I am that I am – That is, I am what I am. The words express absolute, and therefore unchanging and eternal Being. The name, which Moses was thus commissioned to use, was at once new and old; old in its connection with previous revelations; new in its full interpretation, and in its bearing upon the covenant of which Moses was the destined mediator.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Exo 3:14

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 Gods errand, and Pharaoh and Caesar, 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 (Joh 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 fathers 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 Mat 22:24-32.

III. The permanent name. Gods eternity contrasts with our brief life; warrants our confidence in Him; suggests the blessedness of those who are interested in Him. (John Rawlinson.)

Gods name of Himself

I. Personality–I.

1. We attach three ideas to personality.

(1) Essential distinctness.

(2) Individual consciousness.

(3) Spontaneity.

2. Gods 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. Un-searchableness–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. (Homilist.)

The minister sent by God

I. The divine existence. I AM. He who is, and who will be what He is.

II. Thy 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; Jam 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 arc 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 arc 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.)

Gods 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 peoples 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 Gods 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 suns 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.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 14. I AM THAT I AM] EHEYEH asher EHEYEH. These words have been variously understood. The Vulgate translates EGO SUM QUI SUM, I am who am. The Septuagint, , I am he who exists. The Syriac, the Persic, and the Chaldee preserve the original words without any gloss. The Arabic paraphrases them, The Eternal, who passes not away; which is the same interpretation given by Abul Farajius, who also preserves the original words, and gives the above as their interpretation. The Targum of Jonathan, and the Jerusalem Targum paraphrase the words thus: “He who spake, and the world was; who spake, and all things existed.” As the original words literally signify, I will be what I will be, some have supposed that God simply designed to inform Moses, that what he had been to his fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he would be to him and the Israelites; and that he would perform the promises he had made to his fathers, by giving their descendants the promised land. It is difficult to put a meaning on the words; they seem intended to point out the eternity and self-existence of God. Plato, in his Parmenides, where he treats sublimely of the nature of God, says, ‘ , nothing can express his nature; therefore no name can be attributed to him. See the conclusion of this chapter, See Clarke on Ex 3:22. and on the word Jehovah, Ex 34:6; Ex 34:7.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

I am that I am; a most comprehensive and significant name, and most proper for the present occasion, It notes,

1. The reality of his being; whereas idols are nothings, 1Co 8:4, all their divinity is only in the fancies and opinions of men.

2. The necessariness, eternity, and unchangeableness of his being; whereas all other beings once were not, and, if he please, they shall be no more; and all their being was derived from him, and wholly depends upon him; and he only is by and from himself.

3. The constancy and certainty of his nature, and will, and word. The sense is, I am the same that ever I was; the same who made the promises to Abraham, &c., and am now come to perform them; who, as I can do what I please, so I will do what I have said. Heb. I shall be what I shall be. He useth the future tense; either,

1. Because that tense in the use of the Hebrew tongue comprehends all times, past, present, and to come, to signify that all times are alike to God, and all are present to him; and therefore what is here, I shall be, is rendered, I am, by Christ, Joh 8:58. See Psa 90:4; 2Pe 3:8. Or,

2. To intimate, though darkly, according to that state and age of the church, the mystery of Christs incarnation. I shall be what I shall be, i.e. God-man; and I who now come in an invisible, though glorious, manner to deliver you from this temporal bondage, shall in due time come visibly, and by incarnation, to save you and all my people from a far worse slavery and misery, even from your sins, and from wrath to come. Of this name of God, see Rev 1:4,8; 16:5.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

And God said unto Moses, I am that I am,…. This signifies the real being of God, his self-existence, and that he is the Being of beings; as also it denotes his eternity and immutability, and his constancy and faithfulness in fulfilling his promises, for it includes all time, past, present, and to come; and the sense is, not only I am what I am at present, but I am what I have been, and I am what I shall be, and shall be what I am. The Platonists and Pythagoreans seem to have borrowed their from hence, which expresses with them the eternal and invariable Being; and so the Septuagint version here is

: it is said z, that the temple of Minerva at Sais, a city of Egypt, had this inscription on it,

“I am all that exists, is, and shall be.”

And on the temple of Apollo at Delphos was written , the contraction of , “I am” a. Our Lord seems to refer to this name, Joh 8:58, and indeed is the person that now appeared; and the words may be rendered, “I shall be what I shall be” b the incarnate God, God manifest in the flesh:

thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you; or as the Targum of Jonathan has it,

“I am he that is, and that shall be.”

