964 and lung cancer in 2003, God was there. GOD did it!
When God is speaking to Moses, He’s saying, “I existed BEFORE your fathers, BEFORE Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I existed before everything, and I AM the Creator of everything. This is my Name forever!” He’s making known His Eternal Presence! Without beginning, without end. He has and is ALL Power, ALL Authority – that’s who we worship!