The call for Moses to take off his sandals before he approaches the burning bush might be possibly referred to a fact that the holy land doesn't belong to any earthly possessor. (Cf Ruth4:7)"Now it used to be the custom in Israel that, to make binding a contract of redemption or exchange, one party would take off his sandal and give it to the other. This was the form of attestation in Israel.
God promises a sign which first seems strange: that the people would come to this mountain to give thanks and glory to Him. This is a promise of God's being with His people, "what is now only existent in words will take on real existence".Ehyeh "I shall be".
YHVH - "I am that I am" for Buber has double meaning according to the gods Israel knew in Egypt. "If the first part of the statement says: "I do not need to be conjured for I am always with you", the second adds: "but it is impossible to conjure me". I am with you always present, but you never comprehend me.
The speech YHVH - ehyeh asher ehyeh does not belong to the literature but to the sphere attained by the founders of religion. It goes into heart of personal experience.
Source: On the Bible, Eighteen Studies by Martin Buber, Syracuse University Press 2000, pg.45-62
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