I AM THAT I AM (1)

Four whole questions boggle men, four questions that when gotten right will set a man like a blazing fire; these questions are the: Who, What, Why and the How question. Who am I? What am I doing here on earth? Why am I even on earth? And if there is any purpose at all, how do I achieve it? In this article, we will start from the why question.

The Why question is that one question we ask when we are faced with one challenge or the other; when life seems to close in on us and much of what we do don’t make sense anymore, we ask this question in our everyday life, we use this question in those season when it is important to make sense of where we are in life, and when we are faced with tough questions. Jeremiah in Jeremiah 12 also asked this question and the ones he asked were;

why do the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive? Why does it not be for them according to the judgement of God?

Job also asked this question ‘why’ in his time of deep distress and anguish, Habakkuk in Habakkuk 1 asked the why question;

why does it seem like the wicked prosper?, why does it seem like it will never end and why is there suffering?, why does the righteous seem to get the short end of the stick?, why can’t God just come on earth now and destroy all the evildoers?, why do the wicked live on?, if there is a God why is there war?, why is there cancer and why does it affect the good people ? why?.

The subject of this article is not to deal with the why of suffering but the end of all whys. The why question has boggled all philosophers and theologians for ages, it is an ontological question that seems to find an end in nothing, because why are we here? Why is there any purpose at all to be fulfilled? All the whys if we start asking them, finds an end in the last why: why is there anything at all, why not nothing?.

This is a despairing question to those without hope and for us, the bible perfectly states in the King James Version of Revelation 4:11; Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

All whys find their end in this that we were created first of all, and every created entity has a purpose, we did not just puff into existence; man is not just a product of coincidence, we did not just come out of chanced collision of elements that existed for nothing, we were formed and we were formed for a purpose and the purpose is according to his will, we did not just appear into existence without any purpose at all.

There is a being who decides to have us into existence and this being is God. We were created for his pleasure, ESV puts the word pleasure as ‘will’, so we can also say that we are created for the good pleasure of his will, we are created for a reason. An agenda in his will and agenda in his pleasure.

Then to the next question, WHAT? The question “what” is the one that finds root in defining identity, it finds root in separation, What is your name, divides Emmanuel from Ayomide, What country are you from defines a person, what specie is the animal separates the badger from the asp. And the greatest “what” that was asked is found in the question “what is man?” Psalm 8:4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visit him? This question came after a lot of consideration, I believe it is a big task to consider the heavens then the moon then the stars.

Let us digress a bit; the immediate heaven as we know it is the one above us made of spheres like the atmosphere which is the immediate sphere around us, the stratosphere, the ionosphere and all the spheres that exist in a unique design as to allow some things and disallow many other things, and after the heavens, then the moon which is responsible for causing illumination in the night and a slight shift in its axis it, which is happening, will cause drastic climate changes in the air, ranging from massive flood that is capable of destroying countries to an ice wave.
Then the stars, it is reported that the nearest star to us is 4000 light years away from the earth, some stars are a million light years away from the earth, that means it will take the star 4000 years for the light to reach earth, and some stars are bigger than our whole solar system, men has found use for the star in approximating our position in space, in vast nothingness, in ancient times stars were used for way finding, telling of the season.

All these were made for man (according to Genesis 1) and as we have established in the why question, man was made for God. So the question still stands, “What is man?” Philosophers have thought and thought of matters like what is man. And really what is man, or what can man be but the son of God, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: 1 John 3:1. Our identity is found in this and in this is our rejoicing.

The atheist, the godless, is without hope and God in this world and he has not come to the conclusion that there is a God and therefore the end to his why question is despair, he tries to come up with hundreds of definition to himself, concerning origin, concerning life and at every end he finds despair, he finds nothing there. We were once like that moving in the corruption of ourselves, in rebellion against God and everything in the universe.

“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:  But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ”. Ephesians 2:12-13 and as if that was not enough “for through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;” Ephesians 2:18-20.

Halleluiah, we are with hope in this world and this is the only hope that suffice. And in case you are with any manner of hope in this world apart from being His Son, it will not profit, the bible says cast all your cares on him for he cares for you.

MARANATHA,

EDITORIAL UNIT,

TACSFON UI.