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miraculous acts. First, when
Moses throws his staff (probably a
shepherd’s crook) to the ground, it
becomes a snake. Second, when
Moses puts his hand into his cloak
and then withdraws it, his hand
appears leprous and white. When
he repeats the action, the hand is
restored to health. Third, God tells
Moses that if he takes water from
the Nile and pours it on the ground,
it will turn to blood.
In spite of these miracles, Moses
remains reluctant. He blames his
lack of eloquence, saying “I am slow
of speech and tongue” (4:10). God
encourages Moses, telling him
that He will be with him and will
give him the right words to say.
He entreats Moses to leave, but
again, Moses refuses, and pleads:
“Lord, please send somebody else
to do it” (4:13). As in many Old
Testament stories, the servant
God chooses to enact His will is
not at first particularly worthy or
even willing. Moses’s equivocation,
indicative of human weakness,
contrasts with the strength he later
finds when he puts his trust in God.
God eventually loses patience
with Moses. His anger “burns
bright” against him, yet He alsoshows His compassion by allowing
Moses’s brother, Aaron, a confident
speaker, to assist him on his
mission and make up for Moses’s
shortcomings as an orator. God
tells Moses: “I will help both of you
speak and teach you what to do”
(4:15). He then gives Moses another
staff with which to perform
miraculous signs.
Moses must eventually agree
to God’s election of him to lead the
Israelites, because in verse 18, he isMOSES AND THE BURNING BUSH
St. Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt
claims to be the place where Moses
saw the burning bush. Founded in the
6th century at the foot of Mount Sinai,
it is a UNESCO world heritage site.preparing to return to Egypt with
his wife and sons, taking the “staff
of God in his hand” (4:20).A holy site
The likely location of the episode of
the burning bush has been greatly
debated by biblical scholars. The
Hebrew word for bush—and used
in the narrative—is seneh, which
is remarkably close to “Sinai” and
may be a pun, a common feature in
ancient Hebrew texts. Seneh is also
widely believed to be another name
for Horeb (“God’s mountain”). The
word “Horeb” is often interpreted
as “heat,” although others translate
it to mean “desert” or “desolation,”
fitting the isolated locations in
which God often communicates
with His chosen instrument.
Although Mount Sinai is widely
accepted as the location of the
bush, some modern scholars insist
that evidence points to other sitesThe Kenites
Moses is linked through his
father-in-law Jethro to a tribe
known as the Kenites. This
nomadic clan of coppersmiths
and metalworkers played a key
role in the establishment of
ancient Israel. Believed to be
descendants of Cain, many
members of the tribe settled
among the Israelite peoples and
influenced their development.
Jethro, a shepherd and
priest, lived in the land of
Midian, where “Yahweh” was
historically a deity. The “Kenitehypothesis,” first proposed
by the 19th-century German
theologian Friedrich Wilhelm
Ghillany, suggests that the
Hebrews adopted the cult of
Yahweh from the Midianites,
who had previously learned it
from the Kenites. In the story
of the burning bush, when God
tells Moses “I am what I am,”
this is translated from the
Hebrew hayah, which in turn
gives rise to the word yahweh.
God’s clarification to Moses is a
statement of his identity as the
God of the patriarchs and thus
the God of the Israelites.US_066-069_Burning_bush.indd 68 21/09/17 11:29 am