Wisdom or Love?
Exodus 3:1-15
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’ 4When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ 5Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ 6He said further, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
7 Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’ 11But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ 12He said, ‘I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.’
13 But Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you”, and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ 14God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’* He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I am has sent me to you.” ’ 15God also said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “The Lord,* the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you”: This is my name for ever, and this my title for all generations.
Here for next Sunday, August 28, is this wonderful story of Moses and the Burning Bush. Having escaped from Egypt after murdering an Egyptian soldier who was beating an Israelite slave, Moses has met and married the daughter of Jethro, priest of Midian. Tending Jethro’s flock, Moses encounters God, who calls Moses to lead Israel out of slavery in Egypt and who introduces himself to Moses as “I AM.” For God’s name, the Hebrew Bible has the symbol YHWH. The pronunciation is uncertain to Hebrew scholars, but in English is generally spoken “Yahweh.”
A generation ago there was a re-imaging or re-imagining movement of radical feminists who renamed God “Sophia.” Despite that some of those involved were brilliant, well-known theologians, they showed, if not presumption and ignorance, the adoption of a limited God, for Sophia means “Wisdom.” God is not just wisdom: more importantly, God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). And here in the Old Testament lesson for next Sunday, God says “I AM.” God IS, God is being itself. God is whoever or whatever God says God is, in and as God’s Word.
Someone observed that if God were simply Sophia, wisdom, we surely would not exist; but because God is love, we are.
TW+