Exodus - Lesson 5

Dr. Carmen Imes 
Exodus 
OT605-05 
Commissioning of Moses 
Lesson Transcript

In the previous session we got started on Moses commissioning by God in chapter 3. I want to back up just a little bit to talk about some of the details of this chapter and how we might understand them historically. So I noted in chapter 3 verse 1 that Moses comes to Horeb, the mountain of God. Now later the Israelites are going to come back here with Moses and then it's called Mount Sinai.

So some have said this is the evidence of the joining of two different narrative traditions by two different authors and that's why we have two different titles. I'm actually persuaded that there are other reasons that are better explanations for why we have two words for this mountain and so I'll share what I've learned. So it's possible that Horeb is the name of the wider area and that Sinai is the particular mountain.

It could be that Horeb is the name of the mountain but the name changes because of Moses' encounter with Yahweh at this mountain. In verse 3 we saw that Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. He appeared, Yahweh appeared to him in the flames of fire from within a bush.

And the word for bush here is a rare word for bush. In Hebrew the word is sineh. So you can see the relationship between sineh bush and Sinai the mountain.

It's just different vowels with the same consonants. So it could be that because of Moses' encounter with the sineh on this mountain that they begin to call it Mount Sinai. The mountain is then named after the bush of that encounter.

It's also possible that Sinai is the name of the wider area and Horeb is the mountain. So it could go either way and it could be that the narrator is choosing whichever word is most appropriate for that particular context. So there is a later place here in chapter 3 Horeb might be the region but later there's one place where it's called Mount Horeb.

That's in chapter 33 verse 6 and there it's possible that he's choosing the word Horeb to describe the mountain because of a word play with herev which is the word for sword. There's a bloody scene there where they pull out swords and people die and it could be that he's calling the mountain by the name that sounds like sword to create a kind of word play. So either possibility could explain, could be an alternate explanation for why we have these two names that are interchangeable rather than supposing that there's two separate traditions that got combined later in time.

Exodus 3 verse 12 coordinates these two locations. It says, 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. So as Moses is encountering Yahweh for the first time at Horeb, God says you're going to come back to this mountain with the people.

So that's why we need to see them as the same mountain because historically, literarily, theologically the two coordinate. I also want to pause to consider this the literary significance of this bush that burns. What's up with a bush that's on fire without burning up? Well, literarily this moment, this scene with the burning bush is framed on either side by Yahweh's concern for Israel.

So we already read at the end of chapter two where God heard the groaning of the Israelites and remembered his covenant and had concern for them and that's what God is going to say next right after the burning bush. God says in verse chapter three, verse seven, I've indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I've heard them crying out because of their slave drivers.

I'm concerned about their suffering. So there's on either side of the burning bush is a statement where God expresses concern for his people and that he wants to rescue them. And so some have suggested that the bush is symbolic, that the bush represents Israel and the fire represents oppression in Egypt and that even though Israel has been under this oppression, they won't be burned, that God is going to rescue them through.

There could be a symbolic significance to that. There's also another layer of potential theological significance here and this was new to me, but it turns out that there's very old centuries old tradition of thinking of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as a kind of burning bush. So I thought I'd share this while we're here as well and on the screen you'll see an icon that depicts Mary with Jesus in her lap and there's flames of fire coming around her and you see Moses on the side of her taking off his sandals.

So there's this long tradition of associating the burning bush with Mary because she too had the glory of God within her, but it did not consume her. So we realize later that when the presence of God is concentrated in a place, it becomes actually dangerous to approach. God's holiness is so pure that anything unholy that comes into his presence gets zapped.

We see this in Leviticus 9 and 10 when God's presence comes down on the tabernacle and zaps the altar, the incense and the sacrifice on the altar, and consumes them. And then the very next scene, Nadab and Abihu bring unauthorized incense into the tabernacle and the fire of God zaps them and they die. And so it is remarkable that the God of the universe could become incarnate in the person of Jesus and be inside Mary's own body, and yet she's not consumed.

And so early Christians recognized this as similar to the burning bush. So in this picture, in this particular artist's rendition, Mary is holding her hands in a prayer position that makes her look like a chalice or cup to receive Christ's and blood. And then we have the two encounters with Moses and God at Sinai on either side of her.

On the left, he's taking off his shoes at the bush, and on the right, this is where God's giving him the law. So just a fascinating kind of theological reflection. Okay, so circling back to where we left off in the last session, in verse six, God identifies himself to Moses as the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

And as I said, this solidifies and clarifies not only who God is, but who Moses is, and where he belongs in God's covenant people. At this, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. Yahweh said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.

