“Into the Wilderness”
A Sermon Series in the Book of Exodus
“To Know Oneself and To Know God”
Exodus 3
Introduction
Hebrews 11:24 says, “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,” At 40 years old, he rejected his Egyptian position, he tried to lead a rebellion and to judge over the Hebrew people for a brief time, but they said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us?” Moses kills a man and escapes; he is crushed because the people rejected him as their leader. Later he meets his eventual wife, who she calls “an Egyptian.” He names his son a name that comes from his feelings of lostness, “I am a stranger in a strange land.” He then lives forty more years as a shepherd in the wilderness. When we find Moses in the story he is man who doesn’t know who he is; he is lost. He is not really Egyptian, but he is not accepted as a Hebrew.
John Calvin once wrote, “Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.”[1] When Moses encounters God and is commissioned to lead the Israelites, he has to deal with these questions; who am I? and who is God? – the rest of his life flows from the answer that he gets to these questions.
Prayer
God Reveals Himself (vv. 1-6)
Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God[2]. 2 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire[3] out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 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.” 6 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.
God did not go to Moses, but God brought Moses to where God was. God created a situation that piqued Moses’ curiosity, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned,” Moses is thinking, “how is it that the bush is on fire, continuing to burn, but the leaves, branches, are not being consumed?”
Later, God will tell Moses who He is, “I Am” The One that exists yet is not consumed. He doesn’t need anything or anyone – but before he tells him, he shows him. It is a “physical miracle that communicated spiritual truth.”[4] Moses would even use this moment in his life to describe God later in Deuteronomy 4:24 “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”
When Moses begins to approach the curiosity of the burning bush, God calls out to him, and says, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground,” “For a few brief moments in time and space, the bush was the temple of the living God, the place of his presence on earth.
This is the first time that we see this word “holy” used as it relates to God. God is revealing his holiness to mankind in a way that has never been revealed before. “Holiness means separation. Something holy is set apart. God here, while in the bush, is distinctly different than His creation. He is the eternal Creator, and everything else is His creation. In Hosea 11:9 God says, “for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst,” So, when a holy God comes into contact with Moses he warns him, “Do not come near,” It is dangerous for mankind to come into contact with the holy God.
So God gives Moses instructions for how he could enter into the presence of a holy God, “take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” – God chooses where he allows his presence to be confined – if He allowed it to the entire earth, then the entire earth would be consumed. So he limits His presence to this small spot in the desert and allows Moses to enter into that small circle. On the outside of the circle are a pair of castoff sandals and inside the circle is a murderous sinful humbled man in the presence of the holy consuming God.
Mankind typically takes two approaches to God’s holiness; one is the exaggerate man’s goodness (we are all good, mankind is essentially good, and if you are just a nice person, try hard, be a good citizen, etc. you can enter into God’s presence). The other is to downplay God’s holiness by lowering the standards of what He requires (sin is not really that bad, God is not really concerned about those sins, you lesson man’s condition of being a sinner, etc.)
The only way for mankind to enter in the presence
of a holy God is for mankind to become holy.
This is why Jesus is so important for humanity; Colossians 1:21 “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,”
Then God tells Moses, “I am the God of your father,” – It was by faith that Moses’ father (and mother) hid him in a basket and placed him among the bulrushes along the Nile, Hebrews 11:23 “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” Before Moses’ father was Jacob, and before Jacob, was Isaac, and all the way back to Adam – He is the same God.
In response to God’s word, “Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.” Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” If you want to know and understand God, then that knowledge and understanding begins with a fear of the Holy God. The closer we draw to God the more we realize how far away (or different) from God we truly are.
God Sends Those He Saves (vv. 7-10)
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, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey[5], to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 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 oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
When God tells them that He has heard their cry and that he is going to do something about it, notice that He is going “to deliver them out of” something (slavery and oppression from Egypt) and bring them to something “and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey,” They are being delivered from and God is taking them to Every follower of Christ “receives two callings: first to salvation, and then to service.”[6]
The plan to deliver His people from their slavery involved Moses going and talking with the pharaoh; he is the one God is sending to lead God’s people out of slavery, “I will send you.” As Jesus is ascending to heaven he gives this command to His followers, Matthew 28:18-19 “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,”
Those who have been called to salvation, are always called to serve.
“The work of salvation is God’s work from beginning to end. God uses us – as he used Moses—to accomplish his saving purpose.”[7] Moses had already tried to do this earlier in his life. But he tried to do it all by himself. He failed so miserably that he had to leave the country. So now when the time has finally arrived (40 years later), Moses becomes filled with self-doubt and gives several excuses:
Excuse #1 “Someone Else Would Be Better at This Than Me”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “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 out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
When God calls him from the burning Moses’ first response was, “Here I am.” He took his sandals off, indicating a desire to enter into the presence of God, He bowed his face to the ground – everything Moses did indicated he was ready to follow and serve the God of his father, and Jacob, and Isaac. His words and actions were the same as Isaiah when the prophet said, “here am I send me!” – but then God explains what He wants Moses to do, his response changes, “But Moses said to God . . .”
