Sinclair Ferguson

Because God is the great I am, there's no end to us growing and knowing who he is.

Even when we know him fully and sinlessly as human beings, we know that he's even greater than we can comprehend.

That's one of the marvelous things about being a Christian.

Day by day, month by month, year by year, we can get to know God better, appreciate him more fully, and love him more deeply.

Yesterday we were asking the question, what is God like?

Who is He?

And we were reminding ourselves that this is exactly the question Moses asked God at the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3.

That was a monumental moment.

And you'll remember God's answer.

God said to Moses, I am who I am.

Say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you.

Say, The Lord, 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.

God is the Great I Am.

You probably know this is the name that the Jewish people came to treat with such reverence they wouldn't even pronounce it.

If you hear the Hebrew Bible being read by Jewish people, when they come to this name, they don't pronounce it.

They say HaShem instead.

The name

I admire that respect for the name of God, but we need to remember that he specifically said, this is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

He meant his people to know him as I am and to call him I am, not to hide his name, but to know it, to say it, and to proclaim it throughout all generations and even to the ends of the earth.