The burning bush
1 Moses pastured the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law, priest of Midian. One day he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the Mountain of God.
2 The Angel of Yahweh appeared to him by means of a flame of fire in the middle of a bush. Moses saw that although the bush was on fire it did not burn up.
3 Moses thought, “I will go and see this amazing sight, why is the bush not burning up?”
4 Yahweh saw that Moses was drawing near to look, and God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” He replied, “Here I am.”
5 Yah weh said to him, “Do not come near; take off your sandals because the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
6 And God continued, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”
Moses hid his face lest his eyes look on God.
7 Yahweh said, “I have seen the humiliation of my people in Egypt and I hear their cry when they are cruelly treated by their taskmasters. I know their suffering.
8 I have come down to free them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a beautiful spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the territory of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amo rites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.
9 The cry of the sons of Israel has reached me and I have seen how the Egyptians oppress them.
10 Go now! I am sending you to Pha raoh to bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”
11 Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the people of Israel out of Egypt?”
12 God replied, “I will be with you and this will be the sign that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
13 Moses answered God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them: ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ they will ask me: ‘What is his name?’ What shall I answer them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO AM. This is what you will say to the sons of Israel: ‘I AM sent me to you.”
15 God then said to Moses, “You will say to the Israelites: ‘YAHWEH, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has sent me.’ That will be my name forever, and by this name they shall call upon me for all generations to come.
Moses is given his mission
16 Go! Call together the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abra ham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob appeared to me and said: I have seen and taken account of how the Egyptians have treated you,
17 and I mean to bring you out of all this oppression in Egypt and take you to the land of the Cana anites, a land flowing with milk and honey.’
18 The elders of Israel will listen to you and, with them, you shall go to the palace of the king of Egypt and say to him: ‘The God of the Hebrews, Yahweh, has met with us. Now let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to Yahweh our God.’
19 I well know that the king of the Egyptians will not allow you to go unless he is forced to do so.
20 I will there fore stretch out my hand and strike Egypt in extraordinary ways, after which he will let you go.
21 And I will make the Egyptians treat my people well when you leave; you will not go empty-handed.
22 Each wo man will ask her neighbor, and any Egyptian woman staying in her house, to lend her ornaments of silver and gold, and clothing. With these you will clothe your sons and daughters, and in this way you will plunder the Egyptians.”
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Comments Exodus, Chapter 3
• 3.1 God waits several years and then calls Moses when he is already mature. He calls him at a time when Moses has chosen the paths of a father of a family and shepherd of sheep. He does this in the desert where Moses has apparently isolated himself from the misfortunes of his people and, day after day, wastes the op portunity to help them. Thus, many times God waits for a person in this or that desert of his or her life. During those times, apparently so empty, God prepares his servants while their heart and generosity remain intact.
The Angel of Yahweh appeared to him by means of a flame of fire. The Angel of Yahweh (we know this is one way of saying Yahweh God himself: see Visions and Angels, Gen 16:1) presents himself as a fire that catches the eye but burns whoever approaches it.
For centuries, this mountain had been a sacred place, and Moses does what anyone would do when entering a holy place: take off one’s sandals so as not to bring before God the dust of ordinary existence.
I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. The God Moses’ ancestors called by different names is only one and his choice now falls on Moses.
I will be with you. Each time God calls people to a mission, he begins by reassuring them, for they immediately understand that such mission will fully take possession of them: Jos 1:5; Jdg 6:12; Mt 28:20; Lk 1:28.
I am sending you to Pharaoh. This will be the first step of Moses’ mission. After delivering Israel from Egypt, he will, almost by force, impose their destiny upon them, which is to be the chosen people of God.
God speaks of bringing Israel to the land flow ing with milk and honey, the land promised to Abraham. He does not fix the time nor give details but foretells an event that will prove the authenticity of the mission: someday, Israel, poor but free, will arrive with Moses at the Mount to meet God and receive his life-giving words.
• 14. THE DIVINE NAME
Among other people who have their own ideas about God and who search in darkness for the meaning of their destiny, Israel was to be a people who knew God according to the truth, and who, because of this, would know wherein lies true human greatness. The revelation of the one and only God is linked to a freeing mission, and there we have the relevant character of biblical revelation. Some years earlier the Pharaoh Akinaton wished in his own way to identify the only God: his intuition got bogged down in a problem of worship and had no impact on history. The God of Moses is instead the One, Holy and Just God, who desires to be served by free persons.
