Exodus 3

Also known as Reuel (2:18).

Horeb is a Hebrew word that can mean “dry,” “desolate,” or “desert.” But here, it reads more like a name. Most Bible scholars say it’s an alternate name for Mount Sinai—much like “Zion” is another name for “Jerusalem.” Some say the mountain is in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Others say it’s in what is now Saudi Arabia, where the people of Midian lived. Two Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions from about the 1400s BC, around the time some scholars say Moses lived, said the mountainous territory of the Sinai was the “land of the Shasu of Yahweh.” “Shasu” was what Egyptians called the nomads and herders from what is now the areas of Israel, Palestinian Territories, Syria, and Jordan. Yahweh, translated “LORD” in all capital letters, was God’s name (3:14). The inscription might mean the Sinai was the land of nomads who worshiped God or who were known by the name of God—perhaps as “the people of God.” These inscriptions are the two oldest references outside the Bible to anyone worshiping Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, who were ancestors of today’s Jewish people.

“LORD,” usually printed in all capital letters, is a name of God that appears around 7,000 times in the Christian Bible, which makes it the most common way of referring to God.  The lower-case “Lord” is a translation of the Hebrew word Adonai. It refers to God as our master, our life coach, or the boss. He’s in charge of us, and we try to obey him. “LORD” is the spelling most Bibles use when the writer refers to the name of God. Moses asked God what his name was, and God said Moses should tell the Israelite ancestors of the Jews that his name is “I AM” (3:14). In the original Hebrew language, the name is spelled with only consonants—no vowels. It’s an ancient shorthand, to save hides used to make scrolls. The name is YHWH. Without knowing which vowels, most scholars have settled on YAHWEH, pronounced YAH-way. For those freaky enough to wonder if it’s possible that God might have the name of YAHWHO, no. Hebrew linguist Dr. Joseph Coleson, Old Testament professor emeritus at Nazarene Theological Seminary, said, “No Semitic language ever would allow all three root letters [HWH] to occur in succession together, in any form of any root, without vowels to break them up.” God’s name is so sacred to many Jews that they refuse to speak it. Instead, they’ll use names that describe the character of God, such as Adonai, which means “my Lord.” They won’t even write the name. In English, they’ll spell the name G-d.

“The LORD’s messenger” is often translated “the LORD’s angel.” “Angel” means “messenger.” But when angels appear, they usually take human form, like the “messengers” who rushed Lot’s family out of Sodom (Genesis 19:1). But in this story about Moses, the messenger was God himself. God often appeared in the light of fire, an ancient symbol of power in the centuries before electricity (Exodus 13:21; Psalm 104:4; Ezekiel 1:27).

In the original Hebrew language, God said “Hāyâ (I AM) ’ᵃšer (WHO) Hāyâ (I AM). Other translations render it “I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE,” or “I AM THE ONE WHO ALWAYS IS,” to mention just a couple. Some scholars say this isn’t God’s name. They say it’s a description of his name. His name is “I AM,” YAHWEH in Hebrew (see note just above in 3:2). God’s cryptic description of his name hints that who he is and what he is like will become obvious when people start seeing what God does. God will soon step into their lives in such dramatic ways that the generations to come will commemorate them in sacred events such as the Passover sedar meal, which commemorates God freeing the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery (Exodus 12).