Exodus 3
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. We're going to be in Exodus chapter 3 today. We're going to walk through that chapter together. That's on page 27 in your blue Bibles.
So if you have a blue Bible that's around you and near you, you can grab that and follow along. If you don't have a Bible at home, please take that. That is our gift to you. We want you to have a Bible that you can read, but the passage will also be on the screen. So one of the more popular stories that we love and you hear over and over again is the kind of story where a hero comes in and he saves the day by defeating the bad guys.
That is a classic that we like over and over again. We love Mel Gibson when in Braveheart he defeats the English. We love watching Liam Neeson fight to get his daughter back from traffickers and taken. We love Bruce Willis in Die Hard and in Die Hard 2 and in Die Hard with a Vengeance and in Live Free or Die Hard and in Die Hard and in Die Hardest. We even love him in the sixth sense where he die hard at the beginning. Like we love stories where a hero comes in and saves the day.
And Exodus is that. We're going to see throughout this book that Exodus is God as our hero who comes and redeems his people. And we're going to see specifically in Exodus 3 when the hero God introduces himself. And then he introduces himself in a fairly unique way and then he invites Moses to be a part of his redemption story. And then he tells them how he's going to defeat the bad guys and how this is going to play out. This is the introduction.
And as we're going to see that Exodus has a sequel. That the Old Testament is going to be pointing to the New Testament. We're going to see how Christ fulfills this. So let me pray and then we'll jump through this together. Father, I pray that you'd help us be present this morning. That we'd hear your word and we'd respond.
We'd respond in faith and repentance and in worship and delighting in you. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, so we're going to start with verse 1. Verse 1 gives some context for where we're going. Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian.
So let me stop for a moment. We have fast-forwarded here. We're going to be able to see this in a few chapters. That Moses is now 80. Which I find helpful. That Moses has lived 80 years before God calls him to this great work.
I think it's helpful for us and some of our older folks to realize that just because you get older doesn't mean that God doesn't have something for you. Doesn't mean he can't call you and continue to use you. We're going to see that throughout Exodus. That Moses is being called in his latter years. So Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro.
Now some of you are like, wait a second. I listened intently last week. And that was not his name. His father-in-law was named Reuel. Why is his name Jethro now? Glad you asked.
Jethro and Reuel are the same person that is his father-in-law. And it's not uncommon in the Bible to have someone have two names. You see that with Jacob and Israel, which is his name. You see that with Paul and Saul. That's not uncommon for someone to have two different names. It's not uncommon for a region to have two different names.
That's normal throughout the scriptures. Commentators look at this and say that Jethro is more of his formal name attached to his priesthood title. While Reuel is more of a common name. But that's just a theory. But it's not uncommon to have two different names in this.
And also to point out, he's keeping the flock. Which means he's a shepherd. Which I find incredibly helpful as a foreshadowing for where he is going. And who he is going to be as he shepherds the people of Israel. And then it says, he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. This is significant as we're going to see throughout Exodus.
Horeb is the same place as Mount Sinai. Horeb is where this redemption story is going to begin in his calling. But it's coming back here. And it's going to be called Mount Sinai. This is where God is going to deliver the Ten Commandments. So again, one region can have the same name.
Some commentators will look at this and say that Horeb is more of the region. And Sinai is more of the mountain itself. We don't know for sure. But these are the same. This is the same place. And this story is coming back here.
Alright, there's the context. Then we jump in in verse 2. It says, And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked and behold, the bush was burning. Yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.
When the Lord saw that, he turned aside to see God called to him out of the bush. Alright, let me pause there for a moment. If you read that, it can be a little bit confusing. Because it's like, wait a second. Is it an angel? Is it an angel of the Lord?
Is it a God? Like, what's happening here? Because it happens pretty quickly. And there are two main options for what's happening here. Either an angel or the angel of the Lord is first in the flame and then God shows up afterwards. Or this is God the entire time and he's just called the angel of the Lord.
Now, the angel of the Lord is a figure that shows up in multiple places throughout the Old Testament. It's as debated here as it is in the other places in the Old Testament as to who this is. The text doesn't really give us enough insight. So some people will say this is God. Some people will say this is Jesus. Some people will say this is an angel that prepares the way.
We don't know for sure. But you can get lost in the details of all of this and some of the significance of the fire and everything that's happening. And you actually miss what is really cool that happens here. That Moses, at 80 years old, is keeping a flock. And they're in the wilderness. And then all of a sudden he sees a bush that is on fire.
If you've ever been camping or out in the wilderness before, seeing anything on fire is alarming. That catches his attention. And this bush doesn't burn up. One of the most redneck things that I do is after Christmas, I burn my Christmas tree. Because it's awesome. It's a lot of fun.