This is the name Ehjeh, or Jehovah, Moses is empowered to make use of, and to declare, as the name of the Great God by whom he was sent; and which might serve both to encourage him, and strengthen the faith of the Israelites, that they should be delivered by him.

z Phutarch. de Iside & Osir. a Plato in Timaeo. b “ero qui ero”, Pagninus, Montanus, Fagius, Vatablus.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

14. I am that I am. The verb in the Hebrew is in the future tense, “I will be what I will be;” but it is of the same force as the present, except that it designates the perpetual duration of time. This is very plain, that God attributes to himself alone divine glory, because he is self-existent and therefore eternal; and thus gives being and existence to every creature. Nor does he predicate of himself anything common, or shared by others; but he claims for himself eternity as peculiar to God alone, in order that he may be honored according to his dignity. Therefore, immediately afterwards, contrary to grammatical usage, he used the same verb in the first person as a substantive, annexing it to a verb in the third person; that our minds may be filled with admiration as often as his incomprehensible essence is mentioned. But although philosophers discourse in grand terms of this eternity, and Plato constantly affirms that God is peculiarly τὸ ὄν (the Being); yet they do not wisely and properly apply this title, viz., that this one and only Being of God absorbs all imaginable essences; and that, thence, at the same time, the chief power and government of all things belong to him. For from whence come the multitude of false gods, but from impiously tearing the divided Deity into pieces by foolish imaginations? Wherefore, in order rightly to apprehend the one God, we must first know, that all things in heaven and earth derive (43) at His will their essence, or subsistence from One, who only truly is. From this Being all power is derived; because, if God sustains all things by his excellency, he governs them also at his will. And how would it have profited Moses to gaze upon the secret essence of God, as if it were shut up in heaven, unless, being assured of his omnipotence, he had obtained from thence the buckler of his confidence? Therefore God teaches him that He alone is worthy of the most holy name, which is profaned when improperly transferred to others; and then sets forth his inestimable excellency, that Moses may have no doubt of overcoming all things under his guidance. We will consider in the sixth chapter the name of Jehovah, of which this is the root.

(43) Precario. — Lat. De grace. — Fr.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(14) I AM THAT I AM.It is generally assumed that this is given to Moses as the full name of God. But perhaps it is rather a deep and mysterious statement of His nature. I am that which I am. My nature, i.e., cannot be declared in words, cannot be conceived of by human thought. I exist in such sort that my whole inscrutable nature is implied in my existence. I exist, as nothing else doesnecessarily, eternally, really. If I am to give myself a name expressive of my nature, so far as language can be, let me be called I AM.

Tell them I AM hath sent me unto you.I AM, assumed as a name, implies (1) an existence different from all other existence. I am, and there is none beside me (Isa. 45:6); (2) an existence out of time, with which time has nothing to do (Joh. 8:58); (3), an existence that is real, all other being shadowy; (4) an independent and unconditioned existence, from which all other is derived, and on which it is dependent.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

14, 15. My name THE MEMORIAL NAME, , a paraphrase of the name JEHOVAH, or JAHVEH; literally rendered, I AM WHO AM, that is, I AM HE WHO IS I only am He who exists in Himself an idea which the Alexandrian translators expressed by ‘ ; Justin, by Ille Ens . And this is not an assertion of mere abstract existence for the Hebrew verb never stops with this but of living, active existence, of Being manifesting itself. Absolute independence, and consequent unchangeableness and eternal activity, are implied in the name I AM, and by adding the relative clause, WHO AM, the thought is added that these attributes belong only to Jehovah. Absolutely independent in being and action, nothing can hinder him from performing his will; unchangeable, what once he has promised must forever be his purpose. Often after this God appeals to this Memorial Name as the witness, (1,) of his absolute solitary supremacy: “I am Jehovah Ye shall have no other gods,” (Exo 20:2-3😉 (2,) of his immutability: “I am Jehovah; I change not,” (Mal 3:6😉 (3,) but especially ofhis eternal activity in manifesting himself; “I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out I will take you to me for a people I will bring you in unto the land I am Jehovah,” (Exo 6:6, etc . ) This name was to be Israel’s fortress, an infinite storehouse of hopes and consolations .

Grammatically, the word here rendered I AM is the first person future of the verb of existence translated as a present, (the Hebrew has no proper present,) which tense conveys the idea of the future continuance of the present state. (Nordh., Hebrews Gram., 964, 2.) Now the word translated Jehovah (more properly Jahveh) is the third person future of the same verb in its archaic form, HAVAH, (or is, as some think, formed from this verb with a prefix,) and so “Jehovah” has the same meaning in the third person which this word has in the first. Thus the name afterward announced to Moses, in Exo 6:3, is the same as I AM: in the mouth of God it is I WHO AM; in the mouth of man it is HE WHO IS . This, as says Maimonides, is the only real, proper name of God; for while other names set forth some of his attributes attributes which, to some degree, he shares with created beings this name alone sets forth his innermost, incommunicable nature . This distinction is grammaticaliy stamped on the word, for it has no article, no plural, no construct.

It is well to briefly compare the inspired Memorial Name with the other common appellations of God. It is a word worthy to be the core of revelation.

