WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:04.120 What if the most important sentence God ever spoke has 2 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:07.879 been sitting in your Bible your whole life, and you 3 00:00:07.960 --> 00:00:12.199 have been reading it completely wrong. Not wrong in a 4 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:17.960 small way, wrong in a way that changes everything. Exodus, 5 00:00:18.039 --> 00:00:23.640 chapter three, verse fourteen, Three words in Hebrew, Three words 6 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:28.120 that cracked open the entire cosmos. Pastors quote this verse 7 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:34.119 every Sunday. Scholars write about it, theologians debate it, but 8 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:36.920 almost no one has told you what those three words 9 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:41.880 actually mean in the original language, not the translation, the 10 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:46.600 real thing. Because when you see it, really see it, 11 00:00:47.560 --> 00:00:50.560 you will realize that God did not just tell Moses 12 00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:55.159 his name that day, He revealed the architecture of all existence. 13 00:00:55.880 --> 00:00:58.880 And here is what nobody is talking about. The name 14 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:03.000 God used was not a noun. If the name of 15 00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:07.400 God is not a noun, then what exactly is it? 16 00:01:07.959 --> 00:01:10.959 And why does that one grammatical detail make the entire 17 00:01:11.079 --> 00:01:15.879 universe look completely different? Stay with this because the answer 18 00:01:16.120 --> 00:01:20.159 is coming. Let us set the scene. Moses is not 19 00:01:20.359 --> 00:01:23.959 a young idealist standing on holy ground for the first time. 20 00:01:24.599 --> 00:01:27.920 He is a man who already failed. He tried to 21 00:01:27.959 --> 00:01:32.200 be a deliverer once and he killed someone. He ran, 22 00:01:33.079 --> 00:01:36.280 He hid in the desert for forty years, he married, 23 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:40.599 raised a family, tended sheep. He was done with Egypt, 24 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:44.560 he was done with Israel. He was done with himself. 25 00:01:45.319 --> 00:01:48.799 And then a bush caught fire and did not burn up. 26 00:01:49.439 --> 00:01:53.040 God speaks from that fire, tells Moses to go back 27 00:01:53.079 --> 00:01:56.680 to Egypt to face the most powerful ruler on earth, 28 00:01:57.159 --> 00:02:01.439 to demand the release of millions of slaves. And Moses 29 00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:07.640 asks a very reasonable question, he says, paraphrasing, who exactly 30 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:11.919 are you? Because when the Israelites ask me your name, 31 00:02:12.919 --> 00:02:16.560 what do I tell them? Now Here is where most 32 00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:20.400 Sunday School lessons completely gloss over the weight of that question. 33 00:02:21.479 --> 00:02:25.240 Moses was not asking for a label. He was asking 34 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:29.400 for a credential. In the ancient Near East, a name 35 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:34.159 was not just an identifier. It was a declaration of power, origin, 36 00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:38.319 and nature. When a deity gave you their name, you 37 00:02:38.439 --> 00:02:43.280 understood their domain, You understood their limits. Egypt had gods 38 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:46.879 of the Nile, gods of the Sun, gods of death, 39 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:51.919 each one defined by what they controlled, each one defined 40 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:56.759 by what they were not. Moses needed to know which 41 00:02:56.840 --> 00:03:00.840 category does this god fit into? And God Godd's answer 42 00:03:01.479 --> 00:03:04.960 so broke every category that existed. He said in the 43 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:11.240 Hebrew three words aeya asher eha pronounced a yeah, asher ahya. 44 00:03:11.879 --> 00:03:15.240 Your English Bible says I am who I am, or 45 00:03:15.319 --> 00:03:19.000 sometimes I am that I am, and most people read that, 46 00:03:20.039 --> 00:03:24.039 nod and move on. But here is what they do 47 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:29.280 not teach you in most churches. That word ehea is 48 00:03:29.319 --> 00:03:34.479 a verb. Specifically, it is the Hebrew verb haya pronounced 49 00:03:34.759 --> 00:03:39.680 ha yah, which means to be, to exist, to become, 50 00:03:40.199 --> 00:03:44.120 to happen, and it is conjugated in what Hebrew scholars 