“So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” Jesus did and said some super uncomfortable things. The day prior to the attempted stoning “he would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him”, his own family encouraged him to chill out “for not even his brothers believed in him” and his strange teachings were getting around and “the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him”.

What did he say that made the Jewish people decide for themselves, yeah, we should probably throw rocks at this guy until he’s dead. Let’s go to Exodus 3:13 where Moses was knee-deep in excuses telling the God of the Universe how he just wasn’t the right guy to lead the Israelites our of Egypt.

13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

I love that this Bible translation capitalized “I AM”. It makes me feel like God YELLED IT at Moses. (It’s not all caps because he was yelling, the Jewish people had special names for God, the capitalization denotes this was one of them) Who are you God? I AM. So simple and so powerful. When we pray to our Father in Heaven, remember that he is good, respected, honored, and he IS. Revelation 1:8 says that he is and was and is to come. Talk to your Father in Heaven. Your Father loves you and wants to hear what you need, what you’re thinking about, and everything about you. And when you have tough times, remember that HE IS.

P.S. Back to Jesus. The Jewish people asked him why he said that he had seen Abraham. His response: “Truly, truly, I say to you before Abraham was, I am. So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”