Please notice how verses 10-15 is written in The Message Bible in Contemporary English because it clearly brings home a point that should remind us of exactly what God wants us to remember throughout all our generations forever, and how we need to think of Him, first and foremost.
Brethren, this translation of these 5 verses points to three things that must always be front and center in our very personal relationship with our Great God. The first two are absolutely guaranteed by the third!
The first, within verse 10, says “It’s time for you to go back.” This should help us consider that everything is being done in order and on God’s schedule as He moves all things to the end He has determined to create men perfectly in His image and likeness.
It is obvious to us that at this point in God’s 80-year preparation for the task Moses had been born to do, Moses was no longer the presumptuous deliverer of Israel from the Egyptians that He once considered himself to be. But now, as the Message Bible put it, with his pride deflated, his response to God was, "But why me? What makes you think that I could ever go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?"
How many of us are saying the same things as we sit here today among God’s elect? (We are going to follow up on this in a minute.) But it is God’s reply to the humble shepherd that is vital for us to take with us always. God’s simple reply was, "I'll be with you."
Here is another very simple statement of truth: God had told Moses, “It is time to go, on My time schedule, with everything you need. I will be with you.” Then He ends this, as the only One who could possibly guarantee the covenantal agreement that would be worked out through generations into eternity; the One who inhabits eternity, declaring the end from the beginning—“I AM!” Not only does He sign this order to Moses with His name, but He also tells us, “This has always been My name, and this is how I always will be known!”
Maybe you have considered the emphasis that I have placed over the course of the sermons leading up to and through the holy days on the name “I AM” a bit too much. But when we are told from God’s Word, “This is how I always will be known,” we really need to consider this, even though it literally borders beyond the edges of human comprehension.
God's very name, when He revealed Himself to Moses, was "GOD is!" God is not becoming. He is one. He is not becoming something else. God is pure being.
