THURSDAY
Now we come in the conversation to God’s response to Moses’ shame and insecurities. Here is the beautiful, surprising picture to addressing shame in our lives.
Exodus 3:11-12 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
I love God’s response to this question. Conventional knowledge teaches us to answer this question by affirming the individual. Conventional knowledge would say, “No! You’re great! You’re a prince of Egypt. You have to remember who you are.” (Simba, Moana, every Disney movie.) This is not God’s response. God simply tells him, “I will be with you,” as if to affirm Moses’ lack of ability to accomplish this in himself. Yet, this affirms him as well. God has chosen him! He is God’s servant to bring about the deliverance of Israel from slavery in the most powerful nation on earth.
Exodus 3:13-15 13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
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.’ ”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, 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, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.
So Moses asks God’s name and God gladly shares it: “I Am.” “God” is not God’s name; it is his nature. He is divine. In the history of the faith, we have come to simply refer to him as God out of reverence for him. God’s personal name is pronounced Yahweh.*
Remember, this is not just a label. This says something about his character. God’s name reveals that he is eternally existent. He has life in himself. On this Ross and Oswalt write:
“God’s response was that he is the I Am. That is, he is the one eternally self-existent being in the universe, the one upon which all other beings depend for their existence. He is the one being who is absolutely noncontingent. He is complete in himself and does not depend on any other thing for his being. He is utterly other than his creation. Furthermore, he is the one for whom all time is now. The book of Revelation signifies this truth by saying that he is “the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come” (Rev 1:4, 8). When Jesus applied the “I Am” to himself, the Jews knew exactly what he was saying and tried to stone him for blasphemy (John 8:58–59). So the one who offers deliverance to his people is also the one who is without any of the limitations of creation.” - Allen Ross and John N. Oswalt, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Genesis, Exodus, vol. 1 (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2008), 311.
God goes on to say some more about what he is going to do through Moses, but for sake of time we will fast forward to the third question in chapter 4.
(For the remainder of this passage, because it plays such an important part in the meaning, I will use God’s name, Yahweh, when the Hebrew text uses that word instead of the English translation, “LORD.”)
Exodus 4:1-9
1 Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘Yahweh did not appear to you’?”
2 Then Yahweh said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he replied.
3 Yahweh said, “Throw it on the ground.”
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then Yahweh said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 “This,” said Yahweh, “is so that they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”
6 Then Yahweh said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow.
7 “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
8 Then Yahweh said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. 9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”
In response to Moses’ insecurity about his ability to persuade the Israelites, God shows him these amazing signs to prove that Yahweh did indeed send him. All three of these signs point back to God’s name—“I Am.” Each of them deals with the power to transform from life to death and vice versa. Snakes are dangerous creatures that can kill. Disease obviously can lead to death. The Nile was Egypt’s life source.
Interestingly, the snake and a shepherd’s crook were a symbols of Pharaoh’s power. Ancient Egyptian art depicts the Pharaohs with a cobra on their heads and a shepherd’s crook in their hands. This is a sign from God directly challenging the power of the Pharaoh. It also would point the reader back to Genesis 3 and the serpent in the garden. Pharaoh, then, is painted as the one through whom Satan is operating to oppress Yahweh’s people and attempt to thwart his purposes.
The Nile turning to blood is the first of the ten plagues, so this is likely referring to all of the plagues.
These miraculous displays of Yahweh’s power are meant to convince three groups of people that Yahweh is God—Moses, the Israelites and the Egyptians.
Exodus 4:10-12 10 Moses said to Yahweh, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
11 Yahweh said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, Yahweh? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
In response to Moses’ fourth insecurity, Yahweh again points Moses to himself. “So what if you can’t speak well. I made your mouth! I will give you what to say.”
Exodus 4:13-17 13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”
14 Then Yahweh’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. 17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”
After this last ditch, desperate and rather pathetic effort, Yahweh’s anger burns a little. Some take this as a gracious concession by God to send Moses some help. Some take this as a punishment of sorts. Moses could have had an even greater experience of God working through him, but now he will share the task with Aaron.
This relationship between Moses and Aaron reflects God’s relationship to his prophets as verse 16 illustrates.
Moses has a lot of insecurities rising from his shame, as I have argued. All of God’s responses are for Moses to get his eyes off himself and look at God. This is the proper response to shame—put your eyes on Yahweh. See your identity through his eyes. Believe who he says you are. Trust in his power at work in you to accomplish his purposes. Best of all, know that he is with you.
Yesterday we talked about shame. I said that shame is a result of failure, your own sin and sin committed against you. The last one is the most tragic. Many victims of abuse begin to see themselves through the eyes of their abuser rather than the eyes of God. They assume the identity that their abuser has given them rather than the identity God has given them. Satan loves to reinforce these lies and embed them deeper and deeper into your psyche. This is why God’s Word and experience of God are essential to overcome the soul crushing toxicity of shame. We have to know, believe and trust what God says of us. We have to know that we are forgiven in Christ and our righteousness is in him alone so that guilt doesn’t become shame. We have to know that we are children of God because of the gospel, not because of what we have done or what has been done to us.
Sometimes knowing, reading about these truths or hearing someone tell of these truths is not enough to overcome our shame. Sometimes we need an experience with God to hear his voice and overcome our shame.
*”I Am” is pronounced ehyeh. This is the first person form of the verb “am” or “will be.” The LORD in verse 15 and most other places in the Bible is the third person form of the verb “he is” or “he will be.” This is pronounced Yahweh and is the personal name of God.