Day 17: Jesus Is the Great I AM

Day 17: Jesus is the great I AM

Prayer:

Our Father in heaven, reveal Yourself to us. In an ongoing, daily, even moment-by-moment way, make Yourself known to us. Be for us all that we need and all that we could ever hope for. Show us the greatness of who You are and all You desire to be for us. Work within us and among us to deliver us with Your mighty acts of grace and strength. Ignite us with Your Living Flame. Amen.

Primary Scripture:

John 8:58: Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

There are many names of God given to us in the unfolding revelation of the Old Testament. But when God revealed Himself to Moses, He gave him a unique name. Moses had tried to deliver the people of Israel from their cruel oppression on his own and had failed abysmally. He ended up running for his life and spending forty years watching sheep in the desert. Surely his heart still ached for his people. His hopes and dreams are gone. All that's left is a vague, nagging pain for those left behind. Could he help but wonder what had happened to his family? Forty years is a long time. Perhaps they're all dead now; people die young under such conditions. Then unexpectedly, God reveals His presence in a flame of fire, yet one that does not consume. Living Flame in a living bush, that doesn't destroy.

From the fire, God speaks, first identifying Himself to Moses as Elohim, the transcendent Creator who rules over all (Exodus 3:6) and the God of his ancestors, the One who had personally called Abraham, set him apart, and given great promises to him and all his descendants. Moses was one of them. Though he grew up in Pharaoh’s palace, he knew his true identity was with the Israelite slaves. Then God makes five declarations about Himself, two of which are promises: "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt . . .," "I have heard their cry . . .," "I know their sorrows . . .," "I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians (first promise), and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land flowing with milk and honey (second promise)." Then God repeats the first two, essentially saying again "I have heard," "I have seen." These things reiterate the narrative in chapter two: God heard...God remembered...God looked upon...and God acknowledged. How very comforting to have a God who hears, remembers, looks upon, sees, and acknowledges us (Exodus 3:7-9 and 2:24-25). This is His character; this is who He is.

In light of those things, God says to Moses, "I am sending you . . ." WHAT?! You said You were coming down to rescue them! And Moses throws out one question and excuse after another. With Moses' first question, "Who am I . . .," we can almost hear his mental wheels churning at high speed, flipping back to forty years earlier as he remembers his last days in Egypt. God answers his reluctance with a promise and a sign: "I will certainly be with you." Here's how you'll know: "When you've brought the people out, you will worship Me on this mountain." If I were Moses, I'd have thought, Well, that's all well and good, but that's after the fact! How will I be sure of all this before and during?

Not only Pharaoh will resist him. The people of Israel are not going to be too keen on him in this leadership role either! So Moses asks, "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?" God responds to Moses' question in a most unusual way:

I AM THAT I AM.

That's what you'll tell them: "I AM has sent me to you."

That doesn't seem very helpful. What is that supposed to mean?? But this became the most used name of God in the whole Old Testament. It is called the Tetragrammaton because this name is made of four Hebrew letters, transliterated as YHWH. From this we get the name Jehovah or Yahweh, which is found over 7,000 times in the Old Testament.^[1]

The name is intriguing and a bit puzzling; it rather begs the question: I AM . . . what? Like a multi-faceted diamond, God Himself fills in the blank in a very direct way in the Old Testament by coupling the name YHWH with nine different other names or descriptions of Himself. Those nine names are listed at the end of this devotional. But there are many other ways that God fills in the blank with a variety of adjectives and with metaphor after metaphor throughout the Bible. In this way God unveils Himself and all He wants to be for us.

It is as if God has written a blank check for those who are in covenant relationship with Him. He is inviting us to fill in our own personal need: I AM _____________. However, if someone is going to write a check (especially a blank one for you to fill in your own needed amount!), we'd better know that the signer behind the check is able to back it up. There are many things that the name YHWH tells us about God. It is a very personal name and full of promise. The verb tense used indicates ongoing, continuous action, something that began in the past and is continuing in the present, and will continue on into the future. God has just called Moses to do a task that is humanly impossible, outside the scope of his capabilities. It will utterly unsettle his life, turning it upside down; and it is downright scary and dangerous on multiple fronts. But God is telling Moses that He is utterly, eternally, unchangeably reliable. This is the God who will be with him—always. This name is best understood in English by saying, "I am now what I will be in the future and what I have always been from eternity past." Moses will need this Name. And so do we.

