[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
[email protected] be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
Alright, if you want to go ahead and open up to Exodus chapter three, that's where we're going to spend most of our time tonight. This is, of course, Moses at the burning Bush. This is the encounter we're looking at tonight. There are plenty of seats up really close to us, particularly near our knees. That's the most coveted place to be. Also, splash zone warning for all involved.
I see you chose his side. I got you. Who's your favorite minister? Wow, I got to quit asking that question.
All right, do it. Feed of Gamaliel. That's right. Yeah, we probably have the same funky smell. Anyway.
In Exodus chapter three, we have Moses with a really interesting encounter. Maybe one of the most familiar encounters, one of the most popularized, of course, in movies and cartoons, things like that, narratives about the Bible. A lot of folks that don't know much about God or the Bible oftentimes know about the burning bush. So we're going to look at that tonight and look at a few different angles of it. Let's begin in Exodus 3, verse 1. Now, Moses was keeping the flock of his father in law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. And as he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire. Out of the midst of a bush he looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight while the bush is not burned. When the Lord saw that, he turned aside to see God called him out of the bush. Moses. Moses. And he said to him, here I am. Then he said, do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. And he said, I am the God of your Father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Now, outside of George Lucas, you should never start in the middle of a story. If you go to Moses in Exodus 3, you're in the middle of a story. There's a lot that has led to this particular moment, this encounter with Moses. And I think there's the background, the origin story is what really gives us a better context rationale for why Moses is going to react the way he does to God, calling him where he's going to call him. So I said, go to Exodus 3, flip back one page. We're going to spend a little bit of time in the very beginning of Moses life, in this interaction with God at the bush. We're going to see Moses that doubts himself. He comes up with excuses. He's got some objections to what God is calling him to do. And when you start to see him for who he was, then you understand why he gives the response that he does, why he doubts himself. There's three reasons why I think Moses doubts himself in this situation. It's because his past is complicated, his present is rather comfortable, and that makes his future very uncertain.
These are three different things that I think for most of us, to me, Moses is one of the most relatable people in the Old Testament in particular, because we all have a past on some level, and oftentimes we find ourselves in a comfortable place. And sometimes our pursuit in life become protecting that comfort or pursuing just that comfort. And so sometimes the idea of change and sometimes the idea of going back to what was uncomfortable in particular, is very, very scary. So we're going to look at. These are the three angles that we're looking at tonight. Several years ago, a comedian by the name of Trevor Noah, he used to host the Daily Show.
He has a British accent. He was born in South Africa. His father was Swiss. German, I believe. So think like Ben Steinhauer and Zigfried Bill, combine those accents. That was his father's heritage. And his mother was African. Well, he was born in 1984, so he's a year older than me. He was born under apartheid. So technically it was illegal for him to be born because it was illegal for his parents to married. They were married secretly. And then he came into being. So his book, which is a really interesting listen in particular because he reads it, and again, the accent, just the way all literature was meant to be read, was with the British accent. I'm very convinced of that.
It's called born a crime because it was illegal for him to be born. And I think that's a really good phrase for us to understand. Moses beginnings. Moses was born not under apartheid, but under a rule that said there should be no Israelite boys that survive.
Remember what was happening there? Moses was put in the. In the basket, put in the river. And who came and found him?
Pharaoh's daughter. Right. The man who made the law that said, kill all the Israelite baby boys. His daughter found this beautiful little baby. And so Moses finds himself growing up in the house of Pharaoh. Look in verse 15 of Exodus 1. Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah, and the other Puah. When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live. But the midwives, of course, feared God did not do as the king of Egypt commanded, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called all the midwives and said to them, why have you done this? The midwives said to Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them. I'm not going to offer any commentary on that. So God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied, grew very strong. So in a setting where he should have died, he was born a crime. This is where Moses finds his beginning. So he ends up being raised in Pharaoh's house. He grew up as a member of a minority, being a Hebrew, being an Israelite in the house of Pharaoh, in the house of privilege, using these terms that I consider more like modern terms. To me, that changes a little bit how I see him. You can imagine some of the pressures I was actually watching discovered a movie recently called School Ties. Some of you guys may remember that. I think it was from 1992. It has a pretty amazing cast. It has Chris, he was an NCIS or one of the ones with LL Cool J, but not LL Cool J. Anyway, that guy, Brendan Fraser, it has Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. So, like some really big names before they were big names. And in this story, there's a fellow from Pennsylvania, very blue collar town where he grew up, gets a scholarship to go to an exclusive Ivy prep school for high school. He goes there and he is actually Jewish and he plays on the football team. He's a stud quarterback. All of the other guys are very prejudiced towards Jewish people. And they don't know that he's Jewish. So it's a very interesting storyline that kind of reminded me of what we're talking about here. Growing up in this environment with people that hate your people, being educated by them, being fed by them, being clothed by them. He grew up in a privileged setting.
