Exodus 3-20: Moses

I can always relate the stories of the bible to some movie I watched before or a distant childhood memory. Recently, I've been remembering so much about the stories I had been told that are in the bible and I realize that then I saw them so differently. While before I saw them as some kind of story that had a lesson at the end and that told you what not to do if you wanted God to be in peace with you, now I see them as entertaining stories, actual literature, and characters you can interpret.

With Moses, I was glad how he got the chance to live even though he was a Hebrew, at the highest of society, coming from the lowest. I really wonder how it must have felt growing up in this environment knowing he didn't belong there or getting the feeling that God did not want him there, plus the bonus of knowing that he had Hebrew roots. I must have taken courage and real belief in himself and the power of God to just leave. And not just to leave, but to forget the way he was raised and return to his roots. Just leave Egypt and become some kind of a priest. But all of this is before God asks him to lead the Jews out of Egypt.

This is where the fictional parts of the bible come in that I find extremely hard to believe. You just can't picture a burning bush appearing out of nowhere, starting to emit a voice talking to Moses. But I mean, you can't also picture a snake persuading a woman, but in that case maybe you can picture the snake persuading with his eyes or something like that. It's also like believing angels really did appear or something like that. Does the bible mean all of these things literally or are they supposed to be some kind of symbolism that we need to interpret in order to know how to act? Was the bush intimidating or almighty to Moses if it really did appear to him? This is when Moses asks God something that directly refers to all of my questions: "Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?" (Exodus 3:13) What is the proof that God appeared to him in the form of a burning bush and asked Moses to free the Jews? Won't these people also be wondering whether to believe him or not? Isn't it all a question of faith rather than proof? Because what we call proof is nonexistent in the bible.

The "answer" God gave to Moses, to me, just left the question unanswered. "I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you." (Exodus 3:15) "I am that I am." ...OK. So we know that you are. But how will they know? So God decides to give Moses supernatural powers, giving him the capacity to turn a stick into a snake, and a more impressive feat, infesting Egypt with 10 different plagues. I wonder if it was hard for Moses to do all these things to the land he was raised in? What if the Pharaoh had been someone he's known in his childhood? But I guess these things didn't matter anymore since his loyalty and promises now lay with God. But overall, I really thought Moses' feats were admirable and impressive. A great example to believers and a story that though hard to believe, can be believed in a different way.