Exodus 3

Exodus 3:1

III. THE CALL OF MOSES (Chaps. 3, 4)A. The Revelation of Jehovah to Moses (Chap. 3)3:1-4 In tending the flock of Jethro, Moses learned valuable lessons about leading God’s people. When he went to Horeb (Mount Sinai), the Lord appeared to him in a bush that burned with fire but . . . was not consumed. The bush suggests the glory of God, before which he was told to stand with unshod feet. It might also foreshadow Jehovah’s dwelling in the midst of His people without their being consumed. And some have even seen in it the destiny of Israel, tried in the fires of affliction but not consumed. We should all be like the burning . . . bushburning for God, yet not consumed. 3:5 The Lord promised Moses that He would deliver His people from Egypt and bring them into a land of abundancethat is, Canaaninhabited by the six heathen nations listed in verse 8. The word “holy” occurs here for the first time in the Bible. By removing his sandals, Moses acknowledged that the place was holy. 3:6 God reassures Moses that He is the God of his forefathersAbraham and Isaac and Jacob. Cole shows the importance of this revelation: Moses brings no new or unknown god to his people, but a fuller revelation of the One whom they have known. Not even Paul’s words to the Athenians on the Areopagus are a fair parallel here (Act_17:23). The only true parallel is the continuing Self-revelation made by God in later centuries, culminating in the coming of Christ. Yet in its day the Mosaic revelation, while a fulfilment of patriarchal promises, was as new and shattering to Israel as the coming of the Messiah was later to prove to be. 3:7-12 Moses protested God’s sending him to Pharaoh, citing his own inadequacy. But the Lord assured Moses of His presence and promised that he would yet serve God on this mountain (Mount Sinai) with a liberated people. J. Oswald Sanders remarks: His inventory of disqualifications covered lack of capability (3:11), lack of message (3:13), lack of authority (Exo_4:1), lack of eloquence (Exo_4:10), lack of special adaptation (Exo_4:13), lack of previous success (Exo_5:23), and lack of previous acceptance (Exo_6:12). A more complete list of disabilities would be difficult to conjure up. But instead of pleasing God, his seeming humility and reluctance stirred His anger. “The anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses” (Exo_4:14). In point of fact, the excuses Moses advanced to show his incapacity were the very reasons for God’s selection of him for the task. 3:13, 14 Moses anticipated questions from the children of Israel when he returned to them as the Lord’s spokesman, and he wanted to be able to tell them who sent him. It was at this point that God first revealed Himself as Jehovah, the great I AM. Jehovah (more precisely Yahweh) comes from the Hebrew verb “to be,” he3ye3h. This sacred name is known as the tetragrammaton (“four letters”). English Jehovah comes from the Hebrew YHWH, with vowel markings supplied from Elohim and Adonai, other names of God. No one knows for sure the true pronunciation of YHWH because the ancient Hebrew spelling used no actual vowels in its alphabet.

However, the pronunciation “Yahweh” is probably correct. The Jews consider YHWH too sacred to utter. The name proclaims God as self-existent, self-sufficient, eternal, and sovereign. The fuller name I AM WHO I AM may mean I AM BECAUSE I AM or I WILL BE THAT I WILL BE. 3:15-22 Fortified by this revelation that God was really present and ready to come to His people’s aid, Moses was told to announce to the people of Israel that they would soon be free. Also, he was to test Pharaoh by requesting that the Israelites be allowed to travel three days’ journey to sacrifice to the LORD. This was not an attempt to deceive but a minimal test of Pharaoh’s willingness. It would also prevent the Egyptians from witnessing the slaying of animals that were sacred to them. God knew that Pharaoh wouldn’t yield until compelled by divine power. The wonders of verse 20 are the plagues that God sent on Egypt.

By the time God was finished with them, the Egyptians would be glad to give the Jewish women anything they asked! The wealth thus accumulated would only be just compensation for all the slave labor of the Jews under the taskmasters of Egypt. The Israelites did not “borrow” jewels and clothing (as in the KJV); they “asked” for them (NKJV). No deceit was involvedonly the just payment of wages.