I AM WHO I AM

"Who am I that I should do this? What shall I say to them?"

 --Moses, Exodus 3:11,13

At the burning bush Moses asks God two, in his mind, important questions. God had just brought Moses the news that he, the shepherd who had once fled Egypt, was to return and bring the people of Israel out of Egypt. Faced with the gravity of this task Moses is humbled and asks the Lord the two questions above. At first he is unable to see ahead to the meeting with Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the world, because he is more worried about convincing his own people of his new mission. "What shall I say to them?'' Moses asks. 

How does God respond to Moses? "Tell them, I am who I am." I am not a god like the ones you see in Egypt but I am Yahweh. I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, I am the God of you now, and I will be your God forever. In this most precious and intimate name, God reveals such an important aspect of His nature. 

For the people of Israel things were about to drastically change and they would continue to change as they were to become a people without a home, living in the desert for the next forty years. God was telling His people that though so much is going to change for them and plagues were going to rain upon the land of Egypt He would not change. The God that He was to their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob He would continue to be.

A few thousand years later, He still is who He is. Since God spoke His most intimate name, Yahweh, to Moses and gave the promise that He would be constant in a changing world He still is. Looking back through history we see our faith enduring through empires, exiles, persecution, and amidst all that has drastically changed since that day in the desert, Yahweh is the same God. He was, is, and will be.

Yesterday as I was praying over today, my official starting day, I felt a little bit like Moses. Who am I that I can make disciples in a new neighborhood and what will I even say to them? You see these were important questions in Moses' mind and in my mind too. The problem is that Moses and I were thinking about ourselves too much. It is not who I am or what I can say, but it is entirely who God is and what He says. Lord, thy will be done.