The bush that would not burn up
“God 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.’””Exodus 3:14 · WEB
Moses tried to rescue his people once, by killing a man, and it cost him forty years as a shepherd in the desert. He is eighty now, and finished. Then a bush burns without burning up, and a voice tells him to take off his sandals. God says he has seen the suffering and heard the cry, and that he is sending — Moses. Moses argues for a whole chapter: who am I, they will not believe me, I am not eloquent, please send someone else. God answers every objection except the last, which he simply overrules. Asked for a name to give the people, he gives the strangest answer in Scripture: I AM WHO I AM. Not a title, not a description. A God who cannot be defined by anything outside himself is the one who goes with Moses back to Egypt.