WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:01.760 Morning, church. 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:06.160 You now the word of the true and living God, Exodus three. 00:00:06.719 --> 00:00:16.000 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 00:00:16.239 --> 00:00:20.719 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:24.800 He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 00:00:25.039 --> 00:00:28.160 And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:29.920 Why the bush is not burned? 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:37.359 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, Moses, Moses, and he said, Here I am. 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:43.359 Then he said, Do not come near, take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. 00:00:43.520 --> 00:00:49.280 And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:53.280 And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 00:00:53.439 --> 00:00:54.640 This is the word of the Lord. 00:00:54.719 --> 00:00:55.840 Please be seated. 00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:09.359 All right. 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:13.760 Happy St. 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:16.560 Patrick's Day to those of you who observe. 00:01:17.519 --> 00:01:18.480 Good, good. 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:20.560 I'm glad I got that out of the way. 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:22.879 My name is Taylor Gunter. 00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:26.159 I'm a lay elder here at Redemption Church Denver. 00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:33.359 Before we jump into the text, uh, for those of you who I don't know that well or I may not have met, um, a little bit about me. 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:39.680 My wife and I, Danielle, uh, have been attending this church since it was established out of another church about five years ago. 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:44.400 Um, we have a little boy, uh, an 18-month-year-old, uh, 18-month-old named Jaywan. 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:52.000 Uh, he just came home to us from South Korea and uh is getting uh used to life here in the US and is an absolute blessing to us. 00:01:52.239 --> 00:02:00.159 Um we uh yeah, uh I sell software uh during the week and um do stuff like this in my free time. 00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:02.239 This is actually the first time I've ever done this. 00:02:02.319 --> 00:02:04.560 Uh stood up and delivered a sermon. 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:09.280 Um my wife is an interior designer, she stays at home with Jay uh and takes care of the house. 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:18.000 Um she wanted to say uh how humbling it is to be up here and what a privilege it is to be able to um preach to you this Sunday. 00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:22.000 Um don't take this responsibility lightly. 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:38.800 Um Danielle and I really, really love this church uh and feel very fortunate for the relationships um that we've built over the past five years, uh, the way that you all have been, an encouragement, and really a representation of the body of Christ to us. 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:41.120 Um this is a very, very special place. 00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:48.560 Uh, and so thank you for uh for showing up every Sunday and being uh what God is really calling us to be. 00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:57.199 Um so I'm gonna read the text again, I'm gonna pray, do an intro, uh, and then we'll we'll jump into a little exposition and then we'll wrap things up. 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:01.599 Our text today is Exodus 1, 3 through 6. 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:11.759 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 00:03:11.919 --> 00:03:16.479 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. 00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:21.680 He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:27.680 And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. 00:03:27.919 --> 00:03:32.400 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush. 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:36.000 Moses, Moses, and he said, Here I am. 00:03:36.240 --> 00:03:43.039 Then he said, Do not come near, take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. 00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:48.479 And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:52.159 And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:54.080 Let's pray. 00:03:55.360 --> 00:04:01.520 Father, this is your word, and I pray that our eyes are fixed upon you as you speak to us. 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:04.879 Please apply this word to our hearts and to our lives. 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:12.479 We pray that you would give us ears that hear, eyes that see, and hearts that are open to believe what you have to say. 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:15.039 Please guide the words of my mouth. 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:17.839 We pray all of this in your Son's name. 00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:18.720 Amen. 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:32.480 All right, so we are, I think, four weeks into Exodus, um, having just come out of X out of Genesis, and so we're really starting to get a sense of the story of God. 00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:47.839 Chapter three is really where we move from episodic movement uh establishing what um should be considered kind of the shape of Exodus, and we're starting into the narrative of Israel's redemption. 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:53.360 Um Moses uses Exodus one and two to set the context in which to read that narrative. 00:04:53.519 --> 00:05:01.439 For our text today, chapters one and two anchor us to a very important uh point in history, and that is God's covenant with Abraham. 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:09.519 Exodus sounds like a story because it's about people's lives, which for all of us are grand stories. 