I am: I AM WHO AM (v. 14). There are two ways of translating these words. The first is what we give here: God is the One who is, who alone exists without any limitation. This meaning agrees with the end of verse 14 and at the same time it gives meaning to “Yahweh.” But it could also be understood as: I am who I am. In this case, God does not really refuse to make known his identity to Moses, since he is going to give him his name, but he lets it be understood that no one is able to share the secret of his person.
By this name they shall call upon me (v.15). It is evident that every name depends on the particular language in which it has its own meaning. God reveals to the Hebrews a name: Yahweh, which in their language is interpreted as: He is. If he had spoken to another people, God would have given another name which would have had meaning for them.
Yahweh means at the same time: He is and He causes to exist. We may understand that God is and causes to exist that which he knows. This name is directly related to the saying by God in verse 14: I am who am and I am.
I am. This is the God who Lives and Sees (Gen 16:13). When he wants to manifest something of his own mystery, he lets blazing fire (Ezk 1:4; Hb 3:4), windstorm and thunder (Ex 19:16; 1 K 19:11; Ps 18:9-17), and the waves of the sea go before him. All these are nothing more than images that screen, like a cloud (1 K 8:10), God’s mystery which is infinitely more profound. This mystery transcends and reaches beyond not only human insight but the mind of any human or angelic creature.
We all receive existence from God, but God exists in himself and depends on no one and nothing whatsoever. God is One, and none of those who receive existence from him can add anything to God.
Thus, then, God is and he causes to exist the one who knows him. This revelation is critical for understanding the whole Bible and should be remembered when believers simply say, “God is Love; God is Goodness,” and forget that this alone would be false if it were not first affirmed that: God is Who Is. If God were only the Almighty, we would think of prostrating ourselves before him, set out to make war against idols, and give all importance to laws on prayer, fasting, and the good works he demands. If he were only Goodness, we would not understand why he lets us suffer.
But he said: I Am Who Am. God is a wholly active and perfectly free Person; and he calls us to be persons who exist in truth. Hence, God creates a world in which we can act responsibly. God does not impose good. He prefers that, through our experience and our errors, we come to discover where the true good is.
To worship God does not mean, as some believe, to lie prostrate before him, but rather to approach him face to face. God wants to be served by persons who, in turn, free others.
In presenting himself this way, the one true God has said the most essential thing. At this early stage of history he could not speak more precisely and reveal the mystery of the Divine Persons in the same God: this would be the task of Jesus (Mt 28:19; Jn 1:18-19). Hence, for centuries, the Is raelites retained the figure of a Sovereign God who spoke more the language of obedience.
Yahweh or Jehovah? In the last centuries before Jesus’ coming, the Israelites, out of respect, would not pronounce the name of Yahweh. Hence, Yahweh was changed to Yehowah in the Bible, a term which had no meaning nor was pronounced, but on seeing it, the reader knew that he should not say Yahweh, but Edonah, or Lord. (It had been put into the sacred consonants YHWH of Yahweh the three vowels e, o, a of Edonah).
Yahweh has met with us. Invoking religious motives (to offer sacrifices) could not hide the fact that the only objective of the Hebrew slaves was to liberate themselves from the oppression that they suffered. All this happened at a time when there was no social or political problem that was not ex pressed in religious terms (Ex 17:16; Num 25:16).
But today, some ask: “Does the Bible speak to us in the sense of human and political liberation, or does it rather propose a spiritual liberation?” In truth, this opposition is artificial. Experience teaches us that in order to save one’s neighbor, neither material help nor political change nor prayer is sufficient. What is important is that persons rise to new life. To do this, they them selves must confront and solve the real problems of their common life—material, educational or political—starting with a more lucid vision of reality as God sees it, and with a more authentic love which is spiritual.
I mean to bring you out of all this oppression. God, who exists, is concerned about those who still do not exist in truth. We say that God saves human persons; and so we suppose that these are real persons and not undeveloped persons without lib erty, or responsibility. Salva tion is not the washing of souls but the restoration of the human person in all dimensions—individual, family and social. When speaking of liberation, the Bible always refers to a total libe r ation of the human person. We can study Exodus as a Life of Moses and see that he was saved—or that he grew as a person and as a believer—to the extent that he was taking charge of his material and spiritual tasks as leader liberator of his people.