I imagine at some point when he realizes his people live on the outside or the other people, just the conflict that must have arisen with that. So in the house, he feels like an outsider. If we keep reading, we know that he goes out in the beginning there. Before he flees to Midian, he ends up murdering an Egyptian. He now is then put off by his own people. He's this guy that has no home. He has a very conflicted past. So he flees to Midian. When he gets to midian in verse 11, one day, when he had grown up, he went out to his people, looked on their burdens. He saw the Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that. Seeing no one, he struck down. The Egyptian, hid him in the sand. The next day, he said to the man in the wrong, why do you strike your companion? He answered, who made you prince and king and judge over us? Prince and judge over us. Excuse me, do you mean to kill me as you kill the other Egyptians? And Moses was afraid. Surely this thing is known. So Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well. Now, the priest of Midian had seven daughters. And they came and drew water, filled the troughs to the water of their father's flocks. The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them and watered their flock. When they had come home to their father, Reuel, he said, how is it that you have come home so soon today? And they said, an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock. He's the knight in shining armor, so he rescues this damsel in distress.
They get there in verse 20, says, where is he? Why have you left the man? Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter, Zephorah. She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom. For he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.
He became a fugitive, and now he's living as a foreigner in this place where he's kind of building an ideal Life.
We're talking 40 year segments to kind of divide up his life so far. 40 years in Egypt, 40 years in Midian, and then we get here towards the 80th year or so of his life at the burning bush.
That's quite a life story already.
And that's just the first two chapters of Exodus. Everything we know generally relate to Moses about is from here on out, 80 plus years old. One of the first things that strikes me when we look at the timeline here is that in my mind, all of my life's most important work. I never really thought about this until kind of this study, but I just assumed it would be on the front end of my life.
But time and time again, in several of the encounters we've looked at, God calls someone to do something really big much later in life. So I think from the very beginning, how we view our importance or our value to God, it's not ever defined by a number, by a circumstance, age, or anything like that. Moses is having this really interesting identity crisis for 80 years almost, and he gets to this burning bush and God says, I know you're here in this place of comfort where you kind of have your idyllic life, you've got a family now, but I want you to go back.
And he's going to point him back to the place where he's known as a murderer, back to the place where he was disowned by his own people and probably never really fit in with the people that raised him.
It makes a lot more sense why maybe he has a speech impediment. It makes a lot more sense why maybe he is hesitant to just say, okay, God, here I am, send me.
I think a lot of times we spend a lot of effort and energy trying to run from our past, and we're trying to find comfortable circumstances to land in as opposed to trying to run towards God and to pursue Him. I think those are different things.
I also think our circumstances sometimes have too much value in our own eyes.
God may have found Moses in Midian, but he was sending him back to a very dangerous, difficult place.
So this is our setting, this is kind of how we got here. And this is going to be the reason we have this really interesting, engaging encounter between Moses and God.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm glad you went back, because if you remember the phrase we're going to read in just a second that Moses says, when God gives him that task, he says, who am I? Which is a very important one to hold on to, because it's going to come up in just a second, like I said. But that does reveal that there was some insecurities that were Very deep within that guy. And one of the things I've heard before, I thought was a good way to put it, is insecurity is that voice inside your head that says, I'm not blank enough. Right? You experience that in all different lifestyle stages as a youngster, you know, school cafeteria time. You experience it when you have a kid and you know the child's born, you're like, what? You know what? Why am I cutting the bill cord? You should do that. You know, there's. Your kids grow up, you have grandkids, and then you compare yourself to the other side of the grandparents. How they're doing things versus it's on and on and on. And we all kind of have that, you know, am I enough for this? And that's what is important. Important to know before we get to the burning bush that he had gone through those things.