I've heard them crying out because of their slave drivers. I'm 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. I've seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. And if I'm Moses, I am tracking.

And this is so exciting because this is the same Moses who was concerned about the Egyptian beating the Hebrew. And now he's seeing that the God of his ancestors cares about this too. And he's going to do something about it.

Isn't that wonderful? And then God completely shocks Moses by saying, so now go, I'm sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites out of Egypt. And Moses immediately begins to fight back against this idea. He will bring forward five different objections for why he doesn't feel qualified to do this.

And in the process, God is going to meet him where he's at and give him what he needs. So Moses' first objection is, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? And as we already mentioned, God does not respond with a list of qualifications. He doesn't tell Moses, hey, you were trained in Egyptian language and literature, and you have experienced shepherding sheep in the wilderness.

You're the perfect person to do this. He doesn't say that. He says, I will be with you.

I will be with you. The only thing that matters is God. It doesn't matter who Moses is.

It only matters that God's presence is with him. And he says, and this will be the sign that it is I who have sent you. When you've brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.

So this is not the kind of sign that shows him, okay, yes, I should do this. It's going to be a sign in retrospect. Once you get back here, you will know for certain who I am and what I've called you to do.

So you have to step out in obedience to see that come to fulfillment. Moses says to God, now this is his second objection. Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you.

Notice he doesn't say the God of our fathers has sent me to you. He doesn't presume that they're going to accept him as one of their own. He says, the God of your fathers has sent me to you.

And they asked me, oh yeah, what's his name? It's like a code word that would prove that Moses is who he says he is. And he says, so what should I tell them? I'm not exactly sure why Moses is asking this question. Does Moses not know the name? And he's feeling awkward about that.

And so he wants clarification. Is Moses wanting to ensure that the God of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, this really is the God Yahweh, and he's got his facts straight? Or does nobody know God's name? And so this is an opportunity for him to bring some new revelation. In any case, Moses asks the question and God answers.

And his answer is a really fascinating, elongated conversation. God doesn't just say, hi, I'm Yahweh. He unfolds gradually who he is and what he is to be called.

And God doesn't say, you don't need to know my name. He actually answers Moses' request and honors him with the opportunity to hear the divine name. He begins by saying, in the NIV, it says, I am who I am, which is one way to translate this phrase.

We could also translate it, I will be whoever I will be. There's a sense of unfinishedness to it and a sense that you're going to have to stick around and watch if you want to know who I am. I can't be captured or fully understood with just a word.

I will be whoever I will be has sent me to you. This is what you are to say to the Israelites. I will be has sent me to you.

Now that's strange. It's coming out strangely. And so then God reveals one more time what he's to say.

God also said to Moses, 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 to you. This is my name forever. The name you shall call me from generation to generation.

So it took three introductions to finally get to what he's actually supposed to say, Yahweh. The first two use the Hebrew word, Ehyeh, rather than Yahweh. And so they're related grammatically, but it's not quite his name yet.

And so finally, we get the name that they're supposed to use, Yahweh. This gradual unveiling the name is a way of slowing down and saying, this is going to be really important. Like when you're watching a movie, you know, all these things can happen, but the relative timing of the events is part of how a movie producer shows you what's really important and what to focus on.

And so it's like all this action is happening in the story. Some things are really compressed. Some things are slowed down.

And this is like slow-mo. We get to the part where God says, all right, I don't want you to miss this. He doesn't just say, yeah, it's Yahweh.

Anything else you need to know? He slows down enough so that Moses can see this is really important. And there's a kind of lingering on it. And there's also the sense that Moses, by knowing God's name, cannot fully now understand who God is.

That God will flesh out the meaning of his name gradually by acting on their behalf. It's not something, he's not something that can be reduced to a word or a name. So there are three major possibilities that commentators usually consider about why Moses asks for God's name.

Some suggest that no one knew Yahweh's name before this. And that Moses is asking to know God's name so that he can reveal new information. If this is true, then all the places in Genesis where the name Yahweh appears could reflect a later perspective.

Like whoever is telling us the stories in Genesis is writing from a perspective of now knowing the name Yahweh. And we now know that the God of Abraham is named Yahweh. And so the name Yahweh gets inserted back into those stories.

That's one way to understand it. One problem with that approach is that it seems in chapter four, verse one, when we get down to another objection of his, he says, what if they don't believe me or listen to me and say Yahweh did not appear to you? It seems like they already know his name and that he's verifying it by saying the name Yahweh. So if he's supposed to verify the legitimacy of his commission and he's telling them a brand new name, how are they going to know that it's really him? That seems to be one problem with this view.

