God Is Always the ‘I AM’

When Moses asked God by what name He wished to make Himself known to the children of Israel, God gave Moses the following reply.

“And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’’” (Ex. 3:14)

Here God gives Moses two forms of His name: “I AM” and “I AM WHO I AM.” This reveals the eternal and unchanging nature of God. God is always “I AM.” He is not in any way changed or affected by the course of time, which is but a part of His own creation. For God, past, present and future are ever united in an eternal present – an eternal “I AM.”

Out of this revelation granted to Moses came the sacred form of God’s name, consisting of four Hebrew consonants, represented in English as YHWH. Traditionally this has been rendered as “Jehovah.” Modern scholars suggest that it could more accurately be represented by the form YAHWEH – meaning “HE IS” or, alternatively, “HE WILL BE.” Some translators have sought to express the meaning of this name by the title “the Eternal.”

In the New Testament the same truths concerning the eternal, unchanging nature of God are brought out in the revelation granted to the apostle John on the isle of Patmos.

“‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,’ says the Lord, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’” (Rev. 1:8).

Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and Omega the last. Thus, the whole alphabet of time, from its beginning to its ending, is contained within the nature of God Himself. The phrase “who is and who was and who is to come” sums up present, past and future, and thus exactly corresponds to the revelation of God’s nature given to Moses: “I AM WHO I AM.”