Shemot, שְׁמוֹת - Names
Torah Portion: Exodus 1:1-6:1
Reading #4 - Exodus 3:1–15
My Thoughts:
How amazing Hashem speaks to Moses and gives him a direct order. He basically orders him to go back to Egypt and lead His people out to the promised Land. Hashem has heard the cries of His people and now is ready to do something. Moses just must be jarred. He is comfortably living in the mountains with his new family and now he has been called to this huge task. After he is called, he asks Hashem two things. Who is he to be called and what is the name of G-d that is calling him. Hashem tells him His eternal Name - “I AM”, Hashem assures Him that the reason Moses can carry out this great task is because HE WILL BE WITH HIM. And another promise that he will be able to worship Hashem on this very same mountain.
Challenge:
Has Hashem asked you to do something that you didn’t think you’d be able to do? He would not call you to do something big, unless He was going to be with you. Think about what He asked you to do in the past few days or weeks. Did you do it? Did you carry out the task? Did you believe He was with you and helped you? If you are hesitant or afraid to move forward, remember this story of how Hashem called Moses and His promises. Do what He says, and you will be amazed at the outcome.
Reading #4 - Exodus 3:1–15
1:3 Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to Elohim’s mountain, to Horeb. 2 Hashem’s angel appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. 3 Moses said, “I will go now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”
4 When Hashem saw that he came over to see, Elohim called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!”
He said, “Here I am.”
5 He said, “Don’t come close. Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing on is holy ground.” 6 Moreover He said, “I am the Elohim of your father, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob.”
Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at Elohim.
7 Hashem said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8 I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 9 Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
11 Moses said to Elohim, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
12 He said, “Certainly I will be with you. This will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve Elohim on this mountain.”
13 Moses said to Elohim, “Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The Elohim of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?”
14 Elohim said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and He said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15 Elohim said moreover to Moses, “You shall tell the children of Israel this, ‘Hashem, the Elohim of your fathers, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My Name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.
