Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
In our passage from Exodus chapter three God introduces himself to Moses. Not only is he the one who makes a place holy by his very presence, he has heard his people Israel in all their troubles. God introduces his intention to rescue Israel from Egypt and bring them into the land promised to Abraham. He does not forget his promises, but will fulfill them.
Moses is not up to the task of bringing the people out of Egypt. He does not have the authority before Pharaoh. He does not have the authority or popularity with the people. He has been away in the wilderness for decades. He is patently unqualified. What will he do?
Notice that God’s response is that he is the one who has commanded it to happen. Therefore, there is no fear. Moses will act as an instrument of God. What is this God like? He is the one whose character is embodied in the name he tells Moses. “I am” is the one who is sending Moses. God further identifies himself using the participle of the being verb. He is the one who is being. Just as he was the one being with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he is the one who is being with Israel.
Most would see this passage in a typological context. God the Father is sending Moses, his chosen prophet, who returns from apparent death in the desert, to call his people out of slavery into the land of promise. Moses, then, is a Christ figure. Yet the fulfiller, Jesus, is greater than Moses. He himself promises to be the one who is “being” with his people, to the end of the world. This is the way God is to be known to his people through all generations. We can surely see Christ in this passage, the one who has accomplished all that is needed to rescue his people from bondage to sin and death.
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