In the last 2 weeks we looked at God explaining who He was through I AM who I AM.
So much said in so little, it is an in-depth explanation of just who God is. When looking however at God through the bible we can take all it has to say at face value in by just going with the words where we interpret them in the context of today. Through our 21st Century values influenced by our culture, experiences and preferences etc.
As someone said, the bible whilst written for us, was not written to us!
Because it was produced over 2000 plus years ago for people in the near east who had different languages that would be affected by hugely different cultures, experiences, acceptability and issues. Today, we, particularly in the west would have no appreciation of the many situations faced by those living when the bible was actually written. In addition we also rely on the translators to English say, which at times does not fully convey the intended original message.
Even in biblical times there were parts of the bible not completed as we today can so easily forget, Moses wrote the Torah, Paul didn’t have the New Testament until He had written part of it. In those days there were other “Gods” to contend with who were worshipped by various races. Think of the Philistines with Dagon, The Romans with their emperor and New Testament Jews after Christ who were still under the well-established Old Testament Law.
With all this incredible diversity how can such a simple statement as I AM who I AM still be relevant in such a changing and evolving world since creation came about? Is the I AM statement just too simple to accurately describe God who is above all that we can think of, experience or react too, whoever and wherever we are?
The answer equally simply is no! I AM who I AM covers in its entirety everything about God.
The primary challenge to accepting this statement is from what view are we looking from, ours or God’s?
All the considerations that directly affect humanity previously mentioned are subjective whereas God is objective, He alone is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. When accepting Christ, we have died and then been resurrected, consequently we are told to bring nothing with us except ourselves, we become new creations with new thinking/values and perception of what good means. Whilst God is personal, he is also God who is above all else and is always the highest authority there is. Hence the description, I AM who I AM.
To fully appreciate God’s description of Himself we of course need to have love, recognition of grace as well as faith, trust, obedience, patience, humility, gratitude, thankfulness to name a few, but there is also one other important element that we should have.
Humanely speaking we need to go to the centre of our universe for one of the most essential elements of life, namely the sun which provides heat and of course light. When the sun doesn’t shine, we have darkness which neatly introduces me to something similar to the sun’s effects spiritually speaking. Which is of course THE Son, Jesus.
He is the light of the world (John 8:12) and if we see Him, we have also seen the Father (John 14:9). The apostle Paul when stopped by a light brighter than the sun (Acts 9) fully realised this to the point where he put to death his old life of religious comparative darkness and instead sought to get others to experience this overwhelming light for themselves.
Light can attract, emphasise, illuminate, eliminate darkness and therefore show the way
Two passages come to mind for accessing the light, Ephesians 1:17-19 and Ephesians 3: both readings feature very powerful ways of allowing light to illuminate a deeper and rewarding appreciation of God – the I AM who I AM.
In Ephesians 1 Paul prays for his followers for qualities that we also can receive. These include being given, a spirit of wisdom, revelation of knowledge of Him, the eyes of the heart being enlightened, the hope God has called us to along with receiving the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and also the immeasurable greatness of His power according to the working of His might.
In Ephesians 3 Paul’s prayer concerns truly knowing the love of God by being grounded in it through comprehending the breadth, length, height and depth of the Lord’s love.
Once we pray for these areas of our discipleship through the Christ sent Holy Spirit’s light of revelation, we will then deepen our being in Christ and know Him, who is the word of God, more deeply than any bible translation can convey.
Which in turn will lead us to know the fulness of God in whatever we encounter objectively as, I AM who I AM.
With all blessings
Tony
PS This blog is normally updated at the beginning of each week