Why Moses Resists Being Chosen to Lead the Israelites

This week’s reading of Va’era (Exodus 6:2 – 9:35) relates how Moses goes about putting the squeeze on Pharaoh and extracting the children of Israel like a bad debt. But let’s look first at the background: at the character of Moses as revealed in the previous week’s reading (Exodus 1:1 – 6:1) and specifically at his persistent refusal to undertake his mission. His opposition to God’s demand takes the art of argument with the Almighty—the special gift that, as I’ve noted earlier, distinguishes both Abraham and Moses as the two great founders of the Jewish people—beyond the insistence on justice to a whole new level of recalcitrance.

What is Moses’ problem, exactly?

But Moses was herding the flock of Jethro his father-in-law
Who was priest of Midian, and he led the flock
Along the desert and he came to God’s mountain,
To Ḥorev, and an angel of the Lord appeared to him
In the heart of a flame out of a thistle.
And he looked over and here the thistle’s on fire
But the thistle is not eaten up.
And Moses said, Let me turn then and see
This great vision—why does the thistle not burn?
But the Lord saw that he was turning to see
And God called to him from inside the thistle saying, Moses, Moses,
And he said, I’m right here.
But He said, Don’t come here,
Shed your shoes from your feet
Because the site you’re standing on
Is sacred ground. And He said, I Myself am the God of your ancestor,
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob.
But Moses hid his face
Because he didn’t dare gaze at God.