Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem
The Story of The Exodus
(Old Testament)
Exodus 3
Moses and the Burning Bush
3 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 wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
4 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.”
5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father,[a] 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.
7 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. 8 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. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending 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 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[b] will worship God on this mountain.”
13 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?”
14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.[c] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,[d] 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 you shall call me
from generation to generation.
16 “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. 17 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.’
18 “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 wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 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.
21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 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.”
Footnotes:
1. Exodus 3:6 Masoretic Text; Samaritan Pentateuch (see Acts 7:32) fathers
2. Exodus 3:12 The Hebrew is plural.
3. Exodus 3:14 Or I will be what I will be
4. Exodus 3:15 The Hebrew for Lord sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for I am in verse 14.
(End of Scripture Passage)
It is easy to fault Moses for his "getting too comfortable" in his life on the lam from Egypt. Yet, how many of us have found ourselves choosing the broader path when faced with a momentous decision. In any case, God used the time in Midian to prepare Moses for the huge task ahead.
It is in this Chapter that God reveals His Magnificent, Wonderful Name. He declares His very Existence, Sovereignty, and Self-Sufficiency in a Word that has the same sound as the Breath of Life, and is so Holy that Pious Jews will not even pronounce It, Bible Translators will use a code-word for it, and scholars will make up substitute words for It. The Name "HaShem" means "The Name", and the word "Jehovah" is also a construct of Consonants and vowels that are not in the Original. The King James and many subsequent translations use "LORD" in all caps, as a substitute for The Name, and so it has been for a few centuries. I think it is for the best, because, if the Name were pronounced all the time even in piety and prayer, it could very easily become incorporated into the language and culture and become a "curse word", much like other Names of God have become. Perhaps it is God's Own Providence that His Name has been protected through the millennia from becoming a common utterance. The difficulty in pronunciation and lack of vowels helps too.
Moses NEEDED a Name to present His plan to the Hebrew Slaves. After all, the Egyptian gods all had names, so this One had to be different, unique, above all other names, and REAL. The uniqueness and existential nature of the name of the one true God declares not only His Existence, but His uniqueness and exclusivity. It is not just a name, but a Declaration, "I AM!"
New International Version (NIV)
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