Exodus 3:14, commentary and pictures

At Horeb from the midst of the burning bush that was not consumed, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob gave Moses His name and commanded him to carry its authority to Israel and to Pharaoh for their deliverance from bondage.
The name declares that He has ever existed in perfection from all eternity, that He changes not, and that past, present and future are alike present to Him.
The One who spoke was Christ Himself, who later in human flesh claimed the same name to show He existed before Abraham and shares the infinite nature of Jehovah.
As the great I AM He is the source of being and center of authority and power, the Supreme Ruler above kings and lawmakers whose will and law carry supreme authority, and the ever-present sustainer on whom every heartbeat, breath and growing thing depends.
Therefore every person is under obligation to believe, serve and trust Him with implicit trust, to seek His unerring counsel rather than putting men in His place, and to obey His known truth and keep His Sabbath and moral law without pleading circumstances as excuse.

Moses' Call at Horeb

The declaration was made at Horeb, the mountain of God, from the midst of the burning bush that burned with fire and was not consumed. The speaker was the Angel of the covenant, who is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses hid his face in fear, for the presence was holy and called for humility and reverence.

Moses had been prepared by long retirement in humility, self-control and shepherd care while keeping the flocks of Jethro, to become a spiritual shepherd of Israel. For forty years he kept sheep in the mountains and desert, patiently seeking stray sheep until he learned to be a tender, patient, loving and faithful shepherd. That long shepherding with its mental and moral discipline taught him to understand himself, to shed false ideas, and to become fit for God's work.

He had first been given a special work requiring special preparation, but he tried to do it by force and might by killing an Egyptian and hiding him in the sand and hurrying to be known as deliverer. Seeing he was not ready, God sent him away until he was educated for the work. Only when the time had fully come was he called to exchange the shepherd's staff for the rod of God made powerful for signs and wonders.

That rod was to deliver Israel from oppression and bondage and preserve them from enemies and bring them up to a good and large land flowing with milk and honey, with the promise that God would certainly be with him. Moses shrank from standing before a new Pharaoh and demanding Israel's release, because he had expected deliverance by warfare as a general. God's plan was to magnify Himself before Israel and the Egyptians and teach them that there is a living God who has power to save and to destroy.

When Moses asked what to say when Israel asked the name of the God of their fathers who sent him, God gave His name as I AM THAT I AM and commanded him to say to the children of Israel that I AM had sent him. He further identified Himself as the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which is His name forever and His memorial unto all generations. That name gave Moses the answer to Israel's question and the authority by which to call them out.

Meaning of I AM

The title means He has ever existed in perfection from all eternity and has ever been what He now is. He is the high and lofty One inhabiting eternity, God from everlasting to everlasting before the mountains were brought forth or the earth and the world were formed. He changes not and has no variableness nor shadow of turning.

I AM expresses His eternal presence and self-existence. Past, present and future are alike to Him, and He sees the most distant events of history and the farthest future as clearly as events happening now. He is ever-present and actively sustaining life, for each heartbeat and breath depends on Him just as He gave Adam the breath of life, and human life is not a self-running mechanism. Every leaf grows, every flower blooms and every fruit develops by His power, and in Him all live and move and have being. He lives not for Himself but for the benefit and blessing of all He created, with constant unselfish ministry from which all unselfish ministry comes.

The name assures believers of His continuing presence, and cordial belief in Him maintains their allegiance to God. He is the source of being and the center of authority and power on whom all creatures depend and to whose claims all are subject. Difficult circumstances therefore do not excuse disobedience to known truth, and people are held responsible for available light, since an excuse making obedience impossible would imply God was unjust to set conditions of salvation people could not meet.

His wisdom and sufficiency are complete. His judgments are unsearchable and His ways past finding out, and no mortal mind can by searching find Him out or penetrate the secrecy in which He dwells and works. Only what He sees fit to reveal can be comprehended. The hiding of His power and the veil concealing His glory are mercy, for to lift that veil and intrude unbidden into the divine presence is death.

