Exodus 2:21-3:17 Who are you, Lord?

Exodus 2:21-3:17

Who do you worship? What kind of God do you serve?

How do you know what he/she/it is like?

We claim to worship God, but how do we know him? What do we expect of him?

So often our expectations of him are driven by other people’s words, or our own wish fulfilment. We often make God in our own image. So when God actually appears, when he breaks in, when he does something we are often worried, afraid. Who is he REALLY, and what will he DO?

This is the question Moses asked when God revealed himself. What is your name? Now he doesn’t mean what collection of letters should I use to refer to you (“Bob”, “Lord Bob”) but Who are you? What is your identity? What kind of person are you? What will you do? How do we approach you?

It’s like meeting a big tough guy in a dark alley – who are you? I don’t want to know his name, I want to know what type of person he is and what he will do. If he said “It’s Billy” I would immediately relax – see I know Billy, he was in my Bible study, and although he’s huge and very intimidating, I know his character. “Billy” sums up what I know about him.

What we know about God is revealed to us primarily in the Bible. And we need to test what we think we know about God against what the Bible said. Otherwise we are worshipping a false god, a god that we have made up, an idol. What kind of God did do you think the Israelites may have thought he was at this point? Doesn’t care. Has forgotten us. Doesn’t see us.

But what is the reality? 2:24-25 He sees, he cares, he remembers. He comes down.

Our experience, our reason, what the church tells us – these are all very faulty, sin-affected ways to know who God is. Only the Bible is trustworthy. So when the Bible and our experience conflict – trust the Bible. Trust God’s word, because as we saw last week, God keeps his promises.

So who is God? Let’s find out.

1. The I AM sees and restores Moses

Moses was a man born to greatness. God’s hand was upon him, protecting his chosen rescuer. In miraculous circumstances he was protected from being murdered at birth, he was adopted and raised in the palace of Pharaoh as a Prince of Egypt. Seems a perfect setup, doesn’t it, for the rescuer of God’s people. He’s got power. He’s got prestige. He’s got influence. He’s exactly where he needs to be, we think. From a human perspective, everything is set.

But God sees the hearts of men: and Moses’ heart is a problem. He is not a man who loves God. He is not a man who loves his people. Moses is wrong. Moses is all about his own glory, and tries to do things his way.

And so, Moses tries to single-handedly rescue his people, murders an Egyptian, tries unsuccessfully to cover up his crime, and then is immediately rejected as any sort of leader of his people. 2:14 “Who appointed you to be our prince and judge?”

So when we left Moses last week, we left a man destined for greatness, but now a failure. A man who is rejected, living out his days in exile. 2:22 Moses named [his son] Gershom, for he explained, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land.”

But even this terrible failure, even Moses’ sin, God turns around for good. In these wilderness years of exile, Moses learns humility. He is brought low in order to trust the Lord instead of his own strength. He learns to identify with his people, be one of them, a foreigner in a foreign land, before he can be their representative and saviour. The 40 year prince becomes the 40 year exile. And now he is ready.

So God sees, God hears, God remembers his promises. 24 God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25 He looked down on the people of Israel and knew it was time to act.

And how does he act? By appearing to Moses. Moses, the failure. Moses, the exile. 40 YEARS he had spent living in the desert, tending the flock of his father-in-law. He doesn’t seem to have any animals of his own. He doesn’t seem to have done very much of anything. Just existed.

And then he sees something. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. 3 “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.”

He sees a miraculous sight. A bush that’s on fire, but not being consumed. The bush is being preserved in the fire. What is this?

Moses thought he was a failure. He thought God did not see him, paid him no attention. But God’s hand was upon him - while Moses had turned aside from the path of leader and rescuer, and gone off to become a foreign shepherd, forgetting his people – God had not forgotten. He had not forgotten his people or his chosen rescuer. He sees Moses

4 When the LORD saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

Here is our God: he sees, he is personal (he knows Moses by name), he speaks …and he is terrifyingly holy.

5 “Do not come any closer,” the LORD warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.

Now that doesn’t mean that the ground there is special. The ground is holy because God is there. Holy means “set apart”, dedicated to the Lord. People or objects are holy in relation to God. For example, as Christians we are holy because God’s Spirit lives in us.

But he is terrifyingly holy saying “Moses, look out” because to approach God as a sinner in rebellion against God is immensely dangerous. He is apart, he is other, he is pure. He is a consuming fire and we need a way to be made right with him. For Moses, in this instance, it was to obey God’s Word “take off your sandals”. And he does so, able to approach God.
Why? Well, it’s not anything special about taking off your sandals! But it is faith. Faith in God’s Word – which simply means trusting in and believeing what God tells you. Because he obeyed God, God made him holy by forgiving his sin, so that he could meet with Moses.
How did God do that? Well, Moses didn’t know, he just had to trust the word of God. But we know that it is through Christ that sins are dealt with. Moses’ sin was stored up, and laid upon his shoulders.

Praise God that he forgives sinners! Because like Moses we are sinners. And like Moses we are called by God, not out of a bush that does not burn, but by his Son, God made flesh, the true revelation of God.

6 I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.

Just as Moses was seen by God, and not destroyed; so you too are seen by God, and offered restoration. Will you turn aside from your life and allow God to take control, to restore you to who you were born to be? Probably not, like Moses, the saviour of your people, but, like Moses, called to know God and to follow him and serve him all the days of your life.

Moses life was a dead end – and the Lord called him to a new path. Which way are you going?

God, the I AM, see and restores Moses

2. The I AM sees and rescues his people

But Moses is not the only reason God has come down. Moses is just the messenger.

