Exodus 3:5

Call of Moses,and His Return to Egypt - Exodus 3 And 4 Call of Moses. - Whilst the children of Israel were groaning under the oppression of Egypt, God had already prepared the way for their deliverance, and had not only chosen Moses to be the saviour of His people, but had trained him for the execution of His designs.

As prophecy had ceased for many ages before the coming of Christ, that the revival and perfection of it in that great prophet might be the more remarkable, so vision had ceased (for aught that appears) among the patriarchs for some ages before the coming of Moses, that God's appearances to him for Israel's salvation might be the more welcome; and in this chapter we have God's first appearance to him in the bush and the conference between God and Moses in that vision. Here is, I. The discovery God was pleased to make of his glory to Moses at the bush, to which Moses was forbidden to approach too near (Exo 3:1-5). II. A general declaration of God's grace and good-will to his people, who were beloved for their fathers' sakes (Exo 3:6). III. A particular notification of God's purpose concerning the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. 1. He assures Moses it should now be done (Exo 3:7-9). 2. He gives him a commission to act in it as his ambassador both to Pharaoh (Exo 3:10) and to Israel (Exo 3:16). 3. He answers the objection Moses made of his own unworthiness (Exo 3:11, Exo 3:12). 4. He gives him full instructions what to say both to Pharaoh and to Israel (Exo 3:13-18). 5. He tells him beforehand what the issue would be (Exo 3:19, etc.).

3:5 The soil around the bush was holy ground, while the soil on the bottom of Moses’ sandals was common. The common cannot touch the holy without being transformed or destroyed (see “Clean, Unclean, and Holy” Theme Note). At the outset of the Exodus, God was making it plain that he is absolutely “other” than his creation, a reality that cannot be overlooked in a proper divine-human relationship. The word holy occurs only a few times in the Bible prior to Exod 3:5. It now becomes the central descriptor of God in the Old Testament. In other Semitic languages, the same root occurs infrequently. It does not describe a moral quality in these other languages but simply what is “other than” human. The pagan gods, for instance, were “holy” only in the sense of being “other”—they did everything humans do, good and evil, but on a larger scale. In the Bible, by contrast, moral perfection is a central idea of the term holy. The one true God is the only being in the universe who truly stands apart from this world and is worthy of being called “holy” in this general sense. The true God is perfectly consistent and moral in his character. Here, at the burning bush, God revealed his otherness. Later at Sinai, he revealed his moral character in his requirements for those who would be his covenant partners (see Exod 19:6; 20:1–23:33; see also Lev 11:45; 1 Pet 1:13-16).

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