I remember the first time I read Exodus 3, verses 13 and 14. The text reads: 13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” It’s one of those verses that stop you and make you read it over again.
Charles John Ellicott was an English Christian theologian who died in 1905. In his commentary on Exodus 3:13-14, he writes this: It is generally assumed that this is given to Moses as the full name of God. But perhaps it is rather a deep and mysterious statement of His nature. “I am that which I am.” My nature, i.e., cannot be declared in words, cannot be conceived of by human thought. I exist in such sort that my whole inscrutable nature is implied in my existence. I exist, as nothing else does—necessarily, eternally, really. If I am to give myself a name expressive of my nature, so far as language can be, let me be called “I AM.”
I’m not nearly as eloquent as Charles Ellicott so my first thought about the name “I AM,” was how magnificent and humbling! If you read the blog I wrote about God being the Creator of life, it focused on man being created in God’s image and dealt with microscopic evidence. This blog will focus telescopically on God’s creation of the universe as detailed in the first chapter of Genesis, especially in verses 14-19. It’s day four in His creation and marks the creation of the moon, sun and other heavenly bodies. It takes someone called “I AM” to create stars, galaxies and a universe.
There is so much man has learned about the expanse of the universe and yet we have only learned a small fraction of what God created when He spoke it into existence (Genesis 1:3, Psalm 33:6 and 148:5, Hebrews 11:3). Science has learned, without a doubt, that “I AM” is a God of precision both on a microscopic and telescopic level. One example of the latter is the distance from Earth to the moon, 238,900 miles. If that distance was closer, the moon’s gravitational forces would cause extreme ocean tides and would flood much of the surface of the earth every day. If the distance was much further, the gravitational forces would be so minimal that the oceans would stagnate and have little or no tidal action. The result would be the end of life as we know it. The oceans contribute about half of the oxygen we breathe. Without that oxygen, virtually every living thing (e.g., fish, algae, plankton reefs) in the oceans and mankind could no longer live. So, God has precisely placed the Earth and its moon to sustain life on planet Earth. Psalm 19:1-2 states: 1The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.
“I AM” is big! God created our galaxy and that’s really big, but big is relative. Planet Earth and our moon and sun all reside in the Milky Way galaxy. When science describes the Milky Way galaxy, light years is the unit of measurement. One light year is the distance light travels at 186,000 miles every second. In one year light travels 5.88 trillion miles. Light can go around the Earth 7.5 times in one second. Our Milky Way galaxy is approximately 100,000 light years across and is composed of billions of stars. Look at a picture of the Milky Way galaxy and you can’t even see planet Earth. The way I think about that is to take a needle and make a tiny prick on the largest wall in your home. The needle prick is still too big to show the relative size of planet Earth in the Milky Way galaxy!
Our schools and news media are obsessed by manmade global warming. Can I ask you to consider this? As believers we agree that God is in control. Earth, which God formed, is a tiny spec in our galaxy and its climate is influenced by galactic forces whereon man has zero control. Our sun has a surface temperature of 10 million degrees and is 91-94.5 million miles from Earth depending on Earth’s orbit. Now factor in the temperature of the atmosphere at 5 miles above Earth where airplanes fly. It’s 60 F degrees below zero. Somehow the great “I AM” has precisely calculated those temperatures and distances so that mankind can exist. Our wonderful planet is where “I AM” chose to create man in His image and where He sent His Son. Would God in all His Creator magnificence allow mankind to destroy His creation? I emphatically say no!
Naturally we ask, just how many galaxies are in the “known” universe to which the answer is about 100 billion. That’s just how big “I AM’ is! To further emphasize that fact, the Hubble telescope, the most powerful man has made, cannot see all the galaxies God has created. Think about that. Hubble can’t see a galaxy that is thousands of light years in size! Isaiah 40:26 states: Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
We were created by “I AM” as was the universe. That’s how magnificent our God is. He alone is worthy of our praise. Psalm 145:3 says “Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable”. Psalm 90:1-4 states: 1LORD, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. 2Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3You turn people back to dust, saying, "Return to dust, you mortals." 4A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.
Thank you, God for your creation and for your mighty power and love that sustains all life. Thank you for sending your only Son, Jesus who came to Earth to set an example of perfection and died on the cross for my sins and the sins of the world. Thank you that He arose from the grave after three days, conquering sin and death so that we may have eternal life with You.
Additional reference material can be found at: The Fine Tuning of the Universe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE76nwimuT0 Louie Giglio: Our God is Indescribable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVsqCLyoU3o