Christ the Speaker

It was Christ Himself who spoke to Moses from the midst of the burning bush on Mount Horeb, the Angel of the covenant who had revealed Himself to the fathers as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and who there identified Himself as the I AM and gave Moses that name and authority to answer Israel when they asked by what authority he called them out. Moses hid his face in fear, for the presence was holy and called for humility and reverence. His words pledged Israel's deliverance.

Jesus claimed this name as His own when He said Before Abraham was, I am, carrying the mind back through dateless ages to show that He existed before Abraham as the promised One whose origins are from eternity. The name expresses God's eternal presence, in which past, present and future are alike to Him, and means that God is self-existent and eternal. There never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God as one brought up with Him.

His declaration that He existed before Abraham shows that He shares the infinite nature of Jehovah called I AM, His words reveal the resources of that nature and assure pardon for the guilty, and as the Word He has power to take up or lay down His life to save those ensnared by Satan's deceptions. When Christ came in human likeness He declared Himself the same I AM, presenting the meek Saviour as God manifested in human flesh and as the assurance of deliverance from sin and of power to obey God's law. He stands between God and humanity and lays His hand upon both, and by taking human nature He binds Himself to humanity forever and unites the family of earth with the family of heaven.

The child presented in the temple was that same divine guide who led Israel in the pillar of cloud and fire and the One whose glory Moses had asked to see. Though His divine glory was veiled in the helpless infant, He was greater than Moses and the promised Messiah. His name, Jesus, was the hope of fallen humanity, for He would replace the sacrificial system by fulfilling what its types and shadows pointed to, pay the ransom for the sins of the world, and serve as the true High Priest and intercessor.

The Lord God of Israel who is Jesus is the only safety and helper and sufficiency for helpless people. Through Him there is complete and entire control over besetting evils, so a person can be an overcomer and more than conqueror and need not drop into discouragement. He is the great High Priest and Advocate and only Mediator who knows where Satan overcomes and saves to the uttermost, and private confessions and secrets are to be made to God alone, for He is physician of the body as well as of the soul. He can bring every thought into captivity to Jesus Christ and manifest His special presence and lift into a pure and holy atmosphere so a person may walk with God continually and have Jesus and His strength every moment.

All credit and glory belong to Christ the great I AM and must not be given to man. The highest knowledge possible is the instruction that fell from His lips both before His incarnation and after He appeared in human form. To keep self from rising to great proportions, workers and especially teachers who fit students for missionary work must grow mentally in sanctified lines of study and read the Bible with greater care, connecting all that is sacred and elevated with the instruction they give. The I AM is Jesus, the great and successful General of armies who gives wisdom for God's work, so those sent to work the cities are to go in His name, look to Him, be filled with the Holy Spirit, meet in praying companies with wholehearted united cooperation free from fanaticism, and by faith lay hold of Him and seek wisdom from Him for personal, special, united labor to bring people in.

Deliverance and Guidance

The great I AM revealed Himself to Moses in the bush and sent him to deliver the children of Israel from Egyptian oppression and bondage, commanding Pharaoh to release them so they might serve the living God. Moses had been given a special work requiring special preparation, yet he first tried to do it by force and might by killing an Egyptian and hiding him in the sand and hurrying to be known as deliverer. Seeing he was not ready, God sent him away for forty years to keep sheep in the mountains and desert, patiently seeking stray sheep until he learned to be a tender, patient, loving and faithful shepherd, and only then did God reveal Himself as the I AM and bid him go, with the education needed for the work.

Moses and Aaron were commanded in the name and authority of the great I AM to confront the king and rebuke his cruelty and oppression. That was a direct divine commission to appear before the ruler, such as Paul did not have toward Nero. The signs and wonders performed through Moses were God's power and not any human influence, ability or power of Moses, given to convince Pharaoh that Moses' mission came from God. That true work was counterfeited by Satan working through the magicians to destroy its influence and to harden Pharaoh, yet God's controlling power proved superior and set limits Satan could not pass.

