Exodus 3

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0:00 The rest of us are going to be looking out the book of us today. We're trying to make our way through. And I got to say, we're going to be in Exodus. I've planned it out. We're going to be in Exodus until August, which is like the first Sunday in December. And it's just now enough time. So we're going faster than we ought to. There's a lot in this story. But we were in Exodus chapter two last week. We're in Exodus chapter three this week, if you want to look there.

0:38 It's trying to figure out where to start. Remember that Exodus 2nd book in the scriptures where the tradition tells us that Moses wrote the first five Genesis. And the Leviticus numbers do the wronging while they were kind of in that, in that gensored wandering period. And so Genesis is this look back that Moses compiled from some oral stories. But then remember he had this kind of meeting where he would meet with God and speak to him as a person who speaks to another person face to face.

1:08 And so God would be counseling him the whole art of humanity from creation all the way up to Moses' present day. And Moses records that. And then we know that the Torah, the Jewish Bible, then went through several different life cycles. At one point we find that the Israelites have the temple but have lost the book. One of the good kings, the young king was taken over from the dad and realized that the temple was set aside for one God, not many.

1:42 He had taken all of the idols out of the temple and in cleaning out a closet, they found the book of the law. And he just went off and instituted a reform. So the people of God have had the scriptures since the wilderness wanderings but not all have taken care of them. And yet for us is important, the scriptures persist. So like what we are doing this morning, looking back into the story of the people of God and teaching the story of the people of God to our children that one day they might do the same.

2:18 Our people have been doing that from one generation to the next as far back as we can remember. And by the grace of God in spite of ourselves, the God's culture says people find their way back to the God who made them in order that they might live with them forever. This little section in the chapter three is just one little part of that. But I'm just thinking about this morning as I was setting up the kids room, the tables and chairs. We are the great ongoing traversed community to the beginning.

2:50 It is good that we gather and remind each other who we are. It's what has kept our people going as long as they open people back to the first campus. And we don't have to be perfect at it, but in the perfect way. The story of how we did that for Moses in chapter three. Now it says Moses was telling the flop. This is why I say that we are not giving ourselves in the time here.

3:20 Last time we saw Moses, he was rescued by Pharaoh's daughter and taken into the temple. And now he is in Midian. But if you know the story of Moses, you grew up in a pharaoh's household. Realize too good is your life. So all the way to Egypt is a tree that you drive. Pills and a good string plate master. Very good thing. I was thinking it's probably more brutal time than today.

3:51 I mean, they're perhaps more acquainted with that than we are. It's kind of sterilized for us, right? There are places where we go to die, where we don't see it often. So it might have been a shorter, gentle Moses to become a killer, thanks Mike. But either way, to be able to kill someone is I imagine a pretty brutal thing. So when we see like we see Moses preserved by his mother, aided by his sister, rescued

4:29 by the princess. And the first advocacy of Moses is he killed someone. And then the Hebrews are afraid of him. So he gets sent out of things. He runs across the desert. He meets up with a pharaoh whose this preach of Midian and there is living and sending floss. The other thing I want to point out is the life cycle. Like we'll see how old Moses is at this point. But Moses, the story of Moses could give up hope for seconds and third acts in our life.

5:06 Just because you've done something for a decade, what do you mean you have to do for the next four, right? Moses changes several times. Okay, that was the precursor, chapter three verse one. Now Moses was sent in the flock of Catherine of his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to portal the mountain of God. And there an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the flames of the fire within a bush.

5:36 This is significant. He refers the angel of the Lord. You know, God sends angels at different times and they come into the Old Testament and the New Testament. And the Hebrew word for angel is like tied up. It's similar to the Greek word. It means like messenger or embossed with a sent out in the Hebrew of the knowledge, right? So God sends angels at different times in the story of Scripture.

6:06 The distinct thing about angels is when people see angels for the first time, they're always terrified. So often the first thing an angel said is, keep to with you. They come down because angels are terrified. Then the second thing, often angels say, stand up. Because people when they see angels are terrified, they don't know what they're looking at. They get down on their knees and angels will not receive worship. Because angels don't worship in reserve for God alone. This is why when Jesus is coming in on the triumphal entry and people are worshiping it,

6:40 the Pharisees say, tell them to cut it out. It's why when they come and ask John the Basil, are you the one who you ask for or another? Don't worship me. There's another one that's coming. When you see people receive worship in the story of Scripture, this is the science of the Lord. When you read in the Old Testament, the angel of the Lord, this is a specific messenger. When you read the Malachi alla, the angel of the Lord, this is not some angel, it was the angel. And now a couple of points, this angel, the Malachi alla, received worship from God.