Our word “lord” means governor, and simply brings before us God’s authority. “God” has the same meaning, though some have incorrectly derived it from “good.” “Deity” is from Latin, deus; Greek, ; Sanskrit, dyaus, from div, to shine; and means “the Shining One,” that is, according to Max Muller, the sun, which our Aryan ancestors worshipped in Asia . Thus the classic names and our word “deity” are all idolatrous in meaning, while “lord” and “god” connote simply authority . There are five Hebrew names often used, besides “Jehovah . ” El and Elohim signify the STRONG and the STRONG ONES; Elyon signifies the MOST HIGH; Shaddai, the ALMIGHTY; and Adhonai corresponds to our “Lord.” But the Memorial Name comprises all these ideas and infinitely more.

(1.) I AM; (as says Bahr,) not the heathen “it,” a deified nature, but “I.” Pantheism, which all heathenism is at bottom, identifies God with nature, but here is a Personality above nature. The world in itself is nothing. God only IS.

(2.) Hence he is Lord of nature, which proceeded from him: Creator, Governor, Preserver; El, Elohim, Shaddai, Elyon, Adhonai.

(3.) The Living One: he is forever unfolding himself to man in word and work God of providence and revelation.

(4.) Immutable: he is the God of our trust, the covenant God.

(5.) Immutable, he is also the Truth; ever consistent with his own nature, that is, holy, for the ground and the standard of right is the nature of God. Hence is he worthy of worship, (worth-ship,) supreme love, and praise. As Adam Clarke well says, the very Name itself is a proof of a divine revelation. It will be also seen how appropriate is this name to set forth the progressive revelation, the historical manifestation, of God’s character to the nation whom he had chosen to reveal him to mankind. It is not spoken of as a name entirely new would be, but is declared to be the name of the God of Israel’s fathers. Gen 4:26 seems to declare that it was known in the days of Seth, and the proper names Moriah, ( seen of Jah,) and Jochebed, ( Jah, her glory,) show that it had been preserved in the sacred line, and that its abbreviated form was used in compound names; but its deep richness of meaning and covenant significance were now first to appear . Proper names were often thus repeated when events gave them fresh meaning and pertinence, as we see was the case with “Jacob,” “Esau,” “Beth-el,” and others . See also Concluding Note, and Exo 6:3.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Exo 3:14. God said unto Moses I AM THAT I AM: It is very reasonable to suppose, that the answer to the question of Moses, should contain such an appellation, name, or account of God, as was applicable to the point in hand, and would conduce to assure the Israelites of his intended deliverance of them from bondage: but nothing of this kind, it must be confessed, appears from the passage, as we render it. For, if I AM THAT I AM, according to the generality of interpreters, refers to the incommunicable nature and self-existence of the Supreme Being; this, doubtless, is a reason for general acquiescence in HIS providence, who exists for ever the same; but it could be no particular ground of encouragement to the Israelites, whom this self-existing God had now left so many years in servitude. There being these, and other reasonable objections to this version and interpretation; we find, upon referring to the original, that the words, literally rendered, have a different import: for eheieh asher eheieh, is, I will be whom I will be; ego is ero, qui olim futurus sum, (I will be he, who am from old about to come,) says Houbigant, who observes, that, “as Moses, when he inquired of God what was his name, desired to know in that NAME of GOD, not a bare appellation of syllables, but some reality, signified by the name of God; so God answers his request, by informing him, that he will be the same, when he shall deliver the people of Israel from Egypt, as he promised their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, should hereafter come, and be the deliverer of mankind; discovering that reality, from of old adumbrated or represented in the name JEHOVAH: I will be whom I will be: the present, future, and everlasting Deliverer of my people; who Is, and Was, and Is to come; the Saviour of all men from sin, death, and hell: JESUS CHRIST, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. That the NAME of God is not intimated in these words, aeie asher aeie, the following verse shews; where we read, thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, JEHOVAH, the GOD of your fathers, (for so it should be rendered,) hath sentthis is my NAME for ever: the name of GOD being signified by the word iehovah, or JEHOVAH.” For further satisfaction on this point, we refer the learned reader to Houbigant’s own observations. The Chaldee renders it in the same manner; and every reason of good criticism and connection confirms this interpretation; and assures us, not only that these words refer to GOD the Deliverer and Saviour of his people; but that the august and incommunicable name of JEHOVAH is derived from the same source, and expressive of the same great truth. There are innumerable passages, in which this name of JEHOVAH is applied to Christ: and, therefore, if it express not, as we suppose, his office of Deliverer; it must, according to the other interpretation given, express his ineffable and incommunicable essence. That this Divine name JEHOVAH was well known to the Heathens, there can be no doubt; as was that of iah, which, I conceive, immediately expresses the Divine Essence; and is, certainly, not derived from the same source as Jehovah. The famous inscription, Ei, thou art, on the temple of Apollo at Delphos, appears derived from this name: and on the temple of Minerva at Sais in Egypt, it was written, I am all that exists, that is, or shall be; and no mortal hath hitherto taken off my veil; which is plainly deduced from this sacred name. See Parkhurst, and the Universal History, vol. 2: where the authors have been copious on this subject.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

DISCOURSE: 65
THE SELF-EXISTENCE AND IMMUTABILITY OF GOD

Exo 3:14. And 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.

