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Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am." Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple. (John 8:58-59)
In the context of all the discussion and claims about who had what father throughout this passage, this verse takes on more significance. Jesus had just mentioned that these men were not acting like Abraham whom they claimed as their father/ancestor. But then Jesus goes beyond everything they could imagine by describing Himself as One who lived before Abraham was even born.
In stating it in this way Jesus is eliminating any need to claim Abraham as His own father. If someone is living before another person is even born, that by default makes it impossible (at least in the human way we account for such things) for the latter to be the father of the former.
In addition, the name that Jesus uses for Himself as the one preexisting Abraham was the name God had shared with Moses hundreds of years after Abraham had lived. No one had known about this name, the I AM, previous to Moses. But it had since become one of the chief names ascribed to the highest being of the universe. This name was held in such high regard by the Jews of Jesus' day that they refused to even pronounce the name. In fact, years before this and just after the Jew's return from exile in Babylon, Jewish theologians had actually gone through the Scriptures and swapped out references to God that referred to Him as Elohim with the term Lord instead.
Sadly this decision has had the effect of changing dramatically the perceptions about God that people have had ever since then. The meaning of Elohim is a really plural term, one much more intimate and endearing very much like the intimate and loving picture of good parents from the perspective of the children. Replacing Elohim with Lord changed the idea of God from a perspective focused on love to a legal concept and more closely reflected the hierarchal system imposed to replace the family model of God's government.
When Jesus ascribed to Himself the greatest name revered by the Jews as belonging to only God, they recoiled with intense anger because they refused to accept Jesus' claims of divinity. The way Jesus related to people, especially to sinners, was so opposite of their opinions about God and their feelings toward sinners that they became incensed that Jesus would so undermine their whole system of religion based on their entrenched ideas about what God was like. They became so angry at Jesus' threat to their religion and their beliefs about God that they could no longer restrain their bitterness and rage and so took up stones to kill Him immediately.
Today nothing has really changed very much. Religion still purports dark views of God as an arbitrary, vindictive, condemning deity that is more bi-polar than consistently loving. Anyone who suggests that God is better than the accepted traditional views of God is treated with suspicion at best and everything is done to discredit and refute their ideas. When these 'heretical' teachings begin to infect too many people's hearts with a growing desire to know this loving, forgiving God better and the influence of the religious leaders starts to be undermined, they too react in rage and stop at nothing to protect their little empires and their carefully shielded churches from seeing the real truth about our heavenly Father.
When we come to really grasp the truth about God as revealed in the life and teachings of Jesus and allow that truth to transform us to reflect the attractions of God, we can be sure that we too will soon experience fierce opposition and persecution. The truth about God is never popular among staunch protectors of counterfeit systems firmly entrenched in religion.
But the real truth about God has within it a power that cannot be subverted or quenched by force or deception. Revelation 18 prophecies that a time is soon coming when the truth about God, the glory of the beauty of His true character, is going to flood the whole earth in spite of all His enemy's attempts to suppress it. I believe we are beginning to see the emergence of that event and will see this movement grow quickly as more and more people discover that they have been lied to by religion, that God is really far better than He has been presented by those claiming to represent Him.
When truth confronts deeply entrenched deceptive beliefs, conflict always results. Jesus faced this repeatedly throughout His life with various responses on His part. But in the end His representations of God cost Him His life. But even through all of the abuse heaped upon Him, His revelation of how God feels toward sinners only became more obvious.
God's secret strategy for eliminating the sin problem from the universe forever is to allow sin to fully develop and mature so that its deceptive nature and its self-destructive inherent qualities are fully exposed. In other words, He will allow sin to destroy itself permanently. He exposes the truth about violence and deception, force and fear by the light of opposite characteristics in those willing to allow God to live His life through them in the face of evil. When sinners begin to see the compassion and forgiveness and humility and kindness of God in contrast with their own character in such situations, they are exposed to the powerful drawing of the Spirit of God toward repentance. This is the secret weapon of God that will ultimately prevail against all the devices and deceptions of the enemy.
But at the same time as seen in this verse, there are times when God chooses to remove His earthly representatives from dangerous situations of this sort to allow them more time to further reveal His character to the world. Sometimes God's representatives surrender their lives to martyrdom and other times they are protected. But either way, if they live in close fellowship and trust with their heavenly Father He will use all circumstances to reveal more of His glory and maximize His attractions to draw even more into a saving relationship with Himself.
Jesus had indeed been close friends with Abraham and Abraham had grown very close to Jesus through the many experiences they had shared together. Jesus Himself had also shared with Moses the very name that these prejudiced Jews hallowed so much, the great I AM. This name still resonates powerfully in the hearts of those seeking to know God more deeply. Jesus has always been the one who has been the primary contact between heaven and earth, and that was heaven's plan as part of recapturing this planet from the control of the enemy. So when Jesus mentioned the fact that He and Abraham were good friends He was simply speaking the truth from His own experience.
Those who choose to believe what Jesus says about Himself will find light and fascinating insights in these revelations by Jesus; but those who resist and resent His claims will be scandalized by His claims and will feel compelled to fight against Him to silence His testimony, whether in person as these Jews did or against His representatives in these last days.
Father, I want to know You much more clearly, to have a believing heart to embrace every word and thought shared by Jesus to reveal Your heart to me. I also want You to do whatever it takes to prepare me and use me as one of Your channels, Your agents, Your representatives so that others can better see in person and up close glimpses of Your beauty and power and kindness. Keep showing me more of who You really are and keep drawing my heart into closer proximity to Your heart. Thank-you so much for these daily revelations of You that You so graciously provide in Your Word and by Your Spirit. I worship You because You are so good, so gracious, so amazing and attractive. Make my life a voice of praise to bring honor to Your name, Amen.