51 00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:48.759 call the imperfect tense. The imperfect tense in Hebrew does 52 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:53.599 not describe something completed. It describes something ongoing, something that 53 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:58.240 continues without interruption, something that is still happening. So when 54 00:03:58.280 --> 00:04:02.439 God says aya, he is not saying I was. He 55 00:04:02.520 --> 00:04:05.400 is not even just saying I am. He is saying 56 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:11.960 I am continuously actively perpetually being no beginning, no interruption, 57 00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:15.879 no end. And then he says it twice eh ya 58 00:04:16.120 --> 00:04:21.079 asher ehya. The word asher pronounced a shaer means who 59 00:04:21.480 --> 00:04:25.319 which or that. It is a relative pronoun connecting the 60 00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:30.240 two verbs. So the full construction is I am continuously 61 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:34.279 being that which I am continuously being. This is not 62 00:04:34.360 --> 00:04:37.680 a simple answer. This is God refusing to be defined 63 00:04:37.720 --> 00:04:41.399 by anything outside of himself. Every god in Egypt had 64 00:04:41.399 --> 00:04:45.680 a limit, a domain, a boundary, a story about how 65 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:52.040 they came to exist. This God has none. He just is. 66 00:04:53.079 --> 00:04:56.800 The name is a verb, not a noun. It is 67 00:04:56.839 --> 00:05:01.279 an action of pure, unending existence. But here is what 68 00:05:01.399 --> 00:05:04.360 we still have not answered. Why does that matter for 69 00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:08.160 you today? What changes when you realize the God you 70 00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:13.279 pray to is not a static being but an ongoing, active, 71 00:05:13.439 --> 00:05:17.879 self sustaining reality. And there is something deeper hiding in 72 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:23.199 this text, something that translators cannot fully capture, something that 73 00:05:23.240 --> 00:05:27.319 connects this desert moment to a scene over twelve hundred 74 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:30.879 years later when a man in Jerusalem said two words 75 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:35.160 and the crowd tried to kill him. What happened in 76 00:05:35.240 --> 00:05:39.480 Jerusalem over twelve hundred years later? What two words were 77 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:44.079 so dangerous that they triggered an attempted execution? And what 78 00:05:44.199 --> 00:05:47.680 does that have to do with Exodus three fourteen? That 79 00:05:47.879 --> 00:05:51.079 answer is coming, and it will change how you read 80 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:55.279 your entire New Testament if you are hungry for biblical truths. 81 00:05:55.639 --> 00:06:00.480 Most people overlook subscribe to this channel. We go deep 82 00:06:00.519 --> 00:06:04.240 into the Hebrew text every week. And what we find 83 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:08.360 changes everything. Let us now go all the way into 84 00:06:08.399 --> 00:06:12.279 the Hebrew, because this is where the ground starts shaking. 85 00:06:12.879 --> 00:06:17.439 The word ehere from the root hya pronounced ha yah 86 00:06:17.800 --> 00:06:22.439 Strong's reference H one teen sixty one. The Brown Driver brigs. 87 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:27.600 Hebrew lexicon defines haya as to be, to exist, to become, 88 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:32.439 to come, to pass, to happen, to occur. Notice that 89 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:37.240 last cluster, to become, to come to pass, to happen. 90 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:41.439 This is not merely static existence. This is existence that 91 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:47.160 is always occurring, always unfolding, always alive. Now Here is 92 00:06:47.160 --> 00:06:50.920 something most people never see. In Exodus three to three, 93 00:06:52.279 --> 00:06:56.519 toutre twit toyer set praetri don twellum. Just two verses 94 00:06:56.560 --> 00:07:01.519 before God names himself, he says to Moses in Hebrew 95 00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:07.000 key eha imach pronounced key eya emach. It means for 96 00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:10.319 I will be with you, the same word ehya, the 97 00:07:10.360 --> 00:07:14.319 same verb. God is not giving Moses two separate statements. 98 00:07:14.639 --> 00:07:20.240 He is giving Moses one unified declaration. I Am is 99 00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:23.079 the one who will be with you. The name and 100 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:26.560 the promise are the same word. Think about what that means. 