7:14 Which is why many scholars think whenever you read the angel of the Lord, the Malachi alla, ending Old Testament, that you're seeing the second person of the Trinity come down and orchestrate the according to get the will of God. When we think about the Trinity, we think about God the Father willing and creating the sun and the spirit being the octave arms of God coming down and accomplishing the will of God in His creation. This is why when Jesus says, I don't do anything, I don't see the Father doing or telling me

7:45 to do because He is the second person of the Trinity, is the Malachi alla, the messenger of God out in the world. So Moses, this rescued murderer, refused the fleeing, tending to out in the desert, sees this situation, okay let's read it to see it again. He says, the original of the mountain of God, there is an angel of the Lord appeared to him

8:17 in the flames of the fire from within the book. Because the soul of the book was on fire and it did not burn up, so Moses thought, I'll go over and see this strange sight while the book does not burn up. The angel of the Lord comes down and sometimes I wonder, the book on fire, not burning up, you and I reading it, Moses retelling it, says that the angel of the Lord, the Malachi alla,

8:49 appears to him in the flame. But Moses in the story just looked and sees a book burning, there is no call to him at this point. It's like, remember the one version of the story when Jesus is walking on the water and the disciples are in the boat. If you read John's version, it sounds like he is about to walk right by the boat. Remember that? And the disciples call out when they just had Jesus walking on the water.

9:20 And if they hadn't called out, then he would have just kept on walking and met them on the other side. You get the story here that the Malachi alla comes down and inhabits a flame in the boat. And if Moses took no notice, would the Malachi alla go to someone else? One of the key things in my relationship with God over the last 10 to 15 years has been a complete lack of compulsion.

10:02 I mean, I don't think in my relationship with God so far, there have been, like, I can't think of something where God said you must do this. It's never like there is one right way for you to live your life, do it this one way. Often the coolest things that have come in my relationship with God have been when I realized, I feel like there is an opportunity there.

10:37 And it occurred to me, if you want it, if you would like to explore that opportunity, go for an animal with you. Interesting. The pre-incarnate son of God, the messenger of the Lord, appears in a flame of a book and makes no requirement of Moses.

11:09 What about if you would like? It might have been easier for him. Sounds like he has a pretty good situation. He's tending the sheep, his father-in-law, and how things are pretty well taken care of. I've been easier, but Moses is curious and he's up for an adventure.

11:41 But let's just go see what that is about. You just leave the trooper second and see why the spokesman's burning up, right? Moses saw that from the, I will go over to the verse 4. When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, oh, what is this, is interested? The reason I bring that out is because it's like, look, we get to tell them.

12:12 What's the benefit of having the God of the Universe in your corner, if you don't get to do some stuff that you would love you? You get some call or stuff. I had this, I've been getting some advice from the person that's gone last several months. And when we were talking about a situation and she was just like, well, you're just going to have to see if that's what God wants to do with you.

12:44 And I don't have to. See, that's a problem for me. If I don't think it's worth quite that. I think it's like the question is, is this something I want to do? And if I want to do it, then God comes with me. I'll bring God where I'll grow. God comes with me. I love that Moses is, I won't go see what that very book looks like. And when God saw that Moses was curious about the book, then he called him. Oh, you want to try to have the book?

13:15 Come on over, right? Oh, you want to see what this flame is about? When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called him from within the book, Moses and Moses said, I'm old yet. And then God says, don't them any closer. Take off the sand of the taster and you're standing totally grounded. And then he said, I'm the God of the Father. We've got a Abraham, we've got a visor, we've got a Jacob, and a 50-most-a-tittest face, because he was afraid to look at God. Moses doesn't have those stories. He don't have the Torah, but there are stories that have persevered about the nature of the character of the God of creation, life.

