And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. And He said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. / And God also said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, Jehovah, 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 this is My memorial from generation to generation. (Exo. 3:14-15)
When God revealed Himself to Moses as the great “I AM,” it was not in Moses’ victory. Actually, Moses was quite weak and resistant to God’s command; at each turn, he looked at himself rather than at God, doubting if what God had asked could be done. In Exodus 3 when God charged Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, Moses worried that they would question who had sent him, saying “What is His name?” (3:13). God’s reply was quite interesting: it was to reveal Himself as the “I AM,” as the One who, in His relationship with man, is all in all. In man’s weakness, God comes in to bring us both a recognition of who we are not and a revelation of who He is, and it is through this revelation that we are able to truly serve.
In order for Moses to serve, God had to prepare an environment for him to be brought to a condition to see who he was and see who God is. He was no longer a strong young man in the house of Pharaoh; he was an eighty-year-old fugitive-turned-shepherd, and he had blood on his hands (2:12). Moses had lived forty years in the wilderness escaping his crime, his people, and his calling. In this condition, “the Angel of Jehovah appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a thornbush” (v. 2). Jehovah had waited for Moses to be here, for him to turn aside “to look” so that He could call out to him (v. 4). In the face of such a God, who orchestrated this meeting, Moses was humbled and exposed, and “hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God” (v. 6). It was in this scenario that God came to fallen man to touch his conscience. God is a God who dwells in the thornbush (Deut. 33:16), a plant not only useless, but also a part of the curse to man (Gen. 3:17-19). God came as the flame in that bush, but the bush wasn’t burnt (v. 2). In the same way, God dwells in man, and the source is nothing from ourselves; He is the source of the action, the ignition, and the fuel to burn. He comes to us in our weakness, pricks our conscience, and reveals His desire to indwell us and become the unique source and supply.
In revealing Himself to man, God exposes our true condition. Even after he conversed with God in the thornbush, Moses expressed reluctance and doubt once more in chapter four: “What if they do not believe me or listen to my voice, but say, Jehovah has not appeared to you?” (v. 1). Again, the Lord’s response was precise and direct: three distinct, tangible signs that exposed Moses’ fallen condition. The first sign was the nature of the staff that he carried. When Moses threw the staff to the ground, it became a serpent (v. 3). All that Moses relied on was, by nature, a serpent — satanic. The second sign that the Lord showed Moses was that he is leprous — sinful and unclean (v. 6-7). With the final sign, the water from the Nile becoming blood, the Lord revealed that the supply from the world renders death. The signs were not just for Pharaoh and the children of Israel, but also for Moses. Weak and sinful, Moses was already this kind of person — a snake, leprous, relying on the supply from the world. But these things had to be dealt with and exposed in Moses in order that this complicated being could be used by the Lord. These signs were key for Moses to see who he was, and thus pave the way for him to truly serve God.
Recognition, however, is not enough. After all these signs, the Lord asked Moses to speak — to carry His words and execution on the earth — but Moses shrank back and “the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Moses” (vv. 9-10; 14). Our natural part wants to shrink back from what He has called us unto, instead stopping at a lodging place on the way (v. 24). It was while Moses was lingering “on the way” that God sought to put him to death and subsequently Moses’ son was circumcised. That fallen, lingering part in us — full of considerations, calculations, and complications — has to be crucified, cut off (v. 25); there is a “death penalty” involved in our following the Lord. Corporately, this principle is the same. The church came out of the Lord’s side on the cross, with the blood and the water (John 19:34). Our thinking, speaking and living have to go through this death and resurrection process; as the church, this blood and water is the trademark of our expression. Our real life — the church life — starts with our resurrection.
What the Bible really helps us to see is what we are not and what He is. We like to read about Moses’ glorious times, but Moses’ following of the Lord and his great service unto Him did not begin with his success. It was in his weakness that his self could be put to death and God could come in as the source and supply. In Romans 3:10, Paul says, “There is none righteous, not even one.” We, too, are weak. We, too, don’t recognize who He is, or who we are. We don’t believe that we are utterly useless, and even more that we are cursed, of a serpentine nature, leprous and murderous. We don’t swiftly follow after Him, instead constantly delaying, lodging “on the way,” and resisting His call. And yet He has been waiting to come to us as the “I AM.” And when He does, He reveals Himself and shows us our true nature. When this moment comes, instead of dwelling in our failure, we should drop all our righteousness to find true salvation. Hallelujah, nothing of this thornbush is needed for the fire to burn! He is the supply and the true being to dwell in us. Only the specific and very personal encountering of this “I AM” can reveal to us who He is and who we are, and that is the strength of our serving life and our testimony to the world.
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 10/31/2021, not reviewed by the speaker.)