"God said to Moses, I Am That I Am. And He said, say this to the people
of Israel, I Am has sent me to you…Yahweh has sent me to you! This is
My name forever. (Ex. 3: 14, 15)
"From this passage, we should observe that the name ‘I Am’ is used interchangeably with ‘Yahweh.’ The very basis of this name is derived from the Hebrew of ‘I Am.’
Do we fully appreciate what Jesus Christ was claiming in the New Testament record when He referred to Himself as the I Am? From the eighth chapter of John, we hear the Christ declaring:
Your father, Abraham, rejoiced that he was to see My day. He saw it and
was glad. The Jews then said to Jesus, You are not yet fifty years old, and
have You seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Truly, Truly, I say to you,
before Abraham was, I am. (John 8: 58)
Yahweh had appeared to Abraham on a number of occasions. Was Jesus claiming that He Himself was the great I Am—the God of the Old Testament Who had made Himself known to Abraham, Moses, and the prophets? Apparently, the Jews nearby who heard Jesus’ words took it in that light. For they then made a vain attempt to stone to death the Nazarene for what they thought was blasphemy!
While a recent edition of the Revised Standard Version has not capitalized the phrase, the editors have made an interesting comment in a footnote to John 8: 58. That comment says: ‘The I am is the divine name (Ex. 3: 14), a claim to pre-existence and oneness with God (10: 30-33).’
For those who might object to this line of thought, we should note that Jesus did not say, ‘Before Abraham was, I was.” But He did say, “Before Abraham was, I Am.” What else could it be other than the divine name? Indeed, is this not why His hearers tried to stone Him to death?” (“The God of Two Testaments” pgs. 16, 17)
“When the infinite and transcendent Yahweh becomes localized and visible in a theophany as in the case of visiting Abraham or speaking to Moses, it did not require there to be two Gods. But One God, Who was both transcendent invisible Spirit and an imminent visible Personal Being able to speak face to face to Moses and to speak of Abraham as His friend. One Yahweh, of Whom the heavens of heavens could not contain and yet also able to sit and eat under a shade tree as Abraham’s guest” (Rick Farwell).
Ted McDivitt (from the article 'Our Great God and Savior')
