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Three Prophets Refused Until God Would Not Turn

At the bush Moses asked God to send someone else. Let us see whose will shall stand, God answered. Jonah tried a ship the other way and came back by fish.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. A Bush That Would Not Take No
  2. Jonah's Flight and Jeremiah's Youth
  3. A Priest of Midian Counts the Impossible
  4. When Israel Became a People Who Hear
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A Bush That Would Not Take No

Moses stood before the flame that did not consume the bush and still tried to step backward. "Send, please, by the hand of another whom You will send." The Holy One answered with iron patience. I am telling you Come, and I will send you, and you say Send by another's hand. Let us see whose will shall stand.

Moses did not budge until he went. He returned to Yeter his father-in-law, packed the road to Egypt into his bones, and walked toward Pharaoh with a staff that would split seas. When the Master wills it, no servant's reluctance can turn Him back.

Jonah's Flight and Jeremiah's Youth

Jonah fled rather than go to Nineveh. The ship, the storm, the fish, the second command. In the end he arose and went according to the word of the LORD. Jeremiah pleaded, "I am but a lad." Do not say you are a lad, came the answer, for upon all that I send you, you shall go. He did not budge until he went on the mission.

Job's verse hangs over all three. He is One, and who can turn Him back? Whatever His soul desires, He does. Prophets may argue, bargain, hide in the hold of a ship. The sending remains.

A Priest of Midian Counts the Impossible

Jethro had seen the world. A slave, he knew, could never escape Egypt. Then God led out six hundred thousand. That arithmetic forced the words from his mouth. Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods.

The sages notice that four men once said things so bold that anyone else would have been laughed out of the room. Jethro's confession stands among them because he measured empire against exodus and found empire small. The reluctant Moses who left Jethro's tent returned as the man whose God Jethro finally named above every other power.

When Israel Became a People Who Hear

At Sinai the first word of the Ten Commandments opens a courtroom. "I am the LORD." Rabbi Pinchas the priest heard the Psalm behind it. Hear, O My people, and I will speak. Why must Israel hear? So that God would have, as it were, an opening of the mouth to argue Israel's case against the nations.

Elsewhere the midrash sets Israel beside an apple tree in the forest. Nations hurry past a tree that casts little shade. Israel sits in its shade and delights. They say "we will do" before "we will hear," blossom before leaf, action before full explanation. In Sivan the fruit of that choice ripens.

Moses who refused, Jonah who fled, Jeremiah who claimed youth, and Israel who answered first with deed, all meet the same One who will not be turned back. Reluctance is allowed a scene. It is not allowed the last word.

Reluctance is not treated as crime in these midrashim. It is treated as the human first draft of a mission. Moses, Jonah, and Jeremiah each get a scene of resistance so that obedience, when it comes, is chosen rather than mechanical. Jethro's "now I know" arrives only after the reluctant messenger has already done the impossible. Knowledge follows the deed that fear tried to cancel.

At the bush Moses lists objections like a man building a wall of reasons. Slow tongue, doubtful people, a stronger brother, a Pharaoh who will not listen. God answers each brick and then knocks the wall over with a single insistence. Go. The midrash loves the standoff because it shows that even the greatest prophet is not a puppet. Obedience arrives after argument, which makes the going heavier and more real.

Jonah's sea-road and Jeremiah's youth-plea widen the pattern. Flight and self-belittling are human drafts of mission. Nineveh still gets its warning. Judah still gets its tears. The One who cannot be turned back allows the prophet a scene of resistance so the mission is not mistaken for ease. Jethro, watching from Midian with a priest's practiced eye, does the arithmetic after the fact. Six hundred thousand out of a house of slaves. Now I know. Knowledge is late. The reluctant feet were already on the road.

Sinai gathers the nation into the same grammar. Hear, so that God may speak Israel's case. Sit in the thin shade of the apple tree when other nations hurry past. Say we will do before we will hear. The people who answer with deed first are the collective version of Moses finally packing for Egypt. Reluctance had its chapter. Covenant speech closes it without pretending the fear never happened.

Pharaoh will still harden. Nineveh will still repent in sackcloth. Judah will still weep. The midrash is not promising ease after obedience. It is promising that the refusal scene is not the end of the file. God keeps the mission open until the prophet's feet match the command.

MosesJonahJeremiahJethroSinaiProphecyReluctanceExodus
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From the tradition

Sources

4 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shemot 14:2Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shemot

Translation of the source text.Midrash Tanchuma (Buber), Public Domain, on Sefaria · CC-BY-SA

Another interpretation of "But He is One, and who can turn Him back? " (Job 23:13): Because He is alone in His world, none can reply to His words. See how greatly Yonah found it hard to go on his mission, as it is said, "And Yonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD, etc." (Jonah 3:3). Yirmiyahu said before the Holy One, blessed be He, "I am a lad" (Jeremiah 1:6). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, "Do not say 'I am a lad,' for upon all that I send you, you shall go, etc." (ibid. 1:7). He did not budge until he went on the mission of the Holy One, blessed be He. This is the meaning of "And whatever His soul desires, He does." So too Moshe, when the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, "Come, and I will send you to Pharaoh" (Exodus 3:10), Moshe said, "Send, please, by the hand of him whom You will send" (ibid. 4:13). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: I am saying to you, "Come, and I will send you," and you are saying, "Send, please, by the hand whom You will send." Let us see whose will stands. He did not budge until he went, as it is said, "And Moshe went and returned to Yeter his father-in-law" (ibid. 4:18).

