A Post-Redemptive Season Afterthought
Since the beginning of March, the Jewish calendar has been full of redemptive celebrations. We began with Purim (Book of Esther) and culminated with Shavuot, the festival that marks the moment when the Heavenly Torah was brought to earth at Sinai (Exodus 20). In between these holidays, we remembered the Exodus from Egypt—Pesach (Passover) as well as marking two significant moments in modern-day sacred history, Israel’s Independence Day and Jerusalem Day.
One of the key lessons we can take away from this redemptive season is that God intervenes in human history to save His elected people from near physical annihilation while at the same time moving redemptive history closer to its apex. We are a generation living in a privileged season where we can directly demonstrate God’s existence and His hand in history—a reborn Israel with Jerusalem as its capital.
“One of the key lessons we can take away from this redemptive season is that God intervenes in human history to save His elected people from near physical annihilation while at the same time moving redemptive history closer to its apex.”
Our prophets envisioned the ingathering of Jewish exiles from the four corners of the world returning home and a remnant within the nations playing a part within these prophecies. It is truly easier to be a believer in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because there is a State of Israel with Jerusalem as its capital rather than a follower of the false ideologies of Richard Dawkins. No one can rationally explain the continued existence of the Jewish people and their return to Israel after 2,000 years of exile, along with an active remnant of the Christian world standing side by side with us. It is God and God alone!
Biblically speaking, there is a Hebrew phrase that constantly stands in the shadows of God acting in history—Ehyeh asher ehyeh (Exodus 3:14). Most translators translate this phrase as ‘I am who I am’ or ‘I am that I am’. These translations take their cue from the Vulgate (I am who am) or the Septuagint (I am He who exists) and assume that the entire three- word phrase is God’s name, and it is a self- definition of who He is: self–existent, with no dependence upon any other.
Delving into the intricacies of Hebrew grammar for ehyeh is beyond the scope of this article. It is safe to say that ehyeh can be translated in the present or future tense. Therefore, it is possible to translate the first ehyeh in Exodus 3:14 as God’s name ‘I will be’ and the phrase asher ehyeh as His commitment to Israel, ‘What I will be’.
This Hebrew phrase becomes a game changer. Not only does it create the idea of hope in the world by taking an entire nation from slavery to freedom in broad daylight, but it also means others witnessing this moment will need to decide to choose Him or not. At the time of the Exodus a ‘mixed multitude’ (Exodus 12:38) decided to anchor their destiny with God and walked out of Egypt in broad daylight alongside the biological descendants of Jacob.
The Ehyeh asher ehyeh phrase is more important than ever before. When Ehyeh asher ehyeh was first articulated by God, the Exodus was not yet manifested in the world. However, we are living in a time where Ehyeh asher ehyeh is in fulfilment, but the world is saturated in fleeting pagan values and brokenness. This has caused a veil for nations to see the miracle in front of them that true hope is in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Both Jews and Christians need to work together to help others to become the modern-day ‘mixed multitude’.
