Commentary - Exodus 3:7-12

Bird's-eye view

In this crucial passage, we have the turning point in the history of Israel's bondage. God, who is never a distant spectator, declares His active and covenantal involvement in the plight of His people. The affliction has reached its appointed apex, and the cry of the people has reached the ears of the Lord. This is not just a divine observation; it is a declaration of intent. God sees, He hears, He knows, and therefore, He acts. He comes down. This is the essence of the gospel from the beginning, God's condescension to rescue His people.

The commission of Moses follows directly from this divine initiative. God's plan is not ethereal; it is executed through chosen instruments, however flawed and reluctant they may be. The deliverance from Egypt is not just a rescue mission but a redemptive one, leading the people to a place of promise and worship. Moses's profound sense of inadequacy is met not with a pep talk about his hidden potential, but with the bedrock promise of God's presence. "I will be with you" is the only qualification any servant of God ever needs. The sign offered is not a preliminary miracle to bolster Moses's courage, but the successful completion of the mission itself, grounding his assurance in the faithfulness of God's accomplished word.

Outline

God's Redemptive Initiative

The entire narrative of Exodus is a foundational display of God's redemptive character. He is, by nature, a God who delivers. Here at the burning bush, we see the pattern that will define His relationship with His people throughout Scripture. He does not wait for them to become worthy of rescue. He acts because of His covenant promises and His own holy name. His seeing, hearing, and knowing are not passive states but active engagements. When God "knows" their sufferings, it is the intimate knowledge of a covenant-keeper who is now moving to fulfill His word given to Abraham centuries before (Gen. 15:13-14).

This divine initiative is crucial. Man does not initiate his own salvation. Israel did not form a committee to petition Heaven. They cried out in their misery, and God, who had been watching all along, determined that the appointed time had come. This is grace. God's descent is a picture of the incarnation. Just as He came down to deliver Israel, so the Son of God would one day descend to deliver all His people from a bondage far greater than that of Egypt.

Verse by Verse Commentary

7 And Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sufferings.

Yahweh's declaration begins with a threefold assertion of His awareness. First, "I have surely seen." The Hebrew is emphatic; it is a seeing that sees, a perception that penetrates the surface. God is not a deistic clockmaker who wound up the world and walked away. He is intimately involved. He sees the "affliction," the raw oppression and misery of His people. Second, "I have heard their cry." This is not just ambient noise. It is the specific cry prompted by their taskmasters. God hears the content and the cause of their anguish. Third, "for I know their sufferings." This is not mere intellectual data. The word for "know" (yada) implies a deep, personal, and experiential understanding. God enters into the suffering of His people. He has not been aloof; He has been watching and waiting for this precise moment in His redemptive timeline.

8 So I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

"So I have come down." This is the pivotal action. Divine observation leads to divine intervention. God's holiness means He cannot abide the unjust affliction of His covenant people indefinitely. He descends. This is a profound theological statement. The transcendent God bridges the gap to rescue His people. The purpose is twofold. First, deliverance "from the hand of the Egyptians." This is a rescue from a position of powerlessness. Second, it is a relocation "to a good and spacious land." God does not just deliver from, He delivers to. The destination is described in lavish terms: "flowing with milk and honey," a metaphor for immense prosperity and blessing. The listing of the resident nations serves to underscore the reality of the promise. This is not a mythical place; it is a concrete, geographical inheritance that will require conquest, a conquest that God Himself will secure.

9 So now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.

This verse reiterates and intensifies the previous statements, serving as the immediate justification for the commission that follows. "Behold, the cry...has come to Me." It has reached its destination. The cup of Egyptian iniquity is full, and the measure of Israel's suffering has met God's appointed time. He adds, "I have also seen the oppression." The repetition is for emphasis, driving the point home to Moses. This is not a whim. This is a considered, righteous, and holy response to sustained evil. God is not only a deliverer but also a judge. The oppression has been seen, and it will be answered.

10 So now, come and I will send you to Pharaoh, and so you shall bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Here is the hinge. God's grand plan of deliverance will be executed through a human agent. "So now, come and I will send you." God's sovereignty does not negate human responsibility; it establishes it. He could have delivered Israel with a word, but His method is to use people. Moses, the fugitive shepherd, is now commissioned as God's ambassador. The task is monumental: "go to Pharaoh." He is to confront the most powerful man on earth. And the objective is clear: "bring My people...out of Egypt." Moses is not to negotiate a treaty for better working conditions. He is to lead a mass exodus. This is a declaration of war against the gods of Egypt and the empire they supposedly protect.

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”

Moses's response is entirely predictable and entirely human. He looks inward and sees nothing but inadequacy. Forty years earlier, as a prince of Egypt, he might have felt qualified. Now, after four decades in the wilderness, he knows his own weakness. "Who am I?" This is not false humility; it is an honest assessment. From a human perspective, he is a nobody, an aging shepherd with a criminal record in Egypt. He rightly measures himself against the task, confronting Pharaoh and leading a nation, and finds himself wanting. This is the necessary starting point for anyone God uses. God does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called by stripping them of self-reliance.

12 And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God at this mountain.”

God's answer does not address Moses's question directly. He does not say, "Moses, you are a great leader with hidden talents." He dismisses the "Who am I?" question as irrelevant. The only relevant fact is who is with Moses. "Certainly I will be with you." This is the ultimate answer to all human inadequacy. God's presence is the only resource needed. The creator of the heavens and the earth, the covenant-keeping God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, will be his constant companion. The sign God provides is also instructive. It is not a present miracle, but a future reality. "When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God at this mountain." The sign is the successful completion of the mission. Moses is to act in faith, and the confirmation of his call will be the fulfillment of the promise. His assurance is not in a feeling or a preliminary wonder, but in the certain outcome that God has just declared.

Application

The pattern here is the pattern for all Christian life and ministry. God sees the affliction of sin in our lives. He hears the cry of a world in bondage. He knows our sufferings, because Christ Himself took on flesh and suffered. And He has come down, in the person of His Son, to deliver us not from Egypt, but from sin and death. He brings us out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of His marvelous light.

Like Moses, we are called to be instruments in this great redemptive work. And like Moses, we are right to feel inadequate. "Who am I?" is the constant refrain of the honest Christian heart when faced with the call to speak for God, to stand against wickedness, or to lead others. The answer is always the same. It is not about who we are, but about who is with us. "Certainly I will be with you." This promise, reiterated by Christ in the Great Commission (Matt. 28:20), is the foundation of all Christian confidence. We are not sent to rely on our own strength, eloquence, or strategy, but on the simple, profound, and world-altering reality of the presence of the living God.