Daily Devotional · Exodus 3:13–15
I AM WHO I AM
Reflection
Moses had just been commissioned for the most impossible mission imaginable: return to Egypt, the nation you fled from in disgrace, stand before the most powerful man on earth, and demand the release of an entire enslaved people. Naturally, Moses had questions. His first practical question was about God's name. Not from idle curiosity — in the ancient world, knowing someone's name was knowing their nature and the basis of your appeal to them. "What is his name?" the Israelites would ask. What do I tell them? God's answer was not a simple name. It was a declaration of being: "I AM WHO I AM." In Hebrew: Ehyeh asher Ehyeh. The verb hayah — to be, to exist, to become — at its most absolute. God is not defined by anything outside Himself. He is being itself. And then: "This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation." The shortened form — YHWH, the tetragrammaton — became the personal name of Israel's God. So holy that Jewish tradition would not pronounce it aloud. Jesus later took this name for Himself: "Before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:58). Seven times in John's Gospel He says "I AM" — I am the bread of life, the light of the world, the door, the good shepherd, the resurrection, the way, the vine. The great I AM has a face.
Background
The divine name YHWH appears nearly 7,000 times in the Hebrew Bible. Ancient scribes wrote it but would say Adonai (Lord) when reading aloud, out of reverence. English translations typically render it as LORD in small capitals. The name reveals God as self-existent, uncaused, eternal — dependent on nothing and no one for His being.
Truth
Every human identity is contingent — it depends on something else for its existence. Only God simply IS. This means He cannot cease, cannot be depleted, cannot be overthrown. When you call on I AM, you are calling on the only truly unshakeable being in existence.
Application
What do you most need God to BE for you right now — provider, healer, peace, strength? Fill in the blank: "I need You to be my _____." Then look up a scripture where God reveals Himself in exactly that way, and pray it back to Him.