Exodus 03: Hope Has A Name

A bush burns but never burns up and suddenly Exodus 3 stops feeling like ancient history and starts feeling like a mirror. I’m walking through Moses’ turning point on Mount Sinai, where an exhausted fugitive hears his name called, is told to step barefoot onto holy ground, and learns that God has been watching the suffering of his people the whole time. If you’ve ever asked “Who am I to do this?” you’re going to recognize yourself in Moses fast. 

We dig into the core promise that drives the entire Exodus story: God doesn’t hand Moses a motivational speech, he gives him his presence. “I will be with you” is the answer to fear, calling, and impossible assignments. Then we slow down for the moment that still shapes Jewish and Christian faith today, when God reveals his covenant name. We talk about “I AM WHO I AM,” the meaning of Yahweh, why many English Bibles use LORD in all caps, and how reverence for God’s name shows up in tradition and translation. 

Finally, we unpack the meaning of “a land flowing with milk and honey” as a picture of a sustainable life and a thriving ecosystem, not just a religious slogan. We close with a simple practice to carry all day: let every deep breath remind you that God is near and you never walk alone. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us what line from Exodus 3 you needed most today.

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Welcome And Daily Bible Rhythm

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Well hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Exodus chapter three. And today's title is Hope Has a Name. Hope has a Name. I have been looking forward to this chapter for a really, really long time because we get to experience something that would have been such a monumental just earthquake among the Israelite community. This particular chapter they still deal with today. It affects how they write, it affects how they speak. It affects how all of us relate to God. And even to the point that it's a little embarrassing for some modern Christian cults nowadays. So we're going to get into all of that in just a moment as we talk about hope has a name. So get your Bibles out, your coffee, your notebooks, your highlighters, just whatever. It's going to be awesome.

Like Share Subscribe And Community

SPEAKER_01 1:15

But also make sure you take just a moment, like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast. It really does help. And make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on our Facebook page. There's an amazing group of people writing devotions every single day. And I look at the devotions as like salt on the chapter. You ever, you ever, like summertime, you ever have like a watermelon and you put a little salt on there? It just makes it 10 times better. That's what I think about when I think about those devotions. So what I will do in the morning is I will read the chapter. And I will, by the way, I do these too every morning. I get up and I do my soap devotion. And I don't, I will admit, I don't listen to my own podcast, right? But I I read them, I do my devotion, and then I will go on social media and I will read those devotions. And it's just amazing how God just inspires our team to look at it at a different angle to give us fresh revelation on God's Word. So I highly recommend it to you. And you can get links to all of that at thebiblebreakdown.com.

Exodus Context And Moses’ Backstory

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Well, once again, if you've been with us, we're going through the book of Exodus, and it is a continuation of the book of Genesis. This would have been written to recently liberated Jewish people. They're no longer slaves, but now they are learning the story. They're this writing it down, not just for them who have just experienced it, but for all generations that eventually flows to us. This is what God did. When this was written, the people who would have heard it first were born slaves, but they will die free. It's amazing to think about. And so in chapter one, we learned about how the Israelite people went from being part of the Egyptian society to where then they became slaves of Egypt. And for 400 years they were slaves. And then later, when the time was right, Moses, or we talked about the Hebrew word for it as Moshe, was born. And then he decided he's going to take things into his own hands when he got older. He killed an Egyptian and it made him a wanted fugitive. So he flees to the backside of Mount Sinai, and for 40 years he lives there, and he ends up marrying a lady named Zipporah. And when we left him in chapter two, that's what he's doing. Well, now he is going to have an encounter with God. And I can't wait to share it with you.

The Burning Bush That Won’t Burn

SPEAKER_01 3:24

So if you're ready, Exodus chapter 3, verse 1 says this one day, so several years after he has settled, Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the high priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it did not burn up. Pause. One of the things that's interesting about this is Moses would not have been amazed that the bush was on fire. Now, in that area, they have this thing. I think I'm gonna get this name wrong, but it's creosoque, creosoak bushes, I think, which is where we actually get kerosene, you know, that thing from. And what it is is it would be so hot in that area that it would eventually reach to a boiling point where these, because of you know, these um the sap in these trees were flammable that it would actually cause them to catch fire. But because of what it was, it they wouldn't catch fire for very long. And so if you were out there in a very hot part of the day, very hot part of the year, you might see in the distance a tree that would catch on fire, a little bush, but it would burn out almost immediately. I mean, when your sap is flammable, it doesn't take but a few moments to burn down. So it wasn't the fact that it was burning. If you notice, it was that the it was not burning up, it just kept burning. And so I'm sure at first he was like, that must have been a really big tree. And he's like, But no, it's still burning. You know, you look an hour later, that thing's still burning. So that's why after a while, he is absolutely amazed that that thing is still burning. That that is extremely uncommon. And so he says, I gotta go check it out. So verse 4 says this when the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush,