IT is of great importance that Ministers should be considered as ambassadors of God. And that they should deliver nothing which they cannot enforce with, Thus saith the Lord. Without this, their word can have but little weight. But ministrations thus supported will produce the happiest effects. Moses was commissioned to offer deliverance to the oppressed Israelites. But he rightly judged that they would ask, from whence he had his authority. He therefore inquired of God, what answer he should return. And received from God the direction recorded in the text.
To understand the words aright, we must consider,

I.

The title God assumed

The Deity had hitherto revealed himself to man by the name of God Almighty. Though he had been called Jehovah, he was not fully known by that name, even to his most highly-favoured servants [Note: Exo 6:3.]. He now was pleased to assume a title similar to that; but, if possible, of still plainer import

The name, I AM THAT I AM, represents him to be,

1.

Self-existent

[Creatures have only a derived, and therefore a dependent, existence. They are now what they once were not, and may again cease to be. But God from all eternity was precisely what he now is. To him therefore this august title may be properly applied. Nor are there wanting other similar descriptions of him to confirm it [Note: Psa 102:27; Rev 1:4.].]

2.

Immutable

[Every creature in earth and heaven is liable to change. But with God there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He himself claims immutability as his own peculiar prerogative [Note: Mal 3:6.]. And in this view, the title assumed in the text must ever belong to him.]

3.

Incomprehensible

[No words can convey, or imagination conceive, an adequate idea of God [Note: Job 11:7; 1Ti 6:16.]. Hence God does not endeavour to explain his nature to Moses. But, by declaring himself to be what he is, intimates, that he is what can neither be comprehended nor expressed. His answer, in effect, was similar to that which he afterwards gave to Manoah [Note: Jdg 13:17-18.].]

The title thus explained, it will be proper to consider,

II.

For what end he assumed it

The Israelites were extremely debased by means of their long bondage. It was necessary therefore to prepare their minds for the intended deliverance
[Though they groaned under their oppression, they were too much reconciled to their yoke. They rather affected a mitigation of trouble, than the attainment of liberty. Though the promises made to their fathers were not wholly forgotten, the accomplishment of them was not cordially desired. Indeed, they scarcely conceived it possible that their emancipation should be effected. Hence it was necessary to stimulate their desires, renew their hopes, and confirm their expectations, of a better country.]
The title which God assumed was admirably adapted to this end
[If God was so incomprehensible a Being, he could easily devise means of executing his own sovereign will and pleasure. If he was the one self-existent, independent Creator of the universe, all creatures must be wholly subject to his control. And if he were absolutely immutable, he could not recede from the covenant entered into with their fathers. He therefore could not want either inclination or power to deliver them. Yea, He could not but deliver them for his own great names sake. He could not be I AM, if his promised interposition should be either withheld or defeated. Thus the declaration of his name must inspire them with confidence, and induce them willingly to put themselves under the direction of Moses.]

Infer,
1.

What a solemn attention does the Gospel demand!

[The Gospel is a message of mercy to those who are in bondage to sin. And they who preach it are ambassadors from the great I AM. Jesus, who sends them forth, assumes to himself this very title [Note: Joh 8:58.]. To the same effect also his character is drawn in the Epistle to the Hebrews [Note: Heb 13:8.]. He has commissioned his servants to go forth into all the world [Note: Mar 16:15.] ; and promised (as God did to Moses) to be always with them [Note: Mat 28:20.]. Shall we then make light of the mercy which He offers to us; or doubt his power and willingness to fulfil his promises? Shall we thrust away his servants, saying, Why dost thou interfere with us [Note: Act 7:27.] ? Let us remember who it is that speaks to us in the Gospel [Note: Luk 10:16.]. Every faithful Minister may say, I AM hath sent me unto you. Nor, though miracles have ceased, shall signs be wanting to confirm the word: the deaf shall hear, the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers be cleansed. And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended at the Redeemers voice [Note: Mat 11:5-6.].]

2.

What encouragement is here afforded to those who are groaning under spiritual bondage!

