Two Weeks on the Old Testament
Reading #4: Exodus 3- Moses' encounter with God
1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law,
the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the
desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire
from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it
did not burn up.
3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange
sight--why the bush does not burn up."
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to
him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses
said, "Here I am."
5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off
your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this,
Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people
in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave
drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the
Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and
spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of
the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and
Jebusites.
9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have
seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.
10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the
Israelites out of Egypt."
11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to
Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
12 And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the
sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought
the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."
13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and
say to them, `The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and
they ask me, `What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"
14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are
to say to the Israelites: `I AM has sent me to you.'"
15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, `The LORD,
the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and
the God of Jacob--has sent me to you.' This is my name forever,
the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to
generation.
16 "Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, `The
LORD, the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob-- appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have
seen what has been done to you in Egypt.
17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in
Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites,
Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites--a land flowing with milk and
honey.'
18 "The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and
the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, `The
LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a
three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD
our God.'
19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a
mighty hand compels him.
20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with
all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he
will let you go.
21 "And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward
this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed.
22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her
house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you
will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the
Egyptians."