The GOSPEL According to the Old Testament The Gospel According to Moses: Encountering God (Exodus 3:1-15) April 10, 2011 by Kevin Haah I. Introduction We re in a middle of a series called The Gospel According to the Old Testament. We are starting Exodus today and a sub-series on Moses. The title of today s message is Encountering God. We ll be talking about one of the most famous passages in the Bible: Moses encounter with God in the burning bush. I think a lot of people want an encounter with God but don t know how to have one. I want us to journey with Moses and encounter God as Moses encountered God. Let me give you some context for today s passage. So, after Joseph reconciled with his brothers and forgave his brothers for selling him as a slave in Egypt, the entire family of Israel ended up moving to Egypt because there was a severe famine in Canaan, and Joseph was the prime minister in charge of the food supply in Egypt. The family grew and prospered in Egypt. Then a new king who didn t know about how Joseph saved the people of Egypt from the famine came into power and decided to enslave the people of Israel into hard labor. But, the population of Israel continued to grow. In the effort to control the population of Israelites, the king ordered that every Hebrew baby boy born be killed, be thrown into the Nile River. This is when Moses was born. The mother hid him for three months; but when she couldn t hide him anymore, she puts the baby in a basket and lets it drift among the reeds of the Nile River. Pharaoh s daughter ends up finding this baby, and feels sorry for him, and decides to adopt him as her son. So, Moses becomes a prince of Egypt. But, he knows he is a Hebrew. Maybe he felt this sense of injustice against his own people, or maybe he felt a call to do something about the oppression against his people, whatever it was, he kills an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. This gets found out, and he has to flee into the desert, to a region called Midian. He is a fugitive on the run. 1
In Midian, he leads a life as a shepherd in obscurity for about 40 years. He is probably around 80 years old when this encounter with God happens. Let s catch the story at Exodus 3:1-4: 1 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. 2 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. 3 So Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sight why the bush does not burn up. 4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, Moses! Moses! And Moses said, Here I am. II. Let me ask the first question: Where did Moses encounter God? Verse 1 says he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. He wasn t on his usual route. He was in an unfamiliar territory. He was in the middle of the deep desert. He was not only physically in the middle of the deep desert; he was in the middle of a deep desert of his life. He was a Hebrew who grew up with all of the privileges and education of an Egyptian prince. Maybe he even hoped to be a liberator of his people. Yet, when he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, he blew everything. He had to run away from his home, family, and country as a fugitive. His life didn t go as planned. He was in the middle of a desert. It is often in the desert that we encounter God. Desert is a place of thirst. No water. No bread. Thorns. A terrible loneliness. But, throughout the Bible, the desert is often the place where people encountered God. Where did Jacob wrestle with God? In the desert. When John the Baptist started to preach, he called people to the desert. As we will see in the future, God brings his people, Israelites, to leave Egypt and enter the desert. And it is in this desert, that they meet God. In the desert, God is not just an add-on, because without God, there is no way to survive. So, it is in the desert that God meets us. We go through a desert when the real thing that keeps us alive, our real savior, real lord, real bread and drink, runs out or when 2
we finds that it is inadequate in our lives. When we feel this sense of spiritual emptiness in our hearts that we can t seem to fill. No therapy, no medicine, no friends, no success, no one seems to be able to fill. When our health fails, when we lose our job that we worked so hard for, when relationships fails, when our marriage fails, when you confront financial difficulties. When the things you used to rely on run dry, you are in the desert of your life. It is in the desert that you encounter God. It is in the desert that Moses encountered this burning bush. I think the burning bush is something that does not fit into our existing paradigm. A bush can t be on fire unless it is consuming the bush. But, that s what it looks like. This doesn t fit into our present reality. You are having a burning bush moment, when you encounter a reality that does not fit into your present assumptions of reality. Maybe you lived with the assumption that you are number 1, and it s not working out for you. You are alone and hurt. Maybe you lived with the assumption that no one tells me what to do; I am going to decide what is right and what I am going to do. And it s not working out for you. Maybe, you ve been trying to deal with a hurt in your life, and you ended up medicating yourself, and even if you try to get out, you can t. You feel stuck. And in the midst of it, you heard a story from a friend about God, how he saves, how he loves you. From time to time, you hear your friends and family members talking about God as if he is the answer. It doesn t make sense to you. The whole idea of God is outside of your present paradigm. But, you have to acknowledge that you see something in these people s lives that doesn t seem to make sense. Moses, when he saw something that didn t make any sense, in order for him to encounter God, he had to (Verse 3) go over and see this strange sight why the bush does not burn up. (Verse 4) When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, Moses! Moses! Moses had to go over and see in order for him to have this encounter. In the same way, we have to go over and see in order to have this encounter. You have to go over and talk to that person who shared Christ with you. You have to go over and investigate who God really is. You have to go over and open your mind, and see. Maybe 3