Mildly dangerous, but worth it. And when you burn a bush or a tree, one of the things you see is that it quickly flames up. And then it starts to die down, to smolder. And that's not happening here. It is not consumed. It continues to burn.
It continues to burn. It continues to burn. And Moses sees this and it catches his attention. This is God uniquely calling Moses in to grab hold of his attention. And then he introduces himself. Verse 4.
When the Lord saw that, he turned aside to see. God called him out of the bush. Moses. Moses. And he said, here I am. Now, if you read throughout the Bible, the voice of God is a powerful and terrifying experience.
You pair that with the burning bush and how mesmerizing that is. I mean, this is mesmerizing and terrifying all at once. In verse 5, then he said, do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet. For the place on which you are standing is holy ground. Now, the Middle Eastern or Eastern ear that hears this, they get that immediately.
I was talking to Jamie Kern, one of our members who's currently in Lebanon for the next three months, discerning whether she's going to be there long term. And one of the things that she's been learning is just seeing some of these, some of the Bible come to life in a Middle Eastern culture. Because in that culture, she said, you take off your shoes before you go into someone's house. And that's what immediately stuck out to them, of course. You don't bring the filth of the outside that's on your shoes into a holy place. God says, take off your shoes.
This is holy ground. And then in verse 6, it says, and he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. So he announces who he is, that he's the God of his forefathers. He uses that covenant language, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, that Moses would have known. This is the God of your ancestors, Moses.
And he calls out to him, and Moses is afraid. And that happens in the scriptures. When someone is in the presence of God, they're fearful. Because of the all-glorifying, awesome power of God, that we as sinners cannot stand in the presence of a holy and perfect God without this experience happening. He is fearful. And now God has his full attention, as he calls them.
Verse 7. Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings. I know their sufferings. And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. That's the promised land.
You say, I'm going to bring you into the promised land. Verse 9. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. So, for 400 years, for 400 years, the people of God have been in slavery and oppressed and afflicted in Egypt. That is longer than America has been a country. For 400 years, the people have been suffering.
That means that a generation rose up, was longing for the day when they might be saved, and they died. And the next generation rose up, and this happened over and over and over again, as the people are longing, waiting for rescue. And with every generation, more hope died. There had to have been some doubts that set in. Some doubts that set in. Does God see us?
Does He care? And in this statement to Moses, God makes it abundantly clear. He does care. He does see. He does know. And I find that incredibly helpful for us.
Some of you have suffered greatly. Over the past five years, I've had daily chronic pain in my back. It has not gone away. I'm no closer to figuring out what's happening there. And there's doubts that come in. Like, how long?
Like, what do you have? What's going on in this? Some of you have suffered far greater, for far longer. Some of you have felt financial troubles that mount up over and over and over again. And there are doubts that come in. It's like, does God see this?
Does God care? Now, what we see here is that God absolutely cares. And we don't always know exactly why we suffer. We have some biblical reasons. We see why the people of God suffered in this story. It was preparing for a greater redemption.
And we get some other reasons. But the why behind the why behind the why, that why me, like that, the greater why, we don't get answers to that. We don't know why we suffer in that regard. But don't miss for a moment. God is not distant. He absolutely cares.
And He helps Moses see that. I've seen the affliction of my people. He does care. And then the hero begins to reveal his plan. Verse 10, He says, Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. So He said, I'm coming down to deliver.
He says in verse 9. And then in verse 10, I will send you to Pharaoh, Moses. Excited? You're coming to redeem. Oh, wait. You're sending me.
Moses, I'm sending you that you might deliver the people out. I find this incredibly helpful. God is going to have a showdown with a false God, Pharaoh. We're going to see that as Exodus unfolds. He's going to have this showdown with this false God. But He involves Moses.
He involves His people in His redemptive work. He just does. It's how our God works. From Moses to today. God doesn't need us. But He chooses to use us.
And He involves Moses in this redemptive work. And when Moses hears that he's going to be involved in this, his response is, wait, me? Verse 11, He says, But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? Who am I that I, you're going to use me to do this? And sometimes, because we have, some of us have the story and we've heard this story and we've seen how God works in the scriptures. It's like, Moses, you've got Him on your side.
How do you not see this? But we fail to kind of step into His shoes and realize what He's being called to do here. If God called you to go to Russia right now and have a showdown with Putin, or to North Korea, have a showdown with Kim Jong-un, that would be a terrifying calling. All right? And that doesn't really match this. It would have, I mean, Putin and his family would have had to rule over this country for 400 years, making us slaves for this to be what happened.
