and hence he cannot bring the Israelites out of Egypt.”21 Enns wonders if the question
“Who am I?” reflects Moses’s refusal “to usurp God’s glory.”22
Whatever the reasons that Moses voiced his question, its basic focus was askew. As Victor Hamilton has well observed, the question “Who am I?” put the focus squarely on Moses and his inadequacies, whereas a better question might have been,
“Whose am I?”23 One may fixate on personal deficiencies (and thereby deny one’s capacity to fulfill God’s call), or one may concentrate on God and his abilities, God and his resources, God and his power. When God calls, he comes with the ability and the will to ensure the success of the calling. Everyone is inadequate on their own to fulfill God’s call, but God is able.
be more heartening for Moses as he reeled at the command of Exodus 3:10 than the promise of Exodus 3:12: God would be with him.
In his valuable study of the many occurrences of the phrase “I will be with you” found across the pages of the Bible, Donald Gowan has concluded on the prevailing import of the phrase.26 According to Gowan, “‘I will be with you’ is not a blessing in general, not simply reassurance that all is well, but is a promise of help in times of great danger, or when setting out on an undertaking that seems very likely to fail.”27 Certainly the mission to which Moses had been called seemed unspeakably perilous, and Moses considered himself wholly unequal to the task. Yet God was putting Moses on notice that the unfathomable resources inherent in divine presence were now on offer. The reader of Exodus 3:12 should pause. A plea of gross inadequacy as God calls is trumped by the promised presence of God, which guarantees the success of the call. The observation of J.
A. Motyer is discerning and worthy of close reflection: “The Lord does not call us
because of our adequacy, nor is his presence conditional upon us becoming adequate, it is rather promised to those who are inadequate.”28 The essential factor in the equation was God’s presence. Moses’s perceived lack was inconsequential.
Prior to Exodus 3:12, God had voiced his “I will be with you” to Jacob (Gen 31:3). After Exodus 3:12, God’s “I will be with you” was promised also to Joshua (Deut 31:23; Josh 1:5; 3:7), Gideon (Judg 6:16), and Jeremiah (Jer 1:8); and in Psalms 23:4 and 46:7 the Psalmist spoke from his assurance of the “with-ness” of God. Isaiah 7:14 promised the arrival of Immanuel (“God with us”) on earth, and Jesus fulfilled the prophecy. The Risen Christ promised his presence to the apostle Paul (Acts 18:10), and Christ has
26See Donald E. Gowan, Theology in Exodus: Biblical Theology in the Form of a Commentary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1994), 54-75.
27Ibid., 65.
28Motyer, The Message of Exodus, 66.
likewise promised to be “with” each of his disciples forever (Matt 28:20; Heb 13:5).
Benedictory prayers for God’s abiding presence are common in the writings of Paul (Rom 15:33; 2 Cor 13:11; Phil 4:9; 2 Thess 3:16; 2 Tim 4:22), and the New Heaven and Earth will be characterized by the “with-ness” of God (Rev 21:3). Clearly a trajectory can be traced—from Genesis 31:3 through Exodus 3:12 up to Revelation 21:3—of God’s unbroken desire to be with his people. Following on the heels of Exodus 3:12 that desire sees immediate fulfillment in the pillar of cloud and fire, the tabernacle and the ark.29
In Exodus 3:12, the English phrase “I will be” translates from the single Hebrew word ʾehyeh.30 The same Hebrew word appears three times in Exodus 3:14, where it is usually translated into English as “I AM.”31 Thus it appears that the single use of ʾehyeh in Exodus 3:12 is meant to anticipate the threefold use of ʾehyeh in Exodus 3:14.32 Since the use of ʾehyeh in Exodus 3:12 is located in a phrase where God is
29Raymond Abba, “The Divine Name Yahweh,” Journal of Biblical Literature 80, no. 4 (1961): 325.
30Several commentators have discerned a relationship between the word ה ֶי ְה ֶא and the Hebrew verb היה (or הוה in its archaic form), makingהֶי ְה ֶא the qal imperfect, first common singular of היה. For scholars who make this verbal connection, see Abba, “The Divine Name Yahweh,” 324; Walther Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testament, trans. J. A. Baker (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1961), 1:189; J. Carl Laney,
“God’s Self-Revelation in Exodus 34:6-8,” Bibliotheca Sacra 158, no. 629 (2001): 42; Tremper Longman III, How to Read Exodus (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2009), 104; Theodorus Christiaan Vriezen, An Outline of Old Testament Theology, 2nd ed. (Newton, MA: Charles T. Branford, 1970), 319; Ralph L. Smith, Old Testament Theology: Its History, Method, and Message (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1993), 117.
31For example, see the following English Bibles: ESV, JPS, KJV, NAB, NASB, NET, NIV, NLT.
32Several scholars note the connection between the single use of ʾehyeh in Exod 3:12 and the threefold use of the same word in Exod 3:14. Among these scholars are Abba, “The Divine Name
Yahweh,” 325-26; W. Ross Blackburn, The God Who Makes Himself Known: The Missionary Heart of the Book of Exodus, New Studies in Biblical Theology 28 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2012), 35; Joseph Blenkinsopp, The Pentateuch: An Introduction to the First Five Books of the Bible (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992), 149; James K. Bruckner, Exodus, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008), 43; Cole, Exodus, 68; Currid, A Study Commentary on Exodus, 89; John I.