And I think I might have mentioned this here before, but I have a friend of mine in Montgomery that he does prison ministry. And he said he went to his very first time doing prison work. And he said, like, I knew at one point we were going to sit down for, like, 45 minutes with the prisoners and just have a conversation with them around the table. And he said, I was trying to think of, like, what are conversation starters that I have with them. He said, I'm not trying to be, like, silly about it, but I'm like, I can't say, like, the same thing. Hey, did you see the. Or how about this? You know, like, not all of those things. So I said, so how long you been here? And so they went around the table and they were telling. And then he then asked him. He said, I don't know why I said this. Like, there's like two or three of them that one of them said, he's going to get out, like, six months. One's gonna get out in, like a year. And I said, well, are you excited to get out of here? And he was thinking that their quick response was gonna be like, oh, yeah. And he's like, why did you ask that? That was such a dumb question. But he was shocked when they actually said, no, I'm not. Like, oh, why aren't you excited that you're gonna get out of here? And they're like, well, I've messed up. I'm just gonna mess up again.
And kind of try tying into this comfort now, sometimes you can get comfortable also in your failures and that you maybe even cycle into something. And I think that's what Satan does to us. Like, no, that's who you are, right? That's who you're always going to be. And I think when he says, who am I? He's also dealing with that kind of insecurity that he had gotten comfortable in his mistakes, like, well, this is just who I am.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: That's a very Israelite thing to do up to this point, too. If you go back to. Well, I guess we'll fast forward here. In Exodus 14, we're going to see a similar interaction with Israel. When they're at the Red Sea, they get ready to cross the Red Sea, and they can't figure out a way forward. They look behind them, the Egyptians are bearing down on top of them, and they look at Moses and they say, well, why didn't you just leave us to die in slavery in Egypt? Right? So it's this idea almost, that familiar is better than unfamiliar, even if familiar is not good. You see that a lot of times in relationships. And, you know, in youth ministry, you counsel a lot of teens through a lot of different relationships. And too often, you know, there'll be a kid that's. That's in an unhealthy relationship, but they're just afraid to not have a boyfriend or to not have a girlfriend. And that fear of that's more uncomfortable to them than being in a bad, toxic relationship. I think we do that in a lot of different ways, even as adults as well. So that's a great point.
All right, so let's get to chapter three, and we'll pick up in verse seven. Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me. And I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. So God gives a very detailed validation that I have heard my people. I also have a very detailed, clear plan of what I'm going to do for my people. Come on, let's go.
Verse 11.
But Moses said to God, who am I? That I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. And he said, but I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you.
When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. The first thing that to me kind of overrides everything we're going to be reading in these objections and these almost rebuttals from God is the fact that God's reasons don't have to be reasonable to us to be reasonable to God.
Another way that you've probably seen somewhere, Hobby Lobby, etched on some piece of driftwood, is that my ways are not your ways. Right. His thoughts are not our thoughts. And so this is another wonderful example of someone trying to use their own earthly logic to kind of joust with God's logic of his will. And it doesn't go the way that Moses wants. So his first objection is, well, who am I?
And God's response there is, I, the Lord will be with you, and I will give you a sign.
This back and forth of hesitation or objection comes with God's response each time. When you see Moses response, what is the source of his objection here?
What do you see as being kind of the.
I guess what is the.
He says, who am I? What is the crux of what he's saying there? You gave one reason.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: Self doubt. Feels like he lacks the skills to use.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: Yes, it's him, right? He's the source of I can't do it.
What is God's response? What is the source of his response, so to speak?
What's that? It's going to be with him. Right?
The shortcoming is me. God says, yes, but me. Right. His rebuttal is, but me. I am going to be there with you. You got anything to add on with this first objection?
[00:17:56] Speaker B: No.