13:51 And God in Abraham, God can dig it. Such that Moses knows you don't want to look at the government. Because the God is altogether holding and will suffer no unholyness in its presence. If there are people who think they are God standing in the presence of the God, they lose immediately. And so Moses says, I'm not putting my eyes, that sometimes think on God, and I can take lives if I want. I'm not putting those eyes on the God because I'd rather not crying directly.

14:25 Do not come any closer, okay, when you hide the space. Verse 7, then the Lord said, I have a beef steaming in the middle of my people of Egypt. I've heard them crying out because they're slave drivers, and I'm concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egypt, and to bring them out of that land into a good and spacious land. The land flowing with milk and honey. The home of the Canaanites, the sites, Amrites, fairs, rice, and jibbites. And now the private ones have reached me, and I've seen the baby of Egypt, and they are pressing them, so now go.

14:55 I'm sending you to Sparrow, bring my people to Israel, God of Egypt. Part of me, when I leave this store, is always like, oh, you heard, huh? How long have they been being persecuted and abused? Moses is 40, right? 40 years ago, they were killing all the baby boys at a minimum. And when Moses was older, they were also still abused in the slaves enough that he said that upon himself to children, it's been a minute that they have been under persecution.

15:26 Now these years. There is an attitude, I think often, for us it's like, we are caught up in this, right now, and God is doing nothing. He says, but the people have been crying out to them. Why continue to cry if it doesn't work? Why can't you ask God to deliver me when it seems like he's not? Why continue to ask God to solve the problem when the problem continues to persist?

15:57 The reason is because when God finally asks, so you can come that you could not imagine. In slave to Israel, it had no thought on their mind that they would give the land of the Canaanites, milk and onions. It was so far beyond their imagination that when God offered to give to them, the first time they say no, we can't think it, it's too good for me. The reason you continue to call out to God when things are bad, bad, bad, bad, because eventually God comes through.

16:29 And when God comes through, so you couldn't imagine the merge. You keep asking. All words that God had come through for these rights, he didn't. But when he came, he came. White-shout the Egyptian gods, white-shout the Egyptian army, since he is realized all. Me too, a true quote. And he wants to use Moses, right? Okay, verse 11. But Moses says to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?

17:04 I'm going to read the rest of the conversation here, but before I do this, I want to make this one comment. It's softening to me that Moses goes from, I can't look at God to the Dr. Argy to God. Like persistent argue. Okay, that's why me. Well, not me, somebody else. Well, here's one. Well, how are they going to know? Well, who's tonight's day? Since he said somebody else, what about you?

17:35 What about you? Finally, you'll think, don't ask the audience to explain. I want to read this and think about what do we learn about the nature of the world? What is it? Latelyness? Reluctance? Laptop confidence?

18:06 What, if you have a lavalic faith in God or himself or both? Does he have a fear? Is he afraid of his life? Appropriately? Is he arrogant, maybe? God's suffering. Moses, look at this. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? Verse 12, and God said, I'll be with you.

18:36 Listen, Moses, I'll be with you, but I'm just going to be the sign to you that his God would send you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, your verse of God on this one. Moses, I've got the, look, the Moloch Yalweh has come down from wherever the Moloch Yalweh dwells, infinitely. In heavens, first themselves and then strong themselves to get down into the flames of a bush and speak with a voice in a language Moses can understand.

19:06 Surely when he says, I'll be with you, it'll work, that'll be a no. Right? Look, I know what you're worried, but I'll be with you. And the sign that it works is when you get back here. Don't worry about the rest of it. Thank you, and then you have to say to them, oh, the God your father has sent me to you.

19:40 And they ask me, well, what is Moses? Don't look like that. What is it? No, who's wrong? What's that? And God says, God's big Moses is named. This is one of the things you don't have time to go all the way, but there are whole books written on this word. That's not all the way we're worried, right? It's like the existence word created by. I will be that I will be. I am that I am. I am the one who is.

20:11 I am the one who will be. Something about permanence and existence, often in Hebrew culture, name is a reference to something. Right? So, I'll just think about laughter, Jacob is about Russell. And so God doesn't refer, God gives God's name to Moses. God doesn't refer, God says, to anything but God's self. He can't say, I am the son because he imagines this from him.

20:41 He can't say, I am the water because God spoke water into existence. So God says, I am the one who is. But this is a personal name. That's said, Yawwah, right? And then spoken in different ways throughout the fifth little mark of that year is one of the God revealed God's self to Moses in a move of vulnerability. When you know someone's name, you know who they are.