[God brought out his people safely, notwithstanding all their difficulties; and in due time put them into possession of the promised land. Shall the spiritual redemption offered by him be less effectual? Are not his power and faithfulness the same as in former ages [Note: Isa 59:1.] ? Will he not remove our obstacles, supply our wants, and destroy our enemies? Surely there are none so weak but they shall be made to triumph [Note: Isa 49:24-25.]. Nor shall the Prince of Darkness oppose with more success than Pharaoh [Note: Rom 16:20.]. Behold, then, I AM hath sent me to proclaim these glad tidings. Let all arise, and cast off their yoke, and burst their bands asunder. Let not unbelief represent the obstacles as insurmountable; nor fear induce you to comply with the imperious dictates of the world [Note: Pharaoh, after many successive plagues, agreed first that they should sacrifice to God in the land, but not in the wilderness; then that they should go into the wilderness, but not far; then that the men should go, but without the women or children; then that the women and children, but not the flocks. Exo 8:25; Exo 8:28; Exo 10:11; Exo 10:24. Thus the world would prescribe limits to the service we shall pay to God.]. Behold! the Pillar and the Cloud are ready to conduct your path. The great I AM is for you: who then can be against you? Go forth; and universal nature shall applaud your steps [Note: Isa 55:12.].]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

Reader! pause over this account the Lord gives of himself. A self-existent, self-sufficient, eternal and unchangeable Jehovah; the same yesterday, and today, and forever. How delightful the thought, that such is our Jesus. See Joh 8:58 ; Heb 13:8 ; Rev 1:8-18 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Exo 3:14 And 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.

Ver. 14. I AM THAT I AM. ] Heb., I will be that I will be. The Septuagint render it E , I am He that is. Agreeably hereunto, Plato calleth God and . This name of God is fully opened in Rev 16:5 . It imports two of God’s incommunicable attributes: (1.) His eternity, when he saith, I will be; ( 2.) His immutability, when he saith, That I will be. As Pilate said, “What I have written, I have written”; I will not alter it. But how far out was Paulus Burgensis in denying Ehich to be any of God’s names? a Whether Aph-hu 2Ki 2:14 be one, is far more questionable.

a Weems.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

God [‘Elohim] said. This expression occurs twice in Exodus, only here in Exo 3:14 and Exo 3:15.

I AM THAT I AM. Hebrew. ‘ehyeh asher ‘ehyeh. I will be what I will be (or become). App-48.

I AM. Hebrew ‘ehyeh = I will be (speaking of Himself).

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

I AM hath: Exo 6:3, Job 11:7, Psa 68:4, Psa 90:2, Isa 44:6, Mat 18:20, Mat 28:20, Joh 8:58, 2Co 1:20, Heb 13:8, Rev 1:4, Rev 1:8, Rev 1:17, Rev 4:8

Reciprocal: Exo 3:6 – I am Exo 3:13 – What is his name Exo 23:21 – my name Deu 28:58 – fear this glorious Psa 50:21 – that I was altogether such an one as thyself Psa 102:26 – endure Pro 17:6 – and the Jer 33:2 – the Lord Amo 9:6 – The Lord Mic 4:5 – the name Mal 3:6 – I am Joh 5:26 – hath life Act 7:34 – And now 2Co 1:19 – was not 1Ti 6:16 – only Heb 1:12 – but

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Exo 3:14. God said Two names God would be known by: 1st, A name that speaks what he is in himself, I AM THAT I AM. The Septuagint renders the words , I AM the existing Being, or HE WHO IS; and the Chaldee, I AM HE WHO IS, and WHO WILL BE. That is, I am He that enjoys an essential, independent, immutable, and necessary existence, He that IS, and WAS, and IS TO COME. It explains his name Jehovah, and signifies, 1st, That he is self- existent: he has his being of himself, and has no dependance on any other. And being self-existent, he cannot but be self-sufficient, and therefore all-sufficient, and the inexhaustible fountain of being and blessedness. 2d, That he is eternal and unchangeable: the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. For the words are with equal propriety rendered, I WILL BE WHAT I AM, or, I AM WHAT I WILL BE, or, I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE. Other beings are, and have been, and shall be; but because what they have been might have been otherwise, and what they are might possibly not have been at all, and what they shall be may be very different from what now is therefore their changeable, dependant, and precarious essence, which to-day may be one thing, to- morrow another thing, and the next day possibly nothing at all, scarce deserves the name of being. There is another consideration which makes this name peculiarly applicable to God, namely that he is the fountain of all being and perfection, and that from him all things have derived their existence; so that it is he alone that has life in himself: and no creature, of whatever rank or order, has so much as an existence of its own: For in him we live, and move, and have our being. And though divers of Gods attributes are, through his goodness, participated by his creatures, yet because they possess them in a way so inferior to that transcendent, peculiar, and divine manner in which they belong to God, the Scriptures seem absolutely to exclude created beings from any title to those attributes.

Thus our Saviour says, There is none good but one, that is God. Thus St. Paul terms God the only Potentate, though the earth be shared by several potentates; and the only wise God, though many men and the holy angels are wise. And thus he describes him as one who only hath immortality, although angels and human souls are also immortal. In so incommunicable a manner does the superiority of Gods nature make him possess those very excellences which the diffusiveness of his goodness has induced him to communicate. 3d, That he is faithful and true to all his promises, unchangeable in his word, as well as in his nature; and not a man that he should lie. Let Israel know this; I AM hath sent me unto you.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

3:14 And God said unto Moses, I {n} AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

(n) The God who has always been, am, and shall be: the God almighty, by whom all things have their being, and the God of mercy, mindful of my promise.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

A NEW NAME.

Exo 3:14. Exo 6:2-3.

“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.”

We cannot certainly tell why Moses asked for a new name by which to announce to his brethren the appearance of God. He may have felt that the memory of their fathers, and of the dealings of God with them, had faded so far out of mind that merely to indicate their ancestral God would not sufficiently distinguish Him from the idols of Egypt, whose worship had infected them.

If so, he was fully answered by a name which made this God the one reality, in a world where all is a phantasm except what derives stability from Him.

He may have desired to know, for himself, whether there was any truth in the dreamy and fascinating pantheism which inspired so much of the Egyptian superstition.

In that case, the answer met his question by declaring that God existed, not as the sum of things or soul of the universe, but in Himself, the only independent Being.

Or he may simply have desired some name to express more of the mystery of deity, remembering how a change of name had accompanied new discoveries of human character and achievement, as of Abraham and Israel; and expecting a new name likewise when God would make to His people new revelations of Himself.

So natural an expectation was fulfilled not only then, but afterwards. When Moses prayed “Show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory,” the answer was “I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord.” The proclamation was again Jehovah, but not this alone. It was “The Lord, the Lord, a God full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy and truth” (Exo 33:18-19, Exo 34:6, R.V.) Thus the life of Moses, like the agelong progress of the Church, advanced towards an ever-deepening knowledge that God is not only the Independent but the Good. All sets toward the final knowledge that His highest name is Love.

Meanwhile, in the development of events, the exact period was come for epithets, which were shared with gods many and lords many, to be supplemented by the formal announcement and authoritative adoption of His proper name Jehovah. The infant nation was to learn to think of Him, not only as endowed with attributes of terror and power, by which enemies would be crushed, but as possessing a certain well-defined personality, upon which the trust of man could repose. Soon their experience would enable them to receive the formal announcement that He was merciful and gracious. But first they were required to trust His promise amid all discouragements; and to this end, stability was the attribute first to be insisted upon.

It is true that the derivation of the word Jehovah is still a problem for critical acumen. It has been sought in more than one language, and various shades of meaning have been assigned to it, some untenable in the abstract, others hardly, or not at all, to be reconciled with the Scriptural narrative.

Nay, the corruption of the very sound is so notorious, that it is only worth mention as illustrating a phase of superstition.

We smile at the Jews, removing the correct vowels lest so holy a word should be irreverently spoken, placing the sanctity in the cadence, hoping that light and flippant allusions may offend God less, so long as they spare at least the vowels of His name, and thus preserve some vestige undesecrated, while profaning at once the conception of His majesty and the consonants of the mystic word.

A more abject superstition could scarcely have made void the spirit, while grovelling before the letter of the commandment.

But this very superstition is alive in other forms today. Whenever one recoils from the sin of coarse blasphemy, yet allows himself the enjoyment of a polished literature which profanes holy conceptions,–whenever men feel bound to behave with external propriety in the house of God, yet bring thither wandering thoughts, vile appetites, sensuous imaginations, and all the chamber of imagery which is within the unregenerate heart,–there is the same despicable superstition which strove to escape at least the extreme of blasphemy by prudently veiling the Holy Name before profaning it.

But our present concern is with the practical message conveyed to Israel when Moses declared that Jehovah, I AM, the God of their fathers, had appeared unto him. And if we find in it a message suited for the time, and which is the basis, not the superstructure, both of later messages and also of the national character, then we shall not fail to observe the bearing of such facts upon an urgent controversy of this time.

Some significance must have been in that Name, not too abstract for a servile and degenerate race to apprehend. Nor was it soon to pass away and be replaced; it was His memorial throughout all generations; and therefore it has a message for us today, to admonish and humble, to invigorate and uphold.

That God would be the same to them as to their fathers was much. But that it was of the essence of His character to be evermore the same, immutable in heart and mind and reality of being, however their conduct might modify His bearing towards them, this indeed would be a steadying and reclaiming consciousness.

Accordingly Moses receives the answer for himself, “I AM THAT I AM”; and he is bidden to tell his people “I am hath sent me unto you,” and yet again “JEHOVAH the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you.” The spirit and tenor of these three names may be said to be virtually comprehended in the first; and they all speak of the essential and self-existent Being, unchanging and unchangeable.

I AM expresses an intense reality of being. No image in the dark recesses of Egyptian or Syrian temples, grotesque and motionless, can win the adoration of him who has had communion with such a veritable existence, or has heard His authentic message. No dreamful pantheism, on its knees to the beneficent principle expressed in one deity, to the destructive in another, or to the reproductive in a third, but all of them dependent upon nature, as the rainbow upon the cataract which it spans, can ever again satisfy the soul which is athirst for the living God, the Lord, Who is not personified, but IS.

