4.2: Moshe is Called by God
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Moshe is Called by God – Shemot (Exodus) 2-3
The following reading is from the second book of the Torah, Exodus, or in Hebrew Shemot. This book tells the story of the Hebrews enslavement in Egypt and how God liberates them and leads them out of Egypt. This is a story that may be familiar to many of you, as it is also part of the Christian Bible and has recently been made into two popular Hollywood films. In this section we are introduced to Moshe (Moses in Christian Bibles) and told how God picks him to be the leader who will free the Hebrews from Pharaoh.
Moshe occupies an interesting place in Egyptian society because he is Hebrew but raised in the Pharaoh’s palace by Pharaoh’s daughter, making the Pharaoh his own stepfather, in a way. We then learn how Moshe murders an Egyptian man who strikes a Hebrew slave – when the Pharaoh tries to have him killed, he runs away to a land called Midyan. There he finds a wife and seems happy and content as a herder, but God appears to him and asks him to lead the Hebrews out of slavery.
As you read this section, note the strong themes of immigration and feeling like an outsider – Moshe grows up as a Hebrew surrounded by Egyptians. He must have felt out of place and different in his own family. Then he flees to Midyan and is also an outsider there. When God speaks to him he doesn’t feel confident that the Hebrew leaders will listen to him, possibly because he didn’t grow up among them, so they might not consider him to be truly a Hebrew. This is also the section of the Torah when we learn what God’s proper name is.