Again God recognises that Moses has voiced a genuine difficulty. God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM” (3:14). Quite what this answer implies is one of the most controversial questions in the study of the Old Testament. Indeed, some have found here a formula for inscrutability, as if God were saying that it was improper to question more closely who precisely he was. He was just what he was. Certainly the expression “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” (33:19) with its similarly repeated verbs serves to emphasise that the matter was one within divine jurisdiction and no further explanation of the sovereign’s actions would be forthcoming. But here we have a conversation, and this response is being presented as a genuine answer. There is no hint in the text that the answer implied a rebuke for Moses because he had ventured too far.
One of the earliest explanations is that adopted by the translators of the Old Testament into Greek in the third century B.C. They rendered the expression as ‘I am the One who is’, the one whose very being is existence itself. In this way the Lord was distinguished from the objects of pagan worship, because he alone really is. While this explanation is true, it does not fit well into the context where it is not the claims of rival gods that are being discussed. Similarly attempts to render the expression as ‘I cause to exist whatever I cause to exist’, pointing to God as Creator, are difficult to justify in terms of the context—quite apart from the question of whether or not it is a possible translation of the Hebrew.
The most appropriate explanation seems to be that what is said here builds on the earlier assertion, ‘I will be with you’. The verb form ‘I am’ is the same as ‘I will be’ in verse 12 (note the alternative translation of verse 14, “I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE”, in the NIV footnote). It is not merely the existence of God that is to encourage Moses, but the fact of his active and committed presence to help his people. That is his character, and it is on that basis that they may have confidence for the present and the future. It is this response that is encapsulated in the covenant name, the Lord (see on verse 15 and 6:3). Malachi brought out the constancy of this divine commitment to the covenant relationship when he wrote, “I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendents of Jacob, are not destroyed” (Mal. 3:6).
This divine name is not, however, a matter of secret knowledge and encouragement just for Moses. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ The committed covenant God, who has ultimate authority over all, has commissioned Moses, and on that basis he should be accepted by the people.[1]
14. I am who I am (Heb. ’ehyeh ’ǎšer ’ehyeh): possibly ‘I will be what I will be’. This pithy clause is clearly a reference to the name YHWH. Probably ‘Yahweh’ is regarded as a shortening of the whole phrase, and a running together of the clause into one word. The clause certainly contains the necessary vowels, and the consonants come close enough. Indeed ’ehyeh (‘I am’ or ‘I will be’) is given as a form of God’s name in the second half of this verse. But this is almost certainly a Semitic punning assonance in explanation of the name, rather than the name itself, which appears in verse 15. ’Ehyeh, for instance, is never used as part of a proper name in the Old Testament. Davies rightly points out that since this is the only place in the Old Testament where there is any explanation of the meaning of the name YHWH, we ought therefore to take very seriously the association with ‘being’ which is clearly stated here. However, Noth rightly remarks that this is not ‘pure being’ in a philosophical sense, but ‘active being’ in terms of revelation. Granted, however, the general connection with ‘being’, what is the exact meaning? Simplest of all, does it mean that God exists, as opposed to idols without being? Along these lines, Hyatt sees ‘I am He who is’ as a possible translation: he also sees Hosea 1:9 as a possible reference to this meaning (in a negative sense). Does it mean ‘I am incomparable, inscrutable to human eyes’ (Exod. 33:19)? This, though true, would hardly be a further revelation. Or does it mean ‘I will only be understood by my own subsequent acts and words of revelation’? This would seem to fit the biblical pattern, for in all subsequent Israelite history God would be known as the One who brought Israel from Egypt (Exod. 20:2). The revelation of the name therefore is not merely a deep theological truth; it is a call to the response of faith by Moses and by Israel.[2]
‘I am who I am’ (3:14)
Whatever conclusions we come to about the reason for the question about the name of the ancestral God, the fact is that the question was raised, and the Lord graciously condescended to answer it. Just as Moses was made to stand in the presence of the living God as the foundation of everything that was to follow, so Israel must (through Moses) meet with God in his word as the starting-point of their liberation.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was a God of many titles and one single name. At last Moses was to be allowed to supplement what had been missing in Genesis: Yahweh (‘The Lord’) would no longer be a mere form of address but would tell its own story about the divine nature and do so in a way immediately relevant, endlessly satisfying and bafflingly enigmatic—the famous ‘I am who I am’!
