13000-11-21 (2009-12-08): Lights Over Norway

2 Exodus 2:23-48
²³And it came to pass after a long time that the king of Egypt died; and the children of Israel groaned because of severe oppression, and they prayed, and their cry came up to God because of severe oppression.
²⁴And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his contract with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
²⁵And God looked on the children of Israel, and God noticed their oppression.

¹Now Moses was feeding the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
²And the angel of Yahvah appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush; and he looked, and saw the bush was on fire, and the bush was not consumed.
³And Moses said, I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.
⁴And when Yahvah saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am.
⁵And he said, Do not draw near; take your shoes off your feet for the place where you are standing is holy ground.
⁶He also said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look at God.

⁷And Yahvah said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
⁸and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
⁹Look now, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me; and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
¹⁰Now come and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.
¹¹And Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?
¹²And God said to him, I will be with you; and this will be a sign to you that I have sent you: when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.

¹³And Moses said to God, Look, when I go to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you; and they say to me, What is his name? What will I say to them?
¹⁴And God said to Moses, I Am who I Am; and he said, You will say to the children of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.
¹⁵And God also said to Moses, Thus you will say to the children of Israel: Yahvah God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you; this is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations.
¹⁶Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, Yahvah God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me saying, I have surely remembered you and seen what is done to you in Egypt;
¹⁷and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of the Egyptians to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.
¹⁸And they will listen to your voice; and you and the elders of Israel will go to the king of Egypt, and you will say to him, Yahvah God of the Hebrews has appeared to us; and now let us go 3 days' journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to Yahvah our God.