Who is he; who am I
Moses said to God:
Here I come to the children of Israel, and say to them: The God of your fathers has sent me to you. If they ask me: What is his name?, what shall I answer them?
“And God said to Moses: I AM WHO I AM. And He said: Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:13-14)
“This one will say: I am of Jehovah; the other will be named after Jacob, and another will write with his hand: To Jehovah, and will be named with the name of Israel.” (Isaiah 44:5)
Then: I AM GOD OF ISRAEL, is His name and surname, and to the question: Who is He to us? He will say in the scriptures regarding His essence: I am the Almighty, I am intelligence, I am God and there is no other.
Regarding us He will say:
I AM: Your shield, I AM Jehovah your strong and jealous God (Your protector and guardian), I am Jehovah your healer, I am the one who erases your rebellions.
In the New Testament Jesus will say:
I am the bread that came down from heaven, I am the light of the world, I am the door, I am the good Shepherd, I am the resurrection and the life, I am the way, I am the truth and the life, I am the true vine, I am Holy, I am Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega,
“I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star.” (Revelation 22:16)
I am everything, and everything we need and all that He says He is, is for us.
Who am I?
Job began saying about himself the same thing that many of us do:
...I am clean and without defect
...I am innocent
...I am just
But later like many of us he would acknowledge:
...I am vile
...I am wicked
...I am a worm
The same would be said by King David:
“But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised of the people.” (Psalms 22:6)
That is what, in acknowledgment of our condition and situation, we come to believe and accept with humility, that we are worms, yet the Lord surprises us even more by saying:
“For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)
In short, we are precious to worms, we are dust. Less than worms! Abraham would acknowledge:
“I am dust and ashes.” (Genesis 18:27)
From the vision of a perfect being, we arrive at that of a worm, much more insignificant, but a being in the end, but, as if that were not enough, from that of an insect to dust; evidently less than worms, and yes, according to our physical constitution, we are nothing more than dust, but furthermore, we find this strong and definitive statement:
“Behold, you are nothing, and your works are vanity.” (Isaiah 41:24)
From man to worm, from worm to dust, from dust to nothing.
From a holistic, multidimensional being with multiple spiritual, social, physical, and cognitive capabilities endowed with the faculty of deciding with free will, this last is, the most extraordinary of the capacities with which he is endowed.
Sin produces in the human being an involution, such in comparison with the originally created being, comparable to that of a man with a worm. Such is the degree of degradation he suffers; from man to worm. Man before and after sin.
A worm may be perfect in terms of its physical, biochemical conformation, but not in terms of spiritual and cognitive characteristics (What according to philosopher Max Scheler distinguishes humans from animals). There and thus lies the difference of the being that left the hands of God, to the being intervened by Satan.
And in what sense then are we dust? The worm is finally a living being without moral constructs, lacking spirituality, guided by instincts, affected by sin but without the need for a savior. Dust is only inert matter unlike the worm, it has no life and if there is no life, there is nothing.
The words of Jesus make sense, “for without me, you can do nothing.”. And what the inspired apostle Paul confirms like this:
“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2)
Our condition without God, who is Love, is nothing and without Him our ultimate end will be to be dust and ashes.
It is at this point, when the question who am I? receives as an answer NOTHING, is where we need to make the words of the psalmist ours that say:
My soul is brought low to the dust; Revive me according to your word. Acknowledgment and plea made with the assurance that there is a God who is love, for those being nothing, gave everything and because we know that “He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.” (Psalms 103:14)
With the same confidence that the character we quoted at the beginning expressed.
“I know that my Redeemer lives, And at last he will stand upon the dust; And after my skin is destroyed, In my flesh I shall see God.” (Job 19:25-26)