I AM THAT I AM

Exodus 3:14 

 14And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

As believers we are called to wayfaring and warfaring struggles. We have to bear our crosses daily and fight a daily fight. But in every hour of need a powerful support is near.  

For Moses, the ground was very slippery. His mountains were steep. An enemy opposed every step. Israel kept falling back, grumbling, worshipping idols and other gods.  But a staff and a sword were provided for Moses in the name of his guiding and protecting Lord.  "I AM THAT I AM."  On this He would lean all his burdens, all his cares, and fears, and pains. By this he could scatter kings as dust.

God is still the same, just as mighty, ever near. The feeblest Christian can grasp Him by the hand of faith. And whosoever grasps Him is a tree that is planted by the water and cannot be removed, but abides forever."

"I AM THAT I AM."  the voice from the burning bush.  The Speaker, from the bush wasn’t hid in a mask of mystery. Isn’t hid from us today.  We can’t see Him with physical eyes but we can see Him with spiritual eyes, by faith.

That voice was and is the great Redeemer.

He has established His people on the solid rock. He assures us that all the majesty, all the supremacy, all the glory of His all-mighty Supreme power, are His inherent right.

The limits of our mind can’t even comprehend it.

Our heart can’t completely embrace it.

Words can’t describe it.

Mere mortals can’t reach it?

He is space which has no bounds.

Human lines can’t measure it?

We can’t measure the ocean's depths, so our faculties are too short to measure the immensities of God.

To grasp divine essence requires divine largeness. "I AM THAT I AM" alone can read the volume of that title.  Our God is so great?

We need to continually pray for the Spirit to enlighten and teach us more clearly God’s word.

We should be longing for the day when every cloud which veils our God shall brighten into perfect light; and when His people "shall be like Him, for they shall see Him as He is."

"I AM THAT I AM." Here the first sound is eternity. Jesus, as God, He puts on eternity as his robe. He knows no past. He knows no future. He lives unmoved in one unmoving present. He stretches through all the ages which are gone and which are yet to come. He is omnipotent and omnipresent.

Before time was, He is "I AM THAT I AM." When time expires, He still is "I AM THAT I AM."

If His being had just come into existence, His name would be, "I am what I was not."

If His being would end, His name would be, "I am what I shall not be."

But He is, "I AM THAT I AM."

Thus He treads first and last beneath his feet. He sits from eternity to eternity as He who ever was, and ever is, and ever shall be.

Think about Bethlehem's manger. A lowly baby lies in the lowly cradle of a lowly town, the offspring of a lowly (nobody) mother.  Look again.  That baby is the eternal "I AM."  He who never had birth, is born of a woman.

He, who had no beginning, just always was, was contained in a baby’s age and form.

He, who never began to be, as God, here begins to be, as man.

The Lord promised it. Prophets foretold it. An angel announced it. Heaven rings with it. Faith sees it. The redeemed rejoice in it.

But why? Why did He stoop so low as to become man. So that He may save poor wretched sinners such as we are.

He could have saved us all by His will or by His word? He willed, and all things were. He speaks, and all obey. But He had to die, as a man, so that we could live.

To rescue from sin, the Eternal had to take the sinner's place, and bear sin's curse and pay sin's debt, and suffer sin's penalty, and wash out sin's filth, and atone for sin.  All that, He did for us!

"I AM THAT I AM" alone could do this. "I AM THAT I AM" alone has done it.

What self-denial, what pure selflessness!

Surely, kings and queens in rags, angels in cells, is nothing compared to God Almighty in the flesh!

A mighty love moved Jesus to despise all shame, and to lie low in misery's lowest mire. Through ages past His "delights were with the sons of men." Prov. 8.31. 

He created us in His glory in His image to share eternity WITH HIM. Therefore He humbled Himself to earth, so that we, specks of dust, may rise to immortality. An eternity that will give us time to look upon our Savior's face, to sing without growing tired, hymns of praise, to praise with continuous praises our Savior's name, and to learn with ever-increasing knowledge His worth.

There is another truth to note here, which is especially sweet to our ears. And that is: Jesus cannot change, will not change. He is as constant as He is great. As surely as He ever lives, so surely He ever lives the same. He is the great I AM.

