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name is associated. The Lord revealed Himself to Moses, as follows, at the time when
the great deliverance from Egypt was about to be accomplished:--
" `I AM THAT I AM' . . . . . this is My Name for the age. And this is My memorial
unto all generations" (Exod. 3: 14, 15).
This is one part of the threefold name Jehovah, and covers the age and all generations
to the time when the Lord shall put forth His great power and reign (Rev. 11: 17).
The reader who is acquainted with Newberry's Bible will remember that he translates
Exod. 3: 14 by: "I will be that I will be", but adds, "But as the so-called future or long
tense expresses not simply the future, but also and especially continuance, the force is: `I
continue to be, and will be, what I continue to be, and will be'." Rotherham translates the
passage by: "And God said unto Moses, I will become whatsoever I please", and devotes
a chapter in his introduction to the name Jehovah, which is well worth the reader's
attention. Regarding his translation of Exod. 3: 14, he says:--
"The name itself (JEHOVAH) signifies `He Who becometh', and the formula by
which that significance is sustained and which is rendered in the Authorized Version,
`I am that I am', expresses the sense, `I will become whatsoever I please', or, as more
exactly indicating the idiom involved, `I will become whatsoever I may become'. We
amplify the `may' and more freely suggest the natural latitude which the idiom claims,
by saying, `whatsoever I will, may, or can become'."
The sense of the formula given above is very simply and idiomatically obtained. The
formula itself is 'ehyeh, 'asher, 'ehyeh, in which it should be noted that the verb 'ehyeh
= "I will become", runs forward into a reduplication of itself: for it is that which
constitutes the idiom. We have many such idiomatic formulæ even in English: "I will
speak what I will speak", and the like. We have in the Old Testament at least three
examples in which the recognition of this simple idiom brings out an excellent sense.
I Sam. 23: 13 (A.V. and R.V), "And they went whithersoever they could go" (Heb.
"way yithhalleku ba'asher yithhallaku"). Freely: "And they wandered wheresoever they
could, would or might wander." So in II Sam. 15: 20 and in II Kings 8: 1 the same
idiom occurs.
If we remember that the words, "what I please", when used by God indicate the "good
pleasure of His will", then Exod. 3: 14 reveals that the name Jehovah stands for God in
relation to the ages and His redeemed people, coming necessarily into conflict with
Satan, and into contact with sin and death, and guaranteeing the complete success of the
purpose of the ages: "I will become whatsoever I purpose"--Jehovah.
"This God is our God."