Christianity is not what you thought it was at all. It s not some right wing fundamentalists protesting at a military funeral with the banner: God hates fags. It s not a religion of intolerance you thought it was. It s not even about morality or family values. Maybe there is a lot of more stuff you don t know. It is when you go over and see, you have an encounter with God. III. Now, what kind of God do we encounter? Let s continue the story. Verses 5-6. 5 Do not come any closer, God said. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 6 Then he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. 1. First of all, we find that God is holy. Holy in Hebrew literally means separated. It means separated from any and all evil. He is pure good. There are so many books and people these days talking about God s justice and wrath being so unappealing. When people use God s wrath as a language of hate, yes, I really get annoyed and ticked off. But, here is the reality. If God is holy, pure good, separated from any evil, he can t help but to be just. And he can t help but to be angry against injustice and pain in this world. Imagine a world without ultimate justice. That is a world without a holy God. The first step into an encounter with God is to take off our sandals. I think it is a metaphor or repentance, acknowledging that we are sinful in front of the holy God. We have to realize that God is holy, and we failed to live up to the standard of his holiness. Like Romans 3: 23 says: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We can t have an encounter with God unless we realize that God is holy and we are sinful. We often think of sin just in terms of breaking a rule. But, sin in the biblical term is much broader than that. Sin is making anything other than God your ultimate thing. Sin is anything short of God himself being the glory of your life. Sin is trying to live your life without God. It is trying to be God of your life. You can be sinful by being bad, rebelling against God, and running away like the younger brother in the parable of the prodigal son. Or, you can sin by being good, so good that you feel like you don t 4
need God like the elder brother in that parable. You have made your own righteousness the God of your life. Either way, you are still in control of your life. Sin at the ultimate level is not about morality rule breaking; it is about making anything other than God your ultimate thing. And we have all done that. We need to take off our sandals. Let s go on with the story. Verse 7ff: 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 drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So 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. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 2. The second thing we learn about God is that he is compassionate and loving. He cares about oppressed people. He cares about their suffering. He is a God who doesn t just stay up there in his holiness and glory; he is a God who comes down to rescue us from our oppression and suffering. He is a God who has a plan for us. He has a plan to liberate us and flourish us in the land of milk and honey. He is a God of love. He sees our suffering. He sees your suffering. You re not alone. He sees the bondage we are in and the world is in, and he wants to liberate us. He wants us to encounter his love, his heart! It s interesting that so many people have a hard time accepting a view of God that is both just and loving. Most people either view God as holy and righteous or loving and accepting; but not both. People on the right focus on God s righteousness and they are very intimidating. You feel judged and condemned when you enter their church. Then, there are people on the left who speak of God s love and acceptance. He accepts everyone. They don t talk about God s holiness and righteousness. Both of these views are the product of human imagination. They are not the real God. The real God has zero tolerance to sin and absolutely loving to us. This is not a God you would make up. He is a real person. That s the God Moses had an encounter with. Let s go on with the story. Verse 10ff: 5
10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt. 11 But Moses said to God, Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? 12 And God said, I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you [a] will worship God on this mountain. 13 Moses said to God, 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? 14 God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you. 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. 3. The third thing we learn about God is that he is I AM WHO I AM. He is not just a God of Israel, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is the God who exists, pre-exists, who is, and will always be. He never had a beginning and he will never have an end. He just is. And he says, I Am who I Am. It means that he is the ultimate reality. I AM not the God who YOU want. I Am who I Am. So many people are looking for a spiritual reality, an encounter with God, but they are really looking for a spiritual reality that they construct themselves. Sometimes, people hear about Biblical Christianity and say, I don t think it works for me. It doesn t fit my style. That s just not me. I can never believe in a God of wrath. I can t believe in a God that just accepts everyone. But, let me ask you something: How can a God who does not contradicts you, who you essentially made up, ever change you? How can a God who doesn t contract you, who you made up, tell you you are forgiven, that you are somebody? How can God who you made up tell you that you are valuable? You need to go to the God who reveals himself to you, who you don t understand. Every real person is like this. Grace and I have known each other for 21 years and have been married for about 17 years now. But, 6
