Now
Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian,
and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to God’s mountain,
to Horeb. Yahweh’s angel appeared to him in a flame of fire out of
the middle of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the
bush was not consumed. Moses said, “I will go now, and see this great
sight, why the bush is not burned.”
When
Yahweh saw that he came over to see, God called to him out of the middle of the
bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!”
Moses
said, “Here I am.”
God
said, “Don’t come close. Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing
on is holy ground.” Moreover, He said, “I am the God of your father,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
Moses
hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.
Yahweh
said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and
have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. I
have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring
them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk
and honey. Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me.
Moreover, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come
now therefore, and I will send you to challenge Pharaoh, that you may bring my
people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
Moses
said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring
the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
God
said, “Certainly I will be with you.
Exodus 3:1-12
Again,
the dual themes of asymmetry and proximity reveal themselves.
God
appears as mysterious fire and warns Moses that he cannot approach too
close. Moses must remove his sandals in recognition
of the sacredness of the space God occupies.
Later in the story, the Israelites will be warned not to touch Mount
Sinai as God descends onto it amid thunder, lightning, trumpet blasts and earthquakes.
Moses is afraid to look at God and
indeed God will warn him in the coming chapters that no one can see God and
live.
But
Moses will later see God “face-to-face” and Jacob will be renamed, “Israel,”
because he wrestled with God and lives. In
Genesis, Abraham’s wife, Sarah, marvels that she looked upon God and lived. And God has arrived to deliver a message of warmth,
nearness, and loving concern. He is with
us, and although He evidently cannot free us from suffering, He suffers with us. He frees us from the slavery of being one
little mote in a vast universe and places us squarely in the center of His palm.
Mount Sakurajima, Japan
