Page 8 - June 2022 - Truth & Tidings

od’s plan for four hundred years was. The God who delivered Abraham’s
of sojourning and slavery for son, using a perfectly placed ram, could
GIsrael has been fulfilled (Gen surely deliver their firstborn ones from
15:13). Now, in raising up a deliverer for wrath in Egypt. He who saw Noah
His people, Jehovah is about to manifest through to the other side of the great flood
His character as a covenant-keeping, just could easily get them across the compara-
yet merciful God. Through almighty in- tively tiny Red Sea. And the Almighty One
tervention, Pharaoh’s slaves will be freed who guarded and guided Rebekah from
and placed on new ground by power and Mesopotamia through the desert into the
the shedding of blood. Without question, land of Canaan would undoubtedly lead
this will be the realization of the words them into that same land of promise. The
of the patriarch Joseph, “God will surely revelation of Jehovah through this awe-
visit you” (Gen 50:24). inspiring moniker proclaimed His nature
On the eve of this mighty redemption, and generated confidence even before His
we witness an intimate scene, as the man marvelous acts.
Moses takes off his shoes to stand on holy Jump forward almost fifteen hundred
ground in conversation with the God of years. It’s been just over four hundred
his fathers. Here Moses gets to understand years since Israel last heard from God
God’s plan and appreciate the promises through the prophet Malachi. We are
about to be fulfilled. But before the char- about to witness the raising up of another
acter of God is revealed in power, it is Deliverer who, through power and blood,
declared in plain language, as Moses asks will redeem, not now from Egyptian ser-
the simple question that he knows will be vitude but from the bondage of sin. This
on everybody’s mind when they are told Redeemer will fulfill all of the Scriptures’
of the God who has sent him: “What is prophecies and promises concerning the
His name?” From the crackling flames of Messiah, and as we follow the steps of
a bush that burned but was not consumed Jesus of Nazareth, we once again hear the
came the response (Exo 3:14), “I AM THAT words of Joseph whispered to our hearts,
I AM.” “Tell them I AM has sent you.” “God will surely visit you.”
Many, trying to plumb the depths of this From Bethlehem to Golgotha, the very
great name, find that it remains as simple nature of the Almighty was being told out
as it is profound – “I CONTINUE TO BE in the words and works of the Lord Jesus
WHAT I ALWAYS WAS AND EVER WILL Christ (Joh 1:18). Knowing that the ulti-
BE; The Ever Existing One.” The men- mate manifestation of God’s character will
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tion of it alone would inspire confidence be seen at the cross, we marvel as within
in Moses and strengthen God’s people, months of this glorious redemptive work
knowing that the One who was now visit- the Lord Jesus began to speak with words
ing them continued to be what He always reminiscent of Exodus chapter three when
¹ Thomas Newberry, The Englishman’s Bible He took to Himself that transcendent
(notes on Exodus 3:14). name, “I AM.”

168 TRUTH kTidings June 2022