“I am” is the God also of the dead Abraham-Isaac-Jacob!

Exodus 3:6-14

‘”I AM the God of your father — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob!…. I AM THAT I AM!…. Say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent Me to you!'”‘ Exodus 3:6-14.

After Job, Calvin says in his Institutes I:13:23 regarding the later time of Moses: “The Spirit belongs to the Father…. The primary Essence…is proper to…the Father…. Christ is God…. He differs from the Father…. The Father certainly cannot differ from the Son, unless He has something peculiar to Himself…. The whole entire Essence must therefore be common to the Father and the Son…. In respect of Essence, there is no distinction between Them…. No property can be more peculiar to God, than Essence. According to the words ‘I AM has sent me to you’ (Exodus 3:4).”

Commenting on Exodus 3:6, Calvin adds that the Lord had not set Moses’ “hopes in vain on the God whom Abraham and the other Patriarchs had worshipped.” For God “expressly asserts that His faithfulness still held good, by calling Himself ‘the God of your father.'”

God then told Moses: ‘I AM THAT I AM!’ (Exodus 3:14). Calvin comments: “The verb in the Hebrew, is in the future tense — ‘I will be what I will be!’…. It is of the same force as the present, except that it designates the perpetual duration of time…. God attributes to Himself alone divine glory, because He is Self-existent and therefore eternal — and..gives…existence to every creature…. He claims for Himself eternity, as peculiar to God alone…, so that our minds may be filled with admiration as often as His incomprehensible Essence is mentioned….. This one and only Being of God, absorbs all imaginable essences” or existences. “All things in Heaven and Earth derive at His will their essence or subsistence from One Who alone truly is.”

In Exodus 6:2-3, God said to Moses: ‘I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.’ Calvin comments: “It would be tedious to recount the various opinions as to the name ‘Jehovah’…. Without controversy, it is derived from the word haayaah or haavaah…. It is rightly said…to be the essential name of God…. Nothing is more peculiar to God than eternity. He is called ‘Jehovah’ because He has existence from Himself, and sustains all things by His secret Inspiration” or In-Spirit-ation. “Moses is awakened to activity, whilst God is setting before him a magnificent and singular means of showing forth His glory!”

‘I AM the God of your father — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ I AM the God of each one of your fathers — even Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. ‘Before Abraham was, I AM!’ (John 8:58).

‘I will be, that I will be!’ ‘I am He that is – the essential One.’ I AM ‘Him Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come’ (Revelation 1:4).

Do you know God thus? “I AM” is the Living God also of the dead Abraham-Isaac-Jacob! Is He also your God — both now, and when you die, and for all eternity?