101 00:07:26.839 --> 00:07:30.959 When God says his name is i Am. He is 102 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:35.120 not giving Moses a theological category. He is giving Moses 103 00:07:35.160 --> 00:07:41.079 a companion. He is saying, the infinite, uncontained, self existing 104 00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:45.519 being is also the one who walks next to you. 105 00:07:46.439 --> 00:07:50.040 That is the first shock of this text. But there 106 00:07:50.120 --> 00:07:55.720 is a second one. In Exodus three to fifteen, immediately 107 00:07:55.800 --> 00:08:02.519 after naming himself, Ahead says tell them yi each Jabu 108 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:06.800 has sent you yi ech jewe. The four Hebrew letters 109 00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:12.959 yad he vav he what scholars call the tetragrammaton, the 110 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:17.000 sacred name that ancient Israelites considered too holy to speak aloud. 111 00:08:17.639 --> 00:08:21.399 Most English Bibles render it as Lord in capital letters, 112 00:08:21.680 --> 00:08:25.600 which is a translation choice, not a translation of the 113 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:30.120 word itself. Here is what those four letters actually encode. 114 00:08:30.360 --> 00:08:33.879 Behch is the third person form of the same verb haya, 115 00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:39.279 where eha means I am continuously being waiwa means he 116 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:44.440 is continuously being. God speaks of himself as Ehea. His 117 00:08:44.559 --> 00:08:48.519 people speak of him as yyh. Same verb, same root, 118 00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:55.120 first person and third person, same eternal, ongoing, uninterrupted existence. 119 00:08:55.960 --> 00:08:59.879 The name God uses for himself and the name his 120 00:09:00.159 --> 00:09:04.279 people use for him are two grammatical faces of the 121 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:09.279 same infinite verb. Have you ever noticed that before? Now 122 00:09:09.639 --> 00:09:13.240 here is where this becomes almost impossible to fully absorb. 123 00:09:14.200 --> 00:09:17.279 In the ancient world, to name something was to have 124 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:21.240 authority over it. When Adam named the animals in Genesis, 125 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:26.000 he was exercising dominion. When God renamed Abram to Abraham, 126 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:31.679 Jacob to Israel snake, he was reshaping their identity and destiny. 127 00:09:32.360 --> 00:09:36.720 A name was power. But when Moses asks for God's name, 128 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:41.000 God does not give him a noun. He gives him 129 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:44.240 a verb that cannot be completed. He gives him an 130 00:09:44.279 --> 00:09:47.799 action that never stops. He gives him a name that 131 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:52.799 cannot be contained in any human category. The theologian R. C. 132 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:57.960 Sproul called this the aciti of God from the Latin 133 00:09:58.440 --> 00:10:02.879 a sea, meaning from himself. God does not derive his 134 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:08.360 existence from anything outside himself. He is not caused, He 135 00:10:08.440 --> 00:10:13.279 is not contingent. He does not depend on time, space, energy, 136 00:10:13.559 --> 00:10:18.720 or thought to exist. He simply is, and he is 137 00:10:18.840 --> 00:10:23.320 that way without interruption. Now Here is the moment that 138 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:27.360 changes how you read your entire Bible. The verb hyah 139 00:10:27.679 --> 00:10:31.159 is in the imperfect tense. The imperfect is open ended. 140 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:35.559 It is an action in process. It is reality still unfolding, 141 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:40.519 which means when God says Ehea ashure Ehya. He is 142 00:10:40.600 --> 00:10:45.559 not describing a state. He is describing emotion, an eternal motion. 143 00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:49.639 God is not a mountain. God is not a throne. 