Before Abraham was, I AM.

 

Tuesday, August 1, 2023


Psalm 74

2 Samuel 11:1-21

John 8:48-59


Observance: Holy men and women of the Old Testament


Before Abraham was, I AM.


With all this talk of little green men from Mars coming out of the United States at the moment, an old trend has found the excuse to try and regain some relevance. Pointing to the fact that these flying objects seem to defy the laws of physics, so the argument goes, aliens must be living and operating in a different dimension. Therefore, to access this dimension and thereby gain contact with them, spiritual activities such as are found in New Age-ism need to be employed.


The wonderful thing about Christianity’s central claim is that through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, we have all the access we could ever want to the spiritual realm, to the highest dimension. With the Lord as our Shepherd, we are led safely through the spiritual realm, protected on all sides from the powers and principalities of the air who seek to do us harm, right up to the gates of heaven. Indeed, the Bible’s prohibitions against sorcery and necromancy are there for our benefit, because if we were to go off on our own and try to have an out-of-body experience in order to speak to the aliens, all we would find is the pack of hungry demons just looking for a human without the spiritual protection of the presence of God the Holy Spirit.


When Jesus says these words to the crowd, He is doing more than a fun bit of word play with His tenses. He claims divinity; He says that He is “I Am [who I am]”, which is the name God gave Moses from the burning bush. It is a funny little phrase to try and translate from the Hebrew; it could be rendered “I Will Be [who I will be]”. It is a name that has fascinated the people of God for millennia, because it says so much about who God is. It is so much more than just a proper noun.


Most of all, it tells us that God is consistent. God keeps His promises. God doesn’t change His mind. When He says He will do something, God does it. And the biggest promise God has given us is that we should follow where He leads, and He will be with us no matter what. We have nothing to fear, and every reason to rejoice.

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