Exodus 3:14 God is Involved WITH Us

I was told by my Romans professor, Dr. Ray Shelton, that a theologian's Bible automatically falls open to whatever page Romans 5:12 is on. But Dr. Shelton fixed that question for me (we are born spiritually "dead," because of which [the Greek ho, which is not translated!] we sin), so mine falls open to Exodus 3:14. There I wonder, "What could it--ehyeh asher ehyeh--possibly mean?" It certainly does not mean "I AM THAT I AM," though that given is the underlying premise of what it does say.

Let me cut to the chase: in Exodus 3:14 God is saying that He is involved with us, that His love is present and powerful to become manifest in us. Kind of an odd message to send to your chosen, laboring slaves. But Israel is an everyman. Their four hundred years (tau) simply means we shall be completely enslaved when this happens to us. Recognizing that you are completely enslaved in spiritual death and its resultant ignorance is the start. THEN God says His name, which is/reflects His innermost nature: ehyeh asher ehyeh. Now comes the puzzle--what does this mean?

We recently (1956, Shelomo Dov Goitein) discovered that these words spoken to Moses by God were probably in the proto-Arabic language of the Midianites, and meant not that God self-exists, but relate God to “love, affection, passion, desire.” Sounds more like the commandment in Genesis 1:28, to multiply and increase to replenish the earth, which is to be the image of God. Ehyeh asher ehyeh in Arabic carries on with the theme: "I am involved with it." This picture is conveyed in and explains the Aramaic version of the passage, Ahiyeh Ashur hiyeh (Victor Alexander, Exodus: Translated from the Ancient Aramaic Scriptures). Being Love Itself, the Impassioned One, God absolutely, well, here are Alexander's footnotes: Ahiyeh": "the One Who Comes in His Coming," the absolute sense of "the One Who Comes." (2) "Ashur": "the Beginning Spark that kindles the Fire" or "the Light." (3) "Hiyeh": "His Coming." (4) "Ahiyeh" and "hiyeh" are related forms of the same word. They mean more than "the Coming." They signify also the "Eternal Presence," "the Ever-Present," and the "Never Ceasing Intent of the Comer to Come." (5) In the same way, "Ashur" signifies "the Uncreated Creator who Creates Everything from Nothing." (6) Also, "Ashur" signifies: "Above-the-Flames."

This is a lot more than "I AM THAT I AM": the One Who Is loves us and is involved with us. The Hebrew word in all this is hayah (Strong's 1961), which embodies the idea of TRANSITION, of BECOMING. Hayah does not mean that something 'is', but that it MANIFESTLY is; i.e., it has become into a state of manifest reality. It is a real state which has become from another state. We see this is in Genesis 1:2 (see Bullinger's note in the Companion Bible), where "the earth was without form, and void; and darkness upon the face of the deep." The 'was' is hayah: the earth WASN'T without form, and void to begin with, but BECAME without form, and void. Same in Genesis 1:3, "Let there be light"; the 'be' is hayah: there wasn't light, and then light became manifest.

God is becoming because He loves, and He loves what He is becoming. He becomes BY loving what He assumes He is. He is the beginning spark that kindles the fire, the Light He is OVER ("Over the Flames" is the translation/ meaning of Elohim -Alexander). We are God in transition, His becoming--all one Thing, the manifestation of the No-thing, called to be Israel, "Eil's Prevailing."

God is real stuff! He demonstrates it--ask the invaders (demons/ ignorance) of ancient Egypt (earth). Or rather the Jews--the called-out-ones--who survived them, saved by the Light of Life (John 3:14). The Truth is that God, the Impassionate One, is involved with us, transitioning within us, becoming manifest as us. When He manifests, you know it.