Meet God for the first time, again.

Imagine you were Moses meeting God for the first time.  Self-reflection is a persistent past time for men of a certain age, men like Moses.  Moses had spent the last 40 years of his life drifting about the Arabian desert as a shepherd for a Midianite prince.  Life in the Arabian desert, as you can imagine, was difficult and desolate.  It was drastically different than the life Moses once lived.

 40 years ago, Moses had been a prince of Egypt.  He grew up in the palace of Pharaoh and was raised as though he were the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.  I say ‘raised as though he were the son’ because Moses was not in fact the natural born son of any Egyptian.  Moses was a Hebrew, born of a woman from the tribe of Levi.  How he came to be raised in Pharaoh’s palace is the fault of Pharoah himself.  Pharoah, in his contempt for the Hebrew people, ordered that every baby boy born to a Hebrew woman should be thrown into the Nile River.  Moses’ mother complied with this order; she just placed her newborn son in a floating basket first.  As God would have it, the basket that cradled the newborn child floated past Pharoah’s daughter, who feeling sorry for the abandoned child decided she would adopt him and raise him as her own. 

As the adopted grandson of Pharoah, Moses had access to the greatest teachers in the land.  He would have studied reading, writing, history, mathematics, geometry.  Moses was not groomed to be ruler, that position was thought to be the divine right of Pharoah’s son.  However, Moses would have learned the sills necessary for governing and maintaining the empire.  Moses also had the privileges of a prince of Egypt and all the comforts and luxuries that life could afford, and it could afford a lot.

Life in Egypt was good for Moses, that is until he killed a man.  At first Moses thought he got away with it.  He thought no one was looking when he took the man’s life.  He buried the body in the sand so that there would be no evidence of his crime.  But there was an eyewitness to the murder and that witness told someone who told someone who told someone who told Pharaoh what Moses had done.  Now, Pharaoh was not what you would call a champion for the sanctity of life; remember he was the one who ordered babies to be drown in the Nile River.  However, those were Hebrew babies, and the man Moses killed was an Egyptian soldier.  Pharaoh was enraged and tried to kill the ungrateful Moses for his betrayal.  Moses was fortunate to escape Egypt with his life.

The memory of the murder followed Moses into the Midianite wilderness.  Even now, 80 years later and on the far side of the Arabian desert, the guilt of his sin still haunted him.  It’s funny how the sins of the past can haunt a person.  Sins committed a lifetime ago; in the ignorance and arrogance of youth are often a constant companion throughout one’s life.  Even after those sins have been forgiven, the guilt, shame, remorse never really leaves us… I mean, never really left Moses.

Moses was all alone in the Midianite wilderness with nothing but the memories of his passed transgressions to keep him company, or so he thought.  Moses looked up and saw something he had not seen before, something likely nobody had ever seen before.  A bush in the distance was on fire, yet it was not burning up.  Moses decided he would “3… go over and see this strange sight” to see if he could figure out “why the bush did not burn up.”  And that’s when Moses learned he was not alone in the wilderness.  A voice “called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am”, Moses said, no doubt wondering who the voice belonged to and how the voice knew his name.  Moses didn’t have to wonder very long. The voice said, “6… I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” … “7… “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I know about their suffering.”  The voice identified himself to Moses as the God of his ancestors.  Moses, no doubt, had heard about this God, whether it was rumors whispered among the Hebrews in Egypt or tales told by the priests of Midian.  Moses had likely heard about the God who rained down fire and brimstone to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah; likely heard about the God who brought seven years of famine to humble mighty Egypt.  The God of his ancestors was said to be an all-powerful God.  So, it was not surprising to hear that same God had seen the misery, heard the crying, and knew the suffering of the Hebrew people enslaved in Egypt.  It was not surprising, but it may have been unsettling.  The God who sees, hears, and knows about the mistreatment administered by the slavedrivers in Egypt must, therefore, also have seen, heard, and known about the murder committed by Moses in Egypt. 

This realization, at least in part, explains why Moses “6… hid his face” and “was afraid to look at God”. It is unsettling to realize God sees, hears, and knows everything everyone has ever done.  It is unsettling to realize that even if there were no witnesses to the transgression, even if all the evidence has been concealed by the sands of time, God sees, God hears, and God knows what you have done… again, I mean what Moses had done. 

