It's About To Get Better!

Exodus 3:7–12 CSB

7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the territory of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 9 So because the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them, 10 therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses asked God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He answered, “I will certainly be with you, and this will be the sign to you that I am the one who sent you: when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God at this mountain.”

Introduction

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Background

He Sees Our Plight

Exodus 3:7–8 CSB

7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the territory of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

Old Testament 3:1-4:17: The Burning Bush and the Call of Moses

3:7–10. land of milk and honey. The land of Canaan is described as a land “flowing with milk and honey.” This refers to the bounty of the land for a pastoral lifestyle, but not necessarily in terms of agriculture. Milk is the product of herds, while honey represents a natural resource, probably the syrup of the date rather than bees’ honey. A similar expression to this is found in the Ugaritic epic of Baal and Mot that describes the return of fertility to the land in terms of the wadis flowing with honey. Egyptian texts as early as the Story of Sinuhe describe the land of Canaan as rich in natural resources as well as in cultivated produce

Exodus Excursus: Fire Theophany

Verse 7 summarizes the plight of the Israelites in their forced labor with four terms: “misery … crying out … slave drivers … suffering.” With three verbs God announced his compassion: “I have indeed seen … I have heard them … I am concerned.”33 The first of these, “I have indeed seen” (rāʾōh rāʾı̂tı̂) involves the Hebrew infinitive absolute construction, which connotes the sense “I have carefully watched” or “I have paid very close attention to,” thus by itself indicating the intensity of God’s interest in the misery of his people. Note also that God called Israel “my people,” echoing but also more grandly superseding Moses’ reference to “his own people” in 2:11.