9 Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. 10 Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.

Imagine being an Israelite in those times. Enslaved by a brutal overlord, with seemingly no hope. Trapped by a king, the Pharaoh who believed himself a god. Egypt had many gods, attached to various bits of creation: the sun god Ra, for example, and the various gods of the River Nile. Up to 2000 gods. And on the evidence those gods certainly appeared more powerful than Israel’s God. Where was he? Why was he not doing anything? Was he powerless? Had they done something wrong?

Some may have mourned living so long in Egypt. Oh if only we’d left when we had the chance – now we’re outside of God’s plan. We’ve fallen out of his hand and he cannot get us back. We are lost.

Some may have abandoned the God of their fathers for the clearly more powerful gods of Egypt. They dismiss the stories of God calling Abraham and rescuing him out of Egypt (Gen 12) as myth and legend. If that were true, show me the evidence now. They ignore the judgement in the flood as mere nonsense to frighten the weak-minded. We are more advanced now, science has proved that there are many gods – the evidence is overwhelming. How can God be both the sun and the river – the water would put the fire out! Why cling to your out-dated beliefs.

But there would have been those who would have remembered God’s word to Abraham in Gen 15:13–16 Then the LORD said “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land for 400 year. They will be oppressed as slaves. 14 But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. 16 After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”

Which one would you have been? Impatient? Blaming yourself for having fallen out of God’s will, as if that were possible? Or turning aside to the popular gods of the day, and justifying it with appeals to reason or science or experience, ignoring the Bible. Or trusting in God’s word, patiently trusting that he keeps his promises? Which Israelite would you have been?

Actually, which one are you?

For nothing has changed, except we know more of who God is and what he does and how he does it. For the God we serve is this God: 14 God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. 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: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. This is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations.

God is the same yesterday, today and forever. And people are pretty much the same – and our reaction to God is pretty much the same! Will we believe his words, or not?

Sometimes it seems that God is so slow to act. We look at the suffering in the world and we despair. Doesn’t he care?
Maybe we have been through terrible personal suffering – do you care Lord?
The Israelites must have wondered as the whip cracked down, as their baby boys were murdered, as life seemed hopelessly hard. But what they could not see was the whole of Heaven mobilising for action, for a great rescue. God sees, God hears, God will come down.

Or maybe we think that we have failed. Maybe, like Moses, we’ve made wrong choices, stepped off the path of our destiny and gone into the wilderness. Well, as we shall see, God is pretty good at leading people through the wilderness and to the promised land! 11 But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” (I’m a failure, I’m nothing. I stepped out of your will. Look at God’s amazing answer: 12 God answered, “I will be with you. I will be with you. Do you think that our sin and failure stops God? No! God sees and restores the sinner. And he can bring us through the wilderness. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.”

And for those who had rejected that Lord, turning to other gods and justifying it with “science” or clever philosophy, and dismissing Genesis as fairy tales… well they would soon see the power of God, exposing their new gods as false gods, ripping the veil off their eyes. 2 Pe 3:9–10 (NLT) The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.

Who is God? He is the one who will judge the oppressor, rescue his people, and lead them to safety. He is the one who keeps his promises. His words are trustworthy and true.
He is the great I AM, the one who IS. He is the God who is there.

And he is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, because the God who reveals himself in the Exodus rescue is only pointing forward to the day when he is fully revealed. Moses knew the I AM in part. We can know him in full.

3. The I AM is Christ Jesus, our crucified, risen, Lord

Jn 8:28–59 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man on the cross, then you will understand that I AM … 52 The people said, “… 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?” 54 Jesus answered, “…56 Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it and was glad.” 57 The people said, “You aren’t even fifty years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I AM!” 59 At that point they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden from them and left the Temple.

John’s gospel is structured around seven “signs” (miracles revealing who Jesus is) and seven “I am” statements (I am the bread of life. I am the resurrection and the life, etc). Jesus’ actions of rescue and blessing reveal who he is. And Jesus’ words reveal who he is: He is the great I AM of Exodus. I AM “Ego eimi” in Greek – and the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint) translates Exodus 3:14 as God replied to Moses “Ego eimi”.
No wonder they picked up stones to stone him! How DARE this man claim to be God! How dare he use his name! Jews never even dared to speak God’s name, and here Jesus doesn’t just speak his name but says “it’s my name”!
And he was probably not speaking Greek, but Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament – and so the connection would be even stronger. God replied to Moses “I AM WHO I AM” “eh-YEH a-sher eh-YEH”.
Jesus says Before Abraham “eh-YEH a-sher eh-YEH”

Who are you, Lord? Who is the God we serve? We serve the great I AM, Yahweh, the rescuer and restorer of his people. The Mighty Saviour. The Holy One. And his name is Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. He is the full and final revelation of God.

This is our God. The God who is there. The great I AM. He is the one who saves and restores sinners like Moses. He is the one who rescues those in slavery and bondage, like the Israelites. He is the one who sees, who hears, who comes down to rescue.

Look with eyes of faith and see the rescue of the Lord. If you doubt his goodness, look to the cross. If you think you have failed, look tot hthe cross. If you have fallen off the path of blessing – look to the cross. If you are in pain, wondering is he cares – look to the cross. If you are wondering if it is worth it to keep followinghim – lookto the cross. For there we see our God revealed. There we see him enter our world and suffer with us, weep with us, mourn with us. He is not high and distant and aloof, but right there beside us in the blood and guts and heartache and pain of life. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Our Saviour and Lord. He has come down.

And he is the one who is with us, as he was with Moses.

Matt 28:20 [Jesus said] “Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”