034. XXI. Moses’s Call To Deliver The Hebrews
XXI. MOSES’S CALL TO DELIVER THE HEBREWS
Early Judean Prophetic | Northern Israelite | Late Priestly History |
1. The divine revelation to Moses. Now it came to pass in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. Then the Messenger of Jehovah appeared to [Moses] in a flame of fire out of the midst of a thorn bush; and he looked and behold the thorn bush burned with fire without being consumed. Then Moses said, I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the thorn bush is not burned. And when Jehovah saw that he turned aside to see, he said from the midst of the thorn bush, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy sandals from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. | 1. The divine revelation to Moses. Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. Then God called to him, saying, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. | 1. The divine revelation to Moses. Now the Israelites sighed by reason of the forced labor, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the forced labor. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. And God looked upon the Israelites, and God knew. Therefore God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am Jehovah; and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, as El-Shaddai [God Almighty]; but by my name Jehovah I did not reveal myself to them. And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned. |
2. Moses’s commission. And Jehovah said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people that are in Egypt, and have heard their cry of anguish, because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a land, beautiful and broad, to a land flowing with milk and honey; Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, hath appeared to me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt; and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey. And they shall hearken to thy voice; and thou shalt come, together with the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and ye shall say to him, ‘ Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews hath appeared to us; and now let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to Jehovah our God.’ | 2. Moses’s commission. Then God said, Now, behold, the cry of anguish of the Israelites has come to me ; moreover I have seen how sorely the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee to Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the Israelites out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and should bring the Israelites out of Egypt ? And he said, I will surely be with thee; and this shall be the sign to thee,that I have sent thee: when thou shalt have brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall worship God upon this mountain. | 2. Moses’s commission. And moreover I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their forced labor, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with mighty judgments, and I will take you for my people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God, who bring- eth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land which I sware to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage, I am Jehovah.’ |
3. His hesitation and the divine assurance. Then Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken to my voice; for they will say, ‘ Jehovah hath not appeared to you.’ And Jehovah said to him, What is that in thy hand? And he said, A staff. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. Then Jehovah said to Moses, Put forth thy hand and take it by the tail (and he put forth his hand and laid hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand), that they may believe that Jehovah, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared to thee. And Jehovah said furthermore to him, Put now thy hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom; and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. And he said, Put thy hand into thy bosom again. (And he put his hand into his bosom again; and when he took it out of his bosom, behold, it had become again as his other flesh). And then, if they will not believe thee, nor hearken to the testimony of the first sign, they will believe the testimony of the other. But if they will not believe even these two signs, nor hearken to thy testimony, thou shalt take of the water of the Nile, and pour it upon the dry land; and the water which thou takest out of the Nile shall become blood upon the dry land. But Moses said to Jehovah, Oh, Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since thou hast spoken to thy servant; for I am slow of speech, and slow of utterance. Then Jehovah said to him, Who hath given a man a mouth? or who maketh one dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? is it not I, Jehovah? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt speak. | 3. His hesitation and the divine assurance. Then Moses said to God, Behold, if I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘ The God of your fathers hath sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I answer them? Then God said to Moses, I AM THAT I AM; and he said, Thus shalt thou say to the Israelites, ‘ I AM hath sent me to you.’ And God also said to Moses, Thus shalt thou say to the Israelites, ‘Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abra- h a m , the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me to you’; this is my name forever, and by this shall I be remembered from generation to generation. But I know that the king of Egypt will not give you leave to go, unless compelled by a mighty power. Therefore I will put forth my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in its midst; and after that he will let you go. | 3. His hesitation and the divine assurance. Then Moses spoke thus to the Israelites; but they hearkened not to Moses for lack of courage, and because of the hard forced labor. Therefore Jehovah commanded Moses, saying, Go in, speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt, that he let the Israelites go out of his land. But Moses spoke before Jehovah, saying, Behold, the Israelites have not hearkened to me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am not skilled in speaking? Then Jehovah said to Moses, See, I have made thee as a god to Pharaoh ; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee; and Aaron thy brother shall speak to Pharaoh, that he let the Israelites go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and make my signs and my wonders many in the land of Egypt. Nevertheless Pharaoh will not hearken to you. Then I will lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth my hosts, my people the Israelites, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt, and bring out the Israelites from among them. |
4. Delivery of Jehovah’s message to the people. So Moses went and gathered together all the elders of the Israelites, and spoke all the words which Jehovah had spoken to him, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that Jehovah had visited the Israelites, and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed low their heads in worship.
