Character Reference
Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” Exodus 3:13 NASB
What – What a stupid question! Is Moses so disconnected from his own people that he imagines they won’t know that name of their own God? Does he suppose that after all those years in exile they won’t know who he is and might suppose he has returned with a false god’s message? Really? This question doesn’t even make any sense—unless, of course, we have a thoroughly bad translation. Take a look at your English Bible and see for yourself how the translators have handled Moses’ anticipated question. Almost universally they express the Hebrew ma sh’mo as “what is his name,” and for us that question is about the referent of the pronoun, as if we were asking the name of your first child or your dog. But ma sh’mo isn’t asking about a referent. It’s asking about the character of someone you already know.
“According to Biblical language . . . when the questioner asks simply for someone’s name, he says: mi atta? ‘who art thou?’ or even (Judges 13, 17) mi sh’mekha? ‘who is thy name?’ The question introduced by ‘what’ always asks about the nature of something; ‘what’ coupled with the word ‘name’ points either to a meaning suggested by the pronouncing of the answer (so Gen. 32, 28, drawing attention to the shameful nature of Jacob’s name . . .) or to a mystery (so Prov. 30, 4, where the point is not that the hearer does not know the name of the founder of the world, but that he does not know his nature).”[1]
Moses does not anticipate that the people will not know YHVH. He anticipates that they will not know the character of YHVH. And why on earth would he anticipate such ignorance? Well, they have been praying to YHVH for hundreds of years to find relief and rescue, and God has not answered. They have experienced cruelty on behalf of the Egyptians and silence on behalf of their God. Why would they think that this exiled ex-royal returning renegade will bring God’s message of redemption? Moses anticipates that they have become apathetic. It’s been too long. Why would they believe now?
And why would we? It’s been too long. We’ve waited, and waited, and waited some more. Generations have come and gone. Friends and relatives have died—waiting. And still there is no end in sight. What we see when we look forward is the repetition of the past—not the past of rescue but the past of despair, hardship, corruption, and suffering. I’ve pointed out before that the 250 richest people in the world have more assets than the 2.5 billion of the poorest. Where is God in all this? Where was He when the blood of Israelites was mixed with mortar to build Egyptian cities? Where is He now when the forced labor of children produces luxury goods for the wealthy to flaunt? “What is his name?” is our question. Oh, we know the consonants, even if for some obscure religious practice we don’t say His name anymore (I often wonder how He feels about that), but knowing the consonants—and the stories—doesn’t answer our question, and it didn’t answer the question Moses anticipates. That required observable action!
Scholars have been puzzled about the longevity of the Qumran community. They clearly believed they were living in the last days. But how long can the last days last? The community continued to believe they were in the last days for nearly three hundred years. How is that possible? Who can sustain such an idea after generations have passed? I suppose we already have the answer. How long have we been living in the last days? Since about the year 40. What keeps us going?
Well, . . .
Topical Index: ma sh’mo, name, character, last days, Exodus 3:13
[1] Martin Buber, The Prophetic Faith (Collier Books, 1949), pp. 27-28.
