Forty years into keeping sheep, Moses turns aside to look at a bush that is on fire and not burning up, and the voice from it sends him back to Egypt. What follows is a negotiation: Moses raises five objections — who am I, what is your name, they won’t believe me, I can’t speak, send someone else — and God answers each one, until the last, which only makes Him angry. On the road back, God nearly kills Moses over a neglected duty, and his wife saves his life with a flint knife.
A study in Exodus 3-4 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 9 min read
The Bush Burned With Fire
“And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed… put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”
Exodus 3:2, 5
A common desert thornbush, alight and not burning up. It is the picture of Israel in the furnace of Egypt — afflicted, and not destroyed — and of God’s presence in the middle of the affliction. The ground is holy not because of the mountain but because of who is standing on it. And the voice identifies itself as “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” — the same covenant-keeper Jacob gripped at the Jabbok.
I Am Come Down To Deliver Them
“I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Exodus 3:7-8
Seen, heard, know, come down. This is the answer to the groaning of Exodus 2:24. God does not send help from a distance; He comes down. The whole shape of the Gospel is here in one verse — a God who hears the cry of slaves and comes down to bring them out.
Who Am I
“And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, Certainly I will be with thee.”
Exodus 3:11-12
Forty years ago Moses was sure he was the man for this (Exodus 2:11-12). Now he is sure he is not. God does not argue the point about Moses; He changes the subject to Himself: I will be with thee. The question was never whether Moses is adequate.
“The fact that a man feels his weakness is at least some evidence that he realizes the magnitude of the work appointed him, and that he will make God his counselor and his strength.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 255
I AM That I AM
“And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you… this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.”
Exodus 3:14-15
The name is a sentence about being: the One who simply is, self-existent, dependent on nothing, unchanging. From it comes the LORD — the covenant name printed in small capitals all through the Old Testament. Centuries later a teacher in Galilee would say, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), and His hearers picked up stones, because they knew exactly which name He had just claimed.
What Is That In Thine Hand
“And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand.”
Exodus 4:2-4
God works with what Moses already has — a shepherd’s stick — and it will part a sea and strike a rock before the book is done. The second sign is worse: Moses puts his own hand inside his cloak and pulls it out white with leprosy, then whole again. God can make His messenger a picture of the disease and a picture of the cure. Moses is still not persuaded.
I Am Not Eloquent
“And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent… but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth?… have not I the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.”
Exodus 4:10-12
The first objections came from real humility. This one, after God has answered every difficulty, has curdled into something else. When Moses finally says “send… by the hand of him whom thou wilt send,” “the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses.” God gives him Aaron as a mouthpiece — a concession that will cost Israel a golden calf later on.
“But after the Lord had promised to remove all difficulties, and to give him final success, then any further shrinking back and complaining of his unfitness showed distrust of God.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 254
A Bloody Husband
“And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.”
Exodus 4:24-25
It is a startling, compressed scene. Moses is on his way to demand that Pharaoh let God’s son go, and he has not put the covenant sign (Genesis 17) on his own son. A leader cannot enforce a command he is quietly breaking. Zipporah does what Moses would not, and the danger lifts. The man about to walk into the greatest peril of his life is safe only while he is not neglecting a known duty.
“But while living in neglect of a known duty, he would not be secure; for he could not be shielded by the angels of God.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 255
The People Believed
“And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.”
Exodus 4:31
Everything Moses feared — that they would not believe him, that they would say the LORD had not appeared — does not happen. Aaron speaks, the signs are done, and the people bow and worship. It is a high point, and it will not last past the first setback. In the next chapter Moses walks into Pharaoh’s court, and the bricks get harder.
“The divine command given to Moses found him self-distrustful, slow of speech, and timid… But having once accepted the work, he entered upon it with his whole heart, putting all his trust in the Lord.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 255
