NOTES for Exo 3:1-22
The biography of Moses, like that of some other biblical heroes, is remarkable because everything important, everything for which these people lived, happened to them when, by human standards, there was nothing more to expect from life. Moses, of course, had not forgotten who he was and where he came from, but after living most of his life in the wilderness, he no longer thought of returning to Egypt or that he would ever again have to see his kinsmen. Then a meeting took place in his life that radically changed that life. This meeting was a meeting with God.
In the Sinai wilderness there are often plants resembling tumbleweeds. They are large balls, up to half a meter in diameter. These plants give off essential oils that sometimes flare up, since in the open sun the temperature on the surface of the ground can reach 60 degrees C. But these bushes burn quickly, flaring up like matches. No wonder Moses was very surprised by a bush that burned and yet could not burn up (vv. 2-3). Only when Moses came closer did he understand that this was no ordinary fire: before him was a shining cloud, and from its depths the voice of God sounded (v. 4). Then God revealed Himself to Moses, telling him that He was the God of his fathers (v. 6), and that at last the day had come when Moses' kinsmen would leave Egypt and move to Palestine, to the land where Abraham had once wandered (vv. 7-10).
Of course, Moses had to know the traditions about the God of the fathers. In those days these traditions were known to everyone who remembered that he was a descendant of Jacob. But these traditions told of a God who had remained in the past together with the fathers to whom He had revealed Himself and with whom He had spoken. In Egypt, God was silent. And His people had nowhere to go: how, indeed, can one follow a God who is silent and gives no sign of Himself?
And now the God who had been silent for many years had spoken. And having spoken, He reminded Moses of the promises once given to Abraham (Gen 15:13-21). If that is so, then the time had come for the fulfillment of the promises God had given. And that means that the people of God become the people of God not only in name: for God's people are a people participating in the fulfillment of God's plan both for themselves and for the salvation of the world, in which God's people are to take the most direct part.