Sermon Tone Analysis

Just another day tending the flock; just another day in a long line of days—years, actually.

Nearly 40 years.

Moses, after all this time, after all these years is still tending the flock of his father-in-law.

Moses has worked for Jethro (aka, Reuel re: 2:18) for many, many years.

Moses is glad to work for him; he got a wife of the deal—Zipporah.

Moses and Zipporah eventually had a son—Gershom—and then another—Eliezer.

It’s not a bad life for Moses, living in Midian, working as a shepherd, tending his flock and his family.

One particular day, Moses led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

What Moses encounters at Horeb, WHO Moses encounters at Horeb changes the course of his life and the course of human history.

—>If you have your Bible (and I hope you do) please turn with me to Exodus chapter 3.

If you are able and willing, please stand for the reading of God’s Holy Word.

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Exodus 3

May God add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!

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Just another day tending the flock of his father-in-law turned into a day unlike any before it; Moses has an encounter with the Almighty.

“Honey, I’m home!”

“How was your day, Moses-dear?”

“You’ll never believe what I saw today...”

I’m sure Moses himself had a hard time getting his head around it.

Moses was just a shepherd, doing what shepherds do: moving their flock from place to place in search of water and food.

In pursuit of this, Moses came to Horeb—he traveled a long way from Midian and found himself at the base of a mountain, the mountain of God as it’s known.

Horeb is also known as Sinai.

This is the mountain where God does some pretty spectacular stuff (as we’ll see throughout Exodus).

God drew Moses to this place in order to reveal Himself to him.

At this mountain, the text tells us that the angel of the Lord appeared to [Moses] in flames of fire from within a bush.

Now this angel is not what we might have sitting on our bookshelves or around the house.

I’m not sure the popular conception of angels is altogether Biblical; this—the angel of the Lord that appeared to Moses—was not a fluffy little, fat baby angel (a la Cupid) dressed in a golden diaper.

The angel of the Lord is the translation of two Hebrew words “malak” meaning messenger and “Yahweh” which is the personal name of God.

The angel of the Lord is no mere angel.

This—the angel of the Lord—is said to be in flames of fire from within a bush (v.

2).

In verse 4, the angel of the Lord is called both Yahweh (LORD) and God.

On several occasions in the Bible, an angel—the angel of the Lord—does and says things that only God does and says.

This is the Lord’s indirect presence and representation.

The angel of the Lord is not all there was to God, but was a true and real representation of Him.

Illus: Meghann’s brother and his family live in Canada, all the way in Edmonton, Alberta.

This is way too far away, and it’s far too expensive for them to travel to us or vice versa.

So we Skype.

Coraline and Amelie love Skype.

Meghann and I gather in front of our laptop, place a video call to the Canadians, and visit with our nieces (and Matt and Becca), but it’s mainly for the nieces.

On a handful of occasions, Amelie or Coraline will say, “Uncle Brown Bear (that’s me, by the way), Uncle Brown Bear, come see my room,” or “Aunt Meghann, will you read me a book?”

They’re not asking for us to drop what we’re doing, head to Kansas City, hop on an airplane, and fly to them.

They expect that their mom will carry the laptop (which is, to them, the same as Uncle Brown Bear or Aunt Meghann) into their bedroom or up on the couch with them so we can be part of whatever it is they want us to do.

Skype (or Facetime for all you Apple folk out there) brings a valuable sense of a person’s presence into the room; it’s almost like Meghann and I are in Canada, though it’s just a representation of us on a screen and through some speakers.

They can see us (sort of) and hear us, almost like we’re there, though we’re not actually fully present.

The angel of the Lord is not all there was to God, but was a true and real representation of Him.

This is what fancy people call a theophany—an appearance of the invisible God.

—>What catches the attention of Moses this bush that’s on fire but doesn’t burn up.

So Moses (as he’s writing this down for us) tells us he thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

This sounds a little like he saw one of those billboards on I-70 while driving across Kansas, advertising “World’s Largest Prairie Dog”.

“Let’s go over and see this strange sight.”

Of course, what Moses saw that otherwise ordinary day next to the mountain of God was far and away more incredible than what we can imagine.

This is the first, but not the last appearance fire makes in the story.

Later, fire leads God’s people; there’s fire at Mt. Sinai.

Later in the history of God’s people, there’s fire in the tabernacle and fire on the Day of Pentecost.

It is written: our God is a consuming fire.

The burning bush Moses saw was not consumed by this fire.

It wouldn’t have been anything to write home about if it was just another bush burning in the desert.

Here’s a bush, on fire, but not consumed.

Moses takes the bait.

And when the Lord Yahweh saw that Moses had pulled off the interstate to look at this incredible sight, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses!

Moses!”

God calls him by name.

“Moses!

Moses!”

This is significant.

Tony Merida: “Everyone who has been called to salvation has experienced God’s personal summons."

All who are saved have been called by Him.

In fact, no one comes to the Father unless He calls them.

One of the very best parts of my job is the opportunity I have to visit with people whom the Lord has called to Himself, to hear each individual story.

To speak with Garren, Briley, Jena, and Andrew over the last couple of months…there’s nothing better than hearing how and when the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses called them and saved them and drew them to Himself.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is, because of His effectual calling, the God of Garren, Briley, Jena, and Andrew.

Peter—one who had been called as one of Jesus’ earliest followers—writes that God called [us] out of darkness into His marvelous light.

“Moses!

Moses!” called the burning bush.

“Here I am,” said Moses.

“Do not come any closer.”

God called for Moses and then made it clear to Moses that there was a gap between Him in His holiness and Moses in his sinfulness.

There’s an unbelievable gap between the Holy God and sinful man.

Listen to A. W. Tozer: “I tell you this: I want God to be what God is: the impeccably holy, unapproachable Holy Thing, the All-Holy One.

I want Him to be and remain THE HOLY.

I want His heaven to be holy and His throne to be holy.

I don’t want Him to change or modify His requirements.

Even if it shuts me out, I want something holy left in the universe.”

Moses couldn’t just saunter-up to the Almighty Maker, the Impeccably Holy God.

And neither can we.

We must learn what Moses’ learned on that un-ordinary day:

God is superior, other, separate.

The God who is holy, holy, holy orders Moses: “Take off your sandals.”

In my house, we are “shoes-off” people.

Even if someone tells us, “Oh, you don’t have to take your shoes off,” I can’t make myself walk into someone’s house with my shoes on.

One of my friends has a sign posted: “Unless you’re God or George Strait, take off your boots.”

Taking off shoes is a sign of respect, of deference to the other.

In the ANE, taking off shoes was done when entering the presence of a superior person; when one was at the superior person’s house, palace, or tent, they’d take off their shoes.

Now, I don’t think George Strait is a superior being; but I’m certain that God deserves our respect, our reverence, our symbolic shoe-removal.

I know a preacher who preaches barefoot each Sunday.

No one wants to see my hairy hobbit feet; I won’t preach barefoot.

I have friends who take off their shoes anytime they gather for worship.

I don’t think we need to apply this literally, but we do need to get the point.

“Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

Horeb/Sinai is Yahweh’s place.

That means the very ground is holy—something said of no other location in the Bible.