‘Jesus said unto them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am”. Then took they up stones to cast at Him’
JOHN 8:58-
“Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law ... and came to the mountain
of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of
fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with
fire, and the bush was not consumed ... And when the LORD saw that he turned aside
to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush” -
There from the midst of the burning thorn bush, God reveals His Name to Moses -
That Name -
“The self-
The Eternal One who dwelt in the bush, would later reside within the tabernacle built by Moses. This tabernacle had an outer covering of badger skins. Centuries later, in condescending grace, the same ONE would come and dwell under the ‘badgers skins’ of ‘flesh and blood’, and for a brief few years would live with Adam’s fallen race, in the land given to the patriach Abraham
Few understood that Jesus was the eternal I AM, the very One who had revealed His Name to Moses at the burning bush, and when He said, “Before Abraham was I AM” , they believed it was outright blasphemy and they took up stones to stone Him to death
On the eve of His death, the Lord Jesus, as was His custom, went to the seclusion of the Garden of Gethsemane with its olive trees. It was here He was arrested. “Jesus says to them, I am [he] ... When therefore he said to them, I am [he], they went away backward and fell to the ground”
Even His captors, like a pack of wild dogs, must bow briefly and acknowledge the glory of His Name and Person
He allowed Himself in humiliation to be nailed to a cross by wicked, lawless men, and once more He would utter the two words “I AM”. However this time, according to the Messianic Psalm 22, in amazing grace, He would say “I AM a WORM”
In reality, we are the worms [Job 25:6], but such was His love for us, He was prepared to endure the sufferings of the cross to redeem us, and in so doing, in lowliness, become ‘a worm’!
Poems
