COPYRIGHT WARNING

365 Prophecies: Prophecy 20

The Messiah will be the Great I AM of the Old Testament.

Old Testament Prediction:

Exodus 3:13-14 Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” 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.’ ”

New Testament Fulfillment:

John 8:56-58 “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

Application:

Who could have imagined that the tiny baby, born in Bethlehem, was the Great I AM of the Old Testament?

In this 20th prophecy, we learn that Jesus is the voice from the burning bush which spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai:

Exodus 3:1-2 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.

Exodus 3:13-14 Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” 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.’”

The words I AM are the eternal name for God, as established in the Old Testament. In Hebrew language, I AM is Ehyeh asher ehyeh. This term is usually translated into English as  I am that I am, but it can also be translated as I-shall-be that I-shall-be. The idea behind this name is that the Lord will become whatever you need. I AM… whatever you need in your life… I will become… whatever you need in your life…

In the name I AM, God is stating that He has no beginning and no end; He just exists and always has existed. All other things in the universe have a first cause in that they have a beginning at some point in time. Because God is eternal, He, therefore, does not require a first cause.

When we think of a being having no beginning, it baffles our minds as to how this could be possible. We should consider that the concept of a self-existent being, having no first cause, is not really that hard to understand if we can simply accept the fact that He always has been. For our minds, we only understand those things that have a point in time in which they began to exist. This is because we live within the constraints of time, and every event in our life happens one event after another. We have never seen anything that did not have a point of beginning. To consider that it is possible that there is a God who has always been, is an idea that is quite difficult to grasp.

Eternity has no such sequence of events, nor any perception of time passing. It is completely logical that a being who lives outside of time and has the intelligence and power to create a universe as vast as the one we have observed would himself have no beginning. In truth, He could not have a beginning, or He would not be able to claim that He is God.

God is only God because He existed before and above all other created things.

Once we accept these ideas as facts in our mind, there will no longer be a struggle to understand how a being can have no beginning.

In the New Testament, Jesus fulfills this 20th Old Testament Prophecy in John Chapter 8, where He informs the Pharisees that before Abraham existed, I AM. In actuality, Jesus is claiming to be the Great I AM who spoke to Moses at the burning bush and the one who spoke to Abraham, in Genesis 15.

John 8:56-58 “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

When God appeared to Abraham in Chapter 15 of Genesis, He made certain promises to him based on whether Abraham would believe in the coming salvation made possible by the Messiah. God had promised Abraham that it would be through his descendants—beginning with Isaac and continuing through David, all the way to Jesus—that this Messiah would come. Although Abraham did not know that Jesus would be the name of the coming Savior, he understood that a Messiah was coming, and this was the basis for God to account him as righteous.

Genesis 15:4-6 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one (Ishmael) shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body (Isaac) shall be your heir.” Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

Genesis 21:12 But God said to Abraham, … for in Isaac your seed (future Messiah) shall be called.

This verse from Genesis 15:4-6 is the likely place that Jesus was referring to when He said to the Pharisees, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad. When God asked Abraham if he understood the plan of salvation through a coming Savior, Abraham confirmed that he believed, and God accounted this to him as righteousness.

When you place your trust in Jesus today, you are really placing your confidence in the Great I AM of the Old Testament. Jesus is the One who spoke the universe in to existence, in Genesis 1:1, and the One to whom all judgment for all human beings has been committed by the Father.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Colossians 1:16-17 For by Jesus all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

John 5:22 For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son.