1 of the things I was thinking about is, you know, in Isaiah 6, and I guess because I'm talking about cherubim and Seraphim Sunday, but in Isaiah 6, y'all remember when God says, you know, they were at a very big time turning point in Israel's history, He's like, hey, who's going to go like, I need someone to help, like, be the preacher, be the speaker. And out of nowhere, what happened? Isaiah said, what here am I sending? Right? And in the context, it's kind of very similar because you got Moses with a burning bush, which is kind of a symbol of the holiness of God. You know, the bush is burning up, but it's burning, but it's not burning up. It's the picture. Like God is Protecting, but he's also sustaining at the same time. He's like, I can do two things at once. Okay, buddy, I can do this. If I can do that, I can do that. And so he sees the holiness of God. He's like, who am I? But yet you have Isaiah that sees the holiness of God. And he's like, here am I, So what is the difference? And when I was thinking about this today, one of the. I guess the thoughts that I had is there's a difference in. Sometimes we think of what Moses maybe is doing is humility, when it's maybe us just not wanting responsibility. It's a false humility, I guess. But then you've got Isaiah. To me, the difference was Isaiah's heart was here am I. But he says, very clear, I'm a man of unclean lips. This guy says, I can't speak. Well. He's saying, I've got sin in my life. But he's also saying, I want you to do something about it. This. Does that make sense? There's a difference in their type of humility.
And I think that needs to be, I guess, a reminder to us in our, you know, whatever it is, where we're at is saying, hey, yeah, I want to do that, and I need help, and that's okay. Like, that's what God's like, yeah, I can do something. Like, that's what I'm talking about. And that's what he's going to get to with Moses, but it just takes some time.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: He's also told him to take his sandals off, for where he's standing is holy ground.
When people would take their sandals off, Typically we're talking about before we enter the temple or before we enter into a holy space that is somewhat indoors. This is on a mountain. This is very much outdoors. The dirt didn't change. What changes about where he's standing? What makes it holy?
The presence of God. Exactly. And so he takes his sandals off, he bows, he has this moment of, oh, now, first I'm, well, that's weird. That bush is burning but not being consumed. I will turn aside and go look at it. And then all of a sudden, he understands the presence of God there.
And that changes everything for him. From curiosity to what I see here is humility and probably some fear. A good, healthy dose of fear in the midst of that as well.
I think that part then connects with God's response here of one of the signs is that when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. This is going to be where the Ten Commandments come from as well. Mount Sinai.
I found that.
[00:21:08] Speaker B: That verse reminds that.
[00:21:10] Speaker A: Sign that he said, when you have.
[00:21:12] Speaker B: Brought the people out of Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain.
[00:21:15] Speaker A: It reminds me of the story in Genesis where.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: I believe we talked about this, where God goes to Jacob and says, well.
[00:21:23] Speaker A: You'Ll come back here after.
[00:21:26] Speaker B: I'll be with you, and you'll come back to this place.
And Jacob did come back to that place.
I believe it was called Bethel.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: And so I'm pretty sure Moses, very.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: Likely Moses, knew that story.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: And so that reiterates the promises of God being fulfilled. Yeah, fascinating. I think that's intentionally being somewhat referenced.
[00:21:56] Speaker B: And I was. Are you referring. Are you going to reference, in a little bit Yahweh, his name a little bit?
[00:22:02] Speaker A: I hope so. Yes. That's the plan. But go and say.
[00:22:05] Speaker B: While you're doing. You were about to say something earlier.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: Did you?
[00:22:07] Speaker B: Oh, so who am I? David said that, too.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: So there's that. That difference.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: We read that Moses was the most.
[00:22:15] Speaker B: Humble man that ever lived. So I think genuinely, when he first is told by God. Yeah. His response is one of humility. Who am I? And then as God explains, okay, look, I got this. Yeah. Then it turns to doubt and fear. And. Yeah, that's true. Because when David says it, it's clearly dismissed. Who am I to marry the king's daughter? Who am I to build you a temple?
[00:22:44] Speaker A: All right, objection. Number two. Look in verse 13, right on cue on verse 13, then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they asked me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the people of Israel, I am, has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel. 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.
And thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, the Lord, the God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt? And I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey. They will listen to your voice. And you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to them, the Lord the God of the Hebrews has met with us. And now please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. But I know the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it. After that he will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And when you go, you shall not go empty. But each woman shall ask of her neighbor and any woman who lives in her house for silver and gold and jewelry and for clothing, you shall put them on your sons and your daughters, so you shall plunder the Egyptians.
