Notes on Ex. 3:1-15

Ex. 3: 1-15

1) One of the main points here is the name of God. I’m partial that it is close to a a causative in Hebrew so it is the one who causes to be, in other words, Creator. I am who I am does sound like Popeye, but one could make it more majestic The Existing One. Others see the name as causing actions in this world. If you are feeling ambitious this may be a good time to consider immanence and transcendence or a removed god v. an active one v. a responsive one. As Fretheim insists, this is a a relational god. Now is God intervening from the outside or is God operating within this framework, as in ground of being v. a sky god?

2) the idea of Holy ground is picked up by Gordon Lathrop in his trilogy. Where is holy ground in your life? Does anything inspire awe in our time? Notice the promise will be to come back to the holy mountain Horeb/Sinai to worship. It now makes sense why Moses is of the tribe of Levi. So the entire event of the exodus from Egypt, before the wilderness wandering, is framed by worship. Can suffering be holy ground? Is any encounter with human beings holy ground? (See the new book on administrative ethics Where two or More are Gathered)

3) Notice that God hears and responds. This is not Calvin’s imperial divinity who thunders orders and manipulates events. God hears their cries. God knows their troubles. Yet, God will act through Moses not by fiat.

4) Can it be an accident that Moses moves from a shepherd of a herd to a herd of people?

5) why is it emphasized that the bush is not consumed?

6) I have seen all sorts of ideas for the meaning of Jethro. (OK, get Jethro from the Beverley Hillbillies or the old rock group out of mind) Look how this important figure is not a Hebrew.