5.Pharaoh’s defiant refusal to let the Hebrews depart. Then Moses came to Pharaoh and said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with me; let us go, we pray, three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to Jehovah our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. But Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land are now many, and would you make them rest from their tasks? And the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters who were over the people, saying, You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the fixed number of bricks which they have been making heretofore, you shall lay upon them; you shall not diminish it at all, for they are idle; that is why they cry aloud, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ Let heavier work be laid upon the men, that they may labor therein and that they may not regard lying words.
6. The added oppression. Therefore the taskmasters of the people went out, and spoke to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will no longer give you straw. Go yourselves, get straw wherever you can find it; but none of your work shall be diminished. So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. And the taskmasters were urgent, saying, You must complete your daily work, just as when there was straw. And the overseers of the Israelites, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and asked, Why have you not completed today, as yesterday, your prescribed task in making brick?
7. Complaints of the overseers. Then the overseers of the Israelites came and complained to Pharaoh, saying, Why do you deal thus with your servants? There is no straw given to your servants, and yet they are saying to us, ‘ Make bricks,’ and now your servants are being beaten; and you wrong your people. But he said, You are lazy, you are lazy; therefore you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to Jehovah.’ Go at once to work, for no straw shall be given to you, yet you must deliver the required number of bricks. And the overseers of the Israelites saw that they were in an evil plight, when it was said, You shall not diminish anything from your daily total of bricks. And they met Moses and Aaron, who had stationed themselves there to meet them as they came forth from Pharaoh, and they said to them, Let Jehovah regard and pronounce judgment; because you have made us odious in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his courtiers, in that you have put a sword in their hand to slay us.
8.Moses’s protest. Then Moses turned again to Jehovah, and said, Lord, Why hast thou brought calamity upon this people? why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he has dealt ill with this people; and thou hast not delivered thy people at all.
9. Jehovah’s reassurance. And Jehovah answered Moses, Now thou shalt see what I will do to Pharaoh; for, compelled by a mighty power, he shall assuredly let them go, yea, compelled by a mighty power, he shall drive them out of his land.
I.The Three Different Accounts of Moses’s Call and Commission. In the Old Testament, as in the Gospel narratives, the more important events are recorded in three and sometimes four different versions. Regarding Moses’s call there are three distinct accounts and each is important. Back of them all lies a deep spiritual experience, which determined not only the course of Moses’s life but that of Hebrew history. In conveying to their readers a definite impression of the nature of that inner experience, it was inevitable that each group of narrators should employ different literary figures. The task was comparable to that of the early Judean prophet, who in the third chapter of Genesis has pictured the struggle in the mind of the woman between appetite, aesthetic sense, curiosity and the love of knowledge on the one hand, and love and gratitude and obedience on the other. Each group of narrators, with marvellous skill, has succeeded in bringing out, in form intelligible to their readers, the essential facts. Regarding these facts they are also in fundamental agreement.