This profound sense of a living Person within reach, to be offended, to pardon, and to bless, was the one force which kept the Hebrew nation itself alive, with a vitality unprecedented since the world began. They could crave His pardon, whatever natural retributions they had brought down upon themselves, whatever tendencies of nature they had provoked, because He was not a dead law without ears or a heart, but their merciful and gracious God.

Not the most exquisite subtleties of innuendo and irony could make good for a day the monstrous paradox that the Hebrew religion, the worship of I AM, was really nothing but the adoration of that stream of tendencies which makes for righteousness.

Israel did not challenge Pharaoh through having suddenly discovered that goodness ultimately prevails over evil, nor is it any cold calculation of the sort which ever inspires a nation or a man with heroic fortitude. But they were nerved by the announcement that they had been remembered by a God Who is neither an ideal nor a fancy, but the Reality of realities, beside Whom Pharaoh and his host were but as phantoms.

I AM THAT I AM is the style not only of permanence, but of permanence self-contained, and being a distinctive title, it denies such self-contained permanence to others.

Man is as the past has moulded him, a compound of attainments and failures, discoveries and disillusions, his eyes dim with forgotten tears, his hair grey with surmounted anxieties, his brow furrowed with bygone studies, his conscience troubled with old sin. Modern unbelief is ignobly frank respecting him. He is the sum of his parents and his wet-nurse. He is what he eats. If he drinks beer, he thinks beer. And it is the element of truth in these hideous paradoxes which makes them rankle, like an unkind construction put upon a questionable action. As the foam is what wind and tide have made of it, so are we the product of our circumstances, the resultant of a thousand forces, far indeed from being self-poised or self-contained, too often false to our best self, insomuch that probably no man is actually what in the depth of self-consciousness he feels himself to be, what moreover he should prove to be, if only the leaden weight of constraining circumstance were lifted off the spring which it flattens down to earth. Moses himself was at heart a very different person from the keeper of the sheep of Jethro. Therefore man says, Pity and make allowance for me: this is not my true self, but only what by compression, by starvation and stripes and bribery and error, I have become. Only God says, I AM THAT I AM.

Yet in another sense, and quite as deep a one, man is not the coarse tissue which past circumstances have woven: he is the seed of the future, as truly as the fruit of the past. Strange compound that he is of memory and hope, while half of the present depends on what is over, the other half is projected into the future; and like a bridge, sustained on these two banks, life throws its quivering shadow on each moment that fleets by. It is not attainment, but degradation to live upon the level of one’s mere attainment, no longer uplifted by any aspiration, fired by any emulation, goaded by any but carnal fears. If we have been shaped by circumstances, yet we are saved by hope. Do not judge me, we are all entitled to plead, by anything that I am doing or have done: He only can appraise a soul a right Who knows what it yearns to become, what within itself it hates and prays to be delivered from, what is the earnestness of its self-loathing, what the passion of its appeal to heaven. As the bloom of next April is the true comment upon the dry bulb of September, as you do not value the fountain by the pint of water in its basin, but by its inexhaustible capabilities of replenishment, so the present and its joyless facts are not the true man; his possibilities, the fears and hopes that control his destiny and shall unfold it, these are his real self.

I am not merely what I am: I am very truly that which I long to be. And thus, man may plead, I am what I move towards and strive after, my aspiration is myself. But God says, I AM WHAT I AM. The stream hurries forward: the rock abides. And this is the Rock of Ages.

Now, such a conception is at first sight not far removed from that apathetic and impassive kind of deity which the practical atheism of ancient materialists could well afford to grant;–“ever in itself enjoying immortality together with supreme repose, far removed and withdrawn from our concerns, since it, exempt from every pain, exempt from all danger, strong in its own resources and wanting nought from us, is neither gained by favour nor moved by wrath.”

Thus Lucretius conceived of the absolute Being as by the necessity of its nature entirely outside our system.

But Moses was taught to trust in Jehovah as intervening, pitying sorrow and wrong, coming down to assist His creatures in distress.

How could this be possible? Clearly the movement towards them must be wholly disinterested, and wholly from within; unbought, since no external influence can modify His condition, no puny sacrifice can propitiate Him Who sitteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers: a movement prompted by no irregular emotional impulse, but an abiding law of His nature, incapable of change, the movement of a nature, personal indeed, yet as steady, as surely to be reckoned upon in like circumstances, as the operations of gravitation are.

There is no such motive, working in such magnificent regularity for good, save one. The ultimate doctrine of the New Testament, that God is Love, is already involved in this early assertion, that being wholly independent of us and our concerns, He is yet not indifferent to them, so that Moses could say unto the children of Israel “I AM hath sent me unto you.”

It is this unchangeable consistency of Divine action which gives the narrative its intense interest to us. To Moses, and therefore to all who receive any commission from the skies, this title said, Frail creature, sport of circumstances and of tyrants, He who commissions thee sits above the waterfloods, and their rage can as little modify or change His purpose, now committed to thy charge, as the spray can quench the stars. Perplexed creature, whose best self lives only in aspiration and desire, now thou art an instrument in the hand of Him with Whom desire and attainment, will and fruition, are eternally the same. None truly fails in fighting for Jehovah, for who hath resisted His will?