So that's a pretty cool sign. You're not going to go empty handed. I'm going to take care of you. But his first response here of who shall I tell them? He says I am.
I don't know if anybody else unfortunately has the words of the American Detroit born poet Marshall Mathers that I am whatever you say I am. If I wasn't, then why would I say I am? But unfortunately for me, that's what pops up. Here is the old Eminem song. So don't do that.
The term I am here.
If you ever do a word study on Yahweh, it's a really interesting little bit of a rabbit hole. We really don't know how they pronounce the name. What we have is four consonants and then we have over time scribes added in some accents to try to help us understand how to, how to pronounce this word Yahweh. And so when you see the Lord that is referencing of Yahweh, this is the first place in scripture that we have where God then names himself. What we do know about this particular term is that essentially its essence means that not just I am, but being. I am the being who brings into being. So he is sort of the not sort of. He is the foundation of all that it is that all is. So when he goes and they say, well, who sent you?
The foundation of all that is, that is who is sending me. It is by that authority that I am here to free my people. It is by that authority that all of these signs will be done. And so this idea of I am is reflected and connected back in, throughout the Gospel of John, I believe seven different Times when Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, the life, I am the door, I am the good shepherd. He uses that same phrasing that would connect with his people in the same way that in this passage he says, go and talk to your kinsmen and tell them that the father of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
That particular phrase would resonate with them and connect them with who God is. They now know this is Yahweh, however they pronounced it. What was the part of Just some.
[00:26:32] Speaker B: Of the things that come to my mind and I want to come back to the main thing in just a second. I do think it's interesting that with all of Moses insecurities, with his different I am's not one of them, God's like, oh no, you can, buddy, you got this. The way God handled Moses was let me tell you who I am.
And like it's an important way. It's kind of you can tell God's given us a picture of his whole story of that's what he does with us, the Bible. There's one guy, I can't remember who said the Bible is not about self actualization, it's about God and it's about us knowing that he's going to do it through us and that, you know, let's. Yes, he wants to use us, but that does take some pressure off. But the other thing that I think is also interesting is not just that he rolls out his resume instead of Moses resume, but the other thing I think is neat is if you go through the book of Exodus, there is a very heavy theme from the very beginning all the way to the end when they're getting the middle Red Sea. But at the very end, when God said, Moses said I want to know you, he's like, I've already told you who I am. There's a common theme all throughout Exodus about God name. And keep in mind and why this matters here is it was referenced earlier. This is the very place where the Ten Commandments were going to eventually be received. And I want you all to think about those first three of the ten Commandments.
And one of the things I think was bibleproject mentioned this in one of their podcast and he had talked about how the first three were kind of setting the tone for everything else. The first three, if you think about it, are all about the name and who God is right about. No other gods before me, no graven images. And then the third one is to not take what the Lord's name in vain. And the idea was if you can get those three. Then the rest of the other things will take care of themselves. If you have no other gods before me, if you will not serve anything else, if you really understand how to take my name. But here's what I wanted to mention about that. The third one, how we take the Lord's name in vain, the way we tend to think that is if I'm walking and I stub my toe and say, G O S H, my wife's in here. So I wasn't going to say, I'm just kidding. But no, that if we like that for real is the way we've kind of viewed it, that's not how they understood it. The idea of taking the Lord's name in vain was not necessarily the words you say. It was the way you take him to be.
It was the idea that if you went out and God said, hey, I want you, Andrew, to go share the gospel with this person, or I want you to go serve this person, I can't, I can't do that in your name, or I just, there's no way I can do that. That would be taking his name in vain. It's the idea that you didn't, you didn't really believe in the power of his name. And when I heard that, I was like, oh, that, that gives hope. But it makes sense because we can slip up in a moment and say a word. Which they did revere God's name in a very high way, don't get me wrong. But it was also how they took Him. So I guess to ask us a question, how do we take God?
Do we really take him to be Lord? And so think about it like that in every moment.
Could we possibly sometimes be even taking his name in vain without even realizing it?
And just maybe ask yourself, who do you take God to be? I guess is maybe a way to.
