God had promised Abraham multiple
descendants and a homeland to bless the world. The blessing would come through
Abraham’s son, Isaac, and through Isaac’s son, Jacob. A famine in Canaan led Jacob’s
twelve sons into Egypt where they were taken care of by Jacob’s son, Joseph,
who rose to prominence in Egypt. There Israel multiplied but they became enslaved
when a Pharaoh who didn’t knew Joseph came to power. The Israelites were oppressed
but the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied. Fearful that the
Israelites would fight against Egypt the Pharaoh commanded the Hebrew baby boys
be thrown in the Nile. When Moses was born his parents hide him, then Moses’
mother put her baby in a basket and placed in the Nile River. Pharaoh’s daughter
rescued the baby so Moses was raised as the ‘son of
Pharaoh’s daughter’. When Moses was 40 years old he saw and Egyptian beating a
Hebrew, so he killed the Egyptian. Pharaoh found out about this and he tried to
have Moses killed, so he fled to live in Midian. There Moses married the
daughter of a Midianite priest and he became a shepherd. Then the Pharaoh died and
the cry of the Israelites in their oppression went up to God, and God
remembered his covenant (Exodus 2:16-25). This brings us to the story of Moses
and the burning bush. Watch or listen to the story here and read the comments below.
In this story
God calls Moses to confront Pharaoh and to liberate Israel from Egypt. The
Israelites were to be formed into a ‘community of worshipers’ that Moses was to
lead to their own land, a land to be ‘wholly consecrated’ to the Lord! Moses
upbringing in Egypt as the ‘son of Pharaoh’s daughter’ is long past and we find
him shepherding the flock of father-in-law’s in the wilderness around Sinai.
The ‘angel of the Lord’ appears to Moses from within a bush that is on fire but
doesn’t burn up. The direction of Moses life changes forever when he investigates
why the bush is not burning up. The Lord
calls Moses from the fire and Moses responds, “Here I am!” The Lord tells Moses
to take off his shoes for he’s standing on holy ground. Moses covers his face
being afraid to look at God. The God of their fathers tells Moses
that He has seen the affliction of his
people in Egypt and has committed to rescue them out of Egypt and to will lead
them into their own land, a land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus
3:-10).
God tells
Moses to go to the successor of the Pharaoh who wanted Moses dead, and to lead
the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses’ response is, “Who am I to go to Pharaoh and lead the
Israelites out of Egypt?” Moses had
tried to deliver the Israelites and he had put his position and influence on
the line. He was willing to fight for his people and he even killed an Egyptian
for beating an Israelite. But Moses was forced to flee and live in exile in
Midian as a shepherd for 40 years. Moses tells the Lord, ‘who am I to confront Pharaoh
and leading the Israelites out of Egypt’. As a deliverer of the Israelites, Moses
had been a miserable failure so he saw himself as totally inadequate for the
job. Now he was a shepherd and the last guy in the world to go to Pharaoh and
lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
As Israel’s deliverer
Moses was a dismal failure, so he saw himself as incapable of confronting
Pharaoh and rescuing the Israelites. Moses had tried to rescue the Israelites in
his own way and in his own strength and so he failed. However, now having
confessed his own inadequacy, Moses is God’s man for the job. Moses confessed
inadequacy would be overcome by the Lord’s personal presence. Moses said, ‘who
am I’ and the Lord said, ‘I will be with you’! The Lord was not with the son of
Pharaoh’s daughter, when he took matters into his own hands. But now the humble
shepherd was now ready to lead Israel out of Egypt God’s way. So the Lord tells
Moses you’re the guy and ‘I will be with you’ so things will be different.
Now the sign
that God had sent Moses would be that the Israelites would be rescued out of
Egypt. The Lord told Moses, ‘I will be with you’ and He would enable Moses to
do what he had previously failed to do. When Israel was out of Egypt and gathered
at Sinai in worship that would be the sign that the Lord had sent Moses. When
the Israelites were gathered together at Sinai as a worshiping community then
Moses would know that it the Lord done it. The Israelites would be shaped into
a worshiping community at the very place were Moses led the flock of
father-in-law to graze, the very place the ‘angel of the Lord’ had appeared and
the Lord had called Moses from out of the fire.
The Lord was
calling Moses to do what the Lord said that He would be with Moses to do. The Lord
would do what the Lord had promised Abraham 400 years earlier He would do
(Gen.15:13-14). The Lord said the Israelites would be rescued and the Lord
would be with Moses to make it happen. The Lord was calling Moses to do what Moses
knew he was utterly dependent upon the Lord to do. Moses had been living as a
shepherd in exile in Midian for 40 years because he had failed as Israel’s rescuer.