there are times when I am still learning something new about Grace. There are times when I feel like I don t understand Grace. And Grace is so much simpler than God. We don t know God fully. We can t put God in the box. God is not who we want him to be. He is who he is. God is saying, if you want an encounter with me, you have to come to be at my terms, and allow me to be God in your life. If you want to have a relationship with me, you have to let me be who I am. And in this story, God is fire! I think it is a great metaphor. Fire is beautiful and attractive. I can look at fire in a fireplace or campfire for hours; it s beautiful, but it is scary and destructive as well. You can t play with fire. God is a God of absolute holiness and absolute love. He is fire! IV. How can this be? How can this Holy God allow us to encounter him? When Moses first realized that he was in the presence of the Holy God, he was scared to death. He hid his face. Yet, he continues his conversation with God. And God didn t just strike him dead. When people of Israel later come back to this Mt. Horeb (which by the way is also called Mt. Sinai), if they or even an animal even touched the mountain, they were dead. Why didn t God strike Moses dead? In fact, if you read the rest of the chapter and the first part of chapter 4, Moses is whining to and wrestling with God. How can a holy God allow this? If God has absolute zero tolerance for our sins, how can we even have a relationship with God? And if God is loving, how can he fully show his love for us when we can t even be in his presence because of his holiness? If you go back to the beginning of the passage in verse 2, it says There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. This angel is not like the angels in the New Testament. It s not like an angel you see in TV with wings. This angel, God, LORD (which means YAHWAH), and his name I AM are all intermingled in the story. But, it is clarified in the New Testament. One time, Jesus was in heated discussion with the religious leaders when he claimed that those who follow his words would not die. Incredulously, they ask in John 8:53: 7
Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are? Skipping down a few verses to verse 56-59: 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad. 57 You are not yet fifty years old, the Jews said to him, and you have seen Abraham! 58 I tell you the truth, Jesus answered, before Abraham was born, I AM! 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. Jesus didn t just claim to be some sort of being that lived for a long time. He didn t say, before Abraham was born, I was. He said, before Abraham was born, I AM. He deliberately invokes the name of God to himself. He is saying, I AM. He is saying I AM YAHWAH. I AM the one who was there before Abraham. I AM the one who was there with Moses. I AM. There was never a time that I was not. I AM. The religious leaders that Jesus was arguing with didn t misunderstand Jesus. They knew he was claiming to be God. That s why they picked up stones to stone Jesus. And Jesus, I AM, is the one who was mediating the presence of God to Moses. And the presence of the angel is the marker that points the readers toward Jesus. You see, we need a mediator to mediate our relationship with God. God came down to us in the person of Jesus Christ to rescue us, like God came down to Moses to rescue his people. And because he loves us and because he is absolutely righteous and holy, he took all of our sins and took them upon himself, and paid the debt, the penalty, that we couldn t pay. That s what the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is all about. At the cross, God s holiness and love met. Romans 3:25 tells us why Jesus died on the cross: He did this to demonstrate his justice. Then, in Romans 5:8 tells us the second reason Jesus died on the cross: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It is on the cross, God demonstrated his justice and love. This is the gospel. The most conservative religion says: try your best and I ll take you to heaven. You know what? God is holier than that kind of God. At the same time, he is more 8
accepting than the most liberal and accepting God of this world. You see, the liberal God costs God nothing. Without the cross, we would never know how much God loves us. Without realizing God s holiness, we would never know the extent of God s love. God of the cross is more holy and more accepting than we can ever imagine. We are more messed up than we know (because God is holier than we can ever understand) but we are also more loved than we can ever imagine (because God himself paid for our debts on the cross at an infinite cost to himself). V. Lastly, what happens when we encounter this God? He calls us into a mission. In Exodus 3:10, right after Moses encounters this holy and loving God, God says: So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt. Out of slavery. Out of suffering. To worship him and encounter him at Mt. Horeb, Mt. Sinai. To experience his glory. To go to a place of flowing with milk and honey. To a place where creation is restored. It s interesting that God said in verse 8, So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians Then, he says to Moses, now go. But, who am I to tell Pharaoh to free the people? I will be with you! What is your name? I AM WHO I AM. After Jesus accomplished salvation for us on the cross, he told his disciples to go. God has a way of doing his work through us. That s what makes our lives so exciting here on this earth. Let s read Matthew 28:18-20: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in [a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. 9