No wonder he shrank back saying――“Who am I that I should do this”? God replied: “I will certainly be with thee”――a sufficient answer to any amount of conscious weakness and faintness of heart. The Lord added――“This shall be a token to thee that I have sent thee; when thou hast brought the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve [_i. e._ worship] God in this mountain.” From that moment this token was God’s pledge to Moses of success in bringing the people forth from Egypt; and when it was fulfilled in the scenes of national worship and consecration on Horeb, it became doubly a sign to all the people that the Lord their God was in this great movement. Moses anticipates that the people will ask for the name of God, and he therefore inquires――What shall I answer them? To which the Lord replies: “_I am that I am_”; and then abbreviating the phrase, adds, “Thus shalt thou say to Israel, _I am_ hath sent me to you.” What immediately follows should be carefully noted. God said moreover to Moses (still reiterating the same thought though in other and more familiar terms): “Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: The Lord――_i. e._ Jehovah, God of your fathers, hath sent me unto you; this is my name forever and this is my memorial through all generations.” This v. 15 is without doubt the key to the true sense of the names as previously given――“_I am that I am_,” and in briefer form, “_I am_.” Their true meaning is in the name _Jehovah_. This name contemplates God as evermore existing, the same unchangeable God, and therefore ever faithful to his promises. This view of God assumes that he reveals himself personally as the God of his trustful people, entering into covenant with them and never failing to remember and fulfill that covenant. In order to see the full force and pertinence of the passage, it should be considered that by common Hebrew usage, the names of persons were significant. They were words with a meaning. This is true of all the names by which the true God is made known. And when Moses suggests that the people will ask for God’s name, it is not implied that they had never heard any name for God and did not know what to call him; but this――They would know what new or special feature of his character was to be manifested then. Their question was equivalent to asking――What does God propose to do now? What new movement does he contemplate? What new development of God may we expect?――――To the question so understood, the Lord made a direct answer:――I have come to reveal my eternal faithfulness to my covenant with your fathers. I pledged myself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that I would bring their posterity into the goodly land of Canaan: I have come down to fulfill that word and to put into your national history an enduring testimony that my name is truly, “I am that I am”――the immutable and eternal God, whose word of promise faileth not forevermore.