That's what Moses is feeling. Generations have been suffering under the hand of Pharaoh. Even more of the point, Moses knows what happened when he left there and they tried to seek Him and hunt Him down and kill Him. This is a terrifying calling. And in the midst of this, he questions, me? And I love how God answers this because He doesn't answer, He doesn't answer Moses' question.
He doesn't speak to the adequacy of Moses here. He says, verse 12, He said, but I will be with you. I'll be with you, Moses. I love this, y'all. He doesn't correct Moses for his lack of faith. He tells Moses, but I'll be with you.
God is with His people. God calls us to do bold and courageous things. But He's with His people from Moses to the Great Commission when He says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Then He goes on to say what? I am with you always to the end of the age. God is with His people.
That's so helpful. Like when I tell my kids, I say, y'all, go upstairs, turn off the lights, come on back down. They'll step, sometimes they'll get to the bottom step and they'll just look up. And they're scared. And they're scared of the dark. And I'll say, y'all, listen.
I try to reason with them. There are no monsters up there. There are no bad guys up there. I try to reason with them. And reasoning with them doesn't work sometimes. Why?
Because they want my presence. They don't want me to hear. They want me to walk with them. Because when I'm with them, they're not afraid. And God is with us. And He tells Moses, I am with you.
But I will be with you and this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people of Egypt, when you've brought out, when you've brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. So He tells them, Moses, I'm going to be with you. But then He gives them a sign that's not right now. That's future looking. So He says, I'm going to be with you, Moses.
But He calls them to faith because this sign of coming back to this mountain won't happen until later when God delivers the Ten Commandments. So He says, I'll be with you, Moses. But you're going to have to take a step of faith here. And then Moses responds with another question. Verse 13. He says, Then Moses said to God, If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you and they ask me, what is His name?
What shall I say to them? Now, it's clear from the context here and what we're going to see. The people of God knew that He was the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. They remembered the covenant promise. It wasn't like God was introducing himself as some foreign God. They knew who this God was.
But Moses is asking for something more significant than the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. He wants to know His name. What is your personal name? Because names, they have significance. They do. We feel that a little bit today.
Right? Some of you are having children, planning families, choosing baby names. Like, names have significance. One of the things I love to do is I love to introduce my children because I love to read people's responses. And what I've realized is, is the older you are, the less of a filter you have. So I introduce my kids.
I'll say, this is my daughter, Eloise. And they'll say, oh, what a beautiful name. I'll say, this is my other daughter, Karis, Lynn. And I'll say, Karis is, you know, it's Grace in Greek and Lynn's a family name. And they'll just go, oh, how beautiful. And then I'll say, and this is my son, Bridgers.
And they'll go, oh, it's a boy. Is that a family name? Yes, it is a family name. We also want them to get picked on in high school. But, those names have significance to us. It ties into our history.
It ties into our faith. Each of their names have that built in. But it doesn't really match the Old Testament. Because the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Bible times, those names had unbelievable significance. It told who you are. It told your story.
Like, I mean, Abraham, the name changed from Abraham to Abraham was father of many. That's telling his story. He's the father of a great nation, of a multitude of people. You see, other names like Moses that we saw last week, Moses means drawn out in the Hebrew. It speaks of how he was drawn out of the water. And in the Egyptian, it sounds like sun.
Names have significance. It tells who a person is. So Moses asks, what's your name? And part of what's happening here is a little bit of the other gods have names. I mean, the Egyptians' gods, they have Ra and Osiris and Horus and all the lot of Egyptian gods. They have names.
The surrounding gods and the nations that surround the promised land had names. Baal, or Baal, as we say in the south. That God has a name. What is your name? And how God responds here is one of the most significant verses in all of the scriptures. Verse 14.
God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say to the people of Israel, I am has sent you. What is your name? God responds. I am who I am. Now, that phrase is one of the more difficult phrases to translate.
Okay? And the ESV, the version that we read from, it says, I am who I am in all caps. Saying this is the personal holy name of God. I am who I am. It's translated from four Hebrew consonants. The Hebrew consonants for Y-H-W-H.
That's where we get the word Yahweh or Jehovah from. And those consonants most likely are connected to the Hebrew verb, to be. So some form of to be. So in the Hebrew, it's Ech-Ya, Ech-Ya. So, to be is built into this. But it's also translated, I am who I am.
I am that I am. The ESV also has in the footnotes, I will be what I will be. It's some form of the word being. And what you'll notice is in the next verse, they stop using I am. In the next verse, it says, the Lord, and Lord is in all caps. Because that's built on a tradition that 300 to 500 years before Jesus came, they just stopped writing, I am who I am.
And substituted, the Lord. So, there are volumes of theology that have been written on this. There are a lot of opinions for thousands of years on what this means. I am who I am. I mean, even, we use commentaries to help us in preparing sermons, which are just comments on different parts of the Bible. And the commentaries that we're using say different things.