[00:29:47] Speaker A: Put it, as you were talking there, it reminded me of James and we went through that study, was it last year, I think in the beginning of James, James 1. He says, but let him ask in faith. This is about a person who lacks wisdom. Ask in faith with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He's double minded and unstable in all his ways. That seems like a really strong, almost unreasonable response to someone who just who doubts what they pray.
But it's doubting God, who He is and what he can do. And so that makes a lot More sense in the same way of taking his name in vain is not truly believing who he really is.
[00:30:26] Speaker B: Yeah. And you can kind of even see that in God's response when he says, well, who am I? Well, tell them. Tell them that I am sent you and I was a kid and I remember reading you are what I am. Yes. That's why I'm asking like what are you? And that's the point. I am like what do you mean you are? That's the point is I am all the things. And so seeing him from that high of a place in whatever situation it is.
[00:30:52] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. To me, that's really the. That's the question that comes to us every time we face temptation is is God able to deliver me from this? Does God have the power to take care of me? So do I need to create my own narrative and be deceitful or do I trust in God and be truthful? Do I believe that God can bring contentment in my life or do I pursue and embrace lust or selfish ambition or whatever it really is? Do we believe in the I am that he is, I am at every temptation we're faced with? There any other thoughts on that? Kim, I feel like you had something.
It's just the glasses tonight. I gotcha.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: No, I was just thinking that this kind of how we take God carries through today.
Paul says to the teachings, don't grieve the Holy Spirit. And all those things that you just mentioned about the things we're supposed to turn away from and the things we're supposed to turn our life towards precedes do not grieve the Holy Spirit.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: Right. That's a great point. Yep. I think when you were saying about do I believe? I think it's easy to believe. It's not easy to trust.
And I think sometimes it's entrusted that we have issues of not to believe.
Yeah. Even the demons believe and shudder. Right? Yeah. All right, we'll go on to our next objection if there are no objections.
I really thought you'd like that one. I guess not. Okay, that's alright. That's on me. Alright. In chapter four, verse one, then Moses answered, but behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice. For they will say, the Lord did not appear to you. The Lord said to him, what is that in your hand? And he said, a staff. And he said, throw it on the ground. So he threw it on the ground and it became a serpent. And Moses ran from it. But the Lord said to Moses, put your hand and catch it. By the tail. So he put out his hand, and he caught it by the tail. Put out your hand. Excuse me. And it became a staff in his hand. That they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you again. The Lord said to him, put your hand inside your cloak. And he put his hand inside his cloak. And when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then God said, put your hand back inside your cloak. So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. If they will not believe you, God said, or listen to the first sign, that they may believe the latter sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile port on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.
So what if they don't listen to me? Okay, if they're not auditory learners, then we'll try to give them a demonstration and give them some object lessons. And he performs these three miracles.
Now, keep in mind, Moses is the one that's actually participating in these miracles in this moment. Had his own physical hand turned leprous and then healed. You know, he's participating in these, and yet there still doesn't bring about full confidence in his ability to play a part in the role that God is asking him to play here.
There was something else. Oh, I also. He points out his staff. Why does he have a staff? Again, he's a shepherd. Right. Because he's 80 years old.
David Tennis and I were talking about the advantages of a chiropractor earlier. So that becomes more relevant every day. Yes. He has his staff because he's a shepherd. And a stepard, much like a shepherd, stands in contrast with where he grew up.
And I think it's important not to lose this contrast here, because in. Oh, man, I had that written down. In Genesis 40, I had skipped over this all of my life. And I found this in this particular study, and I did write it down. OH. In Genesis 46, 33, and 34, it says that every shepherd is an abomination to Egypt. And so the Egyptians. The Egyptians hated. They saw no value in shepherds. Right. If you're a consumer of food, you don't necessarily have respect for the farmer and the process that it took to get that food. If you're just a consumer. Right. You are a fan of the Big Mac. Not of the process. Right.
Process may be the right word there for McDonald's. Anyway.
I think again, this whole conflicted life that he has lived up to this point just keeps kind of showing itself. And he is in this place of humility in comparison to where he was in the regal big house.
But yet this is the place where he actually found contentment. I don't know. That struck me, the fact that the Egyptians hated farmers, shepherds. So God is sending the shepherd back to Egypt and the very instrument of his livelihood and his current place in life where he found contentment is going to be a part of the demonstration to Pharaoh to let his people go. Yes, sir.
