The Call of Moses

(Exodus 3:1–22)

[After] forty years had passed, an angel of the Lord[fn] 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:[fn] 32 ‘I [am] the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’[fn] Moses vvv trembled with fear vvv [and] did not dare to look.

Then the Lord said to him,‘Take off [your] sandals, for the place vvv 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]

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[fn] Egypt, at [the] Red Sea, and [for] forty years in the wilderness.

This is the [same] Moses who told the vvv Israelites,‘The Lord our God will raise up[fn] 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 a living word[fn] to pass on to us.[fn]