His first excuse for not doing what God commanded him to do was, “Who am I?” – Moses will not get a true understanding of who he is until he has this encounter with God. Moses asks, “who am I,” and then his next question is, “who are you?” – we can’t understand who we are without a relationship with God.
God has already said, “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land,” God has said that He would be doing the delivering, but Moses would play a part, “I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt,” At this point Moses is remembering his first attempt (40 years earlier) to be the deliverer, and the people’s question, Ex. 2:14 “Who made you a prince and a judge over us?” Moses is thinking, “My last attempt was a failure, I have failed in the past to do the very thing you are asking me to do now.”
(v. 12) So God responds, “But (this time) I will be with you,” God did not try to convince Moses that he had what it took to do the job. “The exodus did not depend upon the competence of Moses but on the presence of God.”[8] Moses is not doing the saving, God is. Moses’ abilities have nothing to do with the deliverance of the people. God had promised to be with Moses, and with God “all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
God’s people follow His instructions and act in faith,
God provides His presence in the circumstance,
then the impossible becomes possible.
God also gave Moses a sign that “I (God) have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain,” – this sign would be just for Moses and it would encourage him in this calling upon his life, but it was in the future. There would be a day in the future when Moses would return to this same mountain and have God’s people with him. That sign would encourage him because leading them out of Egypt was just the beginning! He would still have a lot to do after they leave Egypt.
The goal of the Exodus was not simply to deliver them, but to have them gather and serve him, as His people. The people themselves would be called to deliverance, and then called to serve.
When God is talking to Abram (later Abraham) in Genesis 12:3-4 he gives him the way they are to serve, “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and pin you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” They would bless the world by receiving and then sharing God’s Word, in their weird ways the world would be drawn to them to meet the one true God, and there was the promise from God of a Savior who would come and save men from their sin.
Excuse #2 “I Don’t Know God Well Enough”
13 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?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
His second excuse for not doing what God commanded him to do was, “Who are You?” Moses for God’s name. So, God describes Himself to Moses. First God says, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” I AM WHO I AM and I AM – Bible scholars don’t know what this means. I believe it is a reference to God being self-sufficient (like a fire that is not consumed). Later in Exodus 15:3b when Moses writes a song about the exodus he says, “the LORD is his name.”
But in these verses in Exodus “God uses variations of his name five times in these verses – once in v. 12 (“I will be with you,” or better, “It is I AM who is with you”) three times in verse 14 (“I AM”), and once in verse 15 (“The LORD”). His special name means something like, “He who is,” or “I am the One Who Is.” But we can determine that God is eternal, and unchanging. He says, “I was who I was” or “I will be who I will be.” “This is because he has no past or future but only an eternal present.”[9]
God gives another revelation of who He is when He says, “The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This same God who is active in history, specifically the history of His people. He was present and caused creation, and He was there when he called out Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Everything owes its life to God – yet God is independent of the creation, separate from those He calls out.
Later God would give us another name to call Him. When Jesus was interacting with the religious leaders, they had said that Jesus was a demon, and so in John 8:56-59 Jesus is responding to their false accusations, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”4 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” They were seeking to stone him for blasphemy; Jesus was claiming to be the same God that appeared to Moses in the burning bush, the same God who called himself, I AM.
John 8:24 “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” And then in v. 28 “So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he,” A Christian is a person who believes that Jesus is the Great I AM.
There are people who will come to church and learn all about God, but they do not know God. God came and took on human flesh, so that we can know Him. He walked amongst us, taught as no one had ever taught before and performed miracles to prove who He was – so that we could know Him. And if we know Him, we will trust him, and if we trust him, we will obey Him, and if we obey Him we will be blessed in all our ways. Do you know Him today?
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[1] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Peabody, Massachusetts; Hendrickson Publishers, 2008), 4.
[2] Mt. Horeb was the place later in Exodus where God would give Moses the 10 commandments.
[3] The book of Exodus ends with God leading the people by a pillar of fire Ex. 40:38. He is the Holy One who is not consumed (I AM) who will lead His people wherever He desires for them to go.
[4] Philip Graham Ryken, Preaching the Word, Exodus (Wheaton, Illinois; Crossway Publishing, 2015) 70.
[5] Milk is a reference to multiplying cattle, and honey is a reference to farming and agriculture. Göran Larsson, Bound for Freedom, The Book of Exodus in Jewish and Christian Traditions (Peabody, Massachusetts; Hendrickson Publishers, 1999) 30.
[6] Ryken, 81.
[7] Ryken, 80.
[8] Ryken, 82.
[9] Ryken, 87.
