The Call of Moses

(Exodus 3:1–22)

30 After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31 When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight. As he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came to him: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’[fn] Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.

33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have indeed seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’[fn]

35 This Moses, whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’[fn] is the one whom God sent to be their ruler and redeemer through the angel [fn] who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the wilderness.

37 This is the same Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’[fn] 38 He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. And he received living words to pass on to us.[fn]