[00:36:01] Speaker B: So if you were in Richard's class last quarter, this set of verses has even more meaning. According to the research that he had done, there was a group of people who had come in and taken over Egypt during the time that Joseph was there. And those people were shepherds. And the Egyptian people that were in that were under the bondage of those began to hate them.
[00:36:30] Speaker A: That's why they hate them.
[00:36:32] Speaker B: And then they eventually took their country back and that's when there was a Pharaoh that knew not Joseph.
[00:36:38] Speaker A: Gotcha.
[00:36:38] Speaker B: When they basically were reverted back to the previous thing. So it's even more than just a generic hate for.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a very specific.
[00:36:47] Speaker B: For those people who come in and rule their, you know, basically kicked them.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: Out for a while.
Not even specific, but personal. Yes. Yeah, that's interesting.
So God's response here, all of his responses are important, but in this we see some of Moses greatest doubt in himself particularly. He sees only what he has done. He said, who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring these children out of Egypt? I think sometimes we have this struggle of walking by sight almost of I don't have. I'm not equipped, I don't have the tools for this. Or I'm not the person that could. This is a big deal to free your people, to bring them out of bondage, to travel there alone is a big journey to bring all these people like, it's just not me. But we look at our past or we look at ourselves and we don't see at all what God is doing. We just see us.
And that kind of goes back to what you were saying earlier with just the name of God in general, part of maturing in Christ is less of me, more of him. Right. Is dying to self and dying to seeing self first. And it's more of seeing Christ in us and what he can bring about through us. So it's not a self deprecation at all. In fact, we have more value the more we see Christ in us. Does that make sense? Sometimes the words are up here, but they don't process out the same way. And I think that's a real struggle. That's one that I know I've struggled with over time, is what is this sort of balance of removing myself from the equation and just saying, okay, how can I be useful to you?
Because I do know my shortcomings, I know my inadequacies, I know my inconsistencies. And sometimes it's hard to see forward because of all of those. It's like it's covering the windshield and the wipers just don't work at all. That's all you can see. But God is ultimately saying, listen, really Christ, that's what I came to die for, right? Was to take all of those things.
[00:38:46] Speaker B: And two kind of goes back to what Susan mentioned earlier is if we. That's the whole faith, trust experience is if we could do it all ourselves and we knew everything, we would be losing that whole opportunity for development and growth and especially in the relationship with him.
[00:39:05] Speaker A: But that trust and faith, verse 10 is specifically like, I don't speak real goodly, right? He's talking about, you know, this is. This is where he kind of hones in on. Some people think that this was more like a speech impediment, not just being able to articulate. Because it was David later that says that he actually spoke really, really well. He was Ivy League educated, so he's not an ignorant person.
My assumption is this is. Childhood trauma produces a lot of different things in adults sometimes. And sometimes things like speech impediments come from those experiences you have really young. This seems to fit that, in my opinion. There was a quote that I ran across that I really liked. He said, God puts a greater value on our availability over our ability.
One of the hesitations and objections here that Moses uses is my ability and God's saying, be available. I got it.
He seems to be running out of patience here. And some of his responses, we'll see here in this next response. But anyway, no, things are going swimmingly. All right, let's swim.
So the fifth objection here, he says, send someone else. Ultimately, in verse 13, he says, but he said, o my Lord, please send someone else. So he just kind of cuts to his chest like, I don't want to do it. Just send somebody else, man. Come on. And God's response, of course, is then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. He said, is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak. Well, behold, he's coming out to meet you. And when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. So this plan is already in place. It's already in motion. It's kind of like we're actually. We're going to church. So just get in the car, the car is moving. Be in the seat as it moves. You know, sorry, maybe a little too soon to use that illustration, but God becomes angry, but he still concedes to Aaron as a help for Moses. Like, come on, man, let's go again. Be available. You don't have to see yourself as able. That part doesn't matter. That's where I come in. Be available.
Throughout all of these, God's responses are so immensely important because the emphasis is on him.
And I think when we approach the Bible, just in general, so often, we are approaching it from us and also for us. We're trying to read ourselves into everything as opposed to coming to scriptures to read who God is.
