“Now Moses” are the first words of the third chapter of Exodus. At first glance, they appear ordinary, but there is something very unusual about them, something that we don’t want to overlook. It has to do with how the words are positioned in the sentence. The Hebrew language usually places the verb before the noun, while English places the noun before the verb. For example, in the Hebrew Bible, Genesis 1:1 reads, “In beginning to create, God, the heavens and the earth.” That’s how the Hebrew text reads, verb before noun.
But that is not how Exodus 3:1 reads in the Hebrew Bible. It reads, “Now Moses was pasturing the flock of his father-in-law…” What was the storyteller trying to do by opening this part of the story with “Now Moses?”
He is eloquently telling us that the whole story of the Israelite people is about to make a dramatic, history-changing shift!
Let’s examine Exodus 2:24-25 and Exodus 3:1 together without the chapter separation and observe the momentous thing God is about to do for the enslaved Israelites.
“God heard their groanings and remembered his covenant with Abraham and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.”
Do you see what has happened, what the writer is telling us? The whole complexion and mood of the story is about to change. The great act of God’s deliverance and the promise He made to Abraham and Jacob are now going to rest on one man! “Now Moses.” Everything that has occurred in chapters one and two of Exodus leads up to this vital point when God visits Moses in the wilderness near Mount Horeb.
“Now Moses” is the writer’s way to emphasize what is going to happen now in light of what has gone before. What has gone before? What happened in chapter one? We are told the sad account of how the power-hungry pharaoh subjected the Israelites to slavery. And chapter two? Here we have the record of the faithful actions Moses’ mother took to save his life, Moses’ adoption by the pharaoh’s daughter, Moses’ failed attempt to save his people, his escape to Midian to save his life, and his forty-year, self-imposed exile to the Midian wilderness shepherding for his wife’s father.
With these words, “Now Moses,” we are brought back to the redemption story, the promise God made to bless Abraham and his posterity, and all nations through the nation of Israel. In Genesis 12, the spotlight was on Abraham, who would become the father of the nation of Israel. Now Moses is under the spotlight because God has great plans for him. As we will see in upcoming posts, Moses will be the great leader God will use to free His people and lead them to the edge of the land He promised Abraham almost 450 years ago.
What are some lessons we can learn about our God from this “Now Moses” incident?
God keeps His promises, no matter how impossible that may seem. We have witnessed God’s faithfulness time and again in keeping His word with Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, as recorded in the book of Genesis. When you recall the miraculous and patient ways God initiated and kept the promise moving ahead, is it surprising that God shows up in the dark days of Israel’s slavery in Egypt? Not at all, God does only what He can do! What seems discouraging and impossible to us, God does. “Now Moses” is the announcement from heaven that the promise has not died in Egypt. God is about to act, and what He is about to do through Moses is nothing short of a miracle.
Think about what this means to you. Do you have problems and concerns that only God can resolve? Are you tired and frustrated by your efforts to solve your challenges in your strength? God delights in helping those who rely on Him.
It’s encouraging to live with the assurance that Jesus, the Son of God, died to save us and give us eternal life through His resurrection from the dead. God has made that promise to us, and He will keep that promise.
God cares for each of us and has a plan for us concerning His promise. God singled Moses out for a specific task related to the promise. He had not forgotten Moses, and He hasn’t forgotten you. No matter what your circumstances, what you have done or did not do, God wants you to bear witness to His love and mercy to others. We don’t get to be a Moses, but we can, in simple acts of kindness, work with God to make earth a little more like heaven every day. What can you do today to make that happen?
God cares for all humanity. Every person bears the “image of God” and is loved by Him. When Jesus said “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son…” He was speaking literally. God loves everyone, regardless of political affiliation, race, sexual orientation, nationality, etc. This does not mean that whatever choices we make regarding the way we live are okay with God. It means that God loves us, period.
What this implies to me is that I can strongly disagree with your choices and still treat you with the respect you deserve because you are God’s image bearer. I may think your ideas are stupid, but I can still respect your right to have opinions that are diametrically opposite to mine.
What would happen in our churches, our government, and our world should we care for all humanity as God does?