God as the unnamed ‘I am who I am’

Names are very important in the Bible as a way of identifying persons and to attribute certain characteristics to persons. So, Israel, for example, is the name God gives to Jacob after he mysteriously wrestles with God all night, which, according to the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible, means ‘he struggles with God’ (and see Genesis 32:28).

However, while many different names are given to persons in the Bible, there is a very interesting and profound exchange that goes on between God and Moses in Exodus 3:13-14 which resists the idea of giving a name to God.  In these verses Moses asks God what is his name so Moses can clearly identify God to the Israelites when he goes to them with the promise of liberation from Egyptian slavery. But God’s response to Moses is not to give a name (and note: not even to give Moses the pronouns of ‘he’ or ‘she’). It was instead to starkly and uncompromisingly pronounce ‘I AM who I AM’ – end of, with a full-stop, and with no further name to reveal God’s identity. So, verse 14 says: “God said to Moses, I AM who I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites. ‘I AM has sent me to you.” (capitals added in the NIV translation, and with Jehovah being the Hebrew ‘name’ of God which is translated as ‘I am’).

Why is the namelessness of God so important though? Well, if God is the foundation of all things – the source of all creation – then God must stand separately and majestically apart from all things named. So, it is possible to name all things in the universe as these are created objects with a specific created identity, including human beings, but it is not possible to name God in the same way, as our God is beyond creation and so is beyond naming (at least in the conventional sense). I was meditating on this mysterious and unfathomable truth a lot when on a holiday in Turkey recently, and found myself experiencing a wonderful peace and stillness as a result. Through contemplating the essential namelessness of God, I became increasingly aware of being held by God, where all creation, including myself, rests in the hands of our great ‘I am’ – with my name and my identity being wholly dependent upon the Being of God, or the I am of God and nothing else. Praise Jehovah!!