The Call of Moses

 Exodus 3-4

            I am sorry this one is a day late: I had no internet access yesterday. 

           Moses had tended Jethro’s flocks for 40 years when he saw the burning bush, a phenomenon of curiosity but no particular religious significance. It is noteworthy that Moses approaches with his sandals on: he is unaware of an religious associations. He has to be told to take his sandals off and that he is in the presence of the holy. In Israel, that place is holy where the Lord is, and Moses is now in the presence of the Lord.

            The Lord has seen the misery of His people; He intends to act; and Moses is His chosen instrument. Forty years of shepherding demonstrate that Moses has had enough of acting the savior. He knows how badly it can go. He tries everything to get out of the job. His excuses pile up: “I’m nobody.” “What if they don’t believe me?” “I hate public speaking.” The last is the best: “I don’t want to go!” The Lord has a ready answer each time.

            Here in Exodus 3 we have an explanation of God’s personal name. In an English Bible, it’s rendered by the word LORD in all capital letters. In Hebrew it’s the consonants YHWH, which are very similar to the letters in the Hebrew form of the verb “to be.” “Who shall I say sent me?” Moses asks. “I am who I am, “ YHWH answers. The God of Israel is the eternal God, those who simply is and who calls all things into being. No small claims for Israel’s God! The pagans thought of their gods as having had a beginning and as being tied to particular territory. Israel’s God’s very name reminds us that He has always been and that all things are His.

            Ironically, God’s chosen man has failed to do the most basic Jewish thing: he hasn’t circumcised his son. It seems strange to me that the Lord only gets angry about this after he has called Moses. Perhaps in the meantime he had told Moses to get it done and he hadn’t. Who knows? But Zipporah, a Midianite, understands. Not for the last time in the Scriptures, the Gentile outsider proves more faithful than the Israelite!