Message

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In the previous lesson we thought of Gods wilderness training for Moses. Naming his son Gershom, Moses confessed, “I have become an alien in a foreign land.” This testimony of Moses well describes his life in the desert. He was totally alone with only sand and wind and sheep. But the invisible God was with him to mould him into a man of God who would be truly humble and whom God would use for his great work. In todays passage, after a long period of forty years God calls Moses to send him to Pharaoh to bring his people out of Egypt. In this calling we see Gods earnest heart for his people. He reveals himself and sends his servant, Moses, for them. In this study we can think of who God is and how he works. First, God calls Moses (1-10). Verse 1 says. “Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.” Horeb is an alternative name for Mt. Sinai (cf. 19:11; Dt. 4:10). It was the place where Moses encountered God and later received the Ten Commandments (31:18). It is also where God made a covenant with his people to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (19:7). What happened there? Verses 2-4 say, “There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, ‘I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.’” According to 1 John 1:5, God is light. On the first day of creation God made light. In Deuteronomy 4:24, God is also a consuming fire. Isaiah 40:6 says, “All men are like grass.” A bush is a kind of grass. The bush was on fire, but it did not burn up. What a strange/great/amazing sight! This could be the sight of God’s grace that does not consume but preserves perishing mankind. The angel of the LORD appeared in flames of fire from within a bush. It seems that the angel of the LORD foreshadows Christ in the Old Testament. Here the point is that in this way God aroused Moses’ holy curiosity. When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” We remember that when Abraham was about to slay his son Isaac in obedience to God’s command, the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” (Ge 22:11). The LORD also called the boy Samuel, “Samuel! Samuel!” when God came to him the third time. Here it is most certain that God was so happy and excited to call Moses. We know that Moses persevered for forty years while receiving wilderness training. It indicates God also waited during that long period. So, God exclaimed, saying, “Moses! Moses!” Moses replied, “Here I am.” This is the encounter between God and Moses. Look at verse 5. “‘Do not come any closer,’ God said. ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’” When Adam sinned, God said, “Cursed is the ground because of you” (Ge 3:17). The world is under a curse. But God said in verse 5, “The place where you are standing is holy ground.” Holy ground is the place where God is present. Where there is no God, even a palace can be a cursed ground. But where there is God, even the wilderness can be holy ground. God commanded, “Take off your sandals.” This is what God wants from those who are standing on the holy ground. We are reminded of Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Last Tuesday, in St. Louis Missouri there was a special General Conference of the United Methodist Church, which is the second largest protestant church in America. The United Methodist Church has stood as the last mainline Protestant denomination that has not yet fully surrendered to the sexual revolution. The Conference was to answer unavoidable questions central to the sexual revolution and the LGBTQ agenda. The General Conference upheld the historic teaching of the church regarding sexuality and marriage with the result of 438 to 384, or 53% to 47%. This has never happened before and thus history was made. Long ago, many denominations surrendered their theology in the service of cultural relevance. Those churches are now dying—the churches that are growing are those who have held fast to the clear teachings and admonitions of Scripture. On Tuesday, February 26, the UMC stood upon the authority of the Bible. This gives hope to all biblically minded Christians. We all should learn how to stand on holy ground. Look at verse 6. “Then he said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’” Here God revealed himself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob for the first time in the Bible. In the gospel narrative when the Sadducees came to Jesus and asked a question to deny the resurrection, Jesus quoted these words of Exodus and said, “Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” (Mk 12:26-27; Mt 22:31-32; Lk 20:37) The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, is a personal God and the God of history. He is the God of the living and the living God, who is, who was and who is to come.” (Rev. 1:4, 8) He is ever-present. He is a faithful God. He is the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb. 13:8). Particularly he is the God of covenant and the God of redemptive history, working according to his covenant promise. He had been with Moses from his birth up to this point. Now he is willing to be the God of Moses explicitly and use him for his redemptive work in the history of God. At this Moses, must have felt the holy fear of God, God being so close to him. Subsequently, he hid his face being afraid to look at God. In verse 7, “The LORD said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave divers, and I am concerned about their suffering.” As God called Moses explicitly at this point in his life, now God regarded the Israelites as his people, saying clearly, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.” The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, this God called the Israelites “my people” openly. He is the God of the whole community of Israel. He keenly knew all the sufferings of his people in Egypt, seeing their misery and hearing their crying. Consequently, he came down to rescue them. To our understanding he did not need to come down. As God he could do everything