Holy Ground And God’s Call

SPEAKER_01 5:17

bush. Moses, Moses, here I am, Moses replied. Do not come any closer, the Lord warned. Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. Wow. Verse 6 I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God. Pause. You notice how the chapter before, it never says that they told that Moses told any of them that he was Hebrew. They when they were explaining who Moses was to Jethro, they said the Egyptian helped us. So for 40 years it's possible that maybe Jose uh Moses has been hiding who he was, but God knew exactly who he was. And so that would have been one of the reasons why it says as soon as Moses heard this, he covered his face and was afraid to look at God because immediately he goes, He knows me. I maybe I have told anybody, but now the God has found me. Here we verse seven. Then the Lord said to him, I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of the harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey, the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, Parasites, Havites, and the Jebjusites, where they now live. Now pause. Remember, Its means people group. So it is the people of Canaan, the people of the Hittites, the people of the Amorites. So these are Ites, these are different people groups. All right, verse nine. Look, the cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abused them.

Moses’ Doubts And God’s Promise

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people of Israel, my people Israel, out of Egypt. But Moses protested to God, Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt? God answered, I will be with you. Pause. I mean, I have to admit, all right, I'm having way too much fun with this. The first thing Moses does, and here's the thing, we can't throw any shade at Moses. God tells him, I want you to go to the most powerful person in the world. And you go and you say the number one asset he has is slave labor. That's how he's building his cities, that's how he's building his empire, and you go say, I'm taking them from you. Moses immediately was like, No, fam, I don't want nothing to do with that. And you know what God says? I will be with you. What else do you need to know? Well, he's gonna need to know something else because it didn't even work for him, but that's really all he needed. He says, verse 12, I will be with you, and this is your sign that I am the one who sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain. In other words, I promise you, this will be the sign that you know I am with you, is I'm gonna bring you home. I'm not just gonna take you out and leave you somewhere, but I'm gonna bring you right back home again. It's amazing. Verse 13. But then Moses protested, if I go to the people of Israel and tell them the God of your ancestors has sent me to you, they will ask me, Oh, really? Right? What is his name then? What should I tell them? And

God Reveals His Name Yahweh

SPEAKER_01 8:38

here we go. God replied to Moses, I am who I am. Say to the people of Israel, I am has sent you. I can't wait to describe that to you in a moment. Let's keep going. God said to Moses, say to the people of Israel, Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my eternal name, the name to remember for all generations. Now go and call together the elders of Israel. Tell them, Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me, and he told me, I have been watching closely, and I see how the Egyptians are treating you. I have promised to rescue you from the oppression of Egypt, and I will lead you to a land flowing with milk and honey, the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites, where they now live. I'll talk about why milk and honey matters in just a moment. Verse 18, the elders of Israel will accept your message. Then you and the elders must go to the king of Egypt and tell him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So please let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand forces him. So I will raise my hand and strike the Egyptians, performing all kinds of miracles among them. Then at last he will let you go. And I will cause the Egyptians to look favorably on you. They will give you gifts, and then you will go out, so you will not leave empty handed. Every Israelite woman will ask for articles of silver and gold and fine clothing from her Egyptian neighbors and from the foreign women in their houses. You will dress your sons and daughters with these, stripping the Egyptians of their wealth. Wow. The amazing moment of God revealing his name. The amazing moment. So I want to do is I want to talk to you about the name of God, and then I want to talk to you about the milk and honey.

Milk And Honey Explained

SPEAKER_01 10:46

So, first of all, the name of God. Where what is it about this name? Well, first of all, when God revealed his name to them, that is when they figured out this God they have been serving, what his covenant name was. That's the Hebrew. It's a it's called a tetragrammaton, which means letters that form a word, but these are consonants. These are all consonants. The original Hebrew language did not have any vowels. So you had, if you're if you're looking on YouTube, you've got Yud, He, Vav, He. So when you would say this, there's no uh there's more of a Yahveh is what they would be. Maybe Yach, Yahveh. Yachveh is how they would say that. And Yud, He, Vav He creates the name Yahweh, which is a little bit embarrassing for anyone who is Jehovah's Witness because Jehovah is the English transliteration that we say Yahweh, but they don't say that. Jehovah's Witness people say that that is actually the original covenant name of God. Well, unfortunately in Hebrew, there are no Jays. So it's wrong. The actual name of God, the covenant name, is Yahweh. Yahweh. And