21:11 And so in response to Moses's first level, percents, resistance, God moved forward, moved forward to invulnerability. Not away. God said to Moses, I am who I am. God, as you say, is what I am and sent me to you. And God also said to Moses, the Lord is the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever.

21:42 The name by the shall be remembered from generation to generation. Verse 16, go. Assemble the elders, God says to him, go into them. And say to them, the Lord is God of your father, the God of Isaac, God of Jacob, appear to me and say, I have walked over you and seen what has been done to you in Egypt, and I have promised to bring you up out of the misery and leadership and the land that can't hesitate from us for as I device a big besides the land. The Lord is no time. The elders of Israel will listen to you. This is God's name. They're kind of listening to you, Moses.

22:12 This is great promise to go listen to you. Then even the elders are to go to the king and say to him, the Lord, the God of Isaac, we bring to us, met with us. And I take a three day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. And I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go, unless a mighty hand can tell them so. I'll stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. I will say that if you will let me go. And I'll make the Egyptians favorably disposed towards the people, so when you leave, you will not leave empty handed.

22:44 Every woman is to offer her neighbor for women clothing. So Moses and God looks a little bit more deep-hearted. It's a long conversation. How does Moses respond? But what if they don't believe you or listen? Then they say the Lord is not a peer to you. Then he shows them how to do a couple of things. It's to happen to his hands. But look, on the listening man, you're going to think that you don't even understand. Take the peace of the Nile, pour on the ground, turn the blood. They're not going to believe you.

23:15 Once they see the times they'll believe you. Verse 10, after that he tells them all the way to the Psalms. Then Moses says to the Lord, over the eye had never been listened, either in the past, not nor since you have spoken to your servant. I'm so speech and tongue. And if I feel I'll give you an hour, I know that it's going to work. Then 13, Moses objected again. But Moses said, oh Lord, please send someone else to do it.

23:54 I think this is really interesting. How... I wonder if Moses, like he couldn't have been walking away from me. You know? And God is listening.

24:28 I think they both knew... Moses really wanted to be the God. And he had a realistic appraisal of the difficulty of the situation. I think if Moses really didn't want to do it, he would have just turned on the walk to him. Slowly, he didn't have to turn his bones up. I think this is like a recognition that there is adventure.

25:14 We're getting it fixed this week. There is adventure and opportunity available for you. Where you will be legitimately in over your head. I remember one opportunity for Alsike. I felt like there was a chance for me to try out this new project.

25:47 I was praying about it. This sounds really cool. I feel like it's an opportunity, but I will be so in over my head. The scripture popped into my head. The one that says, your life is not your own. It's been bought by price. Immediately it turned in my head to... I gave my life over to the God and the God can handle way more than me.

26:23 If I live a life I have given over the God, I should expect to be in way over my head. I think that's what's going on here. Moses is like, I would love this adventure. It sounds like an adventure. I'm going to be in well over my head. What we learn about the God is his patience with our frail, faulty face.

26:54 I love to give it the chance anyway. Reasonable would have been first for when Moses says, never mind for God as they could. I wasn't going to use an arrogant murderer anyway. He informed you to know that. But he waits. And then when Moses finally gets down to it, he's throwing out all the reasonable objections. He just says, Lord, I am afraid to take this wrong.

27:29 Verse 14, then the Lord's anger bringer against Moses. And he said, what about your brother Aaron the Levi? I know he couldn't speak well. He's already longed away with you. And his heart will be glad when it keeps you. He used them to speak and put words in his mouth and they will help you speak to you. It's like God finally then changes his plenty. Instead, I'll send Aaron with you. Aaron can go with you.

28:00 I feel like there's a lot we can take from the story of God, Moses, and the bush, the burning bush. But the highlight for me is that there is an adventure available to the people of God beyond what we can handle. And God is patient with our lack of faith and is called perstice anyway.

28:34 So what I'm praying for today is that you might see some opportunities on the horizon and all the curiosity to go check them out. Hey Lord, give us our own little burning bushes, our own little opportunities for adventure and calling in life.

29:04 Give us curiosity to check them out and face the pushing beyond our capacity knowing that we go anywhere we go with you. Jesus name me pray.