“I Am Who I Am”

The Book of Exodus begins with God’s people, the Israelites, being enslaved in Egypt. In chapter 3, God spoke to the self-exiled Moses from a burning bush while he was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law (vv. 1–2). He commanded Moses to approach Pharaoh and demand that he release the Israelites from slavery to Egypt (vv. 7–10). Besides the tremendous task of confronting Pharaoh (v. 11), Moses had another concern in mind:

Exodus 3:13 ESV Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

Moses anticipated that the people of Israel would ask him, “What is his name? What is the name of this God whom you are claiming is going to rescue us from slavery?” Of course, the people were not so much interested in what God’s name was in the sense of how it was spelled or pronounced. When the people would ask, “What is God’s name?” Moses did not expect to answer, “His name is YHWH”—which is true, but so what?

In biblical thought, a person’s name is the definition of that person; a representation of who he is, what he does and what he stands for. The mention of a person’s name brings to mind the very concept of the person himself. Therefore, Moses knew that when the people would ask, “What is God’s name?” what they really wanted to know was, “Who is this God? What is he like?” That is why, when Moses asked God for his name, God did not simply reply with a proper name, but instead gave Moses an explanation of who he is:

Exodus 3:14 ESV God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”

God’s answer, “I am who I am”, is usually found in English translations in upper case letters: “I AM WHO I AM” or “I AM THAT I AM”. Why did God choose to describe himself in this way? How is “I am who I am” an appropriate explanation of who God is? What does it mean?

The Hebrew expression commonly translated “I am who I am” is in a construction which expresses a person’s freedom to act as he wants. This construction can also be found in Exodus 33:19, where God says: “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful.” The Apostle Paul interpreted the expression “I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful” to mean that God has the freedom to choose whom he wants to be merciful to:

Romans 9:15, 18 For he says to Moses: I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful... Therefore, he is merciful to whom he wants...

Hence, “I am who I am” actually means, “I will be whatever I want to be.” In other words, God is not limited to being something to the exclusion of something else. When the people would ask Moses what God’s name was, God did not want Moses to give them a name which would describe only part of who he is. By revealing himself as “I am who I am”, God wanted his people to know that he is an all-being God; he can be whatever he wants to be, and nothing can prevent him from doing anything that he wants to do.