The Great I AM

This is cool, watch this.

Remember Moses, and the burning bush?
If not, grab your Bible or Bible app and read up on Exodus 3.

If so, you’ll recall, this is where God, as an “Angel of the Lord”, presents Himself within a burning bush that is not consumed by the fire. And, He calls Moses to free His people, the children of Israel, from Egypt. As, I think about it, this is likely one of the very first Bible stories I, myself, learned as a child. It was simply fascinating to me a bush could burn, yet, not be consumed.

Only God could do that.

In the conversation between Moses and God, in Exodus 3, Moses asks God who he should say God is when he talks to the children of Israel.

“And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He [God, the Angel of the Lord] said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’’”.

Here, God identifies Himself as, “I AM”.

Now, here’s where it starts to get a little crazy.

When I was looking for an unrelated verse for another project, I stumbled upon John 8:55-58 where Jesus was talking with the Jews and He said,

“Yet you have not known Him [God, the Father], but I know Him. And if I say, ‘I do not know Him,’ I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.’
Then the Jews said to [Jesus], ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?’
Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.’.

Wait. What?
BOOM! There it is.

How many times do we see, or read, something and don’t notice anything? Then, that one time, we read it again and – BAM! – we see a connection we didn’t see before?

In this conversation between Jesus and the Jews, Jesus just made Himself equal to God – more than that, He referred to Himself as who? Jesus referred to Himself as “I AM”.

But, wait.

We just saw the “Angel of the Lord”, God, in Exodus 3, told Moses, at the burning bush, He was the great “I AM”.

So, which is it?

In John 8, either Jesus is lying, either He is committing blasphemy, or, Jesus was telling the truth.

And, if He is telling the truth (which we know He was), this changes everything.

Now, I’m not going to try to prove the deity of Christ here. Through scripture that has archaeologically and historically been proven, Christ’s deity has already been established. We know Christ was and is, in fact, who He said He was. Paul supports this in one of my favorite chapters of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 15. In verses 3 through 8, we learn more than 500 people witnessed that, when Christ should have been dead and lying in a tomb, He was, in fact, very much alive, walking and talking.

The point, here, is His connection between John 8, where Christ referred to Himself as, “I AM”, and Exodus 3 where the “Angel of the Lord” referred to Himself as, “I AM”.

In the New Testament, we know Him as Jesus Christ.
In the Old Testament, He is the Angel of the Lord, or God (among other names).

And, this changes everything.

No longer do we see Him as just a babe, lying in a manger, in Bethlehem.
No longer do we see Him as a man walking to the cross, and being crucified.
He didn’t exist ONLY between birth and death.
Rather, He always has been, was, is, and always will be.

Revelation 22:13, He says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”.

In Exodus 3, we could say it was the Angel of the Lord, the preincarnate Jesus – Jesus before He was born in Bethlehem and given the name “Jesus” – who spoke to Moses in the burning bush and told him to bring the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt (a type of sin) to the promised land (a type of heaven). Notice the connection there?

And, it was the Angel of the Lord, the preincarnate Jesus, who stopped Abraham from sacrificing his only son, Isaac, in Genesis 22.

Abraham was obedient to God’s command and took Isaac up the mountain.
He prepared to sacrifice his son, Isaac.
He reached for his knife and raised it up and the Angel of the Lord stopped him.

Genesis 22:12, “And He [the Angel of the Lord] said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.’”.

Who is the Angel of the Lord? The “I AM”, the preincarnate Jesus Christ.

The same Jesus who, as the only Son of God, will later be born in Bethlehem and sacrificed on the cross for all of us.

As John wrote, John 1:1-5, 14, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. . . . And the Word [Jesus] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

The implications of this is this: Jesus is and always has been. Scripture teaches us He knew Abraham – He said so Himself. Scripture teaches us He knew Moses – appearing before Moses as “I AM”. This same, preincarnate Jesus, had to have known others in the Old Testament as well – Isaiah, and David, and Daniel, and of course, Elijah (among others).

In fact, in the transfiguration, Matthew 17:1-3, we learn, “Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.”.

Jesus knew Elijah and Moses from Old Testament times. And, now, He’s talking with them in the presence of Peter, James and John.

Scripture records Peter was so excited about this moment he offered to build houses, tabernacles, for Jesus, Elijah and Moses (Matthew 17:4). But, no.

Christ’s beginning didn’t happen in Bethlehem on that first Christmas morning. Christ always was, is and always will be.

He knows Moses, and Abraham, and Noah. He wrestled with Jacob.

Genesis 32:24-28, “Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. And He said, ‘Let Me go, for the day breaks.’ But he said, ‘I will not let You go unless You bless me!’ So He said to him, ‘What is your name?’ He said, ‘Jacob.’ And He said, ‘Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed‘.”.

And, what about one of the most famous pieces of scripture, Psalm 23?

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”?

Yes, that is Jesus.

“He [Jesus] makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You [Jesus] are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.” –Psalm 23.

As the author of Hebrews wrote, Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever”.

He is God of gods, King of kings and Lord of lords.
There is no one I would rather bow down to, worship and serve. Amen?
There is no one greater, or even equal to, the great “I AM”

And, as scripture teaches us, one day, He, the great “I AM” is coming back.

Amen, Come Lord Jesus, Come.
Blessings.