00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:17.199 If we believe God is truly the author of all things, and we do, however messy that may be, God made up this story. 00:05:17.279 --> 00:05:23.680 He wrote the parts, he created the people to play the parts, to really, really participate in that story. 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:28.079 All of the roles are deadly, some sooner than others. 00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:34.319 Moses and Jethro and Pua and Shiphra, Amrad, Pharaoh, they're real people who really did these things. 00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:41.360 This is really the story of God's people, just as our lives, the story of this church is a story of God's people. 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:47.360 So we're anchoring back to God establishing one of his covenants with his people. 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:50.800 In Genesis 12, God makes a promise to Abraham. 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:54.639 Then in Genesis 15, God establishes his covenant with Abraham. 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:57.680 God tells Abraham he will make him a great nation. 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:02.000 God will bless him and make his name great, so that his name will be a blessing to the nations. 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:06.639 God will bless those who bless him, and to those who curse him, God will curse. 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:12.879 In Abraham, with all the families of the earth blessed, he waits 25 years. 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:17.839 He waits 25 years on that promise to actually receive the offspring of God. 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:22.240 He doesn't have an heir, no one to establish his name after him. 00:06:22.399 --> 00:06:24.000 So he inquires of God. 00:06:24.319 --> 00:06:25.199 How can this be? 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:27.040 How can this promise have been established? 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:31.040 And yet, 25 years later, I'm still waiting. 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:33.439 So then God answers him. 00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:38.800 He establishes his covenant with Abraham, and he tells him, We'll be as his offspring will be as numerous as the stars. 00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:48.240 God reminds him of his faithfulness by bringing him out of a hostile land, Ur of the Chaldeans, to the land where he is now, so that he should possess it. 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:52.240 Through Genesis, we saw a narrative of land and people, and we have that. 00:06:52.319 --> 00:07:02.720 We have God promising to establish a people through Abraham, and promising to give him a land that he should possess so that those people can be can flourish and grow in that land. 00:07:03.920 --> 00:07:14.240 Abraham, the man without a son, still without an heir, asks God how he will know that he can possess this land, how he will know that it will be filled with his offspring. 00:07:14.639 --> 00:07:26.560 And God commands Abraham to cut animals in half in preparation for the covenant ceremony, and he responds to him after those animals have been cut in half, with something from our perspective is probably a very puzzling answer. 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:32.000 He tells Abraham he can be certain his offspring will possess the land because they will leave it. 00:07:32.319 --> 00:07:35.040 They will be sojourners in a foreign land that is not theirs. 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:38.879 They will be servants there under great affliction for 400 years. 00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:42.079 This is a twist in the story that we probably didn't expect. 00:07:42.319 --> 00:07:49.439 And they will be brought out of that land, and then finally the land of Abraham, the land that current that he currently is on, will be theirs. 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:56.240 After years of waiting for an heir, God tells him that in 400 years, this promise will come to fulfillment. 00:07:56.399 --> 00:08:01.759 This land will be filled with your people after your sojourners in a land under great affliction. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:05.120 And it will be a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:22.560 God anchors to time in his promise, and he anchors to a totally and completely unmissible event, so that without question it will be the reminder that his covenant of his covenant faithfulness, the suffering of his people for four hundred years, when their delivery and their bless of their delivering and their blessing by their captors. 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:27.199 In verse eight, he says, O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:41.440 Then the Lord said to Abraham, Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in the land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years, but I will bring judgment on that nation that they serve, and afterwards they shall come out of a out of out with great possessions. 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:46.320 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace, you shall be buried in a good old age. 00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:49.200 They shall come back here in the fourth generation. 00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:56.240 And so how does Moses know, or how does Abraham know, that God will deliver his people? 00:08:56.399 --> 00:08:59.120 He knows by faith, because God told him so. 00:08:59.679 --> 00:09:04.960 The covenant is established in blood with the splitting of animals and God passing between them. 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:18.960 We anchor here to understand that nothing that has happened to Israel up to this point, or is going to happen to Israel in the future, is outside of the confines of God's covenant with his people. 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:22.240 It's not outside of the story that he's telling. 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:27.440 He's sharing these things with Abraham as one of our fathers, as one of the patriarchs. 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:32.799 And these things are what set the context for Acts 1 and 2. 