Exodus 3:15
God told Moses His name was ‘I am what I am’, ‘I am who I am’, ‘I will be what I will be’ and ‘I will be who I will be’. But those names were only for Moses to know.
On the other hand, God told Moses that when he went to the Israelites he was to tell them God’s name was “the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”, and that would be God’s name forever.
When you realize these Israelites had probably forgotten who God was or what He had done, it makes sense why when they left Egypt they did not trust Moses nor God and they begged to return to Egypt where thy had “leaks and garlic” for food condiments that were tasty.
Moses had three groups of people that he had to convince of God’s message: Pharaoh, the Israelites slaves, and the elders of Israel. We don’t actually know much about the Elders of Israel. We don’t know if they were also slaves or a ruling class over the Israelites. What we do know is they were credited with wisdom, and wisdom required respect.
At the end of God’s conversation with Moses He instructed him to use both the personnel name the Lord YHVH, which is Jehovah, and the universal name Elohim when introducing God to the Elders.
Moses was to tell them that God said, “I have taken note of you and of what is being done to you in Egypt and I have declared I will take you out of the misery of Egypt and into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, , and the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Then Moses was instructed to take the Jewish Elders with him to the King of Egypt and tell him, “The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, manifested Himself to us”. Moses was then instructed to ask Pharaoh to permit the Israelites at least a weeklong sabbatical. And when making his request, Moses was to be very polite and even was to say “please let us go to make a Sacrifice to the Lord our God.”
The instructions to the Israelites were they would travel a distance of three days out, have one day for sacrifices, and then three days back. Of course we know Moses’s request will be anathema to Pharaoh.
To begin with, it was an affront to the Egyptian religion. Especially since the Egyptians worshipped many animals as gods. Just think how many people today would be abhorred by animal sacrifice to a loving God? And yet not too many people would reject a juicy steak or a tender chop at their dinner table?
Of course, public animal sacrifice is no longer practiced by mainstream religion today. But the Torah viewed animal sacrifice as an appropriate way of serving God. They rightfully believed animals were created for human beings to use for morally legitimate purposes, but they were never to abuse an animal. Add to that the knowledge that nearly all sacrificed animals were to be eaten.
God then warned Moses that the king of Egypt would not let them go. Remember, God has always had foreknowledge from the beginning of time until forever. That can be hard for us to understand because we only have a human brain, but God stands outside of time. Time is irrelevant to God because He is timeless.
God followed up His instructions to Moses with the information that that He was certain that the king of Egypt will not let them go. “No, not by a mighty hand”.
We know who had the mighty hand when God continued with, “And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty!”
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