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Exodus 3:13–14
“Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel: “I am has sent me to you.” ’ ”
God promised Moses that he would not go to the pharaoh alone to secure the release of the Israelites. Instead, the Lord Himself would go with Moses so that he could accomplish his mission and bring Israel to worship God at Horeb (Ex. 3:1–12). That promise, of course, did not immediately lead Moses to trust God, as we see in Exodus 4. Instead of verbalizing his weak faith again, however, Moses chose to ask God what he should say to the Israelites if he were to obey the Lord and go to Egypt to deliver them. Specifically, Moses asks for the name of God (3:13).
That Moses asks for the Lord’s name may indicate that knowledge of the one true God was somewhat lacking among the Israelites at the time. Certainly, some remembrance of who He was and what He had promised existed among them, for they called out to Him while they were suffering under the yoke of Egyptian slavery (2:23–25). However, knowledge of His covenant name, the name that only His chosen people would use for Him, had been lost. This covenant name Yahweh—commonly rendered in English Bibles as “Lord” (note the small capital letters)—was known somewhat by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (see Gen. 18:13–14; 26:22; 32:9), but it does not appear on the lips of Jacob’s sons and not at all in the book of Exodus until 3:14.
English Bibles typically give “I am” as the name of God revealed to Moses in today’s passage, and “I am” translates the Hebrew Yahweh, itself a form of the Hebrew verb “to be.” The simplicity of God’s answer is actually a profound statement of His identity, as Christian theologians have long recognized. God is claiming ultimacy with the name Yahweh. Other beings derive their existence from something else, but the Lord does not. As Dr. R.C. Sproul frequently remarked, “God has the power of being in Himself.” He has no beginning or end. He has always been and always will be. He is the source of everything that exists, and He cannot ever stop existing. Augustine of Hippo wrote: “[God] is the first and greatest existence, who is utterly unchangeable and who could say most perfectly, ‘I am who I am . . . He who is has sent me to you.’ As a result, the other things which exist could not exist except by him, and these things are good insofar as they have received the ability to be.”
If God is the source of all existence, then He has all resources that we could ever need. We can rely on Him absolutely, for He cannot fail to exist and thus can never be defeated or destroyed.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Because God is dependent on nothing, we can be sure that He will lack nothing. His self-sufficiency is a great comfort to us, for it means that He has all resources at His disposal to help us. He is completely able to meet all our needs and to provide everything that we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).
For Further Study
- Exodus 20:7
- Psalm 20:7
- John 20:30–31
- 2 Timothy 2:19