The second possibility is that Moses didn't know Yahweh's name because he was raised in the palace in an Egyptian context. So he is not in the loop and he's trying to get up to speed. But the third possibility, which is I think the most likely, is that Moses is wanting to confirm the divine identity.

That he's wanting to make sure because he's been in a polytheistic context with lots of different deities, he wants to verify which God is commissioning me to go back and deliver the Hebrews. He's grown up in a context where there are dozens and dozens of Egyptian gods. And he's now been in Midian where there might be others as well.

So that to me seems the most likely. And if that's the case, then this revelation of God's name is not a brand new, like no one knew this name before, but no one has understood the fullness of what it meant before. And we're going to now see Yahweh and know Yahweh in a way that's deeper and more significant than any previous generation and their interaction with Yahweh.

You've probably noticed by now that I do say the name Yahweh and that it might be worth just mentioning why I do that. There are long traditions, especially in Jewish contexts, of not saying the divine name out of respect. But based on verse 15, I believe God's inviting us to use his name.

It says, this is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation. So we'll talk when we get to the Ten Commandments about how I understand the command not to take the Lord's name in vain. Sometimes people don't say God's name because they're trying to honor that command.

That's not how I read the command, so I'll explain that when we get there. But for now, I thought it might be worth mentioning why I say Yahweh. If I'm in a context where there are Jews present, I refrain from saying the name.

I'll refer to God as God or the Lord or Adonai out of respect for them. But I do think that God is inviting us to use it. So the commission continues.

Verse 16, God tells Moses, go assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, appeared to me and said, I have watched over you and seen what's 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, Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to Yahweh our God. 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. And after that, he will let you go." So you're hearing what we talked about earlier here, the strong hand of God that's going to compel him and the striking of Egypt that we have to look forward to. In verse 21, 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. So it's worth noting at this point that God is letting him know, here's what I want you to do, but also he's anticipating Pharaoh's hard-heartedness, Pharaoh's unwillingness to let them go. When we get to Egypt and that happens, this is no surprise to God.

He knows that this is coming. So we've already seen a couple of Moses' objections. Who am I? To which God responds, I will be with you.

Who are you? To which God responds, I will be whoever I will be. In other words, you can't pin me down, but here's my name. You can call me Yahweh.

Chapter four introduces the last three of Moses' objections. What if they don't believe me or listen to me and say, Yahweh did not appear to you? And here's where God gives him some signs to do. Yahweh said to him, what is that in your hand? A staff, he replied.

And Yahweh said, throw it on the ground. And so Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake and he ran from it. Then Yahweh said to him, reach out your hand and seize it by the tail.

So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. This said Yahweh is so that they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared to you. This is the first of three signs.

We'll talk more about these signs later, but I love the way that God uses what Moses already has. He has a shepherd's staff and that's all he needs going back to Egypt. The staff will become almost like a magic wand.

The way Moses uses it in Egypt to demonstrate God's power, he'll use it again and again to show Pharaoh who is boss. And God has already provided what Moses needed to do the job. He didn't need some special equipment or some some new fangled training.

God gives him exactly what he needs. There are several other signs that God gives him in a row here. The second is that he is supposed to put his hand inside his cloak and when he takes it out, his skin is diseased.

It's become flaky or white as snow. And then when he puts his hand back into his cloak, his hand is restored. So this one's fascinating because Moses doesn't actually do this one.

When he gets back to Egypt, he turns the staff into a snake, but he doesn't do the hand trick before Pharaoh. And it's possible that this is actually anticipating something that he'll need later when they get to the book of Numbers. I think it's Numbers 12 and there's rebellion against Moses from Aaron and Miriam and Moses heals Miriam from a disease, from a skin disease.

So it's possible that this is anticipating that. I'm not sure why God gives him extra bags of tricks, extra tricks in his bag of tricks that he doesn't need. But then he gives them a third sign.

If they don't believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they don't believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground and the water you take from the river will become blood on the ground. And this is kind of what happens with the first traditional plague where the Nile turns to blood, but it's not quite the same as how it happens there.

It's not just one cupful that turns to blood, it's the whole Nile and all the water everywhere. So God is giving him a variety of signs and symbols to give him confidence as he goes back to Egypt. But they don't play out exactly in this order when he gets back.

