Knowing I Am Behind The Known Name
Certain expressions can be pivotal points in conversation, and historical monuments throughout time memorial.
This article is going to explore such a monumental pivotal point.
The Scripture will speak for itself.
The testimony of Moses walking the herd far from home and coming to Mount Horeb and there witnessing a burning bush that wouldn't burn was a momentous event not only for Moses, but for the rest of mankind.
What began was an interpersonal relationship that had not been recorded nor claimed by anyone before Moses.
Moses was called God's friend and it is expressed that God would speak to Moses 'face to face'.
Moses meets God, God introduces Himself as God... and after Moses hears what God is calling him to do, Moses asks for clarity:
Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His Name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
God said to Moses, “I Am who I Am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I Am has sent me to you.’ ”
- Exodus 3: 13-14Here God expresses Himself as I Am.
When deciphering terms to gain an understanding from the Hebrew 'words' used to express 'name' and 'I Am' and 'the Lord', what sounds like 'I Am' in Hebrew is audibly similar to 'the Lord'.
The term / word, or better expressed - what is understood from this term / word, is key.
Lord means one who holds power, a master, a ruler.
In whichever language this word's meaning is derived, it means the same thing.
Thus, the Lord means the One who holds absolute power.
It is no mistake the Hebrew sounding expression for 'the Lord' and 'I Am' are similar.
The response of a personal name has been argued and mulled over many people.
To me, it reads like a declaration.
It reads like a matter-of-fact response to the request for a name.
As with all other things mentioned in Scripture, there is purpose behind it.
This response has historically been understood as a personal name, similar to the thought that each human being has a name that identifies them and means something.
Consider this: each of us were named by someone else upon our birth into the world.
One could ask: who 'named' God?
Consider also how the giving of a name to someone is similar to an invocation.
The word that is a name is meaningful.
For the majority of people, their given names have a historical heritage, or denotes where their ancestry previously resided, and identifies many different aspects of their past.
In simple terms, a name can carry with it an anointing.
All biblical names carry such a meaning, as do most other names throughout the ancient into the modern world.
One could also ask: was God's response a 'personal name' as human beings understand names?
Or is it something more profound?
I think it is a name according to man's understanding and something more profound.
A few chapters later we read again about names in reference to God, and a detail is mentioned:
God also said to Moses, “I Am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by My Name the Lord I did not make Myself fully known to them.
- Exodus 6: 2-3Abraham preceded Moses by several generations.
Here we find God referring to Himself as having a 'name', and that Name is either 'I Am' and / or 'the Lord'.
We also find how God had previously mentioned meaning in reference to Himself; God Almighty [Genesis 17: 1].
[ a quick aside, it is my current opinion that where we find the reference 'the Lord' previous to both Abraham and Moses - earliest being Genesis 2: 4 - this may identify Moses as the vessel God authored the vast majority of the first five books - the Torah - those many years in Sinai]
In the least, we have deduced that the God Almighty is the I Am - the Lord.
We also have an example of God peeling back man's understanding of Himself from one time to another.
Returning to Moses' encounter and the Name I am / the Lord, we read:
God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is My Name forever,
the Name you shall call Me
from generation to generation.”
- Exodus 3: 15An eternal Name, and / or an eternal identifier regarding the God Almighty.
Considering all this, let us read the dramatic contention that Yeshua faced.
Yeshua taught / claimed / declared that the God Almighty was His Father.
This was cause for concern for the religious.
They understood that for a man to claim God Almighty as his own Father, that man was claiming to be much more than what was called and understood to be a child of God.
In certain Old Covenant verses God refers to His followers as His children:
But now, this is what the Lord says...
“I Am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior...
I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring My sons from afar
and My daughters from the ends of the earth—
everyone who is called by My Name,
whom I created for My glory,
whom I formed and made.”
- Isaiah 43: 1a, 3a, 6-7 (truncated to show specifics)
Yet with Yeshua's expressions, a higher claim was understood by the hearers and listeners.
Yeshua was claiming to be much more than a man.
The following excerpt shares a dramatic encounter with Yeshua:
Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”
Yeshua replied, “If I glorify Myself, My glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the One who glorifies Me. Though you do not know Him, I know Him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know Him and obey His Word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing My day; he saw it and was glad.”
“You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to Him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
“Very truly I tell you,” Yeshua answered, “before Abraham was born, I Am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone Him, but Yeshua hid Himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
- John 8: 53-59God revealed Himself to Abraham as God Almighty, and later to Moses as I Am / the Lord.
Consider Yeshua's response and how some people reacted.
Yeshua's opponents 'knew' what the expression “I Am” meant.
They clearly understood the weight and the audacity of a man to respond in such a way.
The response refers to the past (before Abraham was born) while expressing an eternal declaration (I Am).
Notice it does not follow contextual reference to time; it does not express 'I was' with the mention of the past.
It would have been blasphemous for a human being to invoke such a response in such a way.
But was Yeshua an ordinary human being?
This cognitive conclusion caused consternation in the religious enemies of God.
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