The signs and miracles revealed Him as God above all human authority and all human greatness, with power over nature and over the greatest intellects who made a god of nature while ignoring the supreme power that made nature. With fire and tempest and death He went through the proud land of Egypt to redeem His people from bondage, to make them glorious as His special representatives. He bore them as upon eagle's wings and brought them unto Himself, that they might dwell under the shadow of the Most High, just as He will likewise go through the earth with fire, tempest and death in the last days.

He continued as their invisible leader who educated and disciplined Israel and led them in all their wilderness wanderings, ever present enshrouded in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. He gave commands directly to Moses for Israel and was set forth before them as the only channel of blessings, with symbols and shadowy types and the sacrificial system designed to typify Him as the Saviour to become the perfect offering for sinful man. His burning traces run all through sacred history in His dealings with His chosen people, with never more open manifestations of His power and glory than when He alone was acknowledged as Israel's ruler and gave the law to His people, swaying a scepter by no human hand as Israel's invisible King whose goings forth were unspeakably grand and awful. The principles He specified to govern dealings of people with one another are contained in the Old Testament and still apply to institutions and the church in their dealings, and every ignored principle will be presented in the judgment when each person is judged according to deeds done in the body.

The I AM who was present in the pillar of cloud gives light and calls people to hear and obey His words. Resisting that light hardens stubbornness, while hearing and doing His words is the firm foundation that keeps a person from perishing. The name given through Moses to the children of Israel while God was preparing them in the wilderness for entrance into the promised land, with no power higher than Him, is to be studied and obeyed today by those journeying from Egypt to Canaan heavenward in the last days of this earth's history. Because He is the great I AM, those He has named as His denominated, chosen people must not become like the world in practice, must not sell their peculiar characteristics and distinguishing points of faith for any worldly advantage, and must not count the favor of those who transgress God's law as of great value. Their only safety, so near the end, is in standing constantly in the light of God's countenance.

Supreme Authority and Law

The Lord God of heaven is the great I AM, the great Lawgiver above human lawmakers and the Supreme Ruler over kings and all human powers, whose expressed will and law carry supreme authority so that those who oppose them set themselves against Him. Men standing in responsible positions at the head of the nation who make the laws must be warned and shown who He is, so they will be careful to say and do nothing that is not in harmony with His will and nothing that conflicts with it. As the invisible leader of the host of Israel who educated and disciplined them, He specified the principles that should govern dealings of people with one another. Those principles are contained in the Old Testament and still apply to institutions and the church in their dealings with one another, and every ignored principle will be presented in the judgment when each person is judged according to the deeds done in the body.

He is an authority superior to human reason to whom heart, intellect and reason must bow, for reason is subject to human weakness and infirmity and must acknowledge an authority higher than itself. No mortal mind can by searching find Him out or penetrate the secrecy in which He dwells and works, and only what He sees fit to reveal can be comprehended, for His judgments are unsearchable and His ways past finding out and His power, wisdom and greatness exceed human understanding. The hiding of His power and the veil concealing His glory are mercy, for to lift that veil and intrude unbidden into the divine presence is death. Coming to the Bible therefore means opening His Word as entering His presence, with humility and holy awe and reverence, with the simplicity and faith of a little child ready to learn and seeking the aid of the Holy Spirit.

Knowledge of His will and the deep things of God is obtained from the great I AM, and those deep things can be grasped by mortals only as far as mortals can. Obtaining that knowledge requires exerting all powers of the mind and tasking the understanding to comprehend Scripture, yet with the docility and submission of a child, a humble and teachable spirit, prayerful dependence upon God, and a sincere desire to learn His will. Bible study must not be entered with the self-reliance used in science and philosophy, since Scriptural difficulties are never mastered by the methods used for philosophical problems. Without coming to Him in this way, evil angels blind the mind and harden the heart so it is not impressed by the truth and the truth makes no impression.

