Sermon Tone Analysis

Exodus 4:1-17: God is Flexible.

Today, we continue reading about when God and Moses meet.

And, again, this is not simply a meeting.

This is a commissioning.

A calling.

But Moses has no interest in being called.

He has questions, concerns, and protests.

In a perfect world, I would've been able to teach from 3:1-4:17.

But that's a really big chunk of scripture, and I just couldn't pull it off.

But we will cheat, and try to hold it all together today.

Let's start today by rereading part of last week's passage, starting in verse 7. God/Jesus has just appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and this is what He says next:

(7) and Yahweh said,

"I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt,

while their cry I have heard on account of their taskmasters,

because I know his suffering,

(8) and I have come down to deliver him from the hand of Egypt and to bring him up from that land to good and spacious land-- to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and Hivvites and Amorites and Perizzites and Hivvites and Jebusites,

(9) and now, LOOK!

The cry of the sons of Israel has come to me,

and, what's more, I have seen the oppression that Egypt is oppressing them,

(10) so therefore, go!,

and I shall send you to Pharaoh,

and you shall bring out my people-- the sons of Israel-- from Egypt,

So, God says, "GO!"

But Moses isn't ready to go.

Instead, he asks question #1.

Verse 11:

(11) and Moses said to the God/Elohim,

"Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring out the sons of Israel from Egypt?",

(12) and He said,

"Because I shall be with you,

and this to you [is] the sign: when I have sent you, when you bring out the people from Egypt, you (plural) shall serve the God/Elohim upon this mountain,"

In verse 13, Moses raises a second issue, which God will then answer:

(13) and Moses said to the God/Elohim,

"LOOK!

I have come to the sons of Israel,

and I have said to them, "The God of your fathers has sent me to you,"

and they have said to me, 'What is his name?",

What shall I say to them?"

(14) and God/Elohim said to Moses,

"I shall/will be what I shall/will be,"

and He said,

"Thus say, "I shall/will be" has sent me to you,"

(15) and God/Elohim said again to Moses,

"Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel:

"He shall be (= Yahweh)"--The God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.

This is my name forever,

and this is how I will be remembered from generation to generation.

God, having answered Moses' concern, now repeats himself.

"GO"!

Verse 16:

(16) Go!,

and gather the elders of Israel,

and say to them,

"Yahweh, the God of your Fathers has appeared to me-- the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying,

'I have surely visited (="intervened for)[1]you and what has been done[2]to you in Egypt,

(17) and I said,

"I shall bring you up from the afflictions of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites, and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites-- to a land flowing with milk and honey,"

(18) and they will heed your voice,

and you will go with the elders of Israel to the King of Egypt,

and you (plural) will say to him,

"Yahweh the God of the Hebrews appeared to us,

and so then, Let us go, please, on a three day journey in the wilderness, that[3]we may sacrifice to Yahweh our God,

(19) while I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go,

and not with a strong hand,[4]

(20) and I will stretch out my hand,

and I will strike[5]Egypt with all my wonders that shall do in his midst,

and afterward, he shall send you,

(21) and I shall give favor to this people in the eyes of Egypt,

and then, when they go, they shall not go empty-handed,

(22) and a woman/wife shall ask from her neighbor and from the foreigner staying in her house vessels of silver and vessels of gold and clothing,

and you shall put them on your sons and upon your daughters,

and you will plunder[6]the Egyptians.

This brings us to today's passage.

Moses has been told twice to "go."

But he's not ready.

Verse 1:

(1) And Moses answered,

and he said,

"And LOOK!

They may/will not believe me,

and they may/will not heed my voice,

because they may/will say,

"Yahweh hasn't appeared to you,"

God had told Moses that the elders would believe him.

Exodus 3:18: "They will heed your voice."

But Moses expresses doubt about this.

Now, how much doubt does Moses express?

One of the tricky things about Hebrew is that it doesn't have a lot of verbs.

One verb-- the yiqtol/imperfective/imperfect (3 different ways of naming it)-- can mean, "may," or "will," or "shall."

Let's turn to a pretty well known "promise" in Isaiah 1:18 for kind of the classic example of this:

(18) Come, please, and let us argue (have a legal dialogue), says Yahweh.

If your sins are like crimson, like snow, they will/shall/may be white.

If they are crimson red, like wool they will/shall/may become.

There are three ways to understand verse 18, as long as we are careful not to keep reading.

(1) God is making a promise here.

Your sins will be forgiven (NIV).

(2) God is offering a possibility here.

Your sins may be forgiven, if you repent (Isaiah 1:19-20).

(3) God is making a command here.

Your sins shalt be as white as snow (Goldingay).