Upcoming Sunday Old Testament Readings
Sunday 3 September 2017
Exodus 3:1-15
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.” But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’“ God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.
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There are multiple points of focus that one could center on in this reading. It is here that the name of God is revealed: “I am who I am.” The thing that is remarkable about this is that this name isn’t that simple. Translating this is difficult. This name can also be “I have been who I have been” and “I will be who I will be.” The beauty of this is that it is a reminder that God cannot be put into a box. There are no limitations with God. God specializes in doing the impossible. This reading shows that fact. Moses is drawn to God by a bush that is fully engulfed in flames but not consumed by the flames. This scene is utterly impossible, and Moses knows this. God uses that impossible fact to draw Moses in and make him attentive.
This reading also says something about worthiness before God. It is here that God calls Moses and sends him for a specific task, to lead the people of God in the name of God to the promises of God. Moses feels utterly unqualified for this calling. The part that terrifies him the most is the thought of standing before Pharaoh. The ironic part of that fear is that Moses was raised within the family of Pharaoh, so he knew well the environment into which God was sending. Of course, we should remember that this fear is likely driven also by the knowledge that Pharaoh had been seeking his life after he had killed an Egyptian and fled into the wilderness to escape Pharaoh’s anger. But this is not the chief cause of Moses’ reluctance to answer this call. He truly does not believe that he is capable of accomplishing what God has commanded him to do. And if we were in Moses’ shoes, we likely would feel the same way. For us, the story of the call of Moses is and should be a reminder that when God calls us, he equips us to do what we are called to do. God does not set us up for failure. The calling of God and the gifts of God are intertwined. The call of God will bear fruits, not because of the mere mortal, but because of the faithfulness of God.
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Father Timothy Alleman
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