The title identifies Him as the one speaking through judgments in the land to those who make void His law. His people must therefore remain loyal to truth and righteousness when the law is despised and the majority oppose them. The impenitent felt His power when He withdrew His protection and spoke to them through judgments after they rejected His mercy. His voice must be heard and obeyed about the Sabbath, which He claims as His own and on whose disregarders He will not let His blessing rest. The Sabbath was made after man's creation to meet the necessities of human nature and to keep the living Creator of heaven and earth in remembrance, so temporal and business affairs must be arranged to meet His great standard of righteousness and not the Sabbath molded to meet business arrangements, for confusion on this subject comes from the god of this world.

With Him there is no respect of persons, and those who fear Him and work righteousness are precious in His sight, yet He requires strict obedience to all the precepts of the moral law, the Sabbath commandment with the rest, being jealous of His honor against removing one jot or tittle from the law He spoke with His own voice and wrote with His own finger on tables of stone and pronounced holy, just and good. He notices moral worth and does not give favor on account of appearance, good looks or dress. There is no real beauty of person or character apart from Christ, and no real perfection of manners or deportment without the sanctifying graces of humility, sympathy and true holiness.

Trust and Obedience

Every person stands under the authority of the living God, the great I AM, whose laws are to be respected, and His people are to believe Him, serve Him, and trust Him with implicit trust. Each person is individually accountable to God and is to follow His leading and the moving of His Spirit rather than another person's influence. Each is to use his own mind and conscience, seeking God's wisdom and responding to His dealings, for controlling others restrains their freedom of choice and action, and depending on another person's judgment restrains freedom and keeps people from God's direct guidance.

Because His wisdom and sufficiency are complete, no man or class of men is to become conscience for the brethren, to control His delegated workers, to prescribe laws to take the place of His law, or to decide who has right to engage in His work. Men are never to be looked to and trusted in His place, and when He lays work upon individuals His sanction is not to be rejected nor His plans impeded by human interference. He alone can give unerring counsel, in contrast to finite, erring men, so putting men in His place and looking up to them as gods over conscience greatly dishonors Him. Confidence belongs in the great I AM rather than in self, and those emptied of self with an eye single to God's glory can represent Christ's grace as counselors. His presence is unseen and known by faith, and His mind and judgment — not human self, inclination, or judgment — must govern those entrusted with sacred responsibilities.

The management of His work belongs to Him, and no person is able to manage what belongs to Him. Human agents are liable to seek too much power and try to control the work themselves, leaving the mighty Worker out of their methods and plans instead of trusting Him with everything, while God in providence prepares the way for the work to be done by human agents with every part working in perfect harmony under His direction like wheels guided by His hand. Every man is to stand at his post of duty, act his part for this time, and know that God is his instructor, and no one is to desire too much power and control or feel qualified to hold the highest place. The taking of Jericho proves this, where God planned in simplicity so that no human hand took down the walls and no human could take glory to himself, so today no worker is to take glory for what he accomplishes but the Lord alone is to be magnified. He is the presiding presence who must be included by those directing the work, for secret councils conducted for their own purposes without God's presence oppose His will and retard His work. His name is to be imprinted on work done for Him, so that right working leaves His mark upon it.

His power governs even the elements and enables peaceful, harmonious work. The proposed consolidation by publishing leaders was contrary to the counsel of the great I AM, whose counsel people must follow. Christians know too little of Him and need a better understanding, gained by searching for His way, praying to know His will, being faithful to the light of His Word, and by high and exalted waiting and watching ever looking to the One infinite in wisdom. As knowledge of Him increases, people gain a more perfect estimate of self, realize human weakness and ignorance, hunger and thirst after righteousness and true holiness, and long intensely to overcome every defect of character so that sin does not dwell in mortal bodies, as Enoch did by studying God's character to be assimilated to the divine likeness. People do not know what lies ahead, and knowing it would not contribute to their eternal welfare, so God gives them opportunity to exercise faith and trust in the great I AM who sees past, present, and future all alike.