Exodus 3:13

The Bible says in Exodus 3:13-14, “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? 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.” God’s name, “I AM,” in Hebrew is basically a translation of the name “Jehovah.” God’s name tells us about His eternal existence. Human beings are limited by time, and are controlled by time to a great degree. Our existence on this earth starts with our birth and ends with our death, and if we are blessed, we have a few years in between. Abortion even takes away this blessing. Abortion brings death at the very start of life.

Even though human beings are created in the image of God, we are unlike God in many ways. We are sinful, He is holy. We are weak, He is powerful. We are foolish, He is wise. We are limited by time, but God is not. He is the eternally-existent One. To be technically correct, we can say that God has no past or no future: He is. He always is. This means several things. It means that He does not change. Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.” It means that He created all things, because He was there when the beginning began. It means that He is the final destination, and all things are traveling to Him; and therefore He is the Judge because all things will arrive at His feet when they get there. It means that He is life and death cannot touch Him, and therefore all life comes from Him including eternal life. In John 14:6, Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.”

God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush, and God said to 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.” This has always been a very well-known passage to the Jewish people. It is not surprising that Jesus referred to this passage, but Jesus did so in a very startling way: startling to the Jews, that is. Jesus said in John 8:58, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” When Jesus spoke of Himself and said, “I am,” Jesus was telling the Jewish people that He was the God of Abraham, and Jesus was telling the Jewish people that He appeared to Moses at the burning bush, and Jesus was telling the Jewish people that He is Jehovah. They knew what Jesus was saying. That is why it says in John 8:59, “Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.”

Of course, to say that Jesus is God is the same thing as saying that Jesus is Jehovah. This truth is consistent with all that is taught about Jesus in the New Testament, and with what is taught about the Messiah in the Old Testament. For example, it says about Jesus in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus said in John 10:30, “I and my Father are one.” Also Jesus said in John 14:9, “….he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” That is because Jesus and the Father are One. We are told in the Bible that the role that Jesus has in the trinity is that He is the manifestation of God. God is revealed through Jesus, and God is known through Jesus. This has always been the case because God is always the same. That is why Jesus is called “the Word.” A “word” represents a communication and a manifestation. In the Old Testament when God was revealed as Jehovah, that was Jesus. That is why Jesus called Himself, “I AM.” When Moses stood at the burning bush, and God said to him, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you,” that was Jesus speaking to Moses.

In reading Exodus we see that Moses is insecure. Moses lacks confidence. Moses has had bad experiences in the past. But the Lord is very patient with Moses, and the Lord spends a lot of time dealing with Moses and persuading Moses that God is going to make everything work out just right. There will be obstacles, but God will overcome the obstacles. God said to Moses in Exodus 3:15-22, “And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt: And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God. And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty: But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.”

It is interesting to notice what God said to Moses in Exodus 3:15 concerning the manner in which the children of Israel would be taken out of Egypt. God said, “this is my memorial unto all generations.” God wants every generation of believers to remember the plagues, and the Passover, and the crossing of the Red Sea. There are many great lessons about the promises of God and the work of God. There is also an important spiritual lesson about the relationship that God wants the believers to have with this world and this world’s system. God called, God promised, God led, God protected, God provided, God fought the battles, God gave the message, and at the end the children of Israel ended up in the promised-land. Concerning the end times it says in Revelation 15:1-3, “And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.” In your heart how much have the work and miracles of God as performed through Moses been a blessing to your life? The Apostle John looked into the future and saw the believers in heaven singing “the song of Moses.”

When God said to Moses in Exodus 3:15, “this is my memorial unto all generations,” God was talking about His name that He had just revealed to Moses. The name is “I AM.” Jesus is the eternally-existent One. He wants us to think of Him in those terms. If we stretch our imagination into the past as far as we can go, the existence of God is there. If we could look into the future as far as can be seen past galaxies and past the edge of the universe, we would see God there also. Everything is traveling from God and traveling to God. Romans 11:36, “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” Jesus always has existed, and He always will exist. That is one of the reasons that He rose from the dead. He cannot die, and He cannot cease to exist. He always exists and He is always the same. Find out what He was like 2,500 years ago, and you will know what He is like today; and you will know what He will be like when He returns. He is the great “I AM.”

Notice what God told Moses to do in Exodus 3:16, “say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me.” God told Moses to speak. Basically, God told Moses to tell the people what God had done for Moses. And what did God do for Moses? God “appeared” to Moses. God revealed Himself to Moses. That is exactly what happens when someone gets saved. You do not get saved unless Jesus reveals Himself to you in a very personal and spiritual way. Jesus visits the hearts of people in order to reveal Himself to them. That is why Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” It is very simple to be a witness for Christ: just tell the truth. Tell people what Jesus did for you. That is what a blind man did who was healed by Jesus. The Bible quotes the man who once was blind in John 9:25. The Bible says, “He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” Psalm 107:2 says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” We can all say, “I may not know much, but I do know what Jesus did for me when He revealed Himself to my soul and saved me from my sins.”

God told Moses to tell the children of Israel in Exodus 3:16, “I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt.” Here is the message: God knows. Are you going through some difficult times? God knows. Are you being persecuted? God knows. Do you have some great sorrow for which you do not have an answer? God knows. There are many, many things that I do not know; and that you do not know. But God knows. Jesus knows everything. He knows all that is past, present, and future. And He is going to take righteous and just actions based upon His infinite knowledge of all things. In the case of the children of Israel, it was time to take action, and so God said in Exodus 3:17, “I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.”

God has a plan, and nothing will stop His plan. Nothing takes God by surprise: no opposition, no enemy, and no failure. That is because God knows. God knew that Pharaoh would not cooperate. God said in Exodus 3:19, “And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand.” But of course, God had a plan to take care of Pharaoh too. God said in Exodus 3:20, “And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.” God was going to “smite Egypt,” and we will read about the ten great plagues. But the children of Israel were living in Egypt. What about them? Wouldn’t they suffer also in the plagues? God promised to take care of them and to protect them. God always takes care of His believers, until it is time for us to leave this earth and go to heaven. The plagues were against the Egyptians. Those who do not serve God always suffer because of not serving Him. There will always be great blessing and benefit from serving the eternal God whose name is Jesus Christ. Turn to Jesus Christ while you have time and enjoy His benefits both now and into eternity.

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