144 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:53.759 God is not a fixed point in the universe. God 145 00:10:53.840 --> 00:10:59.600 is the act of existing made personal. Aw Tozer wrote 146 00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:02.600 in the Knowledge of the Holy that this name is 147 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:07.360 the most absolute declaration of divinity that could be imagined, 148 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:13.919 because anything that truly exists exists because of him. He 149 00:11:14.039 --> 00:11:17.240 is not one being among many. He is the reason 150 00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:20.759 being is possible at all. And here is what falls 151 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:24.799 out of this. Linguistically, every other being in existence can 152 00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:29.879 only say I exist because something gave me existence. God 153 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:35.039 alone can say I exist because I am existence. Isaiah 154 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:38.600 forty three ten says before me, no God was formed, 155 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:43.360 nor shall there be any after me. Isaiah forty three thirteen. Yes, 156 00:11:43.720 --> 00:11:47.879 and from ancient days I am He. Revelation one eight, 157 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:51.080 I am the Alpha, and the Omega says the Lord God, 158 00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:53.519 who is and who was and who is to come. 159 00:11:54.039 --> 00:11:57.960 Each one of those texts is an echo of Ehea. 160 00:11:58.159 --> 00:12:00.559 Each one of them says, I am the verb that 161 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:05.080 never ends. Now we are getting close the verb the 162 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:10.360 tetragrammaton the imperfect tense They all point to a God 163 00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:14.240 who cannot be defined from outside. But we still have 164 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:18.559 not answered the most dangerous question, what happened when someone 165 00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:23.039 in Jerusalem used this same phrase? Why did it trigger 166 00:12:23.080 --> 00:12:26.759 a riot that nearly ended in execution. There is a 167 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:30.120 moment in the Gospel of John, chapter eight, verse fifty 168 00:12:30.159 --> 00:12:34.559 eight want Pontkuir, where the entire confrontation between Jesus and 169 00:12:34.600 --> 00:12:38.840 the Pharisees arrives at its most explosive point. He uses 170 00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:42.320 two words, two words that every single person in that 171 00:12:42.440 --> 00:12:48.240 crowd recognized immediately, and the reason they recognize them is 172 00:12:48.279 --> 00:12:52.639 Exodus three fourteen. But there is something in that moment, 173 00:12:52.919 --> 00:12:57.720 nobody talks about, something that reveals not just who Jesus 174 00:12:57.759 --> 00:13:01.240 claimed to be, but what he is doing right now. 175 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:05.679 What is he actively doing in this moment with that name. 176 00:13:06.519 --> 00:13:08.720 The answer is in the next part of this study. 177 00:13:09.159 --> 00:13:12.679 Let us go to Jerusalem. It is the feast of Tabernacles. 178 00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:17.039 The temple courts are crowded. Jesus is teaching, and the 179 00:13:17.039 --> 00:13:21.440 Pharisees are pressing him, trying to trap him, trying to 180 00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:26.240 discredit him. They bring up Abraham. They say, you are 181 00:13:26.279 --> 00:13:30.279 not even fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham. 182 00:13:30.519 --> 00:13:34.480 They are mocking him. They are using history to shrink him. 183 00:13:34.559 --> 00:13:38.480 And Jesus answers with five words, five words in Greek, 184 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:44.159 which in English read before Abraham was I Am? In 185 00:13:44.200 --> 00:13:49.480 the Greek text, that phrase is ego amy pronounced eh 186 00:13:49.600 --> 00:13:53.279 go a y me, a deliberate echo of the septuagen 187 00:13:53.440 --> 00:13:57.840 language of Ahia, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. 188 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:02.360 Every person in that crowd knew instantly, not just the Pharisees. 189 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:06.559 Every Jewish person present would have recognized those two words. 190 00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:10.440 Jesus was not just making a temporal claim. He was 191 00:14:10.519 --> 00:14:14.879 not just saying I existed before Abraham. He was using 192 00:14:14.919 --> 00:14:19.279 the covenant name, the burning bush name, the name no 193 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:24.000 one was supposed to casually utter, and the crowd picked 194 00:14:24.080 --> 00:14:29.440 up stones to kill him. John eight fifty eight to 195 00:14:29.519 --> 00:14:34.000 fifty nine. That is not an overreaction in their minds. 