knowledge that the name of God can be declared a unique name? And most importantly, who would guarantee that someone else would not come up with a better name, causing a split in the whole nation? That would be a great excuse, after all… Fortunately, God really loved His little children, as they still were at that time, so He offered them a truly regal solution: “So you don’t know my name? Then, why don’t you ask me, if you trust me?” Do you see how God’s play naturally works? Indeed, like hearing Dad speaking to his kids. But it was not that easy… In the next scene of His drama, God complained: “None of you wants to listen to me! Are any of you listening to me at all?” And that brings us slowly to the climax of the Old Testament’s act of the drama: Who would dare to address the distant God to ask Him what His real name is? The real name, this means who God is. The real, the shortest question is: “Who are You?” Who are you really? Not what I think of you, what you seem to me, how I would like you to be, but who you really are. Alternatively – Lord, I want to get to know you. I am deeply interested in you, because I love you deeply. God, the author of the drama, knows very well that this role will be played in an endless number of reruns, both here on Earth and anywhere else and that it will never grow old. However, God-the-Director found things a lot more difficult back then. For the purposes of the nation of Israel, God had to cast this role for a single man and He was not sure whether it would not end up in being howled down, as he had to choose from rank amateurs, not from the professionals. It surely could not have been any other way, because all his former premieres had thus far ended up as failures, and this one had a slim chance of being the first successful one. 6 This is how it was Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he 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. Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings. (…) Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should Spirituality Studies 1 (2) Fall 2015 73 (5)
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