Now the Lord was calling Moses to step out in faith and trust that God would be
with him to do what could only happen if God made it happen.
Moses had
said ‘who am I’ to go to Pharaoh and to rescue the Israelites and the answer to
Moses’ inability was ‘I will be with you’. So Moses now wants to know what he
should say when the Israelites ask the name of the God who has sent Moses. In
other words, Moses says okay I’m inadequate for the job and I hear you saying
you’ll be with me but, ‘Who are you? And what is your name?’ The God of our fathers lead Jacob and his
family into Egypt during a time of famine when Joseph was in power in Egypt,
but now Joseph is a distant memory and the Israelites had been in Egypt for 400
years. Not only that but they’re suffering under Egyptian oppression so really
God ‘who are you’?
God tells Moses,
‘I AM who I AM’! Moses was to tell the Israelites ‘I AM’ has sent me to you! The
name God gave to Moses, Yahweh, comes from the Hebrew verb to be. The Septuagint translation of the name emphasizes the
‘self-existence’ of God. The translation ‘I AM who I AM’ and the context itself
suggests that ‘God is who He is’. That is God is who ‘He has revealed Himself
to be’ and He is not a God of our own making. He is the one who promised Moses
‘I will be with you’. He is the one who made a covenant with Abraham promising
him multiple descendants and a homeland to bless the world. He is the one who
would further reveal Himself by rescuing Israel out of Egypt, forming them into
a worshiping community and leading them into a land of their own. He is the one
speaking to Moses from the fire and He had previously manifested Himself when a smoking firepot with a blazing torch passed
between the animal pieces and bound Himself to Abraham in covenant. He is the
one who would later,
lead the Israelites in a pillar of cloud by day and a
pillar of fire by night (Ex. 3:13–15). Yahweh is the one who is faithful to His promises and is fully capable of
fulfilling all His promises.
When God
called Moses to go to Pharaoh and rescue the Israelites Moses said you’ve got
to be kidding do you know, ‘who am I?’ God was saying, ‘I know who you are
Moses and I will be with you’. But now God was saying to Moses, ‘Moses, do you
know who I AM? God’s answer was ‘I AM who I AM’ now you go and tell the
Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you’! The Lord would be with Moses so Moses
was to step out in faith and he was to tell Pharaoh, ‘that the Lord, the God of
the Hebrews, wants us to take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer
sacrifices to the Lord, our God.’ But Pharaoh would not let the Israelites go,
so Yahweh would lift His hand and strike the Egyptians with miraculous signs. Then
not only would Pharaoh let them go but the Egyptians would give the Israelites their
articles of silver and gold and fine clothing so that in this way the
Israelites would plunder the Egyptians (3:18-21).
Now Moses
wants to know what to do if the Israelites fail to listen to him or believe
that the Lord had appeared to him. So the Lord gives Moses two special signs to
convince the Israelites that YHWH, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had
appeared to Moses. Moses was to throw down his shepherd’s staff which Moses did
and it turned into a snake. Moses jumped back but the Lord said, “Grab it by
its tail” and when Moses did it turned back into a staff. Then the Lord had
Moses put his hand inside his cloak and when he did his hand become leprous.
Then the Lord had Moses put his hand back into his cloak and when he did his
hand was healed. Then if the Israelites were still unconvinced then Moses was
to pour some water from the Nile River on the ground and it would turn to
blood (4:1-9).
So the Lord gave
Moses these signs to convince any doubting Israelites. But Moses claims that he
has never been a good speaker and he’s not one now even though Lord had spoken
to him. The Lord challenges Moses by saying who makes people speak or not
speak, hear or not hear, see or not see. The Lord promises to be with Moses and
enable him to speak and teach him what to say. After all this Moses simply says,
‘Please, Lord, send someone else’. The Lord becomes angry with Moses,
but He remains committed to Moses. Aaron, Moses’ brother will be Moses’
spokesman and Moses will tell Aaron what to say. Now is the time, those in
Egypt who wanted to kill Moses were dead. Moses was to go and perform the miraculous
signs before Pharaoh. But Pharaoh would refuse to let the Israelites go so Moses
was to tell the hard-hearted Pharaoh that the Lord says, ‘Israel is my
firstborn son, let my son go, so he can worship me. But since you have refused,
I will kill your firstborn son!’ ” So the two brothers, Aaron and
Moses, go to Egypt and gather the elders of Israel and tell them everything the
Lord had said, and Moses performed the miraculous signs. Now when the elders of
Israel hear that God had seen their suffering and had promised to rescue them, they
bowed their heads and worshiped (4:10-31).
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