196 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:38.200 It was the appropriate response to blasphemy, because only God 197 00:14:39.240 --> 00:14:42.960 is I am, and this man from Galilee just claimed 198 00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:46.840 to be exactly that. Now stay with me, because this 199 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:50.559 is where it becomes about you. John does not use 200 00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:56.320 ego amy carelessly. Across the Gospel of John, there are 201 00:14:56.360 --> 00:14:59.879 seven places where Jesus uses this phrase with a predicate. 202 00:15:00.279 --> 00:15:02.639 I am the Bread of life. I am the Light 203 00:15:02.679 --> 00:15:05.759 of the world. I am the Door. I am the 204 00:15:05.799 --> 00:15:09.720 good Shepherd. I am the Resurrection and the Life. I 205 00:15:09.720 --> 00:15:13.720 am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I am 206 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:19.759 the True Vine. Seven declarations. In Jewish symbolism, seven is 207 00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:23.879 the number of completion of wholeness, each one answering a 208 00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:28.200 specific human need. And here is what that means for you. 209 00:15:28.720 --> 00:15:32.000 In whatever you are facing right now. If you are 210 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:36.919 spiritually empty, the i Am says I am the Bread. 211 00:15:37.559 --> 00:15:42.759 If you are in darkness, confusion, depression, or lostness, the 212 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:46.159 i Am says, I am the light. If you cannot 213 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:50.440 find the way forward, the i Am says, I am 214 00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:55.360 the way. If you are terrified of death, loss, or endings, 215 00:15:56.279 --> 00:16:00.399 the i Am says, I am the Resurrection. Do you 216 00:16:00.559 --> 00:16:03.840 see what is happening? The God who revealed himself to 217 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:08.159 Moses in a desert, in a burning bush, The God 218 00:16:08.200 --> 00:16:12.080 whose name is a verb that never stops. The God 219 00:16:12.120 --> 00:16:17.200 who cannot be defined by anything outside himself. He is 220 00:16:17.279 --> 00:16:23.159 not a distant philosophical concept. He is actively, presently, continuously 221 00:16:23.480 --> 00:16:27.000 filling the exact shape of your need. And here is 222 00:16:27.039 --> 00:16:29.759 where I need to ask you a hard question. Because 223 00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:33.480 Exodus three fourteen does not only reveal who God is, 224 00:16:34.120 --> 00:16:38.320 it exposes something about who we are a w Tozer 225 00:16:38.399 --> 00:16:41.960 made an observation that is difficult to shake. He pointed 226 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:48.240 out that Lucifer's original sin in Isaiah fourteen thirteen was 227 00:16:48.279 --> 00:16:51.879 to say, I will make myself like the most high. 228 00:16:52.279 --> 00:16:57.840 I will ascend, I will be. In other words, the 229 00:16:57.879 --> 00:17:01.759 first rebellion in the universe was a creature trying to 230 00:17:01.799 --> 00:17:07.039 claim the I Am for itself, and Tozer argued that 231 00:17:07.079 --> 00:17:11.240 this is the root of every human sin. Every time 232 00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:13.839 we live as if we are the center of our 233 00:17:13.880 --> 00:17:18.119 own existence, every time we act as if our will 234 00:17:18.200 --> 00:17:22.519 is sovereign, every time we say, in effect, I am 235 00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:26.720 the one who decides, we are unconsciously re enacting the 236 00:17:26.759 --> 00:17:31.359 fall of Lucifer. The I Am belongs to God alone. 237 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:36.400 Human beings are not we become. We exist because He 238 00:17:36.440 --> 00:17:40.920 holds us in existence. Acts seventeen twenty eight says in 239 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:43.920 him we live and move and have our being, not 240 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:48.799 next to him, not alongside him. In him, you are 241 00:17:48.839 --> 00:17:51.359 not the I Am. You are the I Am because 242 00:17:51.400 --> 00:17:56.359 he is, and that distinction changes everything about how you 243 00:17:56.400 --> 00:18:00.680 approach prayer, about how you approach suffering, about how you 244 00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:04.799 approach the moments when life falls apart. Because if God 245 00:18:04.920 --> 00:18:09.640 is the continuous, uninterrupted act of existing, and you are 246 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:14.119 sustained within that existence, then nothing can happen to you 247 00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:19.720 