i. The God ever-present, ever-active, interventionist for good
The link between the divine name and the Hebrew verb ‘to be’ is the plainest feature of this passage. This is what Durham calls the ‘is-ness’ of the God of Israel. In every place, at every point of time, in every circumstance or need, he ‘is’. Unlike Greek, which uses different verbs to express either existence or active presence, Hebrew has only one verb for both meanings, √hāyâ, but unquestionably this verb leans strongly in the direction of ‘active presence’. The old hymn which proclaimed ‘God is here—and that to bless us’ caught the sense exactly. The presence of this God is not, therefore, a bare ‘is’ but a living force, vital and personal. In no situation is he an ornamental extra; in every situation he is the key active ingredient.
We can feel the surging force of this by looking at verse 12 where, in reply to Moses’ sense of inadequacy, there is the simple and sufficient, I will be with you or ‘I am with you’, as if the divine name had been announced even before the question of verse 13 was asked. Does God just mean that he is omnipresent? Certainly not. Rather, it is that where Moses was inadequate, there was a more than sufficient make-weight in the living, omnicompetent God; where Moses was weak, almighty power would be at work. The God of the flame that needed no outside nourishing, bursting with his own superabundant vitality, would be there—and not because he had been invited or called upon but by his own will in fulfilment of his own nature as the God whose name is ‘I am’ and who allows his people to know him as ‘He is’ (the third person verb, Yahweh, the Lord, 15).
ii. The ever-independent, sovereign God
The construction ‘I am who I am’ finds an instructive parallel in Exodus 33:19, ‘I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion’. If we invert these phrases we will catch their force better, ‘On whom I will have mercy, I will have mercy …’. In other words, ‘I bestow my grace exactly and only where I choose.’ The same applies here, ‘It rests solely with me when and where and with whom I make my presence felt.’
Moses was given an all-embracing assurance in verse 12, I will be with you, but he had yet to learn that there are things which comply with the presence of the Lord and things which alienate him. His presence as such is guaranteed, but the enjoyment and realization of that presence is another matter. When Moses returned to Egypt, he promptly gained the consent of Israel to his mission (4:30–31) and went forthwith to Pharaoh (5:1). The immediate result was harder labour (5:6–8), beatings (5:13–14) and a wedge of alienation between Israel and Moses (5:20–21), so that Moses ‘returned to the Lord’ (5:22) with the bitter complaint that things had only got worse and that the use of the divine name had meant nothing (5:23). So what went wrong? Nothing went wrong, except in Moses’ expectations. By revealing himself as ‘I am who I am’ the Lord had in effect said, ‘Yes, I have committed myself to you to be actively present with you, but I am not at your unfettered disposal. My active presence is mine and mine alone to exercise as and when and under what conditions I choose.’
In chapter 5 and again in chapter 7 we will learn the secret that to know God by name is a wondrous revelation and a great privilege, but the name itself is also a warning that God remains God. Lightness, careless irreverence, thoughtlessness or bland assumption before him will not do.
iii. The inexhaustible God
‘I am who I am’ is without doubt an enigmatic statement and conceals at least as much as it tells. It is an open-ended assertion of divine sufficiency: ‘Whatever circumstance may arise, I will be there and I will be sufficient.’ The understanding of the divine name accords with the opening promise of the section (12), but it also means that no matter how much of himself the Lord is now revealing to Moses, he is also (so to speak) keeping himself in reserve. There is an endless abundance yet to be explored and experienced. There is no way in which our emerging needs in ever-changing circumstances and demands can ‘catch him out’, prove him inadequate or reach the end of his resources and competencies. We live under the ‘umbrella’ of ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ’. In the same spirit Jesus says, ‘No-one knows the Son except the Father, and no-one knows the Father except the Son’ (Matt. 11:27) and Paul says, ‘no-one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God’ (1 Cor. 2:11).[3]
Ver. 14. I AM hath sent me unto you.—Immutable authority:—
I. Moses on entering upon a great mission naturally inquires the conditions upon which he proceeds.
II. In the revelation made to Moses, “I AM hath sent me unto you,” we have being distinguished from manifestation. “I AM” is the summary of Being.
