Exodus 3:1-4:13

[alon]

This Week’s Readings:
Parashah- Exodus 3:1-4:13
Haftara- Isaiah 40:11-19

D’rash: Exodus 3:1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
* Note that Horeb is the mountain on which Adonai later will give Moshe the Ten Commandments. It could be said that this one event was the lynchpin of Torah; the vav which holds His people together. Note too there are two lists, both valid as they are in Torah and we are therefore responsible for them:
** Exodus 20:2-17 and again in Deuteronomy 5:6-21
** Exodus 34:10-28

Exodus 3:2-4 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
* In the p'shat, the fire is obviously God speaking to Moses out of a bush. An interesting midrash says:
** Once a heathen asked Rabbi Joshua ben Korha, "Why did your God appear to Moses in such a lowly type of bush?" The Rabbi answered him, "If it had been a carob tree or a sycamore, would you not have asked the same question? But, I will answer you. Why in a thorn bush? To teach us there is no place where the Divine Presence is not to be found, even in a lowly bush."
** Moshe took the trouble to look, seeing something miraculous where others may have seen only the mundane. In this we see a pattern established that carries forward as a biblical principle: El-Roiy, God Who Sees Me (Gen16:13) almost always seeks us out as we seek Him. He meets us where we are at, then guides us to His will as we yield. I often find when I am doing these parashot God will take my thoughts deeper than I could ever go on my own. This is how I worship- seeking God and letting Him show me the sod, or deeper meanings.
** So as Moshe looks to this miraculous sight, Adonai calls to him just as He once did to Avram who would stand on this mountain as Moshe does now. And Moshe answers is the same: הִנֵּֽנִי hineni, ‘Here I am’ (Gen 22:1). This is the appropriate answer when God calls. It does not just mean we are there, but that we are engaged, attentive, wanting to hear what that still, small voice has to say. It should also imply a willingness to act; to obey.

Exodus 3:7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,
* Our God is a God who remembers. We’ve said this before. However He acts in His own time and for His own purposes. Four hundred    years, but now He, and they are ready.

Exodus 3:8 and 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 broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
* An interesting thing to note here is that Cana’an (Israel) was never a sovereign state, nor even associated with any one people other than God’s people, Israel. Deu 7:1 lists seven nations, or city-states that lived there. For three thousand years since the only actual people to lay claim to Cana’an as a homeland and establish a nation there have been the Hebrews. The so called “Palestinians” were never a cohesive group, and never wanted the land until the Jewish settlers made it prosper and called it their own.
* Another thing is “milk and honey” means something different here than what we might understand. Most Christian teaching says they will have an easy time there with lots of food for the taking. Initially yes, they took food they did not produce, but I’d say that food was hard won in battle. However the milk was goats milk, which also indicates meat and hides and other byproducts. The honey would have been date honey, which is very nutritious and very good. But this indicates agriculture, which is never easy. They would have to work for their food. And in fact, farming the hill country of Israel would be much harder than farming in Mitzrayim. And shepherding goats and sheep was very demanding work. Seeking out good pasture and water meant long walks herding livestock, looking for pasture without toxic weeds but with ample roughage.

Exodus 3:9-17 (redacted)  And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you, … and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”’
* Of course, when given the calling of the Most High one should be ready to act. Sadly we usually are at least hesitant, if not downright  disobedient. “I AM” said you, why ask “Who am I?” Because we look to ourselves instead of the Eternal One.

Exodus 3:13-16  Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers 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.” [אֲשֶׁר הָיָה הָיָה hâyâh ‘ăsher hâyâh “I am what I am,” or “I will be what I will be”] And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am [הָיָה hâyâh] has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord,[YHWH, here connected with the verb הָיָה hayah, “to be”] the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt,
* Notice the Lord gives us not just a name, but a descriptive name as well. The first, הָיָה hayah has four possible (each very accurate)  meanings:
 1. I Am What I Am
 2. I Am Who I Am
 3. I will Be What I Will Be
 4. I Will Be Who I Will Be
* Also interesting is this name is never again mentioned in Torah, whereas the descriptive name “the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” is commonly used. Indeed, the actual name YHVH is not used by either Jews or Christians; partly so as not to make it common and partly because its pronunciation was lost in the Babylonian exile. Therefore out of respect to not say it incorrectly the Jews say “Adonai” or “Ha’Shem” and the Christians “LORD.”
* The τετραγράμματον Tetragrammaton (consisting of] four letters'), is the Hebrew theonym יהוה YHWH (yud hey vav hey) in Judaism and Christianity. It is a form of הָיָה hâyâh, and has connotations of "to cause to become", or "to come to pass,” It is an indication that He is the Self Existent One; His independence/ self-existence, is defined that God does not need his creation, including (especially) us, yet it pleases Him that we glorify Him and enter into His joy. Another term for God’s self-existence is His aseity (from the Latin a se, “existence derived from itself, having no other source”).
* The one time use of אֲשֶׁר הָיָה הָיָה hâyâh ‘ăsher hâyâh and the more common “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” tells us that while He is known to us as one who is unexplainable He is not unreachable. According to Dennis Prager “Given that in the Torah names indicate essence, “YHVH” tells us the essence of God is being. God simply cannot be explained any further, anything else simply anthropomorphizes God. God simply “Is.””

In our text Moshe continues to make excuses, and Elohim answers each and gives him a sign:
Exodus 4:12-13 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”
* God tells him in no uncertain terms to go (the Hebrew is very forceful and direct, “לך ַעתּה lak ‛attâh- get going, now!” Yet Moshe still  equivocates:
** Exodus 3:10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant,  but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”
* Some infer from this Moshe had a speech impediment. I’d have my doubts as this would later bar him from participation in any type  service in the Mishkan.
** He is still making excuses, saying he is not an orator. But God doesn’t want great orators who might think things are done by their  efforts. He wants humble men who will well know and say who it is that does great things for His people.

Mekorot: all scripture from the ESV unless otherwise noted; JPS Study TNK; Dennis Prager; Dr C Parker; several reference books; my father and others

* Apostolic references given in the darashot

[alon]

Addendum to parashah:

Exodus 3:1(KJV) Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
Horeb- H2722  חֹרֵב  chôrêv; desolate; waste; generic name for the Sinaitic mountains; a place of no purpose
* There is (of course) a lot of scholarly dispute about whether Horeb and Sinai are the same mountain.
** However, as I read this Horeb, like Sinai may also refer to the region or, perhaps the mountain range.
* Jerusalem actually sits atop a range of rugged mountains.
** It rests on seven hills, the easternmost of which is the Mt. of Olives.
** The eastern (back) side of this hill drops steeply into the Rift.
*** When Torah speaks of the desert, this slope from just NE of Jerusalem south past the Dead Sea is the area it is talking about.
*** I can easily see this region being called “חֹרֵב chôrêv; desolate; waste; a place of no purpose.”
* Another of those ambiguous readings which is difficult to transliterate, especially for contemporary western minds.
** But the way I read this he could have been looking at any part of that mountain range in the area where Yerushalayim would one day sit.

Moshe spent about 40 years with his father-in-law Jethro. Shepherding was considered to be the training ground for leaders. You’d be out for long periods of time, responsible for every animal in your charge. You had to find good pasture in an arid land, good water, and protected bedding ground (among many other good things the stock needed) and all the while keeping them away from dangerous weeds, bad water, and wild animals. You watched, alone with your thoughts; and for those called, with their God:
“The learning of Egypt was not sufficient to equip Moses for his life-work. He is taken to the solitudes of the wilderness. That is God’s college. All who have done the greatest work in the world have graduated there-Elijah at Horeb, Ezekiel at Chebar, Paul in Arabia, and John in Patmos. God’s workers may take their arts course in the universities, but must take their Divinity course alone with Him.” FB Meyer
* As we discussed in the parashah, Moshe looked for His God in the mundane. He saw his God because he bothered to look again at  something others may have dismissed as just a common Dictamnus Albus (see next para) doing its thing. Where others might see the  mundane, he saw a miracle; he saw his God.
* He would still try to disengage when given his calling, but in the end he goes and is used of God to bring about the redemptive act that  lays the groundwork for an even greater redemption later- that of my own salvation and yours!

Exodus 3:2-4 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
In Israel, the Dictamnus Albus is a flowering plant of the Rutaceae family which intermittently excretes such a large volume of volatiles that an ignition source near the flowers and seedpods causes the plant to be enveloped by flame which quickly extinguishes without injury to the plant.
* However the Exodus account describes a flame that lasted long enough to get Moses attention, make the trip up to the plant and converse at some length with Adonai. Just my opinion, but this oddity of a plant was probably given as a type, or reminder of Gods awesome creative power and the deliverance of His people. This has become an enduring metaphor for the Jewish people.
* Furthermore, the Hebrew word translated as bush is "seneh" (סנה), which refers to brambles. And this kind of fire is distinctively a symbol of God. The fire surrounding the thorn bush could be a picture of God protecting His people in their bondage. The fire being God, His awesome might surrounding and protecting the Hebrews rather than consuming them. The bush of thorns obviously the Hebrews in their affliction. It also points prophetically to a future time when this new nation will bring forth this same God who will wear a crown of thorns for them and us.
* “The angel of the Lord”- this is pretty specific. I believe this was Yeshua in a pre-incarnate manifestation. He only speaks, however He is called The Word: (John 1:1). “In a flame of fire”- fire usually is representative of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh. So this is a manifestation of the Spirit of Elohim present as well. God is One. He appeared “out of the midst of a bush” and not on it, as if the bush was ‘on fire.’
* bush- סְנֶה seneh- to prick; a bramble: - bush.
** The term סְנֶה soneh is only used six times in all scripture: in this passage (5 times) and once in Deu 33:16 which makes a reference back  to this event.
** For this reason I think Moshe’s experience with the bush and his Elohim was unique, and everything about it was unique, singular to this  event.