Durham, Exodus, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 3 (Waco, TX: Word, 1987); 39; Enns, Exodus, 101;
John Goldingay, Old Testament Theology, vol. 1, Israel’s Gospel (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2003), 335; Kaiser, Exodus, 371; Larsson, Bound for Freedom, 32-33; John L. MacKay, Exodus, A Mentor
expressing the promise of his presence, Joseph Blenkinsopp is probably correct in his suggestion that at least the first two occurrences of ʾehyeh in Exodus 3:14 are “meant to convey something about presence and assistance in the uncertain events about to unfold.”33 More reflection on this possibility will be discussed in the exposition of Exodus 3:14. For now it is enough to note the linguistic connection between Exodus 3:12 and 3:14.
After pledging his abiding presence to Moses, God tells Moses that a “sign”
will be afforded to Moses that will confirm that God had sent him. “This shall be the sign for you,” says God in Exodus 3:12, “that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” While certain commentators confess uncertainty concerning the subject of the word “this” in Exodus 3:12c—unsure as to whether “this . . . sign” should be understood as the burning bush itself or some other thing—several other scholars argue that the content of the “sign” is spelled out explicitly in Exodus 3:12e.34 For this latter group of scholars, the “sign” that God would give Moses (that would confirm Moses’s mission) was the moment—still future to Moses—when the Hebrew people would gather to worship God at Sinai.35 In other words, the sign that God proffers to Moses in Exodus 3:12 is not fulfilled until Exodus 19:2. In the meantime, Moses had the promise of the unabated presence of God. Moses would see the sign fulfilled, but
Commentary (Fearn, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2001), 77; and Rolf Rendtorff, The Canonical Hebrew Bible: A Theology of the Old Testament, trans. David E. Orton (Leiden, The Netherlands: Deo, 2005), 40.
33Blenkinsopp, The Pentateuch, 149.
34Those who express uncertainty concerning the identity of the sign include Everett Fox, The Schocken Bible, vol. 1, The Five Books of Moses (New York: Schocken, 1995), 273; and Enns, Exodus, 101. Included in the list of scholars who are more certain that the “content of the ‘sign’ is spelled out explicitly in Exodus 3:12e” are Currid, A Study Commentary on Exodus, 89; Garrett, A Commentary on Exodus, 192; Hamilton, Exodus, 59; Houtman, Exodus, 362-63; Motyer, The Message of Exodus, 66;
Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative, 246; Stuart, Exodus, 119.
35“The Hebrew people,” not just Moses, would gather to worship God at Sinai. The choice of the phrase “Hebrew people” (indicating a plurality of people) reflects the second person plural form of ד ַב ָﬠ that is found in Exod 3:12e: “you all will worship.”
in the meantime Moses was to exercise faith and rest in God’s presence. Indeed, by its very nature the sign that God promised to Moses in Exodus 3:12 was faith-begging.
Duane Garrett provides an excellent summary of the nature of the sign and God’s purpose in its promise:
It is probably that God was initially giving Moses a call to faith. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the proof of matters not seen” (Heb. 11:1). God wanted Moses to keep the vision of Israel gathered at Sinai to worship God as the
“proof” that would sustain him as he embarked on his difficult mission. That is, the greatest sign one can have is a guiding vision.36
Noteworthy is the fact that the “guiding vision” for Moses was not simply a vision in his mind’s eye of the Hebrew people stepping out of Egyptian territory. Rather, the exodus from Egypt was only the prelude to the greater goal, outlined in the latter portion of Exodus 3:12e: the people would gather for worship at the mountain.37 Worship was the preeminent goal. Worship was the terminus of the promised sign. A picture of the Hebrew people worshipping at Sinai was the guiding vision. Moses could assess that the sign had been fulfilled when he observed Hebrew people praising Yahweh at the mountain.
John MacKay is insightful in his summation:
By coming to Sinai and worshipping God there, the Israelites will have moved from being under the control of Pharaoh to being under the control of the LORD and will yield total and all-encompassing obedience to him. Of this fealty to their covenant king and deliverer, worship will form a major part. Bringing the people out of Egypt was not an end in itself. It was the prelude to bringing them into a living, personal relationship with the LORD himself.38
One might think that the promise of unqualified divine presence, along with the assured fulfillment of God’s sign, would provide ample warrant for Moses to pledge
36Garrett, A Commentary on Exodus, 206.
37In Exod 3:12e, the ESV translates the verb ד ַב ָﬠas “serve.” However, Nahum M. Sarna, Exodus, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1991), 17, observes that the verb can mean both “to be in servitude” and “to worship,” and in Exod 3:12 the NASB, NIV, NJB, and NLT each render ד ַב ָﬠas “worship.” Thus I have chosen to employ the word “worship” in this paragraph.
38MacKay, Exodus, 75.
unwavering commitment to God. However, in verse 13 Moses remains hesitant.
Specifically, Moses now requires God to explain God’s name and its significance.