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By Mike Caton

Exodus 3:14, “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

I suppose Moses has a legitimate question here. We mentioned before about the myriad of gods the people of this time worshiped, and Moses wants to find out for sure who he is dealing with. I really do suppose Moses knew this was the true God, the God the Hebrews had been worshiping for generations. That would be the only God who would be particularly interested in their troubles. And that bush was not burnt up either, Moses knew something outside the ordinary was happening. His question is a good one, who are you, God?

How do you tell someone about a third person? Most of the time we try to make some connection; they went to this school, worked in this place, are related to this person. But how are you going to introduce or describe God? He has no beginning or end, he has no peers and no equals, he is not really related to anyone because he created everyone. I suppose the simplest way to say it, though it is much harder to understand, is that God simply is. And that is what he tells Moses, I AM! You see, God always is. There is really no past with God, not as we understand the past, and there is no future, as we understand the future. Because God is not limited by time or space, as we are, he is in the past and he is in the future, just as he is in the present.

On one hand, that is a hard, maybe impossible, concept for us to get our brains around. We can only deal with the present; our past is gone and our future is not certain (we might not have a future, as far as the physical goes). We can talk about those concepts, dream about them, but they are out of our grasp. But God is in all of those places. But on the other hand, it should give us great comfort to know God is already in the future. Whatever lies ahead of us, God is there. And just like he came to rescue those Israelites, he will be there for us as well. God simply is. And though we might not fully grasp that, it ought to comfort us.

Father, thank you for being so much bigger than me. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Mike Caton is the preacher at Mount Olive Church of Christ in Belhaven. He volunteers at the Ponzer Fire Department and works full time with Hyde County EMS. If you would like to receive daily devotions in your inbox, email mikecaton@centurylink.net.

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