At the burning bush

We all remember the passage from Exodus 3:1 when Moses meets God at the burning bush.
Just a quick reminder of the beginning  of this story:

"Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. ³ Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.” (New King James version)


I find this story fascinating and I would like to share some of my fascination with me (and as always all comments welcome). 


Desert is the place when one can hear God speaking, hear His voice in the middle of wilderness. We learn it from encounter between Hagar and God when she runs away from Sarah. 
Moses in in the wilderness and he sees the bush in fire but not consumed. He has to turn aside to see it. The question is what is he turning aside from. It is his life as it was (and he was an old man with history and definitely some longing for peace). He was a shephard and yet he has turned away from sheep, from his life, from his flock, intrigued by the sight of bush burning and not consumed. Turning aside and approaching was really the first step to accept God's invitation.


Than, during the conversation at the bush he is virtually told what the rest of his life will be: he will go to pharaoh, confront him, lead the Hebrews from Egypt and take them to Kanaan (the land Lord has chosen for them). Wow! What a task! No wonder Moses is intimidated and he tries to find contarguments (which are many). 

And during this exchange of arguments THE question is asked: what is God's name? The answer is translated "I AM WHO I AM" yet it is even more fascinating since Biblical Hebrew has no tenses per se. It has perfect and imperfect side of the verb but no tenses in a way we recognise them today in contemporary languages. Therefore the God's name YHVH - I AM WHO I AM - may be translated (as I was told and as was explained to me) "I was before the beginning, I am and I wil be after the end". And that is exactly what is so amazing! God's name is verb in this conversation. Time is restriction for people, obviously not for Master of the Universe, He has created time. And now we see His omnipresence and omnipotence. We can (hardly) try to imagine something present after the end however it does not sound understandable. There is no way even to start to imagine something that was before the beginning. And yet this is exactly when He was and will be. There is no barrier, no restriction, no beginning and no end for Him. 
For me it is the most fascinating part of the conversation at the burning bush.


And one more fascination I want to share about this passage (and believe me, there are many, many more pieces of this chapter leaving me astonished) - it is in Exodus 4:18 and let me again quote after New King James: 
So Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.”
And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
Try to imagine the scene: Moses, fugitive from Egypt, an old man, a son-in-law tending the flocks of his father-in-law comes home and says: "Well, I had this amazing experience, I met Lord at the burning bush, he told me to go back to Egypt so here are your flocks and I leave through wilderness to the country where I may be persecuted and I want to find people I haven't had contact with for years. Bye." Do they say he must be carazy? That he stayed too long in the sun? No! The answer is imminent and expresses but deep understanding. What was there in Moses's face? How was he changed after the encounter at the burning bush? I don't know but he must have been powerfully changed and in a way so obvious that his father in law recognised it in an instant.


Amazing, isn't it?