Exodus 3:1-15

As Moses interacts with the Burning Bush, he asks, “What is your name?’  The voice of God answers, “I am who I am”.  Many have translated this various ways such as “ I am what I am or I will be what I will be (NRSV footnote.)    This is the God that does not allow description.  A name defines something, such as Adam naming the animals in Genesis 2.  But God cannot be defined.  This does not mean that God is unknowable, but that God is not limited by our definition.  From the bush God has given us ways to know this One.  The God of Abraham, Issacc and Jacob, the God that hears the cry of God’s chosen people, Israel, and the God that makes the common place holy.  God is also the One that the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain.  How often do we want to define God?  I have heard so many Christians say, but my God will not do that (and then list something they personally object to.)  Or my God is definitely a he (or she), or my God is against this group or person, or that my God cannot hear the prayers of sinners, or gays, or Muslims, or Republicans, etc.  Each one of these examples show the ways we want to limit the God that will be what God will be.  The thing that is happening is we are limiting the Godself, we are limiting the way God manifest the divine power and presence in our lives.  We do not allow ourselves to see the I AM working in this world, because we are looking for God only in certain arenas.  I often call this the God in the Box attitude.  But with God, when we put him in a box, she breaks out, refusing to be contained, and amazes all who’s eyes are blinded by their puny definitions and conditions on God. The Sovereign “I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE” comes to Moses this week and will begins the powerful contention with Pharaoh and taking the chosen people into the Promised Land. 

Pastor Greg