Text Study for Genesis 2-4 - "The Name of God"

Prayer of the Day

God of all people, you remembered your children who were enslaved in Egypt, and by the power of your name you set them free. Remember us and free us from slavery to sin by the power of your name. We pray this in Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

Reading: Exodus 2:23-25; 3:1-15; 4:10-17

This week we jump ahead many years, from Jacob in the land promised to Abraham to his descendants in slavery in Egypt. Jacob’s son, Joseph, brought his family to Egypt to escape a serious famine where they lived, but after many generations, the children of Israel (Jacob’s other name) had grown numerous and were enslaved by the kings of Egypt to keep them from threatening the king’s control. 

^2:23-25After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. ²⁴God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ²⁵God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.

^3:1-15Moses 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. ²There 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. ³Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." 

⁴When 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." ⁵Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." ⁶He 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.
⁷Then 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, ⁸and 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. ⁹The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. ¹⁰So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt." 

¹¹But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" ¹²He 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."
¹³But 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?" ¹⁴God 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.'" ¹⁵God 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.”

^4:10-17But Moses said to the LORD, "O my LORD, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." ¹¹Then the LORD said to him, "Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? ¹²Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak." ¹³But he said, "O my LORD, please send someone else." ¹⁴Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, "What of your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak fluently; even now he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you his heart will be glad. ¹⁵You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. ¹⁶He indeed shall speak for you to the people; he shall serve as a mouth for you, and you shall serve as God for him. ¹⁷Take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs."

COMMENTARY & QUESTIONS

1. We jump ahead again this week, this time several hundred years. 
2. In Exodus 1:8, we are told that a new king/pharaoh arises who “did not know Joseph.” That Hebrew word is yada, and it is used again in Exodus 2:25 when God “took notice of them.” This is a translator’s interpretive move: the Hebrew simply reads, “God knew.” 
1. Do you think there might be a purpose in using the same word in these different ways? If so, how would you explain it?
3. Moses resists God’s call in five ways, shown below with God’s responses to each point:
1. “Who am I that I should speak for God?” 
1. “I will be with you.” 
2. “Who are you? Who do I say sent me?” 
1. “I AM WHO I AM - tell them I AM sent you. Tell them the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sent you.” 
3. “They (the enslaved Israelites) won’t trust me.”
1. God gives two signs Moses can perform as proof, and promises a third if the first two aren’t enough. 
4. “I am slow of speech and tongue.” 
1. “Who made that mouth and tongue? Now GO: I will be with you.” 
5. “Please send someone else!” 
1. “Your brother Aaron is a good speaker - I will send him with you to speak for you.”

1. Walter Brueggeman writes: “God’s action in the world is undertaken by human agents who are summoned into YHWH’s dangerous service…the odd joining of God and human history is done through the vulnerable, risk-taking body of Moses, on whom everything now depends.” Does this quotation inform your thinking about Moses’ reluctance?
2. Terry Fretheim notes, "The oft-noted speech disability of Moses is striking in this context -- an inarticulate human being holds his own in debate with God!”

4. Many churches using the Narrative Lectionary will have the hymn Here I Am, Lord during worship this week. The way Moses speaks the phrase implies not only location, but acknowledgment of his name and a willingness to serve an obviously superior being. Given what follows once Moses learns God’s plans, do you think most congregations will sense the irony in the hymn choice when compared to Moses ‘willingness’ to serve?
5. What questions do you have about this reading?