II.The Earliest Version. The divine call, according to the early Judean narrative, came to Moses from a flaming thorn bush. The story reflects the primitive belief that the Deity sometimes spoke through trees (cf. § I, xi). The essential fact, which the ancient Hebrew story clearly sets forth, is that out of the midst of the wild life of the wilderness there came to the mind of Moses a vivid conception of Jehovah’s transcendent holiness and majesty, of the needs of the oppressed Hebrews, of the possibility of their deliverance, and of his own obligation to return and lead them forth. This version of the call of Moses is in many ways strikingly similar to that of the youthful Isaiah, recorded in the sixth chapter of his prophecy. Both felt the crying needs of their race, and the necessity that some one arise and proclaim the divine truth that alone promised deliverance. Both were also profoundly impressed by the majesty of the Almighty who thus spoke to them. Their call represented that unique moment in their experience, when the voices of duty calling to them from every side became the mighty challenge from God himself, to which they responded, “Here, Lord, send me.”
III.The Later Prophetic and Priestly Versions. The early Northern Israelite narrators state that Moses led the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, which he was guarding, to the back of the wilderness and came to the mountain of God. On that sacred mount, which probably stood out in striking contrast to the rolling, rocky wilderness, God spoke directly to the heart of the future prophet and received the desired response. The memories of the way in which that God had revealed himself in the life and experience of his ancestors rose clearly before the mind of Moses. Awe overwhelmed him in the presence of the Almighty, but above all there came to him the anguished cry of his countrymen, sorely oppressed by the Egyptians, and the personal call to deliver them from the hand of Pharaoh. With this call there came the divine assurance that in the strength of the God of the sacred mountain they should be led forth to worship him at that holy spot. The late priestly narrators give the needs of the oppressed Hebrews the same central place in the call of their prophetic deliverer. They likewise emphasize God’s revelation of himself in the past history of the race, and formulate in their characteristic legal language the assurance that by the divine hand the Hebrews shall be delivered from their cruel oppression, and that Moses is called to be the agent of that deliverance.
II.The Divine Assurance. Moses’s hesitation in accepting the divine call is also brought out in each of the three versions. In the early Judean, his faith is strengthened by two miraculous signs which, in turn, are to be used as credentials, as he presents himself before the elders of his race. The chief reason for his hesitation is that he is not gifted in the art of public address. This excuse is answered by the divine assurance that Jehovah himself, who created the life of man, will be with his mouth and teach him what he shall speak. In the Northern Israelite version the revelation of the sacred name, Jehovah or Yahweh, is recorded for the first time. The popular meaning “I am that I am,” interpreted in the light of Jehovah’s work as creator and leader of his people, is made the earnest of the promised deliverance. Thus Moses’s fear that his mission will be fruitless is dispelled by the divine assurance, based on the character of God, as already revealed in the life of man. The late priestly narrators, interested in the history of their traditional father Aaron, meet Moses’s objection that he is not a gifted speaker by providing that Aaron shall be his spokesman. In the classic passage, which illustrates the Hebrew conception of the true character of the prophet, Aaron is appointed as Moses’s prophet, that is, one who, like the prophets of Jehovah, shall first learn the will and message of the one he represents, and then, in form adapted to the intelligence of the people, proclaim it to them clearly and authoritatively.
III.The Underlying Facts. The later events of Hebrew history point definitely to a personality and work like that of Moses. His work is, in turn, explained only by some deep spiritual experience which turned his activity into the channels of national leadership. Early Hebrew history, therefore, as a whole, confirms the testimony of these variant traditions that in some mysterious way the divine call came to Moses and that in response to it he became a prophet. These variant narratives also suggest the different factors that entered into that call: the pitiable oppression of his kinsmen and the need of an enlightened leader, who would bind them together and champion their cause, even in the presence of the tyrannical Pharaoh. The background—the wilderness with its solitude, with its life emphasizing the constant need of divine care and protection, the manifestations of the power of God in Nature, and the holy mountain with its historic associations—all these prepared the ear of the prophet to hear God’s still small voice. Moses’s hesitation, like that of Jeremiah, reveals his high sense of responsibility. His full appreciation of the greatness of the task and his faith in God’s power and ability to realize his divine purposes in human history are the unfailing marks of a true prophet.