Exodus 3, A Bush That Does Not Burn

Moses is an exile in Midian, having fled from the previous pharaoh.  The Israelites continue to plead to God to rescue them from the oppression of the Egyptians.

Exodus 3: 1-6, A burning bush

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  There the angel of the LORD appeared to him flames of fire from within a bush.  Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.  So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight -- why the bush does not burn up."  

When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses!  Moses!"

    

And Moses said, "Here I am."

    

"Do not come any closer," God said, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."  Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob."  

    

At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

A strange site in the desert -- a bush (or tree) on fire.  And the bush continues to burn, without being consumed.  (Imes, in her commentary on Exodus, notes an Eastern Orthodox tradition of equating the burning bush with Mary, the mother of Jesus, for she too possessed the image of God within her womb, but was not consumed.)

YHWH has previously appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, confirming a covenant with them and their descendants.  Suddenly, after a break of several centuries, He appears to Moses in the desert and identifies Himself as the same God.

Exodus 3: 7-10, Go to Pharaoh!

The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 

So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

Notice how “human” God is, in a way.  He listens, reacts to cries that reach him.  Although the Israelites have been oppressed for some time, only recently do we hear of their cries to YHWH and now Moses will be part of YHWH's response.

Exodus 3: 11-14, Moses argues

But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

    

And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."

    

Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, `The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, `What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

    

God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: `I AM has sent me to you.'"

Moses, despite his strong sense of justice, does not want this assignment! He echoes the questions others have asked, "Who am I?" (that is, who is Moses?)

(NIV footnotes: In verse 12, the Hebrew in "you will worship" is plural -- many more than Moses will worship YHWH on the mountain. In verse 14, God's name might be translated "I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE.")

Moses has an identity crisis -- YHWH does not.  YHWH's answer is almost a trivial, "I AM" the only One that matters, the only One who created all things.  He will give a similar answer to Job in Job 38-39. culminating in Job 40:2, when the answer (essentially) to the existence of suffering and evil is "'I AM' beyond you, beyond anything you can conceive."

Exodus 3: 15-18, The conflict to come

God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, `The LORD,  the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob--has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

    

"Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, `The LORD, the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-- appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites--a land flowing with milk and honey.'

    

"The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, `The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.'

   

YHWH identifies Himself to both Moses and the Hebrews as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  This is the significance of Genesis story already told -- it explains the covenant setting that prepares the people of Israel for a return to their own land.

(NIV footnote; In verse 15 the Hebrew for LORD may be derived from the Hebrew for I AM in verse 14.  I will use YHWH or YaHWeH to represent the name given by the four Hebrew consonants in that name.)

Exodus 3: 19-22, The conflict to come 

But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go. And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians."

But Pharaoh will resist.  YHWH describes what will happen next.

These answers will not satisfy Moses, who has various objections.... We look at his objections next.