As the great I AM, God sets Himself apart from all other gods. He exists in, of, and from Himself. God is in a class by Himself, utterly distinct, and defined only by Himself. He is wholly incomprehensible. The name I AM reveals that God exists outside of time and space and is the active manifestation of existence. He alone has life in Himself. He is the ground of all being, the uncaused Cause. All existence originates and emanates from Himself; all that exists are wholly dependent upon Him. He is the inexhaustible fountain of life, of being, of blessedness, of perfection. He is the sum total of all that exists: "In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

The name carries with it unquestioned authority. No one can stand against what He has promised to do for us. What He does, none can undo. The Lord's counsels will stand regardless of the plans of man (Proverbs 19:21). Though all the kings of the earth take counsel together against Him, He is not unsettled in the least; the great I AM only laughs at all their machinations and plotting. We can hear the thunder in His tone as He declares: "I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion" (Psalm 2:6). Within those statements are embedded the foundation of a mountain of rock-solid truth that will fill the whole earth (Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45). "The Lord brings the counsels of the nations to nothing" (Psalm 33:10-11). "There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against the Lord" (Proverbs 21:30).

God is not only declaring His self-sufficiency and complete authority but also His all-sufficiency. He is more than words can express. As I AM, He habitually, unceasingly reveals Himself, continuously unfolding His character to us more and more fully. He is not some abstract, metaphysical idea of being; but He makes Himself known in concrete active ways. He is more than what we need for the immediate, present need, for He will continue be sufficient for the next need and the next and the next . . . continuing to prove Himself to His covenant people by providential guidance, through prophetic teaching, and in mighty acts of power on their behalf. He reveals Himself through real, tangible, time-space action, meeting us in our need, right where we are.

With this name, God is declaring His faithfulness and the certainty of His nature. The One who made the promises will keep them. "I have spoken and I will do!" (Isaiah 46:11, Ezekiel 22:14). God is not fixed in the past, present, or future. Rather, in an ongoing way He manifests Himself anew, faithfully and consistently proving to be all that He has promised and all that we need. He is the God who is an ever-present help in our times of trouble and need (Psalm 46:1).

In its simplest translation, YHWH would be translated as a future tense, carrying a veiled hint of the incarnation. The angel revealed to Joseph that the Child within Mary was the prophetic fulfillment of Immanuel, God With Us, the great I AM incarnate. Paul declares that all things were created through Christ, by Christ, and for Christ; that He is before all things and in Him all things consist or hold together; that in all things Christ will have the pre-eminence (Colossians 1:16-18). Here was the culmination of all God had promised; all God's mighty works are centered on this point in history, on this Person: Christ Jesus is the great and, ultimately, the final work of God. Paul goes further to state that in the fullness of the times, God is going to sum up all things in Jesus Christ, both things that are in heaven and things that are on earth (Ephesians 1:10). He is the reality of which all else is the shadow. Christ is all and in all (Colossians 3:11).

Imagine a man coming onto the stage of Israel's history and saying without hesitation: I AM. That revered name that the people of Israel would not even mention or write was taken up by a poor, common laborer, a man they believed to be illegitimately born. Yet they hear Him teach with authority, they see the miraculous works He is able to perform, and they are aware of His flawless lifestyle. He has defied all their challenges, They can't figure Him out. He has just thwarted their attempts to trip Him up in the judgment of a woman caught in adultery. Instead He turned the judgment on them. The judgment was so penetrating, so thorough, that not one accuser remained standing there. He told the Jewish leaders: "I AM the Light of the World," and He had certainly turned the Divine spotlight on their hearts! He claimed to be able to lead them out of their darkness and enable them to walk fully in the light if they would simply follow Him.

