I Am

In the beginning, God was just called “God”. Everyone knew who He was, because there were no other Gods. We all knew who “God” was—the all powerful, all present Being who made heaven and earth. But in the period of time between creation and Moses, things changed. People invented imaginary gods made in their own image. They worshipped gods that resembled things in the heaven above and the earth below. For example: The ancient Canaanites and Assyrians had a god who looked like a bull. The ancient Babylonians worshipped a lion god. The Greeks had gods who looked like people. The Egyptians had many gods in many forms—frogs, snakes, cats, and jackals. Some worshipped the sun, others worshipped the moon. The number of gods went into the thousands. This presented a problem for the ancient Israelites. What should they call the one true God to distinguish Him from the false? That was why Moses asked God, while standing beside the burning bush, “When they ask me ’who sent you’ what shall I say.” He couldn’t go back to Egypt and simply say “God sent me.” There were too many gods. So God took a name, so that everyone would recognize him as the only true God. The name he took in Hebrew was “Ye wah, he ye wah,”--“I am that I am.” He said “Tell them ‘I am’ has sent you.” Over the years, this word became simply spelled by consonants YHWH. Today, we pronounce it Yahweh, or Jehovah. It’s a name appropriate to no one else. Everything else exists because God wanted it to exist. Everything else has a purpose. God has no purpose. He has no reason. He is God, simply because He is. He is His own reason for existence. That is the simplest, most basic claim about God we can possibly make—He is. Flash forward fourteen hundred years. Jesus is arguing with the Pharisees. He is standing in the temple of the Jews, the sanctuary of YHWH God. These experts knew the Old Testament backwards and forwards. Many of them had memorized every word of it. They argued with Jesus over who He was. In the course of that argument Jesus said. “Abraham waited to see my day, and was glad.” They said. "You are not yet fifty years old, yet you claim to have seen Abraham!" "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I AM!" Can their be any doubt that Jesus was claiming to be God? It is no wonder that they picked up rocks to stone him for blasphemy! At this attack, Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. Now isn’t this a curious thing? He reveals Himself in the temple and they want to stone him. Jesus is forced to slip quietly away. Meanwhile, the priests go on sacrificing and the Rabbis go on praying, oblivious to the fact that God just slipped out the door. The Pharisees to teach the people of the same God they just rejected. What irony! Here is a temple full of religious professionals, yet God showed up in their midst and they ran Him away. We have to wonder if this happened today, would we run Jesus away, too? We are two thousand years from Biblical times. God speaks to us now through His word, we say. We have taken His words and bundled them into thick black books, summarized them into catechisms and confessions, squeezed them like lemons and into creeds. We have mixed them with our words and made sermons. But the more we explain and summarize and systematize, the more we get away from their perfect simplicity. All that Jesus spoke and did was to show us that He was God, and what God is like. He is who He is. His presence is the essence of our faith. As long as things are going our way, we acknowledge His existence. But when things stop going our way, we stop believing. We act as if God exists, but only when we see Him. When good fortune happens, we thank God. When misfortune occurs we doubt His existence. God always exists. So why should we be so surprised when He shows up? Why should we not look for His hand in everything and everywhere? God exists all the time, but He does not choose to always reveal Himself. Most of the time, God conceals Himself in natural processes, so as not to overwhelm us through His presence. Just as God took human form in Jesus, concealing His divinity so He could reveal His love, God takes natural form in the course of the seasons, in the healing processes of the body, or in the laws of physical nature. God reveals Himself in nature through its balance and timing. Nature works too well to be pure coincidence. If the world were only a few thousand miles closer to the sun, or farther away, we would freeze or burn up. If the world were tilted a few degrees more, most of the world would be uninhabitable. If the atmosphere were thicker or thinner, if gravity were stronger or weaker, we would not exist. God has created just the right balance of forces to make life happen. This natural miracle is not an obvious one, but it is real. But ever so often, God reveals His hand through miracles. Those who think the age of miracles is over are foolish. The Pharisees made a similar assumption in their time and God proved them wrong. Those who think that God has to do miracles are equally foolish. We can’t make God appear like a genie in a lamp, by saying a few magic words. But God did one miracle that surpassed all the others. He appeared in human form. On that day in the temple I Am, announced His existence in human form. The greatest issue the church has faced over the ages was who Jesus was. This verse makes it clear that He was God. Not just the son of God, or an angel of God, but I Am. Jesus was God. God Himself died on the cross for us. He Himself paid the price for ou sins. God condescended to be a person. He went even lower, making Hmself of no reputation, and enduring crucifixion for us. He did this so that we would be free from sin. He gave His life in exchange for our sin. Can there be any greater act of love than this? Jesus is the greatest appearance of God of all. He made Himself known on earth in human form, to give us love and instruction. If we believe in Him, we have everlasting life. If we do not believe in Him, we have everlasting death. It does not matter if we are religious or irreligious. All that matters is that we recognize Him when we see Him. Now what does that have to do with us? First, it shows us just how much God loves us. God did not send an emissary to save us. He came Himself. He took upon Himself the burden of releasing us from our sins. Second, It shows us what God is like. We know what God would do by watching what Jesus would do. He was fair, honest, truthful, compassionate, and open. He gave us the sermon on the mount, the Lord’s prayer, and the parables as revelations of God’s eternal truth. Third, it show us that the world has a purpose and meaning. God came in the fullness of time. He planned that coming. He even planned His dying. If God planned his life on earth, surely he also planned our lives. Think about the situation you are in right now, whether you are suffering or satisfied. If God has blessed you, do you see the hand of God behind it? Do you get down on your knees ever day and thank Him for the blessings that have come your way. Or think of how you are suffering, those unique trials in your life. God has not ceased to be, nor has his ultimate goal changed. Ultimately, He reveals His hand in our suffering. It is up for us to see His presence, while it is concealed in negative circumstances.Jesus is God. He was not just th son of God, but God the son. God intends us to live in that knowledge all of our lives.