The second question Moses has for God is "Who are you?" This will answer the question Moses had been asked the last time he tried to help his people. The answer to this question is a bit enigmatic, "I AM who (or what) I AM." It isn't a name at all, it is the biggest description you could imagine because in Him is contained everything and nothing contains Him. All the rest of the revelation of God is creed, He is the God of their fathers, the God who delivered them, the God who gave them the land...the God whose Son was incarnate from the virgin Mary...died on the cross, rose from the dead...continues to be present through the Holy Spirit...will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead...whose kingdom shall have no end.
When John wrote his Gospel he included his own statements of faith, the first 18 verses of the book which end with, "No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known." What he says that Jesus particularly revealed about God was grace and truth. That doesn't mean that grace and truth were in short supply before Jesus came or that no one knew that about the Father until Jesus revealed it. Grace and truth were always the hallmarks of God's dealing with His people.
He chose Abraham and from him created a people, he remembered his covenant with those people and then through Moses redeemed them from slavery and entrusted His Name to them. Grace and truth were always part of the bargain. Grace is defined as "unmerited favor." There is nothing that tells us that Abraham or Moses or the people have done anything to deserve God's attention or mercy. David asked "What is man that you are mindful of him?"
The answer to Moses' question is overwhelming and in John's Gospel particularly we hear Jesus completing the sentence that begins with I AM in many ways, much like my name only begins with my first name and if I want you to understand who I am will require many other modifiers. Moses has just begun a conversation with God that will fill in the blank at the end of that sentence. This week, Holy Week, supplies the fullest exposition of God's character and nature and in the process we get the divine answer to the first question as well, "Who am I?"
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