Missions Message July 2021
Pr. Robert Turnage - President SOC
Who Shall I Say Sent Me?
In the third chapter of the Book of Exodus, the miraculous deliverance of God's people from Egyptian bondage is recorded. God is setting His people free from bondage and slavery. He will also fulfill a promise He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when He said I will free you from the labors of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession. As ancient Egyptian rulers, the pharaohs were both the heads of state and their people's religious leaders. The current pharaoh held them in captivity, but when the Lord sent Moses to bring the people out of their bondage, Moses did not speak to the ruler but to the people who were the captives. In Exodus 3:13, Moses asked God this question, "...when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?" Exodus 3:14 reads, "And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."
We learn from Exodus 12:40 how long they had been in this Egyptian bondage, "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years." After so many years, it would be natural to ask who sent you to tell us this? The name Moses gave was the correct answer to be given.
The slaves needed encouragement. Moses has been permitted to use the name of the great God who promised that after a long and horrible captivity, He would come and deliver them. His name is the I AM, which means I will become whatever I must become to fulfill my promise. He is assuring them that I am the sum and total of all existence. There is no one else above Me or before Me. I read where one ancient writer summed it up beautifully by saying, "This signifies the real being of God, His self-existence, and that He is the Being of beings; as also it denotes His eternity and immutability, and His constancy and faithfulness in fulfilling His promises, for it includes all time, past, present, and to come; and the sense is, not only I am what I am at present, but I am what I have been, and I am what I shall be, and shall be what I am."
The most assuring and encouraging thing I can say from the youngest to the oldest Christians is, He is your I AM THAT I AM. The greatest news for the person who has not yet surrendered to His salvation, love, and keeping power is: He wants to be the same "I AM THAT I AM" to you that He has been to all that have surrendered to Him. What a great God He is.