that is outside of Him. Not one moment, not one crisis, 248 00:18:20.559 --> 00:18:27.160 not one diagnosis, not one broken relationship, not one prodigal child, 249 00:18:28.119 --> 00:18:33.200 not one financial collapse. All of it sits inside the 250 00:18:33.359 --> 00:18:38.079 I Am. We now understand the verb, the tetragrammaton, the 251 00:18:38.119 --> 00:18:42.480 seven Declarations of Jesus, We understand the radical claim of 252 00:18:42.519 --> 00:18:46.960 Exodus three fourteen. But there is still one final piece 253 00:18:47.039 --> 00:18:51.119 that locks everything together, something hidden in the structure of 254 00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:55.759 the Hebrew text itself, something that most scholars notice, but 255 00:18:55.880 --> 00:19:00.480 few teachers ever explain, something that reveals not just who 256 00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:03.480 God is, but what He has been doing since the 257 00:19:03.559 --> 00:19:07.000 moment Moses stood at that bush, and what He is 258 00:19:07.079 --> 00:19:12.079 doing right now for you. The structure of Ehea asher 259 00:19:12.799 --> 00:19:17.079 Ehea is not random. The doubling of the verb, the 260 00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:22.359 refusal to define, the grammatical choice of the imperfect, these 261 00:19:22.359 --> 00:19:27.240 are not accidents of language. They are a deliberate theological architecture, 262 00:19:27.640 --> 00:19:31.000 and buried inside that architecture, is an answer to the 263 00:19:31.039 --> 00:19:36.119 one question that haunts every believer, every person who has 264 00:19:36.200 --> 00:19:40.839 ever prayed and felt nothing, every person who has ever 265 00:19:40.920 --> 00:19:45.319 cried out and heard silence. The question is not whether 266 00:19:45.400 --> 00:19:49.680 God exists. The question is where is He when I 267 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:53.319 cannot feel him? And the answer has been sitting in 268 00:19:53.400 --> 00:19:57.599 three Hebrew words since the day Moses stood barefoot on 269 00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:02.680 holy ground. Ah yea asher ahea. Let us look at 270 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:06.599 the structure one final time, because there is something in 271 00:20:06.599 --> 00:20:11.119 the grammar that answers everything. The verb ahea is in 272 00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:17.440 the imperfect tense. We established that continuous action, ongoing existence 273 00:20:18.039 --> 00:20:22.720 never completed. But here is what most teachers miss. The 274 00:20:22.799 --> 00:20:26.079 imperfect tense in Hebrew is also used for something called 275 00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:33.880 the cohortative mood. The cohortative from the Latin cohortari expresses intention, determination, 276 00:20:34.680 --> 00:20:38.599 or a commitment to act. It is not passive, it 277 00:20:38.680 --> 00:20:42.240 is volitional. It is a verb form that says I 278 00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:49.079 will actively, purposefully, persistently be this. Scholars like Walter Kaiser 279 00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:53.759 read this context as carrying that covenantal intention, not merely 280 00:20:53.799 --> 00:20:57.240 describing what God is, but committing to what He will 281 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:01.839 be for you. So when God says eheah, he is 282 00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:05.119 not just describing his nature. He is making a commitment. 283 00:21:05.559 --> 00:21:10.680 He is saying, I will be actively purposefully for you. 284 00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:15.960 Remember Exodus three twelve, he ehja imach for I will 285 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:19.559 be with you the same verb. God is not separating 286 00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:24.240 his nature from his presence. His nature is his presence. Now, 287 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:29.519 the question that has been haunting this entire video, what 288 00:21:29.680 --> 00:21:33.440 about the silence? What about the moments when you prayed 289 00:21:34.880 --> 00:21:38.759 and the heavens felt like iron. What about the seasons 290 00:21:38.799 --> 00:21:43.960 when you knew the doctrines, believe the theology, and still 291 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:48.680 felt abandoned. Here is what Exodus thre like You three 292 00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:52.680 fourteen says about that. God does not say I am 293 00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:56.559 sometimes here. God does not say I am here when 294 00:21:56.599 --> 00:22:00.200 your faith is strong enough. God does not say I 295 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:04.680 am present when your