‘Ehyer ‘Aser ‘Ehyer

Names of God – Part 53

I AM WHO I AM

40 blogs of Lent: 28

God speaks to Moses from the burning bush:

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

Exodus 3:14 ESVUK, capitals added where the translation uses small capitals.

‘Ehyer is the Hebrew first person singular for the verb to be. The third person singular “he is” is Yahweh sometimes transcribed as Jehovah. The name of God given to Moses differs in tense but the meaning is the same. God is the one that exists, this statement is the beginning of monotheism, God is the only God. Before this, and explicit in the book of Job, God is thought to be the greatest of a pantheon of Gods, here we find God as the one, the only one, who exists.

Thomas Aquinas, that great Christian theologian and philosopher of the 13th century said that God’s essence is identical with his very being. God is transcendent, not part of creation, and everything owes its existence to him.

God is also imminent, the God who hears the cry of his people, the cry of the downtrodden and oppressed. The great Almighty God is a God who cares.

Who cannot praise a God like this?