Exodus 3, the burning bush

Something that strikes me as a little funny: when some people try to 'prove' that the Bible is a myth or allegorical or something like that, one of the ways they do it is to ridicule Noah's Flood, or Jonah and the whale, or the 'talking snake' in Eden. But I have never heard Exodus 3 made light of. I have never heard anyone call Moses delusional or the story made up. Maybe I just haven't read enough...

Moses was attracted to this strange bush out of curiosity -- it was burning but it didn't burn up. Suddenly, face to face with God, he was afraid. Again it needs to be emphasized that the reaction we see over and over again in the Bible when someone is confronted by an angel or God is fear. There is no such thing as a casual encounter with God!

Moses is eighty now, or almost. Life should be drawing to a close now, or at least soon. He is still strong and agile enough to work as a shepherd, and, in fact, his father-in-law is also still alive and Moses is working for him! It may seem that this would mean his father-in-law was a very old man, but that is not necessarily true. Moses married in his forties. He probably married a girl in her teens or, at the most, early twenties. His father-in-law, therefore, could have been his age or even a bit younger! Of course, he also might have been older.

At any rate, this is the life Moses figured to live from now until his death.

God figured differently.

When Moses asks God "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" God does NOT tell him "I raised you up for this." God does not answer his question at all. Instead, God says, "I will be with you."

When Moses asks God for His Name, God tells him, "I AM WHO [or 'that which'] I AM." In the Hebrew, this has a sense of both past and continuing (into the future) present tense and meaning. As such, it ties in with other times God said the same:

Isaiah 44:6 -- This is what the Lord says --
Israel's King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty:
I am the first and I am the last;
apart from me thre is no God.

In John 4, talking to the Samaritan woman at the well, as well as a couple of other times, Jesus used the double "I am" phrase in the Greek "Ego eimi", or "I am I AM", tying Himself directly to the God who spoke to Moses.

In Revelation 1:17, Jesus identifies Himself to John as I am the First and the Last.

All of these and more tie together to proclaim the eternal nature of God, the God who spoke to Moses in the burning bush.

And so God gives the orders to Moses: go to he elders of Israel and proclaim God has spoken. Each woman is to ask her neighbor for things of silver and gold.

God says it will all come to pass.

Moses was 80. What an assignment! Go tell Pharaoh to let the people go.