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Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 269:1Yalkut Shimoni on Torah

Translation of the source text.Torat Emet (Yalkut Shimoni) · CC-BY-NC

(Exodus 18:11) "Now I know that the LORD is great." He said: at first not even a slave could flee from Egypt, and now the Omnipresent has brought out six hundred thousand people from Egypt; therefore it is said, "that the LORD is great."

Four people said four sayings such that, had another man said them, people would have laughed at him. Who are they? Moses, Jethro, Solomon, and Nebuchadnezzar. Moses said, "The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice" (Deuteronomy 32:4); had another man said it they would have laughed at him, and who made this known to him? Only because it is written, "He makes known His ways to Moses" (Psalms 103:7), therefore he said, "for all His ways are justice." Solomon said, "He has made everything beautiful in its time" (Ecclesiastes 3:11); had another man said it they would have laughed at him, saying, who told this one what is beautiful and what is not? Only Solomon, whose table lacked nothing, knew what was beautiful and what was not. Rabbi Yose bar Chanina said: even bitter herbs in Tammuz and cucumbers in Nisan, Solomon's table never lacked. Nebuchadnezzar said, "And all the inhabitants of the earth are reckoned as nothing" (Daniel 4:32); had another man said it they would have laughed at him, saying, what did this man rule over, when he did not even rule over a gnat? Only Nebuchadnezzar, of whom it is said, "and also the beasts of the field I have given him to serve him" (Jeremiah 27:6), is fittingly the one to say it. Jethro said, "Now I know that the LORD is great," because he had not left any idolatry that he did not worship; therefore it is said, "that the LORD is great."

Jethro grasped the reality concerning idolatry, as it is said, "that the LORD is greater than all gods." Naaman acknowledged in part, as it is said, "there is no God in all the earth except in Israel" (2 Kings 5:15). Rahab left over the empty space of the world, saying, "For the LORD your God, He is God in heaven" (Joshua 2:11). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Rahab, "You said 'on the earth below,' fine; but 'in heaven above' you said what your eyes have not seen; by your life, your son shall see what the prophets did not see," as it is said, "the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God" (Ezekiel 1:1). But Moses said, "For the LORD, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below, there is none else" (Deuteronomy 4:39): even in the empty space of the world.

Rabbi Oshaya said: "Give her of the fruit of her hands" (Proverbs 31:31); the Holy One, blessed be He, said, "You testified about Me, 'there is none else'; I too testify about you, 'and there arose no prophet again in Israel like Moses' (Deuteronomy 34:10)." "For in the very matter in which they plotted against them": I knew Him before, and now all the more, since His name has been magnified in the world, for by the very scheme the Egyptians plotted to destroy Israel, the Omnipresent exacted punishment from them, as it is said, "for in the very matter" (written in the verse "Come, let us deal wisely with them").

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Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Yitro 15:1Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Yitro

Translation of the source text.Midrash Tanchuma (Buber), Public Domain, on Sefaria · CC-BY-SA

"I am the LORD" (Exodus 20:2). This is what the verse says: "Hear, O My people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against you" (Psalms 50:7). Rabbi Pinchas the priest bar Chama said: "Hear, O My people, and I will speak", that I may have an opening of the mouth against the nations of the world.

Rabbi Yehudah ha-Levi bar Rabbi Shalom said: In the past your names were like the names of the nations of the world, Saba and Havilah, but when you received the Torah your name is Israel, as it is said, "Hear, O My people, and I will speak [O Israel, and I will testify against you]." One speaks only to one who listens.

"God, your God, am I" (Psalms there). I am God, I am judge, I am patron, I endure over you. Rabbi Shimon says: I am your God, I am your patron, just as the patron is of use beside the judge. "God, your God, am I."

Rabbi Pinchas the priest bar Chama said: To whom does He speak? To Moses. Not because I called you "god," as it is said, "See, I have made you a god to Pharaoh" (Exodus 7:1), but "your God am I." What is "Anokhi (I)"? Our rabbis said it is a matter of notarikon: "Ana nafshi ketavit yehavit", I Myself wrote and gave. Rabbi Berekhiah the priest said: "Ana nehorakh kelilakh ye'utakh", I am your light, your crown, your splendor. When? When you receive the Ten Commandments.

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Pesikta DeRav Kahana 12:10Pesikta de-Rav Kahana

Translation of the source text.Pesikta de Rav Kahana according to an Oxford manuscript, Dov Mandelbaum ed., N.Y. 1987 · CC-BY

"As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the sons" (Song of Songs 2:3). Rabbi Huna, Rabbi Acha in the name of Rabbi Yose ben Zimra: just as with this apple tree everyone flees from it because it gives no shade, so all the nations of the world fled from before the Holy One, blessed be He, on the day of the giving of the Torah. Might one think Israel did so as well? Scripture teaches, "In its shade I delighted and sat" (Song of Songs 2:3). Rabbi Achva bar Ze'ira said: just as this apple tree puts forth its blossom before its leaves, so Israel put doing before hearing at Sinai. Rabbi Azaryah said: just as this apple tree completes its fruit only in Sivan, so Israel gave forth a good fragrance in the world only in Sivan. When? "In the third month" (Exodus 19:1).

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