When God told Moses that He would send him into Egypt to deliver His people and lead them out, Moses was afraid that the people would not believe God had spoken to him, and would not be willing to follow him. He said they would be sure to ask him, “What is His name?” and then, he said, “What shall I say unto them?” [Exodus 3:13]

“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.” “This is My name for ever.” [Exodus 3:14, 15]

You know that the people in Egypt were worshipping idols, and had almost forgotten God, and He wanted to teach them to know Him. He was leading them out of Egypt, away from all its false gods, to bring them to Himself. But “He that cometh to God must believe that He is.” [Hebrews 11:6] So the first message that God sent the people was, “I AM.”

It was Jesus Christ who was talking to Moses out of the burning bush. You will perhaps remember that when He was on earth He used this name when He was speaking of Himself. He said: “Before Abraham was, I AM.” [John 8:58]

All the false gods of the nations are nothing; they seem to be something, but they are not.

“Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of men’s hands.
They have mouths, but they speak not;
Eyes have they, but they see not;
They have ears, but they hear not;
Noses have they, but they smell not
They have hands, but they handle not;
Feet have they, but they walk not;
Neither speak they through their throat.” [Psalm 115:4-7]

Seeming to be what they are not, seeming to be something when they are nothing, they are a lie, an image, false.

“But the Lord is the true God.” [Jeremiah 10:10] His name is I AM, and He is the only one who really is. The truth is “that which is.” You know that when one tells a lie, he is saying something that is not so. Anything that appears to be what it is not, is a lie. But Jesus is the Truth; truth is “that which is;” and so His name is “I AM.”

Notice that I AM is present tense or present time; it means now; yet this is God’s name for ever. This shows us that He always was, and that He ever will be. Jesus said that He is the One “which is, and which was, and which is to come.” [Revelation 1:8] I AM is present; this is His name for ever; therefore He is ever-present.

Now remember our last week’s talk about some of the lessons that God was teaching us by speaking to Moses out of the midst of the bush. It meant that He dwells everywhere and in all things.

It was from the midst of the bush that His voice was beard saying, “I AM THAT I AM.” [Exodus 3:14] There is nothing that is, except Jesus Christ. He is the truth, the life, of everything that exists, for in Him “all things hold together.” Apart from Him there is nothing, for in Him “all fulness dwells.” [Colossians 1:19] So in all the things that we see around us everywhere, in all the wondrous works of God, His voice is saying to us, “I AM.” Because He is, these things are. They exist only because He does.

But He says also, “I AM THAT I AM.” I am that which, or what, I am. So the name of God is to show us what He is; it is to teach us His character. And “that Thy name is near, Thy wondrous works declare.” [Psalm 75:1]

“O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Thy name in all the earth!” [Psalm 8:9]

sang the Psalmist. And as we learn to read this excellent name wherever it is written, “in all the earth,” we shall with heart and voice join in the glad song of praise.

His name is I AM what I AM, and every one of His works shows to us something of what He is. So all things are declaring the everlasting name of the Creator. Jesus Christ is the truth of everything. He is “that which is” in all things, and until we learn to see Him there, and to read the truth that He is revealing,—what it is that He is teaching us of Himself,—we do not really know the truth of anything.

One thing more that we learn from His name we must speak of: “I AM THAT I AM.” What God is, He is for ever, He always is. With Him “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” [James 1:17] Jesus Christ is “the same, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” [Hebrews 13:8]

What a beautiful name! What a grand, glorious, and almighty name, is this everlasting name of our God and Saviour. And from everything that He has made He is declaring it to us, just as truly as He did to Moses out of the midst of the bush, teaching us that He is always everywhere, present, that He never changes, but that all that He is He is for ever.

God wanted the children of Israel to know Him, so that they would trust in Him and let Him lead them through the wilderness, as the sheep follow the kind and gentle shepherd whom they have learnt to know. And so He declared His name to them, for “They that know Thy name shall put their trust in Thee.” [Psalm 9:10]

Do you not think it should have made them very happy to learn that they had such a God? But “this God is our God for ever and ever.” [Psalm 48:14] Should it not make is happy also to know this, and better still, to know Him?

The Present Truth – January 24, 1901
E. J. Waggoner

An Everlasting Name