He sits on the great throne of eternal security. The eternal security that can only be reached when we are changed from mortal to immortal, from corruptible to incorruptible.

Change is the defect of the world we live in: for things here are all defective and constantly changing. Perfection reigns above. He is the ultimate perfection.

Our brightest morning often ends in storms. Summer's gives place to winter. The flowers die and wither. The friend who smiled at us, doesn’t smile in friendly welcome.  Loss of life is a given. Gardens wither into deserts. Babylons crumble into unsightly ruins. The Bible says, “all is vanity”.  Time gives in to decay and death.

"I AM THAT I AM" sits high above all this.

He is "the same yesterday, and today, and forever." The unchangeableness of Jesus is the unchangeableness of His attributes.  Just a glance at His love and power with spiritual eyes is all we have at this time and must be enough. His love is in, and all around us constantly. It is always in full bloom. The roots are deeply buried in Him; therefore the branches cannot fade.

Hang on to this. Don’t allow Satan to confuse or fill your minds with doubts. Christ loves you, has loved you for all eternity, even before you were in your mother’s womb.  He loved you when He took upon Himself your curse. He loved you when He showed you, by the Spirit, His hands and His feet, and whispered to you that you were His. He loves you faithfully while He continually intercedes in your behalf, and scatters blessings on you and your soul. He will love you intensely when He splits the clouds of glory and comes to claim His bride.

To each question—has He loved? Does He love? And will He love? The answer  is, "I AM THAT I AM."

Don’t say, if He loves like that, then why am I like this? Why is my journey so hard and why do I have so many trials? You will soon know that your bitterest trials and your worst pains are tokens of His love.

1 Peter 1: 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

Life is hard but it will make us long for His holy rest.

He shows us our sin sick state so that we will prize His cleansing blood.

He allows us to stumble so that we will cling more closely to His side.

He makes the world a blank that we may seek all comfort in Him.

If He seems to change, it is us that’s changed.

If He hides His face, lifts His hand it is so that we will look towards Him.

If He is silent, it is so we will cry out to Him more loudly.

His word says, “He will never leave us nor forsake us”.

He saves from real hell, while we go through what  only seems like hell.

But love fails not.

All His dealings are love. Our eye of faith can see, "I AM THAT I AM."

Power goes hand in hand with love.

It was a mighty voice which said, "Be"—and all things were. It was a mighty hand which framed this wondrous universe. It is a mighty arm which turns the wheel of life. This power still is, and ever will be, what it always has been. No age makes it feeble, and no use exhausts it. This is the Church's rock. This is OUR rock.

The Bible encourages us to "be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might." He can still bid the seas of difficulty to recede. He can cause hurricanes and tempests to cease.

He can make straight the crooked paths of evil. He can level the mountains of high-towering corruption. He can stop the lions-mouth of persecution. He can quench all the scorching flames.

In the face of all Goliaths, He cheers His followers to victory, under the banner of "I AM THAT I AM."

To the sinner, the eternity and unchangeableness of "I AM THAT I AM" make hell to be hell forever.  It is not His will that any should perish.

"The eternal God is our refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms" Deut. 33:7.

"I AM THAT I AM" will NOT perish, will NOT change.  There is no power that can pluck you from His tight-grasping hand, but you can remove yourself.   You can let the enemy drag you down.

 "I AM THAT I AM" loves you, and you are loved: calls you to follow Him: sanctifies you, and you are sanctified: blesses you, and you are blessed: gives you life, and you live: gives you glory, and you are glorified.

He never changes but we do, we must constantly guard against the enemy.  We must keep on the full armor that we can stand in the days ahead.

God is saying to us, just as He told Moses to tell the children of Israel, I AM THAT I AM.

No matter what our trials, tests here on this earth, He is an ever present all knowing redeemer and Savior to KNOW Him is to KNOW life.  He loves us with an unimaginable love.  We need to know and remember that even that great a love will not save us from the pits of hell if we don’t grasp it, claim it and hang on to it.  If we don’t confess our sins daily, claim Him as our Lord and Savior and stay close to Him.