The Ancient Witnesses

66 • The Ancient Witnesses: A Journey to Discover Our Sacred Roots

our God is uncompassionate toward his creation, but that his eternal purpose and perspective can never be redirected or altered in any way by an outside force. Friends, consider the words of Malachi. Speaking for God, the prophet says For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed ” (Malachi 3:6). “Amen!” said the ancient witnesses in unison. Mentor continued, “It is one thing to acknowledge the attributes of God but quite another to know God personally. Was it not to Moses that God revealed his eternal nature personally by disclosing his covenant name, the lord ?” The witnesses nodded in agreement. “In Exodus, for example, we read of Moses’ response to God when he was commissioned to guide the Israelites out of Egypt.” Mentor read from a large Bible opened on the lectern. 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?’ 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’” (Exodus 3:13–14). “His name ‘I AM’ comes from the Hebrew verb meaning “to be,” said one of the witnesses. “Thank you, brother Jerome,” replied Mentor, “even God’s name reveals his nature as the source of all life.”