The Pharisees are none too happy with the exposure His light has given them. They challenge Him. In this question-and-answer dialogue with the religious leaders, Jesus uses the name I AM twice. The first time He makes a very forthright statement: "If you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins" (John 8:24). It seems harsh and brazen, even arrogant . . . unless it is the truth.^[2]

They immediately respond with the question, "Who are you?" They pry and pester and harass Him some more, trying to get Him to say the "right" answer. But instead, Jesus says it again another way: "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM . . ." (John 8:28). Jesus goes on to say further that His words, if they adhere to them, will enable them to know the truth and that truth will set them free.

They respond with haughty indignation. “Wait just a minute! We're descendants of Abraham! We haven't been in bondage to anyone!” (John 8:33, my paraphrase). Really? A quick overview of Israel's history shows they had been in bondage numerous times, and they were currently under the oppressive rule of Rome. But Jesus didn't point to their historical inconsistency. He just tried to help them see their greater need, attempting again to lead them across the bridge from the earthly realm to the spiritual realm. They were in bondage to sin. And He alone could set them free. If only they would believe and follow Abraham as their spiritual father.

Using their reference to Abraham, Jesus confronts them head on, exposing their hearts. He wants them to see Abraham not merely as their physical ancestor but as a spiritual ancestor, the father of faith. If they truly were descendants of Abraham, they would receive Him and believe in Him—that's what Abraham would have done. Jesus then made the outlandish claim that anyone who keeps His word will never see death.

“Humph. Abraham is dead. Are you claiming to be greater than he? First He claimed to be greater than Moses; now He's claiming to be greater than Abraham! Who do You make Yourself out to be anyway? Surely He doesn't mean what He seems to be saying.” They accuse Him of being demon-possessed. He's crazy, they think, He’s not even 50 years old, and He’s claiming He has seen Abraham! (John 8:21-59, my paraphrase).

Then Jesus boldly proclaims, "Before Abraham was born, I AM." With this statement, He claims the sacred Name of the eternal God, professing to be the One who appeared to Moses in the burning bush who delivered the people of Israel from Egypt. He is the One they claim to be worshiping at the temple, around whom their lives were to revolve. He is the sovereign Lord of the universe. No wonder they took up stones to stone Him.

Jesus makes this I AM statement in the temple court, right after the Feast of Tabernacles, which usually occurs in October. Two chapters and two months later in John 10, He takes up this theme again, saying, "I and My Father are one" (John 10:30). We mustn't miss the context. As the realtors say, "Location, location, location!" He said this during the eight-day Festival of Hanukkah, also called the Feast of Dedication (John 10:22). Jesus purposefully gave this statement historical significance.

In that same temple court nearly two hundred years earlier, another man had walked there and announced that he was God. The event that gave birth to the celebration of Hanukkah happened in 167 B.C., during what is known as "The Silent Years," the four hundred years between Malachi and the birth of Christ. No prophetic word had come from God. And the people waited. They were still under foreign rule, but for the most part they had enjoyed political favor and religious freedom. However, in the middle of that time span, a vicious Grecian leader named Antiochus usurped the power over Israel. While he was away with his army attempting to extend his power into Egypt, the people of Israel, having heard that Antiochus had died, raised an army of one thousand men and ousted the Hellenistic priest whom Antiochus had appointed in their temple. Meanwhile in Egypt, Antiochus had been defeated and humiliated, but he was very much alive. When he returned and learned what the Jewish people had done, he unleashed his rage upon them. The books of the Maccabees reports it in this way:

When these happenings were reported to the king, he thought that Judea was in revolt. Raging like a wild animal, he set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm. He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants. In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery. — 2 Maccabees 5:11–14

Antiochus had no regard for the Jewish religion and sought to debase and defile it in every way he possibly could. He raised a statue of Zeus in the temple court and ordered the people to worship it. When they refused, He ransacked Jerusalem, and many more were slaughtered. Persecution of the Jews continued, as did the desecration of the temple. Antiochus sacrificed a pig, the epitome of uncleanness, on the altar at the temple and then declared himself to be God. He had the words Theos Epiphanes, "God Manifest," stamped on the coins bearing his image. Under these intense conditions, the Jewish people revolted led by Judas Maccabeus. Against extreme odds, having appealed to the favor of the true God, they triumphed over their enemies. Immediately after this victory, they began to cleanse the temple of all its desecrations and rededicate it to God. And so history has passed down to us the story of Hanukkah. When Maccabeus' men went to re-establish the lighting of the menorah in the temple, there was very little oil. The pure oil for the Holy Place within the temple took eight days to extract and refine. Though there was only enough oil for one day, the light continued to burn miraculously for eight full days until the new oil was ready. Thus Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication, was established.