We are a part of his story, but we are not the story. God is the story. Jesus is the story. His spirit is the story. Right? And we see ourselves in light of those three things. So the ultimate takeaway here to me is it's not about you. Even in his responses here, the God your fathers have sent you, that's your response. There's this great cloud of witnesses, so to speak, that are a part of the authority of your presence. Drop the staff, hand them the cloak, water to blood. All of these things are things that are not Moses led. These are things that Moses represents on behalf of other people or on behalf of God himself. So my encouragement to us tonight, specifically from this encounter, is put a lot of effort into removing yourself from the picture and look at your life strictly from the angle of what has God done with the people I've interacted with, the places that I've been, The relationships don't make you the center of the story. What does that look like? Does that change your outlook on the future? Do not let the shortcomings or the circumstances or the actions or the relationships of the past be the only filter for seeing the future, because the only filter that we are trying to see the future with is the filter of the gospel.
That's why we are people that Paul says we have a ministry of reconciliation. God's people are the ones that should reconcile better than anybody on the planet. That's why we know we are Deeply forgiven. We remind ourselves that at least every Sunday of the week with communion. But we're also people that seek to bless other people. We don't see our resources as things that we are to. To try and gather ourselves and be consumers, but we are blessed to be a blessing. All of these things, these people, the fathers that came before Moses, now are a part of his validation of being sent from God. So the things that you do in your life and your spiritual legacy are also validation on behalf of the rest of us that make us stronger in our ability to impact other people.
That's a lot. Anybody got anything else to add?
Anything else that jumps out to you in this encounter that we haven't touched on?
42 seconds left. Yes, ma'am. I'll be quick.
Going back to the beginning of the.
[00:43:48] Speaker B: Calf encounter, something that has always struck me is that the bush began burning, but the Bible says that God didn't.
[00:43:56] Speaker A: Call out to him until he noticed. Right. Until he turned aside.
[00:44:01] Speaker B: I always thought that was in interesting, because I guess he could have kept his head down and just not been.
[00:44:06] Speaker A: Available and not been aware.
[00:44:11] Speaker B: It wasn't until he was intentional and.
[00:44:13] Speaker A: Available that God actually then spoke. Yeah. And he had. We want God to just speak out.
[00:44:19] Speaker B: Of nowhere and get our attention, and.
[00:44:20] Speaker A: We'Re not aware and available and looking. Yep. We. We still have to be active participants in it. All right. Yep. That's great. Somebody in the back.
[00:44:31] Speaker B: Well, I didn't want. The Bible project right now is doing a series on the mountain of God.
[00:44:36] Speaker A: In one of their episodes, and they.
[00:44:38] Speaker B: Talk specifically about the mountain as one of the thin places, if you will, metaphorically speaking, where heaven heard and how many important things happen on mountains. And highlight specifically, you know, Genesis is where you come from.
Exodus is the book of name. So who is God and how do I establish my name?
It's just. I don't listen to the podcast. It doesn't.
[00:45:02] Speaker A: I can't summarize it.
[00:45:05] Speaker B: And with that, you know, some of the things that you guys all mentioned, especially what you mentioned about the shepherds, is a picture of Jesus. You see that? The woman at the well, y'all remember when she said, you know, there's this debate about which mountain we're supposed to worship on, and Jesus puts it right back on him, in which she was asking a question about. They had this debate. Is it the Mount Moriah, Mount Sinai Mount. Yes. And he's basically saying, I am the mountain. Getting back to the I am. And so it's just neat to see all these connections throughout the Bible. And to me, that is one of the greatest apologetic proofs of the bible. We got 40 something writers of the span of all this time, yet all these connections are everywhere. It's amazing.
[00:45:45] Speaker A: Let's pray real quick. Father, we thank you again for the opportunity to gather in your name tonight. We thank you for everyone here. We thank you for those that were able to join us online. We pray that we would glean from these encounters what you would have us to glean, that we would grow in our wisdom, but most of all grow in our faith. Help us to always encourage each other, to lift each other up. Father, and we pray that we would always seek to be reconciled in our lives. We thank you so much for Christ. We thank you for his blessing and for his presence. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
