Exodus 3:6

6 Then He continued, "I am the God of your father,^[a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

Exodus 3:6 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 3:6

Moreover he said, I am the God of thy fathers
Of every one of his fathers next mentioned: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;
with whom the covenant respecting the land of Canaan, and the promise of the blessed seed the Messiah, was made: this again shows that the Angel of the Lord that now appeared was God himself, Jehovah the Son of God. Our Lord makes use of this text to prove the resurrection of the dead against the Sadducees, God being not the God of the dead, but of the living; ( Mark 12:26 Mark 12:27 ) and Moses hid his face;
wrapped it in his mantle or cloak, as Elijah did, ( 1 Kings 19:13 ) , because of the glory of the divine Majesty now present, and conscious of his own sinfulness and unworthiness: for he was afraid to look upon God;
even upon this outward appearance and representation of him in a flame of fire; otherwise the essence of God is not to be looked upon and seen at all, God is invisible; but even this external token and symbol of him was terrible to behold; the thought that God was there filled him with fear, considering the greatness and awfulness of his majesty, and what a poor, weak, and sinful creature he was.

Exodus 3:6 In-Context

4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, "Moses, Moses!" "Here I am," he answered.

5 "Do not come closer," He said. "Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."

6 Then He continued, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

7 Then the Lord said, "I have observed the misery of My people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I know about their sufferings.

8 I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey-the territory of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

Footnotes

• [a]. Sam, some LXX mss read fathers; Ac 7:32