Moses and the Burning Bush Exodus 3: 1-15 – 2024/9/15

September 15, 2024

Anything but Ordinary
“Moses and the Burning Bush”
Exodus 3: 1-15

Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl

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 Mount 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 spacious land, to 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. Now go, I am sending 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 serve 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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Moses and the Burning Bush Exodus 3: 1-15

We end this series the same way we started it…with a promise that God’s presence will guide us, God’s presence will lead us. We end this series the same way we started it…with a promise that God will be with the people of God. Yet now, the promise has expanded beyond an individual family. The promise now encapsulates the whole people of Israel, the promise encapsulates all the people of God. The promise now expands beyond Abraham and Sarah to include all the people of all generations. Past, present and future, as the people of God who can trace our roots back to Abraham and Sarah, we have promise that God is there, that God sees us, that God hears us, that God is with us, that God’s presence is there for us, that God will be the God we know God to be…faithful, steadfast, and loving from generation to generation.

And this promise comes to Moses, this promise comes to the people of God through God’s very own name…I am who I am. I am the God who made the impossible possible for Abraham and Sarah through the birth of Isaac. I am the God who watched over Jacob the trickster. I am the God who brought a family back together after years apart. I am the God who hears my people’s cries of suffering. I am the God who sees how the systems of oppression break my people’s spirits. I am the God who is still working in this world to bring healing and wholeness. I am the God who is calling forth prophets from the people in the pews to speak to the injustices of this world. I am the God who is bringing forth justice and grace for all of God’s people. I am who I am. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. I am the God of the people of God, ones whom I have named and claimed as my own, ones whom I love more than they could ever imagine. 

We get all this from that one phrase… “I Am Who I Am”. Yet, interestingly enough, there has been much debate within Biblical scholarship on just exactly how one translates the name which God tells Mose. Yes, it can be translated…I am who I am. It can also be translated as I will be who I will be. But this week, a commentator offered a different translation and for me, it changed my perception of this beloved story. It opened a door for new understanding. This scholar offered that God’s name can also be translated as “I am the one who causes things to pass” saying that this wording gets to the heart of Moses’ question, that Moses does not really want God’s name in that moment. Rather what Moses wants is the assurance that God will do this, that God will deliver on God’s promises, that God will set God’s people free. So when we go back and read the text this way, starting in verse 13…

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 the one who causes things to pass.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am the one who causes things to pass 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.”

Maybe it is where I am in my life. Or maybe it is what’s going on in the world.  But for me…reading the text this way puts a whole new spin on it for me. It is not just that God is sending Moses to be a prophet, the same Moses who will throw every excuse in the book as to why he can’t be the one to speak to the systems of Empire embodied in Pharaoh. It is this change of phrase shows us that God is sending Moses and nothing, nothing is going to stand in God’s way from bringing about healing and wholeness for God’s people. Moses can get on board or not but somehow, some way God is going to make a way out of no way.

Our God who causes the mountains to tremble, our God who brings the powerful down from their thrones, our God fills the hungry with good things and sends away the rich empty, our God who lifts up the lowly and scatters the proud, our God who sees the people’s suffering, our God who hears the people’s cries, Our God who shows us time and time again that this world will not have the last word, Our God who showed us that life will overcome death through the experience of the empty tomb, Our God who defies the systems of Empire, our God who will not let the people’s suffering stand, Our God who causes things to pass is here and now working in this world to bring about God’s Beloved Community here on Earth for all of God’s people and nothing, nothing is going to stand in God’s way. 

And for me, for us, that is all we need to know. Because for a time such as this, our God who causes things to pass, is calling us to prophets, is sending us to the Pharaohs to tell the systems of empire to set God’s people free. Our God who causes things to pass is here in our midst, challenging us, calling us, sending us and like Moses, we have been given reassurance that all of what God has promised will happen. And like Moses, we can get on board, or we can get out of the way because our God who is anything but ordinary, has heard the people’s cries, our God knows the people’s suffering, Our God is coming down to deliver the people from the systems which oppress them. Like Mose, we already know all this because as the people of God, we know that somehow, some way our God is going to make a way out of no way. Just like it was in the beginning. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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