Exodus 3
Notes
Transcript
last time we looked at how God’s hand was very involved in Moses’ early life, from his mother floating him down the nile to when he had to flee to midian
Another element talked about is how even though God had promised them all of these great things, they were going through a hard time
to some, it would have been hard to understand how this could be, many wouldn’t believe God’s promise, or this that and the other
but the Hebrews would end up being delivered by believing in God’s promises and ultimately having faith
this foreshadows how things work for us today
so we left off last time at a point where Moses was in Midian at a well, and helped some women out who were being given a hard time by some men at the well.
the women’s father wanted to thank Moses and provide him a meal
We pick up here at the very end of chapter 2
And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.
Moses decides to stay with Jethro, who would end up being a helpful character at times during the life of Moses
Family, whether it’s Moses’ wife or his father in law is so important in this life, it’s the base of society, it’s the foundational building block
and everyone needs people to lean on from time to time, and a functional family unit helps everyone to be stronger and accomplish more
Moses names his son Gershom, showing that his mission and passion is incredibly important for both him and his son
his son’s name will always be a reminder of this fact, and that he is no more than just a sojouner there in midian, just as we are sojourners here on earth
And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.
when we suffer in this life, sometimes we just get lost in our own mind, or just think things are hopeless
but we see here that God is hearing their crying, and not only does He hear them, but He has a plan for them
so whenever we’re suffering, we are blessed to be able to absolutely know that God is not only hearing us, but that there is some sort of plan in what’s going on in our lives
it would have been easy for the hebrews to give up at this point, but they didn’t, and were eventually delivered because they didn’t give up and they depended on God
they had to suffer for a long time, for years and years and years. many of them would have only known this suffering, but their deliverance was coming, they just didn’t realize it was just around the corner
v24 - “God remembered His covenant...” - God had made promises to the hebrews, and today, He has made promises to us - and just like God remembered His promises to them, He will remember them for us too
Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
Interestingly, Moses worked as a shepherd during this time foreshadowing not only his later life of shepherding people through the wilderness but also foreshadowing Christ’s role as a shepherd as well
MAP OF MIDIAN
One might be wondering what the “backside of the desert means”
“The Hebrew word used here is achar—meaning ‘back’ or ‘behind.’ Directional observations in the OT are made from an eastward orientation, so the direction to the back is west”
Horeb=dry
So the situation now being is that Moses, having lived a much more normal lifestyle for the past 40 years than his earlier life, is just out taking care of the sheep as if it’s a normal day
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
We see that this appearance in the bush is by the angel of the Lord, who is the Son, Jesus’ many pre-incarnation appearances in the Old Testament
when God appears to men in some form like this, it’s called a “theophany”
fire is assosciated with divine presence and encounters sometimes, we see it in various places in the OT
And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
When God wants to draw us in, He will certainly not fail. and He did not fail with Moses here
He presented Himself in such a way to Moses to where Moses would surely try to find out more
And this is exactly what Moses does, He responds, and His life would never be the same
And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
This is the start of Moses’ prophetic commissioning, where God chooses Him and appoints Him as a prophet
“As in many other OT instances, Moses’ divine encounter results in his becoming the person through whom God will dispense revelation, and on whose behalf God will act”
we see this with people like Jeremiah, for one, along with many others
this is just seemignly the way that God did things
Frankly, we even see a similar thing like this happen to Paul
And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
The taking off of the shoes was recognized in the entire region as an act of reverence
This is the first occurence of the word “holy” in the Bible, and it is linked with God
Moreover he said, I am the God of thy 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 upon God.
We see here God revealing who He truly is to Moses, He hadn’t up to that point, Moses just heard the voice telling him to take his shoes off
When Moses does find out who he’s truly talking to, we can learn much from his reaction
one thing we can learn is that He takes the power of God seriously - He knows who God is, who He is compared to God, and has a good kind of fear of the Lord - a fear based in reverence
this reverance is another thing we can learn - he was respectful in God’s presence and revered God as He should be revered
considering Moses had a strong reaction like this, it’s apparent that he TRULY and DEEP DOWN believed to the core of his being in God and took Him seriously
someone who didn’t really take God seriously wouldn’t have this kind of reaction
And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
God, not only being all knowing, but a God of love, mercy, and compassion, has seen the plight of His people, saying He knows their sorrows
This is one of the great things about God, for one thing, that He hears our cries. Our prayers aren’t just going out into the air, our prayers are actually making it to God
what an absolute privilege and blessing this is to have God hear us in our sorrows and afflictions, we can know this and believe in it.
not only does He hear us, but He wants to hear us, He wants us to cast our burdens upon Him, He wants to help us, He wants to help us with our burdens
we just have to work together with Him on it
Not only does He want to hear us and bear our burdens, He knows what sorrow feels like
when we think about everything that Jesus went through on this earth, it’s incredible, He suffered more than anyone, whether mental, physical, emotional, whatever, He was a man of sorrows
He was rejected by His own who He was there to save, constantly given grief, had people out trying to frame Him, lived a basically nomadic lifestyle, gave up His own life for the good of others”
and that is before He was tortured and crucified.
so when we go through things, not only can we know that God hears us, we can know that He truly knows what suffering feels like. He’s not just some God who is lofty, above everything, and has no idea about the human plight
He knows what suffering is, through the Son, and can relate to our pain in a very real way
let’s see what God says next...
And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Here we have God laying out the theme of this whole Exodus narrative, a theme of DELIVERANCE.
He has come to take the Israelites out of slavery and deliver them into a fantastic land, a land flowing, or could also mean “oozing” with milk and honey
“This is a dairyman’s metaphor: the drops of milk ooze from the animal’s teats, so full of milk is she. This description of Canaan is a pastoralist’s dream. Milk, curds, cheese and honey are not the produce of closely settled arable country. ”
As with so many things in exodus, this foreshadows God’s plan not only for the hebrews but for mankind through Jesus
God delivered the enslaved hebrews out of egypt into a great land
just like God delivers us through Jesus from a place of slavery to sin and the world to deliverance and conquering of sin and eventually to heaven.
There is such a major theme of deliverance in the Bible, Joshua is a deliverer, in fact, his name means God is deliverance
and the name Jesus is a greekicized way of saying Joshua, so Christ’s name means God is deliverance also
God is our deliverer from this world, He’s our savior, deliverer, and our hope, as without Him, we have none
when we think of any reason why God should deliver us, it’s hard to really think of any - humankind rejected God and rebelled against Him, we all have this sinful nature
yet God cares about those who rejected Him, and even wants to deliver them, to the point to where Christ, His beloved Son, dies for them
This is a love that is impossible to fully understand as humans, but it’s a love that God has for us
God’s love and deliverance is truly a pearl of great price, it’s something that we should live for, as it is our hope and we can trust in it
God’s delivered so many others, like the slaves eventually in this story, and He WILL deliver us in one way or another through our life
We will stop here for this week, and pick up God’s call to Moses and the response of Moses next week