There are a lot of different opinions, which means preparing this and trying to understand this broke my brain a little bit. And I looked at this over and over again. And it's, what I love here is that God doesn't clarify this at all. He just goes straight into verse 15 when it says, God also said to Moses, say this to the people, the Lord, which is I am, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. And thus, I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
So, he doesn't explain it at all. He just says, you tell them I am sent you. That's how I'll be remembered. There's no clarifying from Moses at all. We're moving forward. So, if names are meant to absolutely summarize the meaning of an individual, to capture their history, their story, the essence of who they are, what does I am communicate?
That's the question. That's where volumes and volumes and volumes of writings in this have come from. I read the arguments. I listened to different teachings, different approaches on this. And then some things finally started to click to me, click for me. But the mystery of what he just said, I think is part of his response.
I think that's, that's part of the point here. When he says, what is your name? That's an unbelievable question, Moses. I think I would have asked the same. But I think mystery is part of the point.
How, Moses, how could God be summarized? How could the very essence of who God is, the vast expanse of his character, of his power, of who he is, how could that be summarized in a name, in a personal name? It's not that God doesn't have qualifying titles. It's not that he has other titles that show up throughout the scriptures. He does. I mean, even to this point in the book of Genesis, you see different titles that explain who God is.
In Genesis 14, he's called El Elyon, which means God Most High. In Genesis 16, he's called El Roy, which is God who sees me. In Genesis 17, he's called El Shaddai, which means God Almighty. In Genesis 21, he's called El Olam, which means God Everlasting. In Genesis 31, he's called El Bethel, which means God of Bethel. But Moses didn't ask for your titles.
He wanted more than the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, than the God of Jacob. God, what is your name? And God's seemingly non-answer, I think, is a part of the point. He just says, Moses, I am who I am. How could the vast expanse of who God is be summarized in a name? I just am Moses, and I've always been.
I am the God who is perfectly good. I am the God who is perfect. I am the God who is holy. I am the God who is just. I am the God who is merciful. I am the God who is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
I am the God who is omniscient, who is all-knowing. I am the God who is omnipotent, which is all-powerful. I am the God who is omnipresent, which means I'm in all places at all times. I am the God who is immutable, meaning He never changes. I am the God who is sovereign, the one who reigns supremely over all things at all times. I am the God who will right every single wrong.
I am the God who does not let the guilty go unpunished. I am the God who is perfectly wise. I am the God who is forbearing and is patient. I am the God who is kind and is gentle and who has fearsome wrath and who has unmatched wisdom. Moses, I am who I am. I just am.
You cannot summarize all of who God is in a name. And when He says I am who I am, that is sufficient for you, Moses. And that is sufficient for the people of God. I just am. And then He continues in verse 16. He says, Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, The Lord, so that's I am, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob has appeared to me saying, I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt.
Remind me, I have seen all of it. And I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey. And I'm going to bring you to the promised land. Verse 18. And they will listen to your voice. Moses, have no doubt.
They will listen to you. They will listen to your voice. And you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews has met with us and now please let us go three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. So, reading that last part hit me differently this time around. I've put a lot of weight on the past readings that I've done when he says let my people go because partly because I filled in the rest of the story I know what that means that they're going to be freed completely but I think also because I grew up on the movie Prince of Egypt which is a classic which, side note, I fought for that to be the branding for this series but we have a plurality of elders and that was frowned upon.
But in that movie it's like it's a big like let my people go so that just kind of became like I just hear I read this and I'm just like yeah, let my people go is kind of what I read but it's not exactly what he says. He says let us go a three days journey into the wilderness so that we can sacrifice to the Lord our God. I read that this time around and I was like why the three day request? Why not just say we're leaving deal with it. Like why the three day request? After looking at it this week I think I think God is taunting Pharaoh.
I think God's taunting him. I think he's taunting him into war. He knows the pride and the ruthless reign of Pharaoh. He knows his heart. He knows he will never oblige a three day request to worship. This is a taste of what God is getting ready to do with this nation and this leader.
Verse 19 he says but I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. so I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it. After that he will let you go. Man I think Moses to be clear I have no plans to show mercy on Pharaoh at all. That is not what's going down here. He has oppressed you all as slaves for 400 years. If he was going to let you go if I wanted that to happen just like that that's how it would go down by my mighty hand that is exactly what would happen but this nation is going to feel the full force of the wrath of I am.
That's one thing that we're going to see in Exodus is that Moses is not just a shepherd who is going to lead the people of God away from their oppressors he's a prophet and he is pronouncing judgment on Egypt.