Eugene Peterson tells us that I AM THAT I AM was God's answer to Moses' request for an identifying name. I AM THAT I AM - God's name for himself - told Moses that God was alive, present to him, and ready to enact salvation.
This God-revealing name, and the understandings that developed as it was used in prayer and obedience by the Hebrew people, marks the deconstruction of every kind and sort of impersonal, magical, manipulative, abstract, coercive way of understanding God.
Listening to and answering I AM THAT I AM placed the Hebrew people as participating witnesses in the grand historical drama of salvation that challenges and brings about the eventual dissolution of every counter way of life, the world principalities and powers against which Paul would later issue a call to arms in Ephesians 6 comprising "all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor" that Jesus refused to bargain for with the devil in Matthew 4.
Worshiping I AM THAT I AM developed into a way of life in Israel in which love defined relationships - all of them, no exceptions: God, neighbour, stranger, enemy, family. Serving and obeying I AM THAT I AM became an exploration in all the dimensions of freedom, freedom from sin and oppression and damnation.
This was true for Israel; it must become true for Africa and Africans as we, too, become eye witnesses to the miracle of our rebirth, and as the dark days of despair slowly begin to give way to our season of hope.
Amkeni ndugu zetu!
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