III. The Answer which Moses received from Almighty God was an immutable authority for the greatest of missions. Only let us be sure that we are doing God’s errand, and Pharaoh and Cæsar, and all names of material power, will fall before us, never again to rise. (J. Parker, D.D.)
The great “I AM”:—
I. God is the incomprehensible One, and yet is revealed in His intercourse with men. The conviction of His unsearchableness lies at the root of all reverence and awe. Before the “I AM that I AM” our spirits lie in deepest adoration, and rise into loftiest aspiration. But we need equally the other side. We need a God revealed in the essential features of His character; and it is in His dealings with men who feared and loved Him that He has made Himself known.
II. God is the Independent and Absolute. One, and yet He enters into covenant and most definite relationships with men. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
III. God is the Eternal One, and yet the God of dying men. Every moment that we have of fellowship with the Eternal God assures us that for us there is no death.
IV. God is the Unchangeable One, yet the God of men of all different types and temperaments. The same Lord over all. Take these three patriarchs, so closely related in blood—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. How different they were! Yet God was the God of all three, for they all agreed in being seekers of God. (J. Leckie, D.D.)
The great “I AM”:—
The first thought, perhaps, of all which lies wrapped in these two grand comprehensive words, “I AM,” is mystery. Our best worship is in silence, and our truest wisdom when we confess without confession. “It is too high for me, I cannot attain unto it.” The utmost conception of the most exalted intellect of the most heaven-taught man is only a faint approximation thereto. “I AM.” It still lies in the future of a far-off beatitude—“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” But where do these glimpses lie of the great I AM; and how can we now know Him at all? I believe, first, in nature. The wonderful organization and marvellous system of nature, in the world I live in. Next I look for it in the Holy Word which He has given to me with the impress of His mind and being. But more in that Spirit which dwells in me and which is the reflection of the nature and a very part of the life and the essence of God. Thirdly, and better still in Him, His own dear Son, “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person,” and who claims to Himself that very name (John 8:58). No created thing could ever say with truth, “I am.” God alone has no other origin but Himself. He depends upon nothing; His life is essential life; all life, from all eternity past to all eternity yet to come. He is “I AM.” Therefore because He is the I AM, all is present time with God. It is the present tense ever. The consequences are tremendous. All our past sins, all our past mercies, all our past promises and vows, all our past life, and all the life that is yet to come, it is all the present moment with God, in all its freshness and clearness and distinctness at this moment—“I AM.” Hence the absolute and perfect unchangeableness! Or take another instance in that great name “I AM.” All life, which is life indeed, must emanate from Him. He is the life. And there is another view which we may take of these two grand words, “I AM.” God does not say what He is. He leaves that to us. We must fill in the blank. “I am whatever you make Me. If you disbelieve Me, if you think little of Me, I am a just God, a holy God, a jealous God, an avenging God, a strict God, a punishing God; I shall by no means spare the guilty, I am a consuming fire. If you are a penitent sinner, if you have left Me and are coming back to Me, if you are sorry for what you have done, if you have grieved Me, and now wish to please Me, I am a forgiving God, full of mercy and compassion, of great pity, passing by transgression and sin more than any one asketh. I am love. If you are really My child, poor, weak, unworthy, sinful though you are, yet still My child, striving to please Me, earnest to serve Me, desiring more and more to see Me and be with Me, telling Me everything in your little heart, trusting Me, loving Me, I am your own dear loving faithful Father; I am yours and you are Mine to the very end. I have loved you and chosen you from all eternity, and I never change. Though I do sometimes hide Myself, yet behind the cloud I am, I am, I AM. I am thine, and thou art Mine, for ever and ever!” (J. Vaughan, M.A.)