In this context, with the Jewish leaders asking Him to tell them who He really is and to tell them plainly, Jesus says, "I and the Father are one." As before, it's no wonder they again took up stones to stone Him. He calmly asks them for which work He has done are they wanting to stone Him. They reply, not for any work, but for blasphemy, "because You, being a Man, make Yourself God." They understood fully what Jesus was claiming. Jesus points them to Scripture, which they did not understand, and to His works as proof that what He was saying was true.

Antiochus Epiphanes: a false claim of God manifest in the flesh. Jesus Christ: the true claim of God manifest in the flesh. You can see why it was hard for the leaders to accept this. It was the most audacious and ire-rousing statement He could have said at that annual event. Satan may have his counterfeits; but God has sent the True One, the true manifestation of Himself. This is why John says in his first letter that "every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God" (I John 4:2-3). We must believe that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. Paul says that without controversy the mystery of godliness is great: God was manifested in the flesh . . ." (I Timothy 3:16). Jesus is the great I AM. The invisible God who led the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt has made Himself visible to bring about a much greater deliverance from a far worse slavery.

When the officers and soldiers sent by the religious leaders come to the Garden of Gethsemane to arrest Jesus, He asks whom they are seeking. “They answered Him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I AM.’…Now when He said to them, ‘I AM,’ they drew back and fell to the ground” (John 18:3-6). Such a powerful Name! If the scene weren’t so deadly serious, it would be almost comical. After being knocked over by His words, how did they have the gall to scramble back to their feet and arrest Him? We see both the inherent power and the restraint of Christ as He willingly surrendered to them.

At Jesus' mock trial, the Jewish leaders are again trying to press Jesus to say what He said at the Feast of Dedication. Jesus has remained silent through all the accusations of their witnesses. Then the high priest asks Him directly: "Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?" And Jesus makes the one incontrovertible blasphemous statement that He knows will condemn Himself to death: "I AM." (Mark 14:61-63) "Are you then the Son of God?" they ask. "You rightly say that I AM," Jesus responded (Luke 22:70). This is the Truth. It seals His "fate"—or rather, it causes them to determine to do the very thing God had foreordained before the foundation of the world (I Peter 1:20).

In the Gospel of John, Jesus linked this sacred name of God with seven different metaphors to reveal various facets of His nature (also listed at the end). Each of the seven proclamations meets a deep spiritual need. Through Christ, God offers us this magnificent Name: I AM. It seems God has purposely left it incomplete, for He alone can fill the void within: I AM _____________. It is a very present, in-the-moment-of-need name. What is the need of your heart? With this name He reveals that He is sufficient and more than enough for all our needs, for all circumstances of life, for all time. That is the main point of this unique name of God.

Receive Him as the One who has come to meet every need of your heart. How He longs to reveal Himself to us in an ongoing way, here, now, and always. As One who is able to see the end from the beginning and all the ramifications in the middle, should we not run to Him with all our needs? Does He not know far better than we what we really need and what is the best decision in any given situation? Trust no longer in your own understanding. Come to Jesus the mighty deliverer, the great I AM.

Family Worship:

Conclude your family time: Discuss the two implications of the name I AM: 1) God is eternally present (see Psalm 46:1: “A very present help in trouble.”), living outside of time and seeing the end from the beginning; and 2) God is all that we need. I AM is an open-ended, continuously present tense sentence. We can ask God to fill in the blank with whatever our need is at the moment. Jesus filled in the blank 7 times in the book of John to show us that God wants to be for us all that we need. Discuss how Jesus is the answer for all our needs.

One of the ways the Bible says we can give to the Lord is by calling upon His name (Psalm 116:12-13). He invites us and wants us to call upon Him in the day of trouble (Psalm 50:15). Lift up in prayer your needs to God and thank Him for being the great I AM.

