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Burning Bushes and I Ams
10 years ago
General
I have decided to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we are moving against wrong when we do it, because John was right, God is love. He who hates does not know God, but he who has love has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality.
~Martin Luther King Jr.One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is Love.
~SophoclesJOURNAL BEGINS HERE Re-submitting this one with a title this time.
The story of Moses and the burning bush is one of my personal favorites. There's a lot going on there, but I was recently introduced to a new angle.
When God calls out to Moses, Moses replies: "Here I am." When Moses asks for God's name he is told: "I am" or "I am what I will be" (depending on your translation).
Two I ams meeting over a burning bush.
We often forget that, at this point, Moses had no knowledge of Hebrew stories or tradition. He'd been raised as an Egyptian and saw the gods in the ways that they did. Egyptian gods required sacrifice, monuments, and conquest as shows of devotion from their followers. For the most part, those gods did not bestow favor or blessings on most people in this life. Such things only happened to Pharaoh and the high priests. As a peasant, the best you could hope for was to live in the underworld with Osiris after you died.
So Moses meets this I am at a burning bush and you can imagine he's wondering how to please this new god. What monument does he have to build? Who does he have to enslave? But this god wants none of those things. Instead, He says "I have heard the cries of my people, I love them, and I'm going to free them." Ancient gods didn't hear the cries of the oppressed masses. They never promised something without wanting something in return. This God shows up in the middle of no where (not a temple in sight) in a burning bush. This God hears the cry of the oppressed. This God loves and delivers because He loves, asking for nothing in return.
Two I ams meet over a burning bush and one overturns everything the other thinks he knows about the way the universe works.
~Spartan
The story of Moses and the burning bush is one of my personal favorites. There's a lot going on there, but I was recently introduced to a new angle.
When God calls out to Moses, Moses replies: "Here I am." When Moses asks for God's name he is told: "I am" or "I am what I will be" (depending on your translation).
Two I ams meeting over a burning bush.
We often forget that, at this point, Moses had no knowledge of Hebrew stories or tradition. He'd been raised as an Egyptian and saw the gods in the ways that they did. Egyptian gods required sacrifice, monuments, and conquest as shows of devotion from their followers. For the most part, those gods did not bestow favor or blessings on most people in this life. Such things only happened to Pharaoh and the high priests. As a peasant, the best you could hope for was to live in the underworld with Osiris after you died.
So Moses meets this I am at a burning bush and you can imagine he's wondering how to please this new god. What monument does he have to build? Who does he have to enslave? But this god wants none of those things. Instead, He says "I have heard the cries of my people, I love them, and I'm going to free them." Ancient gods didn't hear the cries of the oppressed masses. They never promised something without wanting something in return. This God shows up in the middle of no where (not a temple in sight) in a burning bush. This God hears the cry of the oppressed. This God loves and delivers because He loves, asking for nothing in return.
Two I ams meet over a burning bush and one overturns everything the other thinks he knows about the way the universe works.
~Spartan
