The eternal being

Exodus 3

Welcome to the Daily Bible Chapter. My name is James Leroy Wilson and I invite you to join me as we discover new insights and new perspectives from a very old book.

I’m reading Young’s Literal Translation (YLT) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

God appears to Moses in a burning bush, an event which we would call “paranormal.” The YLT has Moses removing “shoes” and the NRSV has him removing “sandals;” I hope the latter is more accurate and that the translators aren’t just making cultural assumptions.

Keep in mind from Genesis that Egyptians are the descendants of Ham, as are the tribes in Canaan. The Israelites are the descendants of Shem, and throughout my Genesis commentary I take the view that Shem symbolizes spirit or consciousness whereas Ham symbolizes the flesh.

Near the end of Genesis, the Israelites (Jacob, his sons, and their families) descended to Egypt. One could say they fell to Egypts “level” and became enslaved there. Leaving Egypt would be an act of liberation of the flesh; perhaps the conquest of Canaan is the mastery of the flesh.

Moses was conscious of his Egyptian upbringing, was conscious of the suffering of his blood kin, the Israelites, and was conscious that a better life for them was possible outside of Egypt.