To Israel, and to all the oppressed whose minds are open to receive the tidings and their faith strong to embrace it, He said, Your life is blighted, and your future is in the hand of taskmasters, yet be of good cheer, for now your deliverance is undertaken by Him Whose being and purpose are one, Who is in perfection of enjoyment all that He is in contemplation and in will. The rescue of Israel by an immutable and perfect God is the earnest of the breaking of every yoke.

And to the proud and godless world which knows Him not, He says, Resistance to My will can only show forth all its power, which is not at the mercy of opinion or interest or change: I sit upon the throne, not only supreme but independent, not only victorious but unassailable; self-contained, self-poised and self-sufficing, I AM THAT I AM.

Have we now escaped the inert and self-absorbed deity of Lucretius, only to fall into the palsying grasp of the tyrannous deity of Calvin? Does our own human will shrivel up and become powerless under the compulsion of that immutability with which we are strangely brought into contact?

Evidently this is not the teaching of the Book of Exodus. For it is here, in this revelation of the Supreme, that we first hear of a nation as being His: “I have seen the affliction of My people which is in Egypt … and I have come down to bring them into a good land.” They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Yet their carcases fell in the wilderness. And these things were written for our learning. The immutability, which suffers no shock when we enter into the covenant, remains unshaken also if we depart from the living God. The sun shines alike when we raise the curtain and when we drop it, when our chamber is illumined and when it is dark. The immutability of God is not in His operations, for sometimes He gave His people into the hand of their enemies, and again He turned and helped them. It is in His nature, His mind, in the principles which guide His actions. If He had not chastened David for his sin, then, by acting as before, He would have been other at heart than when He rejected Saul for disobedience and chose the son of Jesse to fulfil all His word. The wind has veered, if it continues to propel the vessel in the same direction, although helm and sails are shifted.

Such is the Pauline doctrine of His immutability. “If we endure we shall also reign with Him: if we shall deny Him, He also will deny us,”–and such is the necessity of His being, for we cannot sway Him with our changes: “if we are faithless, He abideth faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” And therefore it is presently added that “the firm foundation of the Lord standeth sure, having” not only “this seal, that the Lord knoweth those that are His,”–but also this, “Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness” (2Ti 2:12-13, 2Ti 2:19, R.V.).

The Lord knew that Israel was His, yet for their unrighteousness He sware in His wrath that they should not enter into His rest.

It follows from all this that the new name of God was no academic subtlety, no metaphysical refinement of the schools, unfitly revealed to slaves, but a most practical and inspiring truth, a conviction to warm their blood, to rouse their courage, to convert their despair into confidence and their alarms into defiance.

They had the support of a God worthy of trust. And thenceforth every answer in righteousness, every new disclosure of fidelity, tenderness, love, was not an abnormal phenomenon, the uncertain grace of a capricious despot; no, its import was permanent as an observation of the stars by an astronomer, ever more to be remembered in calculating the movements of the universe.

In future troubles they could appeal to Him to awake as in the ancient days, as being He who “cut Rahab and wounded the Dragon.” “I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

And as the sublime and beautiful conception of a loving spiritual God was built up slowly, age by age, tier upon tier, this was the foundation which insured the the stability of all, until the Head Stone of the Corner gave completeness to the vast design, until men saw and could believe in the very Incarnation of all Love, unshaken amid anguish and distress and seeming failure, immovable, victorious, while they heard from human lips the awful words, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” Then they learned to identify all this ancient lesson of trustworthiness with new and more pathetic revelations of affection: and the martyr at the stake grew strong as he remembered that the Man of Sorrows was the same yesterday and today and for ever; and the great apostle, prostrate before the glory of his Master, was restored by the touch of a human hand, and by the voice of Him upon Whose bosom he had leaned, saying, Fear not, I am the First and the Last and the Living One.

And if men are once more fain to rend from humanity that great assurance, which for ages, amid all shocks, has made the frail creature of the dust to grow strong and firm and fearless, partaker of the Divine Nature, what will they give us in its stead? Or do they think us too strong of will, too firm of purpose? Looking around us, we see nations heaving with internal agitations, armed to the teeth against each other, and all things like a ship at sea reeling to and fro, and staggering like a drunken man. There is no stability for us in constitutions or old formul–none anywhere, if it be not in the soul of man. Well for us, then, that the anchor of the soul is sure and steadfast! well that unnumbered millions take courage from their Saviour’s word, that the world’s worst anguish is the beginning, not of dissolution, but of the birth-pangs of a new heaven and earth,–that when the clouds are blackest because the light of sun and moon is quenched, then, then we shall behold the Immutable unveiled, the Son of Man, who is brought nigh unto the Ancient of Days, now sitting in the clouds of heaven, and coming in the glory of His Father!

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary