Who Am I - Exodus 3:11-14

Exodus 3:11–14 NKJV

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” 13 Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”

Historical context

Moses, around the age of eighty (Acts 7:23,Acts7:30), is at Mount Horeb, the Mountain of God (Ex 3:1). He is a Hebrew boy, raised by the house of pharaoh, and now in exile. He fled into the wilderness of Midian, because he murdered a taskmaster who was beating a fellow Hebrew and was afraid that this became known (Ex 2:15). In Midian he found refuge at the house of Jethro (Ex 2:21), a priest (Ex 2:16, 18:1,9), and married Zipporah and begot a son Gershom.

The people of Israel are in enslavement in Egypt for the last 400 years, which ended probably in 1446 BC (based on the early Exodus) or in 1276 BC (based on the late Exodus). Recent excavations are pointing towards the early Exodus, but it does not really matter. They were there for 400 years is what matters. Initially, they were invited as guests under Joseph (Gen 45:16-28), but later as oppressed slaves under pharaohs who no longer remembered Joseph (Ex 1:8-14).

In the prior verses of Exodus 3 we read that the Angel of the LORD calls Moses from out of a burning bush that does not get consumed at Mount Horeb (Ex 3:2-5). The exact location of Mount Horeb, also called Mount Sinai, is unknown to this day, but is most likely somewhere in the Sinai Peninsula or in modern day Saudi Arabia. God identifies Himself as the God of his father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (Ex 3:6). It is unknown what foreknowledge Moses had about Yahweh, and his forefathers as he was raised by the household of pharaoh. It is likely that Jethro told him some things about Yahweh, but it is unknown to what extent. The personal relationship with God starts there, as God reveals Himself to Moses.

God tells Moses that He saw the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt. He has seen the oppression, heard the cry of the Israelites and knows their sorrows (Ex 3:7). God is compassionate and involved in the situation of the Israelites. God decides to come down and deliver the Israelites from the hand of Egypt and lead them to a land flowing with milk and honey, to Canaan (Ex 3:8). He tells Moses that He will send him to pharaoh, such that he can bring the children of Israel our of Egypt (Ex 3:10).

Exposition of the Text

Who am I?

Exodus 3:11 NKJV

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

After God has called Moses and told him what His plan was, Moses questions God choice. The questions Moses asks are speaking of his doubts (Ex 4:1, 6:12). Moses does not disobey God, but acknowledge his own weakness. Moses was considering all that God told him based on the way he was seeing himself and most likely thought of himself as inadequate as an Egyptian fugitive. He probably had the redemption attempt, which he did from his own power, from forty years ago, still in the back of his mind (Acts 7:25). However, now God is the One Who sends him back to Egypt and pharaoh. The things Moses says are in contrast with the words God speaks. He speaks as the things that are going to happen, are already happened (Ex 3:8, 10, 12, 17). For Him it is certain and as true as it gets, these people are getting out of Egypt.

Moses is not the only one that doubts his own place within the divine plan of God. For example Gideon (Jdg 6:15) and Jeremiah (Jer 1:6) also doubting their effectiveness to serve God. The fact that Moses can express doubt about God’s choice shows that God is willing to dialogue.

For more historical background on pharaoh, conduct: Exodus_2_1_10.

For more information on the children of Israel and the bringing out of Egypt topic, conduct: Exodus_3_7_10.

In which parts of my life am I questioning my own place within the plan of God?

From which perspective am I looking at the situations I am facing?

I will be with you

Exodus 3:12 NKJV

12 So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

The answer God gives to the question Moses arises has nothing to do Moses. It has all to do with who He is. God emphasizes that He will be with Moses, using the word certainly, which is used often when making oaths (Judges 6:16). He basically makes an oath to Moses to be with him as a reassurance for Moses. It can also be read as ‘I am certainly with you’ or ‘I am with you always’. Giving already a short introduction to the later ‘I am’ statement, like His name is already revealed to Moses before he could ask. He is with him, which makes the difference, God is not reliant on Moses’ abilities. He does not tell him to believe in Himself, but rather promised His divine presence in the journey ahead. The only answer Moses needed was that God would be with him. That is the only answer any of us needs as we go through life. New Testament scripture will confirm this, we need His presence, and only His presence (John 15:5).

“The Lord does not call us because of our adequacy, nor is his presence conditional upon us becoming adequate, it is rather promised to those who are inadequate. When we say, ‘But I’m not adequate’, the Lord says ‘You needn’t tell me, but I will be with you.’ Furthermore, the Lord’s reaction was not to promise to make Moses adequate, somehow to transform him into someone who was up to the task. What he did promise was the sufficiency of his own presence. In other words, he called Moses to a position of faith—to go into this work not expecting to be a different man but expecting a sufficient God. He met Moses’ inadequacy with the pledge of his own sufficiency, and called Moses to believe the promises and to demonstrate the obedience of faith.”

Alec Motyer, The Message of Exodus: The Days of Our Pilgrimage (ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball; The Bible Speaks Today; Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2005), 66.

It is grammatically unclear to which sign God is referring, but probably one of these two options:

The burning bush itself could be the sign given to Moses that God would be with him.

God gives Moses a prophetic sign. This sign is a prophetic or confirming one. When Israel worships or serves on the same mountain, Moses and the people of Israel would know that it was God who delivered them. In the Bible, there are more occasions where kings, prophets or servants of God ask for a sign. This time God Himself gives the sign to Moses and he has to trust God for this sign to become truth. These prophetic or forward looking signs are used once in a while, but are most of the time connected to Old Testament prophetic signs towards Jesus (1 Sam 10:7-9, Is 7:14-17, 19:19-20, Luk 2:12). Two clear prophetic signs, that does not point directly to Jesus, are the signs given to Eli (1 Sam 2:34) and Jeremiah (Jer 44:29-30). God communicates this sign to Moses as a certainty. It is not a question ‘if’ they will worship/serve, but ‘when’ they will worship/serve at the mountain (Acts 7:7). Therefore, this sign is at the same time a promise of God.

God, therefore, responded to this objection with two promises: that He will be personal present. Not only did He came down to deliver (Ex 3:8), but He promised to be present during the deliverance; and that Moses would return to Mount Horeb.

“He would only be able to see this sign if he would step out in faith. We are reluctant to step out in faith without some clear sign from God. And yet God may give us a sign only after we have stepped out; the sign will let us know that what we have set out to do is indeed of God and that He is with us. But in the beginning God may only say to us: “Trust me; trust that what I am sending you to do will indeed be accomplished.”

Thomas Hale, The Applied Old Testament Commentary (Colorado Springs, CO; Ontario, Canada; East Sussex, England: David C. Cook, 2007), 211.

The NET Bible (Second Edition)

The verb תַּעַבְדוּן (ta’avdun, “you will serve”) is one of the foremost words for worship in the Torah. Keeping the commandments and serving Yahweh usually sum up the life of faith; the true worshiper seeks to obey him. The highest title anyone can have in the OT is “the servant of Yahweh.” The verb here could be rendered interpretively as “worship,” but it is better to keep it to the basic idea of serving because that emphasizes an important aspect of worship, and it highlights the change from Israel’s serving Egypt, which has been prominent in the earlier chapters. The words “and they” are supplied to clarify for English readers that the subject of the verb is plural (Moses and the people), unlike the other second person forms in vv. 10 and 12, which are singular.

In the Old Testament there is a close connection between serving/enslavement and worshipping. Having served as slaves to the Egyptians, Israel was now to serve the Lord, whorshipping Him as His subjects, which was the highest title anyone can have in the Old Testament. The god you choice to serve, was the one that you were worshipping. The two were interchangeable. It was a choice to place yourself under the authority of the god you were serving. This principle is still in place. You have a personal choice who or what to serve and give your time, energy and worship. Then the better choice would be to give it to the One and Only God.

There is a difference between the forms of ‘you’ that are used in this sentence. The first four a singular, pointing towards Moses (as God is communicating this message to Moses), where the last you is plural, pointing towards a collective act of serving and worshipping of all of Israel. This prophesy is fulfilled in Exodus 19, where the children of Israel camped before Mount Sinai. The serving of God would not merely consist by sacrifices, but by the erection of the tabernacle.

This promise of worshipping serves not only as a sign to Moses or a promise to the children of Israel. It also gives deeper purpose of the exodus itself. The purpose of the liberation is not simply freedom from oppression, but also a restoration of a relationship with God. God is reinstating the people of Israel to their original purpose, worshipping God. This purpose is stated frequently in Ex 4:23, 7:16; 8:1, 20; 9:1, 13; 10:3, 7–8, 11, 24, 26; 12:31.Whenever God delivers you from something, He also delivers you to Himself.

From this verse it becomes clear that this mission has nothing to do with Moses, it has everything to do with God. The call of Moses consists of nothing more than God asking Moses: ‘Do you trust Me?’. The evidence of that trust will be obedience, the obedience that arises from and rests on faith.

Do I trust God to work through me?

Is this trust visible in my life through obedience?

What place does worship have in my life?

What is His name?

Exodus 3:13 NKJV

13 Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”

In the previous verse we see that God promises Moses that He will deliver Israel. The question was not ‘if’ but ‘when’ they would serve God at mount Sinai. In the reply of Moses you still sense doubting. He is in conversation with God and eventually tells Him: “Suppose I do all this and they ask this question - what should I say?”. He expects the Israelites will require proof that their God send him to them. In ancient Egypt, it was common to chose the name of the god which fits the wants and circumstances of their worshippers. Therefore, he would expect this question from the Israelites. This question about God’s name reflects also a deeper concern about authority and identity. Moses objected not only of his lack of ability, but also his lack of authority. In who’s name are you coming? He was a fugitive Egyptian, who fled the country forty years ago.

“The significance of God’s personal name of intimacy, Yahweh, is that He is the God who is there for Moses and the Israelites. Moses has asked God what to say if the reluctant Israelites want to know who sent him to Egypt to deliver them. It does not mean that the patriarchs did not know God as Yahweh (Ex 6:3). But after Moses and the Israelites, the name is associated with the exodus and the Sinai covenant. He is the One who was with His people to redeem them and to mark them with His holy presence.”

Moses asks the name of God. This reminds me of Gen 32:29, where, after Jacob asking the name of God, God answers his prayer with a question: “Why is it that you ask about My name?” God had not yet identified Himself to Moses by name. So Moses is, probably, asking the question because he simply does not know the answer. He was raised with many gods with many different names in Egypt. A name is important, because it reveals the nature and character of a being. In Genesis we have encountered a number of names for God: Elohim, Yahweh, El Shaddai, and other names that reveal a particular quality or activity of God.

In the New Testament we will read about Jesus having the authority and sending his disciples to go out and make disciples of all the nations (Matt 28:18-20). Because all authority is His, He can give these commands to the disciples and us. We actually see a similar pattern with the sending of the disciples as the sending of Moses. We got God’s authority, God’s presence and God’s confirmation to go out and make disciples and deliver them from captivity, just as Moses got those three in order to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

I AM WHO I AM

Exodus 3:14 NKJV

14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”

God reveals His name to Moses as I AM WHO I AM, I AM THAT I AM, I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE or I CAUSE TO BE WHAT I CAUSE TO BE. This name implicates the unchangeable and self-sufficient character of God, that He was before creation and not bound by time or eternal. Moses, who is insecure and doubting the call from God, is contrasted by a living, all-competent God who is more than sufficient. God would be there when Moses became weak, not because He had been invited or called upon but by His own will, because it is in His nature.

Since we serve a God Who does not change, He is stable and trustworthy. He is still the same as then, and we can count on Him, independent of culture or circumstances. This name of God, again, confirms that God wants to be a personal God. God initiates the personal, intimate relationship with the Israelites by revealing His personal, intimate name to people whom He has chosen to be His people.

Even the Hebrew word that is used for ‘I AM’ is not bound by time, like it is necessary in English. God reveals something from Himself to Moses and Israel, giving the basis of a relationship. God gives Moses the words to say to the Israelites, He actually commands Moses to tell this to the Israelites. God has sent Moses to them. Moses is not acting on his own, but is acting on God’s behalf. It shifts the text from Moses’ doubts and struggles to God’s sufficiency and assurance.

In the New Testament, Jesus does make multiple references to this name, where He would call Himself the I AM in the gospel of John (John 8:24, 28, 58,13:19,18:4-6), connecting this appearance to Abraham and His being before Abraham to His own personhood. Jesus identifies Himself with the voice that was coming from the burning bush. He has always been alive. He has been with God from the beginning (John 1:1-2), and tells the audience I am God. Or in letters that Paul and John wrote (Heb 13:8, Rev 1:4,8,4:8).

Bibliography

Alec Motyer, The Message of Exodus: The Days of Our Pilgrimage (ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball; The Bible Speaks Today; Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2005), 66.

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Biblical Studies Press. The NET Bible. Second Edition. Denmark: Thomas Nelson, 2019.

Bill T. Arnold, Bryan E. Beyer - Encountering the Old Testament.

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John D. Hannah, “Exodus,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck; vol. 1; Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 1112.

Michael Heiser – Naked Bible Podcast Ep 260.

Motyer, Alec. The Message of Exodus: The Days of Our Pilgrimage. Edited by Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball. The Bible Speaks Today. Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2005.

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The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Thomas Hale, The Applied Old Testament Commentary (Colorado Springs, CO; Ontario, Canada; East Sussex, England: David C. Cook, 2007), 211.

Walvoord, John F., and Roy B. Zuck, Dallas Theological Seminary. The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985.