I imagine Moses kept his face hidden as God explained why he spoke from within the Burning Bush.  Moses clearly understood the gist of what God was saying to him, that God was sending Moses back to Egypt to deliver the Hebrews from the hands of the Egyptians.  However, Moses was understandably afraid to return to the scene of the crime, as it were.  So, Moses mustered up enough courage to ask “11… Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”  God, seeking to calm his fears, replied, “12… I will be with you”.  However, the thought of traveling with the all-seeing, all-hearing, all-knowing God was not a calming comfort for Moses.  At least not until Moses understood exactly who was offering to be his traveling companion.  Which is why Moses asked God, “What’s your name?”.  To us, this sounds like an odd question to ask, but Moses is not just asking how God would like to be addressed, Moses is asking God to reveal his nature, His character, His intentions.

“14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”  This name by which God identified Himself to Moses is more revealing than it at first appears.  First, the spelling of the name is as familiar to you as it was to Moses.  The Hebrew letters that make up the name “I AM” are the same Hebrew letters that are translated in our English bibles as “LORD”.  The pronunciation of this name in Hebrew is Yahweh, at least that is how we think it is pronounced.  The Hebrew people considered this name of God to be so holy that they would not speak it out loud and since the written name of God in the original Hebrew does not contain vowels, we don’t really know how the name “I AM” sounds.  Hebrew mystics have an interesting theory.  They suggest the Hebrew letters that make up the name Yahweh are the sound of a breath “Yah---weh”.  If the Hebrew mystics are correct, the first sound we make at birth (“Yah---weh”) and the last sound we make before death (“Yah---weh”) is the name of our God. The poet in me wants to believe this to be true, but more revealing than the pronunciation of God’s name is it’s meaning. 

The name by which God revealed Himself to Moses is the “to be” verb.  The God Who revealed Himself to Moses is neither passive nor inactive.  Rather, God revealed Himself to Moses as an individual Who is actively engaged and personally involved and not just for a moment in time but for all eternity.  An interesting thing about the Hebrew language is it does not have temporal tense in the same way as English has.  Meaning in Hebrew there is no past, present, or future tense.  Rather, Hebrew communicates an action as completed or ongoing.  When God revealed Himself to Moses as “I AM”, he revealed Himself as the ongoing God.  Later, in the book of Revelation, God would reveal Himself as the “who is and who was, and who is to come”[1].  With His name I AM, God pointed back in time to past promises that were made and kept to people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob so that Moses would understand he was working with a God who does what He says and says He will do.  With His name I AM, God pointed to His presence in the present to assure Moses that His God was not a “has been” or a “will be”, but rather, His God was with him now to provide all that was needed and to protect him from all that threatened.  With His name I AM, God pointed forward in time when His people would be delivered from slavery and brought to a paradise.

The name of I AM should have been a source of comfort and confidence for Moses.  The God that burned in the bush, who is all-seeing, all-hearing, all-knowing had not come to destroy, rather, He had come to deliver.  Unfortunately, it took Moses a while to find comfort and confidence in the name of God.  But in all fairness, it is easier for us to look back and imagine what it was like for Moses than it was for Moses to look forward and imagine what it is like for us.  You see, there is one more thing about the name of God that was not revealed to Moses but has been revealed to us.  The all-seeing, all-hearing, all-knowing God that burned in the bush, the God who is and who was, and who is to come who revealed Himself to Moses as “I AM” has revealed Himself to us by another name… and that name is Jesus.  The all-seeing, all-hearing, all-knowing God who appeared to Moses in the burning Bush is Jesus.  The God who is and who was, and who is to come who revealed Himself to Moses as the “I AM” is Jesus. Jesus did not come to destroy us, rather Jesus came to deliver us… I mean He came to deliver Moses.

Were you able to imagine yourself as someone standing before the Burning Bush full of guilt and regret?   Were you able to imagine why someone might hide their face from the all-seeing, all-hearing, all-knowing God?  Were you able to imagine the comfort and confidence one receives from knowing the name of the God who keeps his promises, who is our constant companion, and leads His people to a paradise?  Though this event occurred ~3,500 years ago, I am guessing it wasn’t difficult to imagine you were Moses meeting God for the first time.  Which means it shouldn’t be difficult for you to get to know God even better. You know, Moses spent the last 40 years of his life getting to know God extremely well.  They went camping together atop a mountain and went on a really, really, really long road trip throughout the Sinai Peninsula.  There were some deep discussions atop the mountain and the occasional disagreement on the road trip, but the God who appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush and revealed Himself to Moses as the “I AM”, that same God was with Moses till the very end.  In fact, we are told that God was with Moses when He died and God personally laid Moses’ body to rest. I hope you were able to imagine what it was like for Moses to meet God for the first time, and I am hoping, like Moses, you take the time to get to know God even better.  Amen

[1] Revelation 1:8