Exodus Pt 2

 

  

 

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It All Starts With

A Burning Bush

 

At the end of Chapter 2, Moses has fled Egypt to avoid prosecution for murder, gotten himself married to a nice young woman name of Zipporah and had a son they name Gershom; the Israelites have cried out to God for help against their Egyptian taskmaster and God has taken notice of them.

 

Which brings us to Chapter 3 and one of those familiar Bible Stories many of us recall either from Sunday School or the David Steinberg routine on his “Disguised as a Normal Person” LP: Moses and the Burning Bush. I’ll try to stick at least a bit closer to the version in the New Revised Standard Version than Mr. Steinberg does in his hilarious comedy routine. But it’s easy to see how he was inspired.

Anyway…

Moses is in Midian, tending to a flock of sheep belonging to his father-in-law Jethro, when he spots a bush on fire. Entertainment of any variety being at a premium to a shepherd, he goes over to check it out and is surprised to see that the bush is not being affected in any way by the flames, kind of like the ceramic logs in a gas fireplace, although we can be confident he didn’t make that connection. Then, when the voice of God comes out of the bush, his curiosity is really piqued and he tries to get even closer, but God tells him to take his sandals off first on account of it being holy ground. This is where Steinberg has a bit of fun with the idea that God gleefully exclaims “Got another one!” when Moses scorches his bare feet, but we’re not going to go there.

Just to make sure Moses knows who he is talking to, God identifies himself as “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”, which causes Moses to cover his face out of fear of looking God of all those important ancestors in the face. As there isn’t anything in the next few verses to indicate otherwise, it seems Moses keeps his eyes covered for the rest of their conversation. But as God does most of the talking it doesn’t seem to make much difference.

First God tells Moses that the Israelites are having a rough time in Egypt, and he has a plan to get them out of there. Not only that, but he will lead them to a land of milk and honey that is currently inhabited by some undeserving Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who probably have no idea that an eviction notice is in their future. The person he wants to make the arrangements with Pharaoh for this emigration from Egypt is, you guessed it, Moses.

Moses is none too keen on the plan and he starts to come up with reasons why he’s not the right man for the job. Reason one being he thinks it very unlikely the Israelites will believe him if he comes strutting back home with some story about being appointed by God to lead them out of Egypt. What if they ask him God’s name, just to make sure he’s not working for one of the less reliable deities? This is where God delivers one of his signature lines, a real corker that the author delivers in all upper case,

“I AM WHO I AM. Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.”

One must admit it is simple, catchy, memorable, especially when delivered in the sort of rolling, thunderous voice one would associate with burning but not consumed bushes. Give it a try and see how it rolls off the tongue. “I AM WHO I AM!” See? Sounds impressive. But then if you step back and reread that bit it’s unclear as to whether the name is supposed to be “I AM” or “I AM WHO I AM”, if you see what I mean. But Moses, eyes closed, feet warm, and possibly wondering what the sheep are getting up to while he’s being distracted, likely doesn’t have the presence of mind at the time to inquire further. Fortunately, God gives him more to work with.

“Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.”

That should answer any questions the elders back home have about the authenticity of his commission.

God repeats his milk and honey promise and tells Moses that he wants him to go to Pharaoh and ask for permission to take the Israelites three days’ journey out of town to worship God. God says that Pharaoh is unlikely to agree to this unless he is “compelled by a mighty hand”. He promises to supply said mighty hand “and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will perform in it; after that he will let you go.” And then he says the Israelites should knock on the doors of their Egyptian neighbors and ask for any gold, silver, and fine fabrics laying around the house and expect it all to be forked over with no objections because “I will bring this people into such favor with the Egyptians.”  

(Possible Spoiler Alert and Personal Quibble) We all know that the “wonders” God is alluding to is a series of plagues involving frogs, boils, locusts and other inconveniences that will affect not just Pharaoh but darned near everyone in Egypt. So why in the world would the Egyptian people cheerfully hand over their family heirlooms to the folks they could with complete justification blame for their water turning to blood and all their firstborn children dying? Or does “into such favor” mean something other than what it sounds like to us, like “The Egyptians will give you anything, just to see the backside of your donkey heading into the East.”?

Moses still isn’t crazy about being recruited into the job, and Chapter 4 opens with him once again trying to beg out of the job.

“But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me,”

God, who I’m thinking isn’t too happy at what could be considered a mild form of insubordination, keeps his cool and has Moses do a couple of simple things with his staff and his hands that turn into nifty feats of legerdemain. “See?” he says. “With me on your side you can turn your staff into a snake and back to a staff, and your hand a nasty leprous white and back to glowing with health. That’ll convince ‘em. And if all else fails, I’ve got this one where you turn water into blood. No, you don’t need to do it now, but trust me, it never fails.” (I’m paraphrainge)

But Moses isn’t done trying to weasel out. He claims a lack of eloquence, saying he is “slow of speech and slow of tongue” (not a paraphrase). God, getting just a little testy at this resistance, reminds Moses who he is speaking with. “Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.” (Also, not a paraphrase. I think it should be pretty easy to spot the difference by now, so these parenthetical asides are being retired unless I think one is really necessary.)

Moses isn’t ready to give up yet and he just flat out says,

“O, my Lord, please send someone else.”

But once God sets his mind on bringing someone into the company, he’s usually stubborn about getting his way, so he tells Moses he can have his brother Aaron, a charter member of the Goshen Chapter of Toastmasters, do the actual public speaking for him. God will tell Moses what to tell Aaron to say and that should be the end of the discussion, don’t make me have to step out of this bush, if you know what I mean?

Moses takes the assignment. He asks his employer/father-in-law for some personal time to visit the extended family in Egypt, and heads out with his wife, their sons (notice the plural here, so Gershom now has at least one sibling), a donkey, and, of course, his magical staff, and turns toward Egypt. On the way he gets some additional details from God about what to expect. For one thing, he should expect Pharaoh to be difficult about the whole thing and the reason Pharaoh is going to be difficult is because God will “harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.” When this happens, Moses (through brother Aaron I suppose) is to tell Pharaoh that since God considers the Israelites his firstborn, if Pharaoh won’t let them go God will kill Pharaoh’s firstborn son.

This is what I like to call Old Testament diplomacy.

Then, in verses 24-26, we have a little scene that, although I’ve read it over more than a few times, I just don’t quite get what is going on. Here it is verbatim. See what you think.

24  On the way, at a place where they spent the night, the LORD met him and tried to kill him. 25  But Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched Moses’ feet with it, and said, “Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!”  26  So he let him alone. It was then she said, “A bridegroom of blood by circumcision.”

So God tried to kill Moses and was thwarted by a foreskin? Or was it Gershom (or Gershom’s brother?) God snuck up on with bad intent because he hadn’t been circumcised yet and Zipporah took away his motive just in time? What’s all this about being a bridegroom of blood? And what was going through Moses’ mind when his wife was dabbing at his feet with a freshly amputated foreskin?

Let’s wrap up this chapter.

Chapter 4 ends with Moses meeting up with Aaron and the two of them making their case for abandoning the Land o’ Goshen to the elders and general population, who find their arguments convincing.

 

Next up I will try my darndest to get us through the plagues in one piece.

 

 

*The Mission at Santa Barbara. Pretty, isn't it? There's a nice rose garden nearby.