This Sunday’s passage is Exodus 2:11-3:22.
Moses is now an adult and he is fleeing for his life! Pharaoh knows what he did. So, he makes it to Midian and there he meets his future wife and he settles and they have a son.
Pretty impressive.
But, at the end of chapter two, more time passed, the Israelites are crying out in terror, and God heard the cries. God remembered the covenant God had made with the matriarch and patriarch of the Hebrews-Sarah and Abraham.
That’s even more impressive. Decades have passed from Exodus 1 to the end of chapter two.
Back to Moses. He has an encounter with God at the burning bush. God is commissioning Moses to go back to Egypt to rescue the Hebrews from slavery and genocide. Eventually, Moses asks: Who do I say sent me when the Hebrews ask? God responds: I Am Who I Am. I AM has sent you.
Some commentators interpret “I Am Who I Am” as “I Will Be Who I Will Be.” Regardless, it’s a mysterious and bizarre reply.
And maybe that’s part of the point of Exodus. God’s timing is not our timing. God’s name is something we can’t comprehend. By the time Moses comes back to Egypt, at probably 100 years have passed since the beginning of the book. Maybe more. God’s name reveals to us of God’s nature. “I Am Who I Am”. The One who was and is and is to come. The Father and Creator of the world and the One who promised a nation who would be the envy of all nations to an elderly barren couple.
This covenant that God remembered at the end of Exodus 2 is why God acted. Yes, God had compassion, no doubt. But, it is remembering the covenant that had been made all those years before to a childless couple is why God acted. The same covenant would be there to remind not only God, but also Moses, his successors, and all the Hebrews throughout history.
I AM is still up to something, friends. God’s not finished.
Beloved in Christ, believe this Good News!
Christ’s Peace,
Pastor T. Wes Moore