In Our ImageAncient Stories. Modern Lives. Familiar Struggles.
15 - Moses & the Burning BushPrint
Story 15·Exodus 3-4

Moses & the Burning Bush

Why does responsibility often arrive before we feel capable of carrying it?
CallingFearResponsibilityHumilityTrust
Movement I of IV
The story
What the text says happened, before anyone tells you what it means.
The story

Moses is keeping his father-in-law's sheep when he sees a bush that burns without burning up. He turns aside to look, and God calls him by name from the bush.

God says he has seen the suffering of his people, the Israelites, in Egypt and heard their cry. So he is sending Moses to Pharaoh to bring them out.

Moses objects. Who am I to go? What name do I give them? What if they don't believe me? I am slow of speech. Finally he asks God to send someone else.

God grows angry at that last request but does not call the mission off. He names Moses' brother Aaron as his spokesman, and Moses leaves for Egypt with his family.

On the road, the LORD meets him and seeks to kill him, and Zipporah, Moses' wife, circumcises their son. Then Aaron arrives, the elders gather, and the people believe.

Exodus 4:31
“And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.”
Movement II of IV
The pattern
What may be happening underneath the events, with each reading marked for how firmly the text supports it.
Story to psychology

What's happening underneath?

A few possible ways to read the human behavior in the story.
Moses hides his face when God names himself (3:6)
Grounded in the text
Here the fear is named outright: he was afraid to look at God. Along with his running from the serpent, it is the only feeling the passage names or shows in him.
Moses asks 'Who am I?' and says he is slow of speech (3:11, 4:10)
A plausible reading
The common reading hears self-doubt about his ability. A strand of Jewish tradition hears humility in 'Who am I?'. Both readings infer a motive from what the text gives only as questions.
Moses says he has been slow of speech even since God spoke to him (4:10)
Grounded in the text
By his own account, meeting God has not changed how he rates himself. By the end of chapter 4 the change is in where he is going, not in what he says about himself.
Moses asks God to send whoever he will send (4:13)
A plausible reading
After four objections, this one reads as a request to be let off. The wording is short and debated. It is the only point where the LORD's anger is mentioned.

The need comes first.

Moses is doing someone else's work, keeping his father-in-law's flock on the far side of the wilderness. A bush is burning and not burning up. He says he will turn aside and see why. The text says God called his name when the LORD saw him turn aside. That 'when' might mark nothing more than the order of events. Still, the first thing Moses does here is notice.

Then God gives his reason. He has seen his people's misery in Egypt, heard their cry against their taskmasters, and knows their sorrows. Only then does he say: come, I will send you. Nothing about Moses is given as the reason. Why this man, the chapter leaves unsaid. What it does make plain is that the reason given is the people's suffering. One way to put it: the call runs on their clock, not his.Evidence note 1

'Who am I?' meets 'I will be with you.'

Moses asks who he is to go to Pharaoh. God does not tell him he is able, or worthy. He says, 'I will be with you,' and gives him a sign. When Moses says he is slow of speech, the reply has the same shape: who made the human mouth? I will be with yours and teach you what to say.

The common reading hears self-doubt in these questions. Read that way, Moses keeps asking 'Am I enough?' and God keeps answering a different question: 'Will I be alone?' You could call that a dodge. Moses keeps objecting, so it did not end the argument. But the answers never once turn to his qualities.Evidence note 2

One request finally changes something.

Who am I? What is your name? What if they don't believe me? I am slow of speech. Four objections get four answers, with no word of displeasure. Then Moses asks God to send by the hand of whoever he will send, usually heard as 'send someone else.' Only now does the LORD's anger burn.

Yet the call stands. In the same breath God names Aaron, who speaks well and is already on his way to meet Moses. Aaron will be his mouth. Was that the plan all along, or a concession? Anger and help sit in the same verse.

After that, Moses is not shown carrying this alone. Jethro sends him off in peace. Aaron meets him at the mountain, speaks to the elders, and does the signs. The people believe, at least that day. Pharaoh's refusal, though, was foretold from the start.Evidence note 3Evidence note 4

The deeper idea

Responsibility often arrives on the schedule of someone else's need, not our own sense of readiness. When it does, 'Am I enough?' may be a less useful question than 'Who and what will be with me?'

Movement III of IV
The mirror
Where the story stops being about them and starts being about you.
From the story

Lines worth sitting with.

Exodus 3:10 KJV
“Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.”
Exodus 3:12 KJV
“And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.”
Exodus 4:14 KJV
“And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.”
The uncomfortable part

Readiness may be the wrong test.

Think of something you keep putting off. Did it arrive because you became ready, or because someone else's need showed up - a parent getting frail, a friend in trouble, a job no one else will take? If it was the need, it is worth asking whether feeling ready is the right test at all.

Then look at your objections. Some are real questions about how: What will I say? Will they listen? Those deserve answers. Others, said plainly, come down to 'send someone else.' Sometimes that is the honest and right answer. It still helps to know which one you are giving.Evidence note 5

What's yours?

Some of it was never yours to set.

Outside your control
  • When someone else's need arrives
  • Pharaoh's refusal, foretold before Moses left
  • The danger on the road after he set out
Still yours
  • Turning aside to look
  • Answering 'Here I am' before knowing the task
  • Asking real questions about how
  • Setting out after objecting
Moses did not choose when the people's cry would rise, whether Pharaoh would refuse, or what met him on the road. What the text shows him doing is smaller: turning aside, saying 'Here I am,' asking his questions, and then setting out.
Your part this week might look similar. Notice what is in front of you. Ask the questions that are really about how. Take one step. None of that guarantees it will go well. It is simply the part that is yours.
Movement IV of IV
What remains
The tension the story refuses to resolve, and the question it leaves with you.
The part that doesn't resolve neatly

The story refuses a tidy ending.

God promises to be with Moses' mouth, then appoints Aaron to speak. Just after Moses sets out, the LORD meets him at a lodging place and seeks to kill 'him' - Moses or his son, the pronouns leave it unclear. Zipporah, not Moses, acts. The text does not say why, and Robert Alter treats the darkness of the scene as deliberate. Setting out did not end the danger.

Nor does the text show Moses transformed by the end of chapter 4. He never says he feels ready. He goes anyway, Aaron meets him, and the elders listen. The work began moving without waiting for his view of himself to change. That may be the most hopeful detail in the story.Evidence note 6

What the text doesn't say

Some questions stay open.

Exodus 3-4 is spare where readers most want detail. These are the gaps a careful reader runs into, and why each one matters.

  1. Where it sits: Exodus 3:7-9, Exodus 3:10

    Why Moses, of all people?

    God gives the people's suffering as his reason and says nothing about Moses' fitness. Some readers look back to Exodus 2 for his qualifications. If a reason were found, the weight might shift from the people's need toward something about Moses.

  2. Where it sits: Exodus 3:11, Exodus 3:13, Exodus 4:1, Exodus 4:10, Exodus 4:13

    What was behind Moses' objections: fear, humility, or the usual shape of a call scene?

    Exodus records what he said, not why he said it. Fear makes the scene about doubt. Humility makes it about deference. If the objections partly reflect the conventions of a call scene, less of Moses' own mind may be on display.

  3. Where it sits: Exodus 3:12, Exodus 3:14, Exodus 3:15

    What does 'I AM THAT I AM' mean?

    The Hebrew can be heard as a promise ('I will be'), as a statement of who God is, or as a deliberate non-answer to Moses' question. The first ties the name to 'I will be with you' two verses earlier. The last makes the answer a boundary, not a comfort.

  4. Where it sits: Exodus 4:24, Exodus 4:25, Exodus 4:26

    At the lodging place, who is in danger, and why does the circumcision end it?

    'Him' and 'his feet' have no clear owner, and no motive is given for the threat. Each answer - Moses, the son, an old guilt, a covenant sign - would turn a few dark lines into a very different lesson. That is why the story above draws none.

Common misreadings

Some popular readings go further than Exodus.

These readings are common, and it is easy to see why people hold them. Each one says more than Exodus 3-4 does.

  1. The familiar reading

    Moses had a stutter. When he says he is slow of speech, he is describing a speech impediment, and God deals with it by sending Aaron.

    What the text supports

    Moses calls himself 'slow of speech' (4:10). Exodus never confirms a stutter. God promises to be with his mouth (4:12), but names nothing wrong with Moses. Aaron is named only after Moses asks God to send someone else (4:13-14). By his own account, Moses has been slow of speech even since God began speaking to him (4:10).

    References: Exodus 4:10, Exodus 4:11, Exodus 4:12, Exodus 4:13, Exodus 4:14

  2. The familiar reading

    The staff and the hand are God's way of building up Moses' confidence. Once he sees the signs work, he gains the belief in himself he needs to go.

    What the text supports

    God says the signs are for the people's belief (4:5, 4:8). After them, Moses still calls himself slow of speech (4:10) and asks God to send someone else (4:13). In front of the elders, Aaron does the signs, not Moses (4:30).

    References: Exodus 4:5, Exodus 4:8, Exodus 4:10, Exodus 4:13, Exodus 4:30

  3. The familiar reading

    God tried to kill Moses on the road because he had not circumcised his son. Zipporah saw the problem, fixed it, and the danger passed.

    What the text supports

    The threat has no stated reason (4:24), and pronouns leave unclear who is in danger. Delayed circumcision is one proposal among others: guilt from Exodus 2, a covenant test, or lost fragments. The circumcision happens (4:25) and the danger ends (4:26). The text links them in sequence but does not say how the circumcision ended the danger.

    References: Exodus 4:24, Exodus 4:25, Exodus 4:26

Sit with this

Name one responsibility that arrived on someone else's timetable rather than your own sense of readiness. Which part of it is yours to do this week, and which part was never yours to control?

Show the evidence

Here is what the reading stands on.

These are the points the story above relies on most, what each one rests on, and how firmly it holds.

  1. Note 1In the text

    SupportsBack to The need comes first.

    God's reason comes first. He has seen the misery, heard the cry, and knows the sorrows (3:7-9). Only then comes 'Come now therefore' (3:10). Nothing about Moses is offered as grounds. Why this man in particular is left open, and some readers find an answer in Exodus 2.

    References: Exodus 3:7-9, Exodus 3:10

  2. Note 2In the text

    SupportsBack to 'Who am I?' meets 'I will be with you.'

    'Who am I?' gets 'I will be with thee' (3:11-12). 'Slow of speech' gets 'I will be with thy mouth' (4:10-12). Neither praises Moses. Whether this reframes on purpose or follows a standard call-narrative form is unclear.

    References: Exodus 3:11-12, Exodus 4:10-12

  3. Note 3In the text

    SupportsBack to One request finally changes something.

    Four objections draw no anger (3:11, 3:13, 4:1, 4:10). Anger comes at 'send...by the hand of him whom thou wilt send' (4:13). God names Aaron (4:14-16). Why anger came at that moment, Exodus shows only through the order of events.

    References: Exodus 3:11, Exodus 3:13, Exodus 4:1, Exodus 4:10, Exodus 4:13-16

  4. Note 4In the text

    SupportsBack to One request finally changes something.

    Jethro gives Moses leave (4:18). Aaron comes to meet him and kisses him (4:27). The elders gather (4:29), and Aaron speaks and does the signs (4:30). Aaron's role arrives right after God's anger, so this is help with friction in it, not easy teamwork.

    References: Exodus 4:14, Exodus 4:18, Exodus 4:27, Exodus 4:29, Exodus 4:30

  5. Note 5A reading

    SupportsBack to Readiness may be the wrong test.

    This is a question, not a rule. The scene distinguishes asking how the task can work (3:13, 4:1, 4:10) from what is usually heard as a request to be excused (4:13). God's anger is not a law for readers. Sometimes 'send someone else' is the right answer.

    References: Exodus 3:13, Exodus 4:1, Exodus 4:10, Exodus 4:13, Exodus 4:14

  6. Note 6A reading

    SupportsBack to The story refuses a tidy ending.

    The pronouns lack clear owners and no motive is given. Robert Alter reads the opacity as deliberate. Competing explanations: delayed circumcision, old guilt, a covenant test, or fragments whose logic is lost. None has won out.

    References: Exodus 4:24-26