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HOUSMAIL HM105 9
June 2003 WHO IS THIS GOD
WHO CALLS HIMSELF "I AM"? "Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come
unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers
hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall
I say unto them? 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." (Exodus 3:13-14) However,
in the next verse, (v15) we learn that the name was NOT given to the Israelites in
precisely that form. The name Moses was instructed to use, is «the LORD». The
Hebrew for this name is YHWH -- the commonly used OLD TESTAMENT name for God
-- literal meaning «the existing one». "God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt
thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD (YAHWEH) God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto
you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all
generations." (Exodus 3:15) The
Hebrew phonetic original for this name "I AM" in v14, is something like EHYEH ASCHER EHYEH.
Newer translations, such as RSV, NEB, tell us in a marginal note, that the
name is better rendered «I WILL BE WHO (or WHAT) I WILL BE» -- emphasising
the FUTURE tense. When this name was translated into Greek in the LXX, it
became «HO ON» -- literally «the being». Further,
even if we bend the rules a little, to accept the validity of the present
tense, EHYEH, is a form of the name of YHWH! It is never used
anywhere in the OLD TESTAMENT, as the name of the prophesied MESSIAH. In the OLD
TESTAMENT, God is NOT the MESSIAH, and the MESSIAH is NOT God! Psalm 110:1 is only one of many
verses, which make this distinction carefully and unmistakably clear. The surprising implication of all this is that the name
"I AM", And
the suggestion that, in John 8:58, Jesus used the words "I AM" to claim this
non-existent divine name from Exodus, for Himself, or to claim that he is
actually GOD, is quite misleading. When Jesus used these words He had
something quite different in mind. (Refer to HM047 When
Jesus Said “I Am” for a more detailed study of the repeated use
of the words "I AM" in John's Gospel. Be prepared for some
surprises!) In
fact in this very same Gospel, Jesus very specifically said that His Father
(who is the YHWH of the OLD TESTAMENT!) is the only true God and identified
Himself separately as the Son of the only true God. (John 17:3-6) -- but Not as God
Himself. THE
GOSPEL AND THE FUTURE The
name God gave to Moses for the Children of Israel, is FUTURE tense. The
future tense of the name emphasised then and still today, that the major
purpose of CREATION has to do with the FUTURE. God is working towards a time
in the future, when He will complete His grand CREATION PLAN, to establish a
kingdom on earth, over which the dominion will be exercised by an obedient
HUMAN race -- headed by His Glorified Son! When
Jesus preached about this Kingdom, He called His message the "Gospel of
the Kingdom". In His mortal life on earth, He established His identity,
NOT as YAHWEH the CREATOR GOD, but as the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF THE CREATOR --
Jesus, the MESSIAH who is chosen from among men to be the future ruler of
that Kingdom. It is NOT as YHWH, but as this Messiah that Jesus revealed
Himself to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. (Luke 24:21-27) Allon |