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going on, so he fell to the ground also and buried his face in the sand. Whether he believed it really was God or not, it was something strange, and he was too scared to find out what.
    From His long experience with His humans, God knew the goats would die of old age before Moses got it together enough to ask a few obvious questions, such as, “If You’re really God, why are You pretending to be a bush?” For most people, a burning bush that wasn’t burnt up would be a real conversation starter, but not for Moses, who was much more comfortable talking to goats than to humans.
    Knowing He would have to make the first move, God began telling Moses what was on His mind, just as if Moses had a perfect grasp on the idea that God Almighty had dropped by.
    “I have seen the misery of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land flowing with milk and honey.”
    Moses still had his head in the sand, but he pulled back slightly and opened one eye when he heard this. He didn’t speak, but I knew what he was thinking.
    Is this something I’m supposed to care about? I tried to help them once, and look what it got me.
    “So now, go,” the voice continued. “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
    “You have got to be kidding, God,” Moses said. No, wait. Moses didn’t say that; I said that.
    Moses actually said, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
    But it meant the same thing. As far as Moses was concerned, this was not an idea that could work at all. His window of opportunity to be a hero had long since closed, and he no longer had the desire or the will to try to open a new one.
    God tried to reassure him. “I will be with you. This will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship Me on this mountain.”
    When I heard that, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit sorry about the fate that awaited the desert demons who had abandoned their posts. They’d given it up without a fight, and now God had it staked out as an altar to Himself. Satan would have a fit when he learned about it. Not that I would have acted differently in their circumstances. Spiritual warfare against the heavenly host is one thing, but if any one of the Trinity enters the fray, see ya’; wouldn’t want to be ya’.
    At first, Moses was tracking with me; it was all over his face that he had no appreciation for why this was a good idea. Slowly rising to his feet, he stared at the ground, shifted from one foot to another, and finally spoke to God.
    “Mighty God, You know I am a murderer. My execution awaits me if I go back to Egypt.”
    “Those who wanted your life are now dead,” God responded.
    “But suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ then what shall I tell them?”
    Good question; very good question, Moses.
    I knew God by many names: Yahweh, Elohim, Hashem, El Shaddai, and others. His creation called His name by what it saw Him do. I wondered which of these names God would assign to Himself for the task He was proposing.
    God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’’’
    Moses was still standing, but I wasn’t. I was slammed to the ground by the force of God’s words. I tried to get up, but I couldn’t. The weight of “I AM” sat on top of me.
    “Say to the Israelites, ‘The God of your fathers—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.”
    It went on like that for seven days. God would lay out the plan