The Divine name:—
I. As only revealed by the Divine being Himself.
II. As only partially understood by the grandest intellects.
III. As sufficiently comprehended for the practical service of the Christian life. We know enough of God to give strength, responsibility, hope, to our Christian work and life. (J. S. Exell, M.A.)
The name of the Lord:—
The answer is twofold. It repeats the idea that He is the God of their father; but it connects that with the idea that He is Jehovah.
I. The eternal name. “God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM. Say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” The word is that from which Jehovah comes. It expresses the idea of existence. In announcing Himself by this name the Divine Being excludes all notion of any commencement or termination of His existence, or that He is indebted for it to any other. It is self-existence, necessary existence; His non-existence is an impossibility and cannot be entertained. Jesus Christ “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” “The Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.” “He who was, and is, and is to come.” Perhaps the most helpful conception we have of permanence is given by the spectacle of the lofty mountains which stand unmoved and unchanged for centuries and millenniums. We call them the everlasting hills. But He was before the mountains, and will continue His undying existence when they have disappeared in the final dissolution.
II. The abiding relationship. “The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” The two names are closely connected, because He could not be the one God of successive generations if He were not Jehovah—the Everlasting.
1. You will mark that He is not only Jehovah, God in Himself, as He cannot but be; He is the God of the persons here mentioned. Think what a great thing it is that He should be the God of any one! Think what a blessedness and a glory it is to have His almightiness on your side; His love your resting-place; His throne your refuge in distress; His unchanging faithfulness your abiding confidence.
2. Next, observe that He was the God of each of the persons named. God knows how to be the God of all His people however they differ from each other in those subtle shades of character which, like the features of the face, distinguish one man from another.
3. Then observe, further, He was the God of their successive generations. This thought is valuable in connection with the idea that God still has a people. The spiritual seed of Abraham. Also that the children of godly parents should value the blessing of having their father’s God. Fear to forfeit it.
4. Nor must we overlook the important use the Great Teacher made of the statement in our text. Argument for resurrection and immortality in Matt. 22:24–32.
III. The permanent name. God’s eternity contrasts with our brief life: warrants our confidence in Him: suggests the blessedness of those who are interested in Him. (John Rawlinson.)
God’s name of Himself:—
I. Personality—“I.”
1. We attach three ideas to personality.
(1) Essential distinctness.
(2) Individual consciousness.
(3) Spontaneity.
2. God’s personality—
(1) Explains the unity of the universe.
(2) Meets the aspirations of human nature.
II. Self-existence—“I AM.”
1. The independent amidst dependent beings.
2. The Unchangeable amidst a changing universe.
III. Unsearchableness—“I AM that I AM.”
1. Mystery is essential to Deity.
2. Mystery is a want of human nature. Stirs intellect, wakes wonder, inspires reverent awe of souls. (Homilist.)
“I AM”:—
I. The highest inquiry of man as a moral agent.
1. This inquiry is most reasonable.
2. This inquiry is most urgent.
II. The highest revelation to man as a moral student. “I AM—“what? The Fountain of all life, the Foundation of all virtue, the Source of all blessedness, the Cause, the Means, and the End of all things in the universe but sin.
1. This is the revelation that man as a thinker craves for.
2. This is the revelation which the gospel gives.
III. The highest authority of man as a moral worker. Lessons:
1. God is. The grandest fact in the universe.
2. God is an absolute personality.
3. God deals with individual men. “Hath sent me.”
4. God makes man His messenger to men. (Ibid.)
The minister sent by God:—
I. The divine existence. “I AM.” He who is, and who will be what He is.
II. The ministry a Divine institution. “I AM hath sent me unto you.” This creates the relation of pastor and people.
III. Mutual duties of pastor and people.
1. The duty of the pastor.
(1) He must preach the gospel in its purity and simplicity.
