Week 7: I'll be with you; I am who I am
Exodus 2-4 Review the big story: God created the cosmos and humans and called it all good. We were created to live in harmony, but sometimes we miss the mark. Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and all of humanity missed the mark, and they had to live with the consequences, but God stuck with them and continued to love them. Then God called Abraham and Sarah to be in a covenant relationship with God. God continued God’s work with Isaac and Rebekah and with their sons Jacob and Esau. The family of God continued to be messy and complicated with Jacob’s twelve sons and their poor treatment of their brother Joseph. Like the humans before them, they often missed the mark, but God kept God’s promises to make them a blessing to the whole world.
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Tell the story: Jacob’s descendents continued to live in Egypt, and eventually a king, a Pharaoh, who did not know the story of Joseph came to power. So these descendents, now called “Israelites,” were put into slavery. There were so many of them that Pharaoh got nervous and ordered that every male baby should be killed. The women of the story rebelled against that order, from the midwives to a woman named Jochobed. Jochobed put her little baby boy into a basket on the river to save his life. He was found and raised by the Pharaoh's daughter, but as he grew older, he identified with his people and didn’t like the way they were being treated. One day, he killed an Egyptian, and he had to flee to Midian. God heard the cries of the Israelites in Egypt. God appeared to Moses in a burning bush and called him to lead the people out of slavery. This seemed like an impossible task, but God answered each of Moses’ questions and prepared him for his calling.
Prime the pump:
God’s family grows. Egypt oppresses. They groan to God and God sends Moses who asks “Why me?” And “What's Your name?”
“I’ll be with you; I am who I am”
- Read Exodus 2-4 OR Exodus 2:1-10; 2:23-3:15, 4:1-5, and 4:10-17
- Read pages 40-44 in the Shine On story Bible
Prime the pump:
- Things to notice:
- We read this story quickly, but a lot of time actually passes from the beginning of the story to Moses’ return to Egypt! As you read it, try to get a rough guess of the time frame. Do you think the people felt like God was acting quickly enough when they cried out for help?
- Read Exodus 3:1-6 and imagine it happening. How would you react if this happened to you?
- Notice in Exodus 4:4 that God tells Moses to grab the snake by its tail. Should you ever grab a venomous snake by the tail?!
- Notice that Moses has a lot of questions and excuses for why he may not be the person for this task! If you’re intrigued by this or identify with this, make a list of them. And then notice God’s response in Exodus 4:11-12. In The Hebrew Bible, Robert Alter translates this, “Who gave man a mouth…Is it not I, the Lord?”
- Background information:
- Women feature prominently in this story. It is unusual for women to be as front-and-center as they are here. If you’re intrigued by this, go back to Exodus 1:15, and read from there through Exodus 4, tracking the role women play in this story. Women preserve the people of God.
- “Moses” is Egyptian for “give birth,” and it is joined here with Hebrew etymology (“to draw out from water”). How does this name foreshadow what is to come in Moses’ life?
- Notice in Genesis 2:24 that it says that God remembered God’s covenant. Does this mean that God ever forgot it? The Hebrew word here is zakar, a more nuanced word than we think of with “remember.” It doesn’t mean God forgot about it, then shuffled through the filing cabinets of God’s memory and said, “Oh yeah, there was that covenant…” Rather it means that God remained committed to the covenant and kept the covenant.
- Another interesting word interpretation comes in the last word of Exodus 2. The NRSV says “God took notice of them,” but a more precise interpretation is “God knew.” Because it’s vague, translators have shied away from it. Read Exodus 2:25 with this new word. How does that change what you hear?
- Mount Horeb is Mount Sinai. File that information away...
- Why does Moses ask for God’s name? In Moses’ world, gods are identified by their names - “God” is a generic name. Moses is going to need a specific name to give to the people. And God answers with divine mystery. “I-Will-Be-Who-I-Will-Be,” or in the shortened version, “I-Will-Be.” God’s very name indicates the freedom of God. This name is considered so holy that in Jewish tradition, it is not spoken. In Christian tradition, we tend to respect that by writing “LORD” where this holy name for God would be. When you see “LORD” in the Bible, you know that the Hebrew being translated is the holy name for God.
- Conversation starters:
- Moses was born to a Hebrew family, adopted by an Egyptian princess, raised for his formative years by his Hebrew family, then lived as a son of the royal family. Then he fled as a Hebrew and joined the family of a Midianite. In a time of tribal identity, this is a pretty mixed-up story. How do you think these multiple cultures prepared Moses to do the task he was called to? How do you imagine his identity might have been shaped by his three families?
- Read Exodus 3:8. The people listed here are the people who already inhabit this land being promised to the Israelites. This is a little squirmy. Wrestle with that.
God’s family grows. Egypt oppresses. They groan to God and God sends Moses who asks “Why me?” And “What's Your name?”
“I’ll be with you; I am who I am”
Sing the big song:
This is the story of how it all began. God made matter, and chaos shattered.
Eve and Adam, they tried to hide.
The world got violent and God replied with a mark and a flood and a rainbow sign, God’s love written on skin and sky,
And then God called a family to be a blessing to the earth, ahhhhhh
A mother and her favorite son wrestle for the blessing,
Another son becomes a slave, the land is saved from famine.
God’s family grows. Egypt oppresses. They groan to God and God sends Moses.
God loves every one of us, it’s true, and God loves the universe.
This is the story of how it all began. God made matter, and chaos shattered.
Eve and Adam, they tried to hide.
The world got violent and God replied with a mark and a flood and a rainbow sign, God’s love written on skin and sky,
And then God called a family to be a blessing to the earth, ahhhhhh
A mother and her favorite son wrestle for the blessing,
Another son becomes a slave, the land is saved from famine.
God’s family grows. Egypt oppresses. They groan to God and God sends Moses.
God loves every one of us, it’s true, and God loves the universe.