Exodus 3 - The Rescuer
- Chad Werkhoven
- 5 hours ago
- 6 min read
God comes to rescue His people.
SINCE WE LAST LEFT OFF: Moses was born under Pharaoh’s decree that all Hebrew baby boys be killed at birth. He was preserved by God through unlikely means, driven into exile after defending his own people, and spent four decades tending sheep in Midian while Israel’s suffering in Egypt grew worse.
Exodus 3:1–22 (NIV)
3 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 wilderness 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.”
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.
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. 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 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 you shall call me
from generation to generation.
16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
18 “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”
Athanasian Creed
The Ecumenical Creeds - the Apostles', Nicene, and the Athanasian - adopted by the worldwide church centuries ago summarize the most important tenets of our faith.
Whoever desires to be saved should above all hold to the catholic faith.
Anyone who does not keep it whole and unbroken will doubtless perish eternally.
Now this is the catholic faith:
That we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity,
neither blending their persons
nor dividing their essence.
For the person of the Father is a distinct person,
the person of the Son is another,
and that of the Holy Spirit still another.
But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one,
their glory equal, their majesty coeternal...
Summary
Moses is a complicated man. He'd been preserved from certain death as an infant, having been set adrift on the Nile in a makeshift ark, only to be found by one of the Pharaoh's many daughters. He was raised and given the finest of educations as a prince in one of history's most sophisticated and successful cultures. Yet the fallout stemming from his temper - a character flaw which will plague him his entire life - forced him to flee Egypt.
We catch up with him four decades later running sheep for his father-in-law on the far side of the wilderness, by a mountain named Horeb - a word that means dried up, ruined waste. How fitting! It's here in this desolate place, near this mountain that would later be renamed Sinai, that God comes crashing into Moses' life in a strange way: in the midst of flames of fire from within a bush.
But that's been the pattern so far in this grand drama of redemption, hasn't it. God came and found Adam hiding, naked and afraid. He found Noah living in the wickedest of societies. He cut a covenant with Abraham after decades of infertility, and saved Isaac as a knife was raised over him. He wrestled with Jacob on that long night before he faced Esau and was with Joseph at the bottom of a cistern and prison dungeon.
God doesn't beat around the bush (excuse the pun); He gets right to the point. He tells Moses that He's seen the misery of His people and heard them crying out, so I have come down to rescue them. Then He told Moses go - I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt. God would save His people through a man.
Dig Deeper
It's customary for a royal figure to be announced with what's known as a heraldry, which is often a long and complicated recitation of all of that person's titles. Each of the names read off has meaning, and the more names a royal has, the more important he is.
The official heraldry God gives for Himself is neither long nor complicated, yet it is immensely profound:
I AM who I AM.
In other words, GOD IS. God is His attributes; more than that, He defines Himself, an ability that no other creature has. In other words, He isn't just good, rather He defines goodness. He doesn't just act lovingly, love exists because God exists.
God exists in and of Himself. He had no beginning and will never end. Time itself is one of His creations, and He lives outside of and above it. He always was, is now and always will be.
None of us will ever fully comprehend who and what God is. Many people reject God because they can't understand Him. But let these incomprehensible aspects of God comfort you rather than push you away.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, your name is holy and you are above all things;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will be able to fully trust God even though you don't fully understand Him;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
