It’s really interesting how conversations go sometimes.  What started out to be a light discussion can turn to a heated one.  Then the name calling begins.  Accusations can fly and before we know it we might be saying things we really don’t mean.  I’ve gotten into my fair share of those types of discussions as I’m sure we all have.  We don’t like being called something we’re not and we justifiably deny it.

            It can remind you of two little boys playing in the woods.  “Hey, it’s my turn to hide and you’ve got to find me!”  “No it’s not!  You just hid and I just found you!”  “Yeah but you cheated!  You didn’t cover your eyes and saw where I was going!”  “I did not!”  “Yes you did; you’re a liar!”  “I am not!”  There it is; the denial.  “I am not!”

            When the Pharisees and Jewish leaders confronted Jesus it wasn’t quite like this.  But they did their share of accusing.  They were good at it.  They even stooped to calling Jesus a “son of Beelzebub (which was like saying that He was the son of the devil).  Instead of flat denying it He proved to them that He wasn’t.

            But when the shoe was on the other foot the Jewish leaders got angry and fighting mad.  In John chapter 8 such a discussion took place.  Of course they were trying to get Jesus to say something they could use against Him.

            Jesus flatly told them that they were the children of the devil.  Of course what He meant by that was that their fruits were evil.  They had a form of religiosity but in reality they were just out for what they could get.  They enforced harsh rules and regulations on the people exacting taxes for the temple which they used to line their own pockets, all in the name of God.

            They argued that they were the children of Abraham.  Jesus told them that if they would keep His sayings that they would never see death.  Then they asked Him if he felt that He was greater than Abraham.  If He answered “Yes” it would be considered sacrilege.  His answer to them was that even Abraham rejoiced to see His day.  This grabbed their attention.  Here was a man barely over thirty and He claimed to know that Abraham rejoiced to see His day?  That’s when He said it.  It wasn’t an “I am not,” but He said, “Before Abraham was, I AM!”  There it is!

            God had identified Himself to Moses as the I AM - The one who would fulfill the promise not only to ancestors but to those alive right then and there.  Jesus now used the same name.  He was none other than God in the flesh – the Great I AM.

            He was becoming the fulfillment of all of God’s promises.  He was the predicted deliverer.  He was the redeemer not just of Israel but of all mankind.  Of course this so angered the Jewish leaders that they took up stones right then and there to stone Him to death.  Somehow, someway the Bible tells us that Jesus passed through their midst and went on His way.  I don’t know how He escaped.  It sort of reminds me of those cartoons when a mob would jump on a character and in the middle of all those arms, legs and dust the character slips out from underneath them.  He simply passed through their midst.

            But then again, I do know how He did it.  He did it because He is the I AM.  Nothing can happen that He doesn’t allow.  We don’t always know the reasons or the whys but He does.  Regardless what we go through today, no matter how bleak it may look for us, He is still the I AM and He wants to become that for you and me.  Let Him be your I AM.  He won’t say “I AM NOT,” but “I AM!”

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.?  Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.