in heaven. But he said, “I have come down to rescue them…” He is truly a humble God. He is near to his people. This God sent his Son Jesus Christ to rescue us from the hand of Satan (Lk 1:74) and from the present evil age (Gal 1:4). He is a rescuing God. Also, Colossians 1:13-14 says, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption...” God said continually here, “I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.” In verse 8, the land God would bring them into was emphasized. God knew the destination of his people. First of all, the place is a good and spacious land, which is really good to hear. Psalm 118:5 says, “When hard pressed, I cried to the LORD; he brought me into a spacious place.” The good and spacious land would be the land of freedom in God, which contrasts the land of slavery under Pharaoh. This land is also a land flowing with milk and honey, that is the land of God’s abundant blessing. This land would be the Promised land, which is specifically written, the home of the Canaanites… We see clearly that God did not want his people to suffer in misery of slavery endlessly but to be happy and free in the land of God. Then in verse 9, “And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.” Again, it is shown that God is not indifferent to the suffering of his people. His eyes and hears function very sensitively. He is a compassionate God. Then finally God said, “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” What a gracious and grand calling! God said once more, “my people.” The Israelites were not to be Pharaoh’s people. They are the people of God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. They were not stay in Egypt permanently. They were to be brought out of Egypt. For this, God called Moses, and now is sending him to Pharaoh. God wanted Moses to participate in the heart of God through this commission. In this way God’s redemptive work is to go forward. We thank and praise God for his grace of rescuing and transferring. He recued us from the power of Satan and brought us into his kingdom. He made us his people through his Son Jesus Christ and transferred us into the kingdom of his Son, where we can have true security and happiness and freedom. Jesus once said, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me…I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd” (Jn 10:14-16). We believe that in our campus there are also Jesus’s sheep whom God chose to be his people. God wants us to take part in his heart to rescue them and bring them into the land of God. We have been praying that God may send new Bible students in February. Last Wednesday in our GBS one new student showed up through Monica, though it was heavily snowing. When I heard of this, I was so thankful to God. As for me it was like Elijah’s hearing of a cloud as small as a man’s hand rising from the sea, which would accompany a heavy rain in a matter of time (1 Kings 18:44). Thank God for speaking to us, “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” May these words of God guide each of us. Second, God says of who he is (11-15). How did Moses respond to God’s calling? Look at verse 11. “But Moses said to God, ‘Whom am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt.” The task was too overwhelming to Moses. This was never in his thought. Moses really wanted to help his people in his way. It was totally impossible for Moses to go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt. His self-confidence had been gone long ago. At the same time, he could not look up at God this time. How did God help him? In verse 12 it says, “And God said, ‘I will be with you. And this will be a sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” It would be more understandable for us, if God said, “I will be with you. Do not be afraid of going to Pharaoh. You will surely bring the people out of Egypt, because I am with you.” But what God said is this in verse 12, “When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” God was talking about an impossible future event as if it were already done, “When you have brought them out.” And he mentioned what they would do, “You will worship God on this mountain.” Who can say such things? Only God. Hebrews 6:18 says, “It is impossible for God to lie.” Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man/human, that he should lie.” The word of God itself would be a sign to Moses that God has sent him. Here we should notice that there are only two kinds of life, to live as slaves or to live as worshippers of God. There is no other alternative. True happiness comes when ones finds a right object of worship and worships the only true God. At the time of Jesus’ birth, the Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him” (Mt 2:2). When they found the baby Jesus and worshipped him, offering the most precious things to them, they could have true satisfaction and peace and joy. In our time, people travel here and there, trying to see a beautiful and spacious place and experience something new. But they are still unsatisfied with no true joy and rest. Traveling here and there shows that they are restless wanderers on earth. To worship and serve God is the ultimate purpose of life. True worship and joy gives us inner satisfaction and joy and rest and new strength. When God said, “When you have brought them out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain,” it seemed that the words were not that convincing to Moses. He said, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them” Probably this question lay deep in Moses’ heart. At this question what did God say? Look at verse 14. “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” “I AM WHO I AM”, this name for God points to His self-existence and eternality. One philosopher could say after doubting everything, “I think, therefore I am”, for one thing he could not doubt was that he was thinking. One believer can say, “I am a created being, so I am.” No human being is self-existent. But God is of self-existence and eternal. God said in Isaiah 48:20, “…I am the first and I am the last.” God also said in Revelation 21:6, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.” Look at verse 15. “God also said to Moses, ‘Say to the Israelites. “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, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.’” Here we see that to help Moses, God revealed himself threefold, “I AM” “LORD” and “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” God cannot reveal himself to just anyone in the world, such as Pharaoh. On one occasion, one of Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus, “Why do you intend to show yourself to us and not the world?” Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.” Certainly, God reveals himself to those who seek him and love him. What a revelation, triple revelation of himself! Surely out of his love for Moses, who sought and loved God. This also shows God’s love for his people. Here God put great emphasis on “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” which we had thought of above. He said, “This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.” In fact, all these names are connected and they are one. [LORD (in another translation, Jehovah) is in Hebrew “YHWH.” The Hebrew consonants YHWH (usually written Yahweh), when combined with the vowels from the divine name Adonai (Master or Lord), gave rise to the name “Jehovah” in English. Both “Yahweh” (yhwh) and “I AM” (‘’ehyeh) are apparently derived from the same root “to be” (hyh).] This God revealed himself in Christ Jesus. According to John 1:18, “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” John 1:3 says, “Through him all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made.” According to Hebrews 1:3, he is the exact representation of God. While on earth. Jesus said of himself in John 8:57, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am!” He also said in John 8:24, “I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.” He said in Revelation 22:13, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” While he was in the world, He said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). We thank and praise God for this revelation. We put our faith in “I AM”, “LORD” and “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” We firmly believe in this God while living in this world. Third, God tells Moses to speak to the elders of Israel and to Pharaoh (16-22). Look at verses 16 and 17. “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’” The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is also a notable expression. He is the God of three generations of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs of the same promise (Heb. 11:9). Again, it is written that he did not overlook them but watched over them, seeing what has been to them in Egypt. He experienced their sufferings together with them. He reminded them of his promise to bring them up out of their misery in Egypt into the land of the countries in Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. He would keep his promise. Look at verse 18. “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.’” The expression, “the LORD our God” comes up for the first time here in the Old Testament. As we studied, God accepted the Israelites as his people, saying “my people”, and God wanted them to speak “the LORD our God” to Pharaoh. God wanted such a loving relationship with the Israelites. They were to present God as the LORD, the God of Hebrews, and speak to the king of Egypt, “Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.” Then in verses 19 and 20, God said, “But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.” If the king of Egypt would reject the words of God Moses and the elders spoke, why did they have to speak the words of God? It seemed to be of no use. However, this would be an important first step in the work of God. Afterwards God would do the next. He would stretch out his hand and strike them with all the wonders on the ground of Pharaoh’s rejection. God would not just strike the Egyptians. Here we learn that God wants us to preach the gospel in season and out of season despite people’s rejection. It is because their rejection would be the ground of God’s next direct involvement. Look at verses 21-22. “And I will make the Egyptians favourably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go emptyhanded. Every woman is to ask her neighbour and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.” It is common sense that victors plunder the losers. But here the Israelites would plunder the Egyptians, as if they were claiming compensation for their labour over the past four hundred years. Humanly it would be impossible, but God would work it out according to his promise given to Abraham that they would come out with great possessions (Ge 15:14). Later on, what they plundered would be their willing offering for the building of the tabernacle. And at the disposition of the Egyptians, the Israelites would put the articles of silver and gold and clothing on their sons and daughters. They had grown as slaves’ children never being able to possess such things. Then what an exciting moment it would be when they saw such sliver and gold on their shoulders. It would be the sign of God’s presence among them and his provision. These children would pass the time of forty years in the desert and hear the law reiterated by Moses and enter the promised land. God was really mindful of the 2nd gens, for the continuation of history. God is indeed the God of history and the God of new generations. Thank God for the revelation of himself: He is “I AM”, “LORD” and “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. This God was concerned about the suffering of his people and was also mindful of their children, and called Moses to bring his people out of the Egypt. He said to Moses, “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” As we accept these words of God in our hearts, may God lead each of us accordingly.

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