This is one of my very favorite passages of scripture, Exodus 3. Here, God reveals Himself as the LORD, and shares with Moses His heart for His people, Israel. It also shows how He feels about slavery. My daughter usually has a LOT of questions about this chapter, and I let her ask away. I wrote this adaptation for homeschool because she LOVES birds. While I read the story, I let her color a picture of a golden eagle.
A Bird’s Eye View of the Passover Story Part 4
The Eagle and the Burning Bush
As she soared through the sky, Deborah the Golden Eagle spied bush on fire on the mountains below. A gray-haired shepherd suddenly turned aside from his flock to gaze at this burning bush. Deborah eyed a wandering lamb in the flock. It would be easy prey while the shepherd looked at this fire. Then something within her said ‘stop’. The warning to stop was so strong. Maybe it was an angel that spoke it.
Deborah calmed her appetite and glided toward a tree near the bush. She landed on a thick branch and tucked her seven foot wing span behind her. She sat quietly and watched.
This was strange: the bush was on fire but none of the leaves or branches burned up. No wonder the shepherd turned aside to look at this!
Then a voice spoke from the bush. “Moses! Moses!”
The shepherd timidly spoke out, “Here I am.”
“Take off your sandals, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.”
Moses the shepherd obeyed quickly.
The voice spoke again saying, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey… And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.
“Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land … flowing with milk and honey.’
“The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.’ But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go…”
Deborah curled her talons around the tree branch and waited with bated breath. Her Maker, the Lord, was speaking. What would He say next? And how would He free His people, the Hebrews, from slavery?