God Goes With You Through Hard

SPEAKER_01 12:02

what's amazing about that too is there are people who have said that if you say it slowly enough, and if you really think about it, it's just the sound that you would make when you breathe in and you would breathe out. Now, this is this is gonna be lost on you. I'm gonna try this, but it's gonna be lost on you probably because I'm not gonna do this very well. But if you think about it, the the you'd he is when you say ya, you you breathe in. Yah. Way. All right, it's kind of creepy. I know, but but you when it you do that, what people say that if you you say that name over and over again, it sounds a lot like somebody taking in a deep breath and letting it go. The really interesting thing about that is is the Bible says in Genesis 1, 2, and 3 that when God created Adam and Eve, he first created Adam, and when he created him, he went down himself and he breathed the breath of life into Adam. And so before God did it, he was an empty shell. And then God breathed into him, and he took that first deep breath and opened his eyes and saw God, and the first thing he said was, Yah, way, way. And a lot of uh Jewish commentary who support that say, Isn't it amazing that every time you look at an atheist and they say, I don't believe in God, they say, I don't believe in God, Yah, way, Yah, way. Every time we take a breath in and a breath out, we are proclaiming the beautiful covenant name of God. Isn't that amazing? It is so powerful that that Orthodox Jewish people will not say the name because it is too too precious. They will say Adonai, or they will say Hershim. I can't say that word, right? Hershem, which means the name. So they they say we know what we're talking about here, but we're not gonna say his name out of reverence. When you look at the Bible, actually, what you will have a lot of times is you will have capital L-O-R-D. That is where the name Yahweh is, but it is out of respect for it, even with the English translators that they will not put the word Yahweh. But when we see capital L-O-R-D, it is saying Yahweh. And God says, that's my name. Now, what does it mean when he says, I am who I am? In other words, I am the altogether unique one. I have always been, I am in the eternal present, and I will always be. There is nobody else like me. So in other words, he is saying, I am all together different. That's who I am. That's what Yahweh means. I am who I am. I am nobody like me in the whole world. That's what it means. I am the unique God. And what he was saying is, is I am going to work through you, Moses, and through you, you're going to tell them. You go tell them, you don't know which God I am? I'm the only one. There's no one else like me. They go, that's it. That's right. Because that's what the Israelites believed. They didn't believe that God was part of this pantheon of polytheistic culture, that he was the one and only. And that's why God was telling Moses, you go tell him, your God, my God, that God, has spoke to me. And he said, I'm the only one. Okay, that's the one, right? And then he said, I'm going to take you to the land flowing with milk and honey. Well, what is up with milk and honey? Why do we need milk and honey? That seems odd. Well, here's the reason why. Milk and honey represent fertile land. Milk would come from cows. Cows need to have grazing and they need to be able to graze in a way where they're healthy, where they can then produce milk. So milk means a healthy cow is able to have calves. So it's a sustainable land. And honey represented a working ecosystem because uh bees have to go get pollen from flowers, bring it back to make honey. So it is a sustainable land with a thriving ecosystem. That's what it's that's what it's talking about when it's saying that. It is a good land, milk and honey. So as you see that later, you know, in the rest of the

Breath Prayer And Closing

SPEAKER_01 15:54

the five books of Moses, what God is saying is I am going to send you to a sustainable land for you to live for generations. That's what that means. So, what can we get out of this chapter? And that is this God is God alone. God is God alone. And the reason why that's so important is notice how when God said, I am the one, I am going to send you to do an amazing thing. The first thing Moses did was, nuh-uh, there's no way I'm gonna go. God, how in the world am I gonna do this? And you know what he said? You know how you're gonna do this? Because I will be with you. The amazing thing is, God never promises it's gonna be easy. He just promises you'll never go alone. That he will be with you every step of the way. And if you have to go through a hard time, he's gonna go through the hard time with you. You go on top of a mountain and everything goes well, he's gonna go on top of that mountain with you. And he is that one and only unique Yahweh. He is with you. And so, what can we leave with you today? And that is this the the commentary is split on whether or not you can truly say Yahweh when you breathe in and breathe out. I think it makes sense. And maybe, maybe it's not there completely, but at the same time, it makes sense to me. You can say Yahweh, Yahweh. And so I want you to do something for me today. Today, when you are in the car and you're driving, or you're in a drive-thru, or you're whatever, and you find yourself just taking that big deep sigh, think about how many times have I breathed today? That's how many times I have said the name of God, God truly is with me. And you think about it, and just think of yourself going, Yah, Yah, God is with you in every breath that you take today. Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, God, that you're with us and you're for us. Lord, you are so with us and for us that we can't even breathe without saying your name. I'm so thankful for you. I'm thankful, Lord, that just like you brought the nation of Israel out of bondage, Lord, you bring us out of every bondage and you set us free. So celebrate you today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Anyway, what God's Word says in Exodus 6, verse 6, it says, I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from slavery. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Exodus chapter four.