circumstances confirm it. He says I 296 00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:12.160 am imperfect, continuous, uninterrupted, regardless of what you feel. The 297 00:22:12.200 --> 00:22:16.519 burning bush was not burning because Moses felt spiritual. It 298 00:22:16.599 --> 00:22:21.319 was burning because God was there. Moses's feelings did not 299 00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:26.279 create the fire. The fire was already there long before 300 00:22:26.319 --> 00:22:29.599 Moses looked up. John Piper made a point that belongs 301 00:22:29.640 --> 00:22:32.960 at the center of Christian teaching. He said that God's 302 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:37.759 independence and self sufficiency mean he never acts out of need. 303 00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:42.279 He never reaches out because he is lonely. He never 304 00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:46.880 saves because he needs worshippers. He never draws near because 305 00:22:46.920 --> 00:22:50.839 he needs your love to sustain him. He acts entirely 306 00:22:50.880 --> 00:22:54.480 out of who he is, out of the infinite fullness 307 00:22:54.519 --> 00:22:57.839 of I Am, which means when he says I will 308 00:22:57.880 --> 00:23:02.519 be with you, it is not a conditional promise. It 309 00:23:02.640 --> 00:23:05.960 is the overflow of his nature. He cannot not be 310 00:23:06.039 --> 00:23:10.880 present because he is existence itself, and here is the 311 00:23:10.880 --> 00:23:15.640 final architecture of everything we have built today. Moses asked 312 00:23:15.680 --> 00:23:19.920 who God was. God answered with a verb. The verb 313 00:23:20.039 --> 00:23:26.240 encoded continuous, uninterrupted, self originating existence. That same verb became 314 00:23:26.680 --> 00:23:32.559 the tetragrammaton the Covenant name. That Covenant name echoed through 315 00:23:32.599 --> 00:23:39.319 every prophet, every psalm, every lament. It reached its fullest 316 00:23:39.319 --> 00:23:42.359 expression when a man in Jerusalem stood in the temple 317 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:47.000 and said ego amy before a crowd that wanted to 318 00:23:47.079 --> 00:23:53.400 kill him for it. And then that same man was crucified, died, 319 00:23:53.920 --> 00:23:57.799 and three days later proved that the I Am cannot 320 00:23:57.839 --> 00:24:03.279 be stopped, cannot be silenced, cannot be ended. The resurrection 321 00:24:03.440 --> 00:24:05.920 is not just a miracle. It is the i Am 322 00:24:06.079 --> 00:24:10.319 of Exodus three fourteen, refusing the verb to die. And 323 00:24:10.400 --> 00:24:13.960 here is where it lands for you. Romans eight thirty 324 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:18.160 eight and thirty nine says, neither death nor life, neither 325 00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:24.000 angels nor principalities, neither things present nor things to come, 326 00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:28.839 nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation 327 00:24:30.039 --> 00:24:32.599 will be able to separate us from the love of God. 328 00:24:33.519 --> 00:24:37.480 That is not a comforting thought. It is a grammatical statement, 329 00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:42.519 because the God who is I Am cannot be removed 330 00:24:42.519 --> 00:24:46.440 from your situation. He is more present in your hardest 331 00:24:46.440 --> 00:24:49.200 moment than the walls of the room you are sitting in. 332 00:24:50.119 --> 00:24:54.920 The question was never is God here? The question was 333 00:24:54.960 --> 00:24:57.799 always will I open my eyes to the bush that 334 00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:01.640 is already burning? The silence you have felt in prayer, 335 00:25:02.759 --> 00:25:07.079 the seasons when God seemed absent were not evidence that 336 00:25:07.160 --> 00:25:10.799 he had left. They were invitations to understand that the 337 00:25:10.920 --> 00:25:15.480 I Am is not dependent on your emotional weather. He 338 00:25:15.720 --> 00:25:23.160 is continuously actively for you, and that has been true 339 00:25:23.240 --> 00:25:26.640 since before the universe had a name. What you just 340 00:25:26.799 --> 00:25:30.559 encountered is not a theology lecture. It is a burning 341 00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:36.000 bush moment. Take it seriously. If this changed how you 342 00:25:36.039 --> 00:25:40.880 see scripture share it. Someone in your life needs to 343 00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:43.599 hear this. And if you want to go this deep 344 00:25:43.640 --> 00:25:48.079 into the Hebrew text every single week, hit subscribe now. 345 00:25:48.640 --> 00:25:52.640 This channel exists for people who are done with shallow Christianity, 346 00:25:53.559 --> 00:25:57.799 people who want to stand barefoot on the ground where 347 00:25:57.839 --> 00:25:58.599 God speaks.