(2) He must administer the ordinances.
(3) He must maintain a wholesome discipline in the Church.
2. The duty of the people.
(1) Sympathy;
(2) Love;
(3) Obedience;
(4) Co-operation;
(5) Prayer for their minister. (J. W. Ray.)
The immutability of God:—
I. That Jehovah is unchangeable is proved from what we know of His other attributes. We are assured, for example, that He is infinite in goodness, infinite in knowledge, infinite in power. The simple inquiry before us is, Are these attributes subject to change? Now, change in any being implies increase, or diminution, or entire removal of certain properties. To suppose any attribute of God to cease entirely, is to suppose that He ceases to be God. Change, then, if it occurs at all, must imply either increase or diminution of His perfections. On this principle, it is easy to see that the least change in the degree of His power, for example, must make Him more than almighty, or less than almighty; the least change in His knowledge must make Him more than omniscient, or less than omniscient; in other words, the least change in a perfect and infinite being is inconceivable.
II. That Jehovah is unchangeable is proved from explicit and repeated declarations of the Bible. (See Mal. 3:6; Tit. 1:2; James 1:17; Psa. 102:27). The inferences resulting from the truth thus established are so important as to demand the remaining time that can be allotted to this discourse.
1. All conceptions of God which apply time and succession to His existence, are erroneous, “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” He is no older than He was from eternity. Age is a relative term: it implies beginning; but God is eternal. It implies change; but God is unchangeable. Time is the measure of created existence; but God is uncreated. Hence, the diversity of views which we have of the same thing at different times, results from the imperfection of our knowledge. Change of opinion implies liability to mistake. Increase of knowledge implies past ignorance; decrease of knowledge implies present ignorance. But neither of these can apply to Him whose “understanding is infinite.”
2. God has no new purposes. This follows, by unquestionable inference, from His immutability. Whatever was His purpose from eternity is His purpose now: and whatever is His purpose now, was His purpose from eternity. Two things then are certain.
(1) That God is unchangeable.
(2) That God has purposes. The inference is perfectly conclusive that these purposes are eternal. This argument cannot be evaded. It has the clearness of demonstration.
3. The certainty of final salvation to true believers is a reasonable doctrine, grounded on the immutable truth of God, as implied in the promises of the new covenant. These promises of the unchanging God must be fulfilled.
4. When God is said to repent, it implies no change in His character or purpose.
5. The immutability of God is no discouragement to prayer, but the best ground of encouragement. If Jehovah were fickle, like earthly monarchs, then, indeed, it would be vain to pray. The answer of prayer implies no change in the mind of God.
6. The unchangeable perfection of God is a doctrine full of comfort to His people. This world, with all its concerns, bears the stamp of mutability. Amid these scenes of fluctuation, is there no object then in heaven or earth that is unchanging? Yes, one; God is unchanging. Here is stability.
