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Exodus chapter 3 & chapter 4 Another long passage but a valuable story Moses has run away from Egypt where he was treated as the son of the pharaoh (A whole story in itself) and spent time with his father in law, Jethro, tending sheep. The most important verse is when God speaks from the bush in chapter 3 verse 13 & 14 Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" The word I AM is related to the name of God, YHWH, rendered LORD, which is derived from the verb HAYAH, to be. It can also be translated as I AM WHO WAS or as I AM WHO WILL BE. Thus indicating an intelligence that is beyond time, which was present before anything else was made. In the Hindu Advaita Vedanta, Ramana Maharshi mentions that of all the definitions of God, "none is indeed so well put as the biblical statement “I am that I am”". He maintained that although Hindu scripture contains similar statements, the Mahavakyas, these are not as direct as Jehovah. Why is this important in Advent, well this name of God is only found twice in scripture once when God told it to Moses and by Christ in reference to himself. It may also be worth mentioning that the word Jesus is the English version of the name Joshua which in Hebrew was Yehoshua which literally means Yahweh saves. Or as it would have been said YHWH as they never included vowels which therefore means I AM .. so Jesus the Christ .. I AM the I AM who saves. .. I AM is God's most sacred and mysterious name. It was given to Moses to use temporarily but it was given to Jesus permanently after the Holy Spirit descended on him. We can see in the original Greek of the new testament (ego eimi) and the original Hebrew (YHWH) of the old testament I AM is used as a proper name. Man has a habit of using "I am .." to indicate importance of self, is it called asmita in the yoga sutras the biggest blockage to inner freedom. Only by the sacrifice of this self, by removing the ego of self can one become centred in God. This is Aham asmi in Sanskrit; Ego Eimi in Greek & YHWH in Hebrew. When Christ says I AM he means he and YHWH are one. He is the very self or Atman who is one with Yahweh, God or Brahman, as expressed in one of the great utterances in Manndukya Upanishad 2 and all through the accounts of Jesus life in the New Testament. When Moses uses the term I AM he was depending, by faith, on the very words of I AM to be true. For I AM to be with him totally replacing self and becoming at one with Moses' Atman.
Wow .. all from Moses and a burning bush.
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