Moses was keeping the flock of his
father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the
wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the
angel of the Lord appeared to him
in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it
was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at
this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the
Lord saw that he had turned aside
to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I
am.” 5 Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your
feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He
said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look
at God.
7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery
of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their
taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down
to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a
good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the
Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the
Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have
also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 So come, I will send
you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But
Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the
Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “I will be with you; and this
shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the
people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”
13 But Moses said
to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your
ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall
I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the
Israelites, ‘I Am has sent me to
you.’ ” 15 God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the
Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of
your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has
sent me to you’:
This is my name forever,
and this my title for all generations.
Exodus 3:1-15 is a
story of the call of Moses. This passage is central for the scholarly identification
of J and E documents within the Pentateuch. They seem to represent different
traditions regarding the origin of Israel among the Patriarchs and the
deliverance from Egypt. J has used Yahweh throughout to refer to the divine. It
has its origin in the solidifying of the sacral kingship under David and
Solomon, as the scholars of the court sought to tell the story of the
Patriarchs and Moses in a way that led to the formation of the royal family. In
contrast, E has used Elohim to refer to the divine. It arose in the north,
after the split between Israel and Judah, and had a close connection to the
prophetic tradition. Thus, the introduction of Yahweh into the E narrative is a
dramatic moment in the history of revelation of the identity of the divine.
The call of Moses will point
us to two important aspects of the Old Testament story. Moses will be the ideal
deliverer, of which we learn more in Joshua and Judges. Moses will become the
pattern of the human-divine encounter that leads to a calling of the prophet.
In verse 1, from E, God will come to Moses unexpectedly. Moses is not searching
for God. Rather, he is engaged in his everyday activity of tending the flocks
of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He is on Horeb, the mountain
of God. In verses 2-4a, 5, 7-8, from J, Moses is the supreme example of
the response of God to the plight of Israel. The people of God experience trouble or oppression.
They cry out to the Lord, the Lord hears their cry and the Lord sends a
deliverer. The people receive deliverance. Eventually, and true to the human
condition, often because of their own sin, they fall into trouble again and the
cycle repeats itself. In addition, Moses will become the pattern of the
human-divine encounter and prophetic call. The Holy One draws near and calls an
individual as servant and messenger of the divine will. The Lord gets his
attention. The ground itself becomes holy because the Lord has showed up in
this place. It has become a holy place. Many of us have become skeptical of
such a summons or call upon a human life. The Lord has not stopped observing,
hearing, and knowing the human condition. The Lord has not stopped creating
holy moments and holy places. We may need to recover a sense of the potential
holiness of a moment or place in our lives. A few lines from a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
recall the burning bush story and indicate the possibility of failing to notice
that one is on holy ground:
Earth's crammed with heaven
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes -
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.
If you fail to recognize
that you are now in the presence of the Lord, it will inhibit you from
experiencing the power of a mission or purpose in life. In a similar way, in
verse 4b, 6, from E, God calls to him out of the bush and names him, and Moses
responds, “Here I am.” Joseph Campbell wrote that the privilege of a lifetime
is being who you are. Moses will discover who he really is as God calls him to
fulfill his mission or purpose in life. God will call him first into a
relationship. This relationship will become decisive for the rest of his life.
He will live out of his response to the summons from God and the service of
that mission. We should think of I Samuel 3:4ff, Isaiah 6:1-8 and Jeremiah
1:4-10 as parallels at this point. A proper application to the life we live
today, however, might suggest that we need to ponder upon this in a personal
way. God observes, hears, and knows a situation to which God will call and send
us. That would truly mean discovering who you are.
In verses 9-15, from E, we find two questions of identity
here.
One is who Moses is. The fact that Moses must turn his
face in order to avoid looking at God means that for a moment, Moses saw God
face to face. It emphasizes the unique relationship Moses will have with this
God. Intimacy with God is a prerequisite for a significant revelation. In
Moses, we find such familiarity with God a theme in his story.[1] This divine-human encounter
is simple and direct. It will be the turning point for Moses and the Hebrew
people. Moses will have the mission of transforming their slavery into freedom.
Yet, as is typical of the prophets, Moses objects. In Jeremiah 1:6, the prophet
is too young. In Isaiah 6:5, the prophet is unworthy. Chapter 4 will give several
objections. He does not think he is the right person for the task. Thus, who is
Moses? The response from God is simple and direct. God will be with Moses, with
the clear implication that this should be enough to overcome any objection and
guarantee a successful fulfillment of the mission. An important element of the
call of a prophet is a sign, and in this case, the sign is that God will bring
Moses and the people back to the mountain of God so that they may worship God
on the mountain.
The Lord reveals the
nature of divine action in that the Lord has observed, heard, and known, the
misery and suffering of the Hebrew people and therefore comes down to deliver
them and bring them to a good, broad land that flows with milk and honey. Yet,
with a sense of the trouble and challenge to come, that land already has
inhabitants. The Lord will intervene
into the history of this people.
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