7. The immutability of God is a doctrine full of terror to His enemies. (E. Potter, D.D.)
God, the great “I AM”:—
If I say “I am,” I say what is not true of me. I must say “I am something—I am a man, I am bad, or I am good, or I am an Englishman, I am a soldier, I am a sailor, I am a clergyman.”—and then I shall say what is true of me. But God alone can say “I AM” without saying anything more. And why? Because God alone is. Everybody and everything else in the world becomes: but God is. We are all becoming something from our birth to our death—changing continually and becoming something different from what we were a minute before; first of all we were created and made, and so became men; and since that we have been every moment changing, becoming older, becoming wiser, or alas! foolisher; becoming stronger or weaker; becoming better or worse. Even our bodies are changing and becoming different day by day. But God never changes or becomes anything different from what He is now. What He is, that He was, and ever will be. Many heathen men have known that there was one eternal God, and that God is. But they did not know that God Himself had said so; and that made them anxious, puzzled, almost desperate, so that the wiser they were, the unhappier they were. For what use is it merely knowing that God is? The question for poor human creatures is, “But what sort of a being is God?’ Is He far off? Does He care nothing about us? Does He let the world go its own way, right or wrong? Is He proud and careless? A Self-glorifying Deity whose mercy is not over all His works, or even over any of them? And the glory of the Bible, the power of God revealed in the Bible, is, that it answers the question, and says, “God does care for men, God does see men, God is not far off from any one of us. Ay, God speaks to men—God spoke to Moses and said, not “God is,” but “I AM.” God in sundry times and divers manners spoke to our fathers by the prophets and said, “I AM.” But more—Moses said, “I AM hath sent me.” God does not merely love us, and yet leave us to ourselves. He sends after us. He sends to us. But again: “I AM hath sent me unto you.” Unto whom? Who was Moses sent to? To the Children of Israel in Egypt. And what sort of people were they? Were they wise and learned? On the contrary, they were stupid, ignorant, and brutish. Were they pious and godly? On the contrary, they were worshipping the foolish idols of the Egyptians—so fond of idolatry that they must needs make a golden calf and worship it. Then why did God take such trouble for them? Why did God care for them, and help them, and work wonders for them? Why? Exactly because they were so bad. Just because they were so bad, His goodness yearned over them all the more, and longed to make them good. Just because they were so unclean and brutish, His holiness longed all the more to cleanse them. Because they were so stupid and ignorant, His wisdom longed to make them wise. Because they were so miserable, His pity yearned over them, as a father over a child fallen into danger. Because they were sick, they had all the more need of a physician. Because they were lost, there was all the more reason for seeking and saving them. Because they were utterly weak, God desired all the more to put His strength into them, that His strength might be made perfect in weakness. (C. Kingsley, M.A.)
God’s memorial name:—
I. In this memorial name of God we are taught His lofty existence. “I AM that I AM “is a name synonymous in meaning with Jehovah. This name includes within its vast extent of signification all past, present and future existence and duration.
1. Self-existence is a Divine attribute.
2. Eternity necessarily follows from His self-existence.
3. His proprietorship springs from the fact of His existence.
II. The revelation of this memorial name to Moses had purpose, It was a crisis in the history of Moses, and also of that of Israel in Egypt.
1. One purpose it served was to strengthen Moses in executing his work.
2. Another purpose was to check idolatrous practices.
3. It taught Moses the safety of the people.
4. The revelation of this name in connection with the people’s ancestry shows that they were the heirs of immortality.
5. The revelation of this name indicated victory. (J. H. Hill.)
The greatness and glory of God:—
The creature is nothing in comparison with God; all the glory, perfection, and excellency of the whole world do not amount to the value of a unit in regard of God’s attributes; join ever so many of them together, they cannot make one in number; they are nothing in His regard, and less than nothing. All created beings must utterly vanish out of sight when we think of God. As the sun does not annihilate the stars, and make them nothing, yet it annihilates their appearances to our sight; some are of the first magnitude, some of the second, some of the third, but in the daytime all are alike, all are darkened by the sun’s glory: so it is here, there are degrees of perfection and excellency, if we compare one creature with another, but let once the glorious brightness of God shine upon the soul, and in that light all their differences are unobserved. Angels, men, worms, they are all nothing, less than nothing, to be set up against God. This magnificent title “I AM,” darkens all, as if nothing elsewhere. (T. Manton, D.D.)[4]
[1] Mackay, J. L. (2001). Exodus (pp. 76–77). Mentor.
[2] Cole, R. A. (1973). Exodus: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 2, pp. 76–77). InterVarsity Press.
[3] Motyer, A. (2005). The Message of Exodus: The Days of Our Pilgrimage (A. Motyer & D. Tidball, Eds.; pp. 68–71). Inter-Varsity Press.
[4] Exell, J. S. (n.d.). The Biblical Illustrator: Exodus (pp. 79–83). Anson D. F. Randolph & Company.
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