Like Moses, I worry about what to say to people about God. I also worry that they'll think I'm a simpleton who drank the KoolAid. But God says, "Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who give them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." (vs. 11-12) In other words, it is not for us to worry what comes of our witness, that is in God's hands. It is simply our duty to witness.
Also, what is up with verses 24-26? That's a bit I've never known and totally don't get...
I remember first reading this and my reaction was something like "WTF?" After reading it again just now, I still wasn't too sure, so I looked in a commentary by Walter Brueggemann. Here's what he says:
ReplyDelete"It is conventional to take this narrative as an etiology for circumcision, to explain why (and how) the practice of circumcision came about in Israel. At one level, this may be so, but taken in context this seems an inadequate comment on the text. We should not forget the nature of this text and of the larger narrative. We are dealing with a story built around the resolve of this holy one, who will not be tamed or explained. Yahweh is set loose for the sake of Israel, but Yahweh is also set loose by the narrator in savage ways against Pharaoh and (here at least) in savage ways against Moses. The larger narrative is not solely about liberation. It concerns, rather, the claim that all parties, Israelite as well as Egyptian, must live in the presence of unleashed, unlimited holiness. There are provisional strategies for safety in the face of holiness, but none that will finally tame this dangerous God. One is struck at the end of this brief encounter with the peculiar juxtaposition of threat and safety, a resolve to kill and safety found only in a primitive act of blood and genitalia. But then, holiness is perplexing beyond all explanation."
That at least helps it seem a whole lot crazy, I think.