Exodus 3 explained
Holy ground
Exodus 3:1-22 · World English Bible
“God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’””
In short
At the bush God said he had already seen, heard and come down to deliver his people. To Moses' "Who am I?" he answered "I will be with you", with the same word he used for his name, I AM. He named himself the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Jesus read that name as proof that the dead are raised.
What's really going on
God heard before Moses came
The chapter before ends with Israel crying out: "their cry came up to God because of the bondage. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob" (2:23-24). So when Moses reaches the bush, God has already moved. His first words about Israel are all things he has done: "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. I have come down to deliver them" (3:7-8).
Easily missed
The sign comes afterwards
God's sign to Moses is not something he could see that day: "This will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain" (3:12). Moses would know for certain only after he had gone.
Exodus 3:12
Where it leads to Jesus
Not the God of the dead
Exodus 3:6leads toMark 12:26-27
"I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (3:6). Jesus answers the question of whether the dead are raised from this verse: "haven’t you read in the book of Moses about the Bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Mark 12:26-27). In Luke he adds, "for all are alive to him" (Luke 20:38).
The Hebrew word behind it
הָיָהhayahsay ha-YAH
The verb is hayah, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "fall out, come to pass, become, be" and Strong's as "to exist, i.e. be or become, come to pass". God's answer in 3:14 uses one form of it three times: ehyeh asher ehyeh, "I AM WHO I AM", and then "I AM has sent me to you". Two verses earlier the same form, ehyeh, is God's answer to Moses' "Who am I?": "Certainly I will be with you" (3:12). Strong's says the name God gives next, the LORD (3:15), comes from this verb (H3068).
Talk about it
Moses asked, "Who am I?" and God answered, "I will be with you." When have you felt not enough for something God put in front of you?
Read all of Exodus 3 with Favor
This is a taste. In Favor, the whole chapter explains itself as you read: 8 questions along the way, 9 more Hebrew words, 9 more sections on what's really going on and the honest questions, and a short check at the end. Alone, or with your people.
Start readingAlready reading with Favor? Open Exodus 3
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe