Knowing I AM

I AM. 
LORD.
Your Bible most likely has this name written in all caps. It is God’s name that was to convey that He was a personal God with a personal name. He would be rescuing a people that were personally His with a personal purpose for Himself and them based on a personal promise He made with Abraham a long time before.

I AM. This same One has extended His hand to rescue us. He's the One we get to know.  

I AM was the One Rahab was grabbing onto for rescue as well. Why did she trust His hand? How did Rahab even know about Him? What did she know about Him? 

Numbers 14:13-14 tells us that stories were pouring out of Egypt about how God had rescued the Israelites. These stories had reached Jericho, where Rahab lived, and were powerful enough to make the city melt with fear. 

Not just rumor, but true story had it that "You, O LORD, are with these people and that You, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that Your cloud stays over them, and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night." 

Sometimes it's hard to think that words like cloud, pillar, and O LORD from Numbers fit into our own desire to live beyond our pasts. But consider the deeper truths Rahab believed as she reached out to grab onto I AM--the God…

Who is God. Whatever her experience with gods and worship in Jericho, and whatever her heart had wanted or wondered about gods, she was now certain of this one thing. I AM, this final, real name for the real true God told her He alone was God and He did these mighty deeds which she had heard about. She declared by faith that He was over everything, everywhere. (Josh. 2:11)

Who had a people He fought for.  The stories revealed that Israel was free. They were no longer slaves that belonged to masters; they belonged to a God Who fought for them to give them this new life. Rahab "belonged" for a moment to whoever purchased her body. I wonder if the reality of Israel’s freedom and a God Who fought for them gave her faith that she would no longer have to belong to someone for a moment, or for a price, because she could be free and truly belong to Him. I AM would fight for her, rescue her, and bring her into this new life.

Who could be known. He also was a God Who seemed to invite an intimate, personal knowing of Who He was. Moses had seen Him face to face. God had openly described Himself to Moses in Exodus 34:5-7a. 

Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. 

Stop here and really consider the truths He shared about Who He is and how He relates to us int he verse above. God was in a relationship with His people—intimately knowing, and being known—and she could experience that too!

Who never abandoned or left His people alone. Regardless of what they did, He was committed to being with them. He stayed over them and went before them in every step. As a woman who had men come and go in her life, who had been perpetually exposed, and daily consumed and abandoned, her experience with Him could be radically different.

Can you relate to Rahab?

  Do you long to really know God? 

Not just what others have said or dreamed up or made Him out to be?

    

Do you hunger for Him to be real and powerful 

and more than a human conjuring of what a god might be?

     

 Do you desire to be free, living a new life where you truly belong?

        

Do you wish someone would be present and stay?

          

Do you hold out hope that you could fully know Him 

and be known for all you really are: spirit, soul, and body?

           

 Do you ache to be covered and never abandoned or alone again?

Rahab, by hearing, knew LORD, I AM, was a God that did those things. Surely if God could deliver and save them from Egypt, I AM could do it for her.

He could.

She believed.

If you have never heard it, hear it now. I am telling you, God is your personal, rescuing, redeeming God with a purpose for you that fits into His greater story where His glory gets center stage. He is the answer to every one of your longings, desires, secret hopes, and aching hungers. He is that God, and you are that person. 

Will you believe? 

Just another seed of my faith,
Ginny