 Jesus Christ: The great I AM, the eternally existent, all-sufficient One from whom all things issue forth; the One whose Word and character never fails; the One in whom all history will find its fulfillment.

Other Names Coupled with YHWH in the Old Testament:

YHWH Nissi: I AM your Banner (Exodus 17:15)

YHWH Raah: I AM your Shepherd (Psalm 23:1)

YHWH Rapha: I AM your Healer (Exodus 15:26)

YHWH Shammah: I AM There (Ezekiel 48:35)

YHWH Tsidkenu: I AM your Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6, 33:16)

YHWH Mekoddishkem: I AM your Sanctifier (Exodus 31:13, Leviticus 20:8)

YHWH Yireh: I AM your Provider (Genesis 22:14)

YHWH Shalom: I AM your Peace (Judges 6:24)

YHWH Saboath: I AM over Armies or Hosts (I Samuel 1:3)

I AM the Bread of LIfe (John 6:35,48, 51)

I AM the Light of the World (John 8:12; 9:5)

I AM the Door (John 10:9)

I AM the Good Shepherd (John 10:11, 14)

I AM the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25)

I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6)

I AM the True Vine (John 15:1, 5)

Other Related Scriptures:

Exodus 3:13-15: 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.'" Moreover God said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations."

Numbers 23:19-20: God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it go? Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.

Deuteronomy 4:35, 39: To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him. Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

Job 9:12: If He takes away, who can hinder Him? Who can say to Him, "What are You doing?"

Job 23:13-14: But He is unique, and who can make Him change? And whatever His soul desires, that He does. For He performs what is appointed for me, and many such things are with Him.

Job 42:2: I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.

Psalm 33:10-11: The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.

Psalm 135:6: Whatever the LORD pleases He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deep places.

Proverbs 19:21: There are many plans in a man's heart, nevertheless the LORD's counsel—that will stand.

Proverbs 21:30: There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against the LORD.

Isaiah 8:10: Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak the word, but it will not stand, for God is with us.

Isaiah 14:24, 27: The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, "Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand . . . For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?

Isaiah 26:3-4: You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, for in YAH, the LORD, is everlasting strength.

Isaiah 43:13: Indeed before the day was, I am He; and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?"

Isaiah 45:5-7: I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not know Me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there in none beside Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.

Isaiah 46:9-11: Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure."

Daniel 4:35: All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, "What have You done?"

Mark 14:60-64: And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, saying, "Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?" But He kept silent and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked Him, saying to Him, "Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" Jesus said, "I AM. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven." Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?" And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death.

John 8:23-24: And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I AM He, you will die in your sins." [The word He in italics is not in the Greek text.]

John 8:28: Then Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. [He—same as the verse above]

Acts 4:27-28: For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.

Romans 11:33-36: Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! "Or who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?" For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

Ephesians 1:11: In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.

Philippians 2:5-6: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God . . .

Colossians 3:11: . . . [T]here is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

Hebrews 13:8: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Revelation 1:4-8: John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. "I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

Revelation 4:8: The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"

Revelation 16:5: And I heard the angel of the waters saying: "You are righteous, O Lord, the One who is and who was and who is to be because You have judged these things."

^[1]Although this name of God was not revealed until the time of Moses, it is used extensively in Genesis, which is one of the main reasons Moses is believed to be the author of Genesis. The Jewish people so revered was this name and there was such fear of "taking His name in vain" that they eventually began to switch out the name YHWH for Adonai, which means Lord, Master, or Owner, as they were forbidden to pronounce or even to write the most holy name of YHWH. If the preceding or the following word was already Adonai (i.e., YHWH Adonai or Adonai YHWH) then Elohim was substituted for YHWH (i.e., Adonai YHWH = Lord GOD; YHWH Elohim = The LORD God). In most of our English Bibles, the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, "I AM," is translated LORD (all capital letters with a taller capital L) or GOD (all capitals with a larger G). Some English translations began to use the name Jehovah, the Anglicized version of YHWH with vowels put in. With these translations, much of the impact of this personal name of God given to Moses has been lost.

^[2] Our English Bibles say "If you do not believe that I am He . . ." but you'll notice that the word He is in italics which means that this word is not in the Greek text.