The Old Testament lectionary passage for Sunday, September 3 (Genesis 3:1-15), is rich in theological themes. There is the fact that Moses must step away from his normal path to encounter God in the burning bush. In the discussion, God reveals God’s covenantal name to Moses, a name that discloses a great deal about God’s presence and power. In the call of Moses, we also learn lessons about the nature of God and God’s work in the world.
In God’s conversation with Moses, we learn something important, even critical, about God. It is a declaration from God’s own mouth that provides the basis for all that is said and done in scripture – God cares about human beings. Listen to how God starts this part of the conversation with Moses: “Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings” (3:7). God knows about the plight of the Israelites and cares about them. In fact, God continues the conversation with the affirmation that God will “come down and deliver them” and “bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (3:8).
From this statement, we can deduce two essential principles about God: 1) God knows about our situations, and 2) God cares about us. We are not simply ants on this celestial ball called Earth. We are loved by our Creator. God is not distant and uncaring. God is very present with us. God sees, hears, and empathizes with our plight. God cares about our well-being. God wants us to be free. God wants to liberate and redeem us. God knows our needs and the needs of the world. God is intimately concerned with the welfare of those unique creatures called human beings. This is the glue that holds together the entirety of the biblical narrative and the continued saga of God’s grace throughout history. God cares!
While this truly is good news, there is a plot twist as God continues to speak. Listen to what God says, “The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt” (3:9-10). Did you catch that? In essence, God tells Moses, “I am going to do something big. I’m going to do something spectacular. And I am sending YOU,” God says.
Here’s another general biblical principle: God seeks to change history with the stuff of history. God interacts with this world (primarily but not exclusively) through people of faith acting on behalf of God. God liberates the people of Israel, but God does it through Moses. This is reminiscent of Jesus’ response to the disciples along the Sea of Galilee when they noted that the crowd did not have food. Jesus tells them, “You feed them.”
Obviously, Moses didn’t do the work to which he was called on his own. Nor did the disciples feed the crowd of 5,000 by their own prowess. The same could be said of all God’s agents acting in scripture and throughout history. God is always the source of power, wisdom, and guidance. But God acts through human beings.
God met Moses personally. God offered Moses God’s personal and familiar name. God established a personal relationship with Moses. But that was not the end of the story. A relationship with God was the start of faith but not faith’s end. God welcomed Moses into the embrace of God’s love so that Moses could share God’s love and activity with others.
So it is with us. Even as we experience divine grace and mercy, we also are called to become God’s apostles to the world. This is true for us individually and corporately. Each person is called to be an agent for the kingdom of God. Each congregation is called to be a transforming presence in their community. Just as the embodied Jesus shared God’s love, forgiveness, and call to mercy in ancient times, so now the church, the Body of Christ, is called to do the same.
May God bless you in the work to which you are called.
Photo from CreationSwap.com by Matthew Gruber