The Shadow-gloom and Weight of the Sacred

Credit: Evan Leeson
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecstaticist/
CC BY-SA 2.0

Last night at church we did a lectio divina reading of Exodus 3. I was struck by the way in which God identifies himself. Moses walks up to the burning bush and God says, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." I've seen this phrase often in the Bible as a way to identify God. It had never occurred to me, however, to wonder if there was any significance to this. I mean, one has to think that it requires some real chutzpah to continue and claim Jacob and think this won't come back to haunt you. God is obviously not running for office any time soon. In any event, I have an idea that I'm going to look into and, as I know you all come here for biblical insight and spiritual guidance, thought I'd share it here (also, I didn't want to forget my thoughts on this matter and making them into a blog post will help me to remember).

Harold Shank, one of my professors during my college days (yes, college days, not years), once pointed out the following outline regarding Genesis (it sets up the context for Exodus):

Genesis 1-11: God deals directly with creation

Genesis 12-25: God deals directly with creation through a mediator (Abraham)

Genesis 25-36: God deals only with one person (Jacob)

Gensesis 37-50: God almost never appears (He speaks to Jacob in Gen. 46 and
Joseph mentions Him as he is dying at the end of the book)

Here's the thing, God doesn't appear in Exodus until chapter 3. Yes, there are some things that would indicate he's working behind the scenes (like when the Hebrew midwives outwit Pharaoh), but that's it. If you were reading the Bible (or just the first five books--Torah) from the start, it would actually be quite a long time inbetween when God was highly, evidently active and the burning bush. A lot has happened in the mean time. His chosen people become enslaved and are grossly mistreated and there's even a (attempted?) genocide by Pharaoh.

So, God shows up at the burning bush, identifies himself as the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob and says his name is I Am. What I'm wondering is if, when God is idenifited by his relationships with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, this foreshadows God's direct involvement with creation. Is this construct indicative of God working in creation as he did with these three men as opposed to a behind the scenes (providential) work?

When the "God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" is invoked, what exactly is the plea? Or, for example, when such a construct is used in urging people to repentance ("Return to the God of...") as in 2 Chronicles 30:6, what exactly is the exhortation? Is this construct indicative of God's (for lack of better terminology--hey, my brain can only handle so much) level of direct involvement in the lives of His people?