It's worth mentioning that the staff is significant not just for Moses because he already has it, but a staff is an important symbol in Egypt as well. So here's a picture of King Tut's sarcophagus and he has across his chest a shepherd's staff and a flail. And that staff was a symbol of his royal authority as well as the snake or uraeus that's on his headdress.

So when the staff turns into a snake, these are both symbols of Egyptian royal authority that Moses is going to undermine or Yahweh's going to undermine through this sign. I learned recently watching a documentary on Egypt that statues of Pharaoh were given this snake on the forehead and they underwent some kind of ritual process to where they represented Pharaoh's authority. But then if that Pharaoh died and a new Pharaoh came into power and he wanted to undermine the previous Pharaoh, he would just chip off the nose and cut off the snake.

And now it was like a way of decommissioning the statue so it no longer held authority. So for Moses' staff to swallow the staff snake of Pharaoh would have been a very clear sign of undermining Pharaoh's royal authority. And that staff will continue to come into play in the other signs in Egypt.

Moses has two more objections after this. The signs are not enough for him and so we'll close this session with these two objections. Moses says to Yahweh in verse 10, pardon your servant Lord.

And this is a very clumsy sentence in Hebrew. Pardon your servant Lord. I've never been eloquent neither in the past nor since you've spoken to your servant.

I'm slow of speech and tongue. In Hebrew it's more convoluted than that. I can't do this neither yesterday nor the day before that.

My tongue is heavy and my mouth is heavy. And he's falling all over himself. And God's response is so amusing to this response to Moses' objection.

He says, who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, Yahweh? Now go. And in Hebrew it says, I will be with your mouth. So God has already said, I will be with you.

And now Moses complains that his mouth is heavy and he's clumsy. And God says, I will be with your mouth. It's a very specific promise to be whatever Moses needs.

I'm convinced that this is not just that Moses has stage fright or doesn't like public speaking, that he actually has a speech impediment. Because the phrase that's used to describe his mouth being heavy is there's a cognate or cousin phrase in Akkadian that describes an actual speech impediment. And the list of conditions that God responds to him with are also actual disabilities, deafness, muteness, being sighted or blind.

So God responds to him in that vein as well. This is amazing because Moses is being commissioned to go to Egypt and lead the people out, to confront Pharaoh and lead the people out. And Moses is disabled.

He has a speech impediment. And Moses thinks this disqualifies him. He should not be asked to do something that he's not good at.

And God indicates that he is well aware of Moses' disability, that he knows exactly what he's doing. It's like, who do you think made your mouth? Which is fascinating on so many levels. Not only does it indicate that God could call someone with a disability to do work that's going to be difficult for them to do, but that God is promising the resources they need.

But it also actually says that God makes people with disabilities, which is fascinating because I think sometimes we think of disability as that God makes the world good and perfect. And anyone who has a disability is like outside of that perfect will of God. Maybe it's a result of sin or a result of brokenness in the world or fallenness of creation.

But this indicates that God actually fulfills his purposes through people with a wide range of ability and disability. And I think we should at least factor this into our theology of disability. And I think it's an encouraging passage to anyone out there who finds themselves unable to do something or disabled in some way.

God is right there with Moses. He sees Moses' needs and he has planned to support him so that he can carry out what he's been called to do. Moses is not interested.

He says, pardon your servant, Lord, please just send someone else. And this is where God gets angry. And I think God's anger here is partly because of Moses' lack of trust that God has all of Moses' needs in mind and will give him what he needs, provide what he needs.

He says, what about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you and he will be glad to see you. This is beautiful because Moses has just now said, send someone else.

But this indicates that God has already commissioned Aaron and he's on his way to meet before Moses even objected. In other words, God knew about Moses' disability and he already had a spokesperson appointed to help him with this task. And now Moses is missing out on God's provision because he's complaining so much.

So this is a passage that invites us into trusting God, to trusting him with even those areas of our life where we feel weak or unable or ill-equipped to do what he's called us to do. If we trust him, he'll bring alongside us the support that we need. He says, you shall speak to him and put words in his mouth.

I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.

So beautiful scene where God is attending to all of what Moses needs to do the job he's been commissioned to do. So I just wanted to clarify, you think the burning bush was a real bush that was actually burned? Yes, I do. Yes.

Yep, I do. I think it was real. And the reason I brought up these other ideas about its symbolic significance is just to answer the question, why did God choose this means of showing up? And I don't know all of like, how did that work? I've seen people try to explain it as, well, acacia holds its shape while it's on fire.

So this must have been an acacia bush. And I don't know. I think it was a miraculous theophany.

So I don't know that we need that kind of explanation.