- Exodus 3:14 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.'” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
In Exodus 3 we encounter one of the most astounding stories in all the Bible. Here God appears to Moses in the burning bush, he announces his intention to deliver Israel from the oppressive hand of Pharaoh, and he declares the name by which he is to be known by his people – ‘I Am Who I Am.’
In building upon a biblical theology of memory, which I began HERE, this text is very helpful. The key phrase here is in v. 15. This name, which God has revealed to Moses, is not only the name by which he is called, but the name by which he is to be remembered. The name ‘I Am Who I Am’ is to be God’s memorial. The NASB brings out the idea of the Hebrew well in its translation, ‘This is my memorial-name to all generations.’
We touched upon the fact in the previous post that God’s people were often commanded, and often chose of their own will, to set up various types of memorials ranging from Jacob’s rock at Bethel (Gen. 28) to the institution of the Passover to Samuel’s dedication of the ‘ebenezer’ in 1 Samuel 7 to Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper, which is to be observed ‘in remembrance’ of him. In each of these cases, physical objects were used to ‘hold’ memories for God’s people. In other words, these physical object would be used as instruments to evoke remembrance from them in the future, to call their minds back to the mighty works of God. The memorial of Exodus 3:15, however, is quite different, in that it is not a physical object. Rather, it is a name – His memorial-name.
Names are mysterious in many ways. They are non-physical, yet a name may, in some sense, carry the identity of a person. If you ask me who who I am, I will answer first with my name. My name is me. My name is, in some respect, my identity. It’s no wonder then that in so many cultures and times throughout recorded history names have carried such weight. It is also no wonder, then, that God has been in the business of changing people’s names since the time of Abram. Gd announces to Abram (Father) that on account of His promises to him his name will be Abraham (Great Father) (As I’ve heard it put, he went from being Daddy to being Big-Daddy). The name expressed the identity and purpose of the man and thus carried a great importance.
Consider the previous paragraph an aside. The important issue here is that names carry memories. Names are written on tomb stones. It is a common practice of my family to walk through a nearby cemetery and read such names. We know nothing of these departed ones, but to those who knew them, loved them, the names alone stand as a memorial, holding memories that flood back at the mere recognition of the name. Names are memorials, and memorials carry memories – especially after we are cut off from the one who bore the name.
It would be an interesting experiment, and you might want to try it, to simply speak the names of family members, and note the memories that come to mind. They will all have one thing in common – they are memories of the past. And as such, they will evoke emotion – either negative or positive. Old resentments will come to mind. Past wrongs and hurts will be evoked. Or perhaps joyful memories of fun times, laughter, and love will return. Yet, as I argued previously, even the best memories will prove to be melancholy longings for the past.
All memories are longings for the present in some sense. In the negative cases, we often wish to return to the past to right wrongs, to act in hindsight. In the positive cases we wish to return to the past to experience it anew. In both cases we are longing that the past were the present.
And, with this being the case, God comes to us and says, ‘I AM’ – this is my memorial-name. When you remember me, I am not the past. I am not something that can be changed, nor am I something that you can experience as you once did. I am NOW, and will be. Was he the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Certainly. But the important thing about God’s past relationships with his covenant-people is that he still is. Remember him, but remember him in such a way that you never forget that he is in the present: ‘Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not, as thou hast been, thou forever wilt be. Great is thy faithfulness.’
God’s faithfulness implies that he is like a rock (or rather a rock is like him). He is unmoving, fixed, steady. We change with the seasons, but with him ‘there is no shadow of turning.’ Through his memorial-name, ‘I AM,’ he declares this to us in the most intimate of ways.
If I want you to know me I tell you my name. God wants you to know him, so he tells you his. Don’t take that lightly. And beyond revealing his covenantal name, he reveals himself in the flesh in Jesus Christ, whom the New Testament declares to be ‘I AM’ in the flesh – the first and the last, the beginning and the end, who was and is and is to come, the alpha and the omega.
Think of the names of those whom you have lost. Let the memories flood back. And then remember the memorial-name of God. Since God is the eternal Now, since God IS period, he is not the God of the dead but of the living. So live.
Jesus understood Exodus 3 better than anyone:
- Mark 12:26 “And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”
Cling to that memorial-name, run to it:
- Proverbs 18:10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.