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:40.240 Consider up to this point that we've seen God's faithfulness in land and people, a man 100 years old and a woman 90 years old have a son. 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:43.759 God instructs that old man to sacrifice that son of promise to him. 00:09:43.919 --> 00:09:48.080 God delivers that son at the last minute with a substitutionary sacrifice. 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:50.960 A man wrestles with God in the desert and gets a new name. 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:54.480 That man's sons sell their younger brother into slavery. 00:09:54.960 --> 00:09:58.480 A famine sweeps the land, threatening to destroy everyone who lives on it. 00:09:58.720 --> 00:10:06.480 But the son who was sold into slavery has risen to the second most powerful position in the most powerful nation in all the earth. 00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:10.799 And he saves his people, the people of the land, from that famine. 00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:14.320 He saves his brothers who sold him into slavery. 00:10:14.559 --> 00:10:22.639 He establishes his family in the good land that was given to him by the king, and that family is blessed, but over time their good standing begins to fade. 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:28.080 The Savior of the people of Egypt is forgotten, and by extension the God of their people. 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:34.480 His people fall into disfavor and they are treated harshly, driven into slavery, and then three hundred and twenty years pass. 00:10:34.639 --> 00:10:38.399 So we're starting to think see things fall into place with God's covenant. 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:48.000 The king of the land, fearing the once blessed sojourners who dwell in his land, calls for their genocide, but just as the brave w but just and brave women refuse to comply. 00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:54.240 A baby's parents courageously defy the orders of the king, preserving their son's life in a river. 00:10:54.480 --> 00:10:57.679 That baby is found by the king's daughter and is raised in the king's house. 00:10:57.759 --> 00:11:00.320 He becomes a man trained in the way of those people. 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:04.159 Forty years pass, years of slavery and injustice. 00:11:04.320 --> 00:11:08.320 Then it is put on that man's heart, the man drawn from the river to visit his brothers. 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:10.480 And he sets out to rescue them from their bondage. 00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:28.799 And so now we come to this place in the text, and it seems that finally, after thousands of years through Genesis, and now 400 years, almost 400 years in slavery in Egypt, that there is a deliverer, that it's time to bring Israel into the land that God promised. 00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:35.679 We're given all of this context to set up God's covenant, or as to remember God's covenant with Abraham. 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:42.960 We as readers are primed to expect the delivery of God's people, but his people reject their Savior and he flees into the wilderness. 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:47.759 The one that we expected to fulfill God's promise to Abraham is driven out. 00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:51.759 He marries a midnight priest's daughter, intends the priest's sheep. 00:11:51.840 --> 00:12:09.279 He wanders in the wilderness on the backside of the desert, as far as he could possibly be from the courts and the privilege that he was raised in, a man in his prime, one who makes sense to be the deliverer of people, slowly drifts through time and becomes an old man in a desert place. 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:23.360 In a setting where we least expect it, where circumstances are likely as dry, bleak, and ruinous as they could possibly be, this is the place where the story of redemption of God's people begins. 00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:26.639 The fulfillment of God's promise kicks off. 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:31.440 We can imagine the heartache of that man Moses. 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:43.440 Perhaps the regret, the way for 40 years that he replayed the moment that he stepped in and he tried to save his brother from the injustice, but was ultimately rejected. 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:49.840 The way he may have grown in sadness, we can also imagine the way God's people groan under the burden of their slavery. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:58.159 Last week, Jacob captured that in people under the burden, the hard yoke of slavery, calling out to God, crying out for help to them. 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:00.799 As God's people today, we know these things. 00:13:01.039 --> 00:13:07.200 We live in that brokenness, and we know the heaviness and the heartache that Moses may have felt in the desert. 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:12.399 But just as the Hebrews and Moses and Moses had the promises of God, so we have the promises of God. 00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:20.559 Just as they were chosen and called of no merit of their own, we have been chosen, and we are called by grace of no merit of our own, and we answer in faith. 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:23.840 We are people who can look to God in faith and cry out for deliverance. 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:33.360 We look to these historical accounts of God's faithfulness so that we can be encouraged and reminded that the God of Moses' father, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is our good God too. 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:43.039 He has chosen us and called us and sealed our deliverance from this body of death through his son Jesus, and he preserves us now by his spirit until that day when he comes again to make everything new. 00:13:43.279 --> 00:13:47.759 God's covenant is as real today as it was for Abraham. 00:13:47.919 --> 00:13:54.799 We have a fuller picture of its shape, and we can look to its establishment instead of having to look forward like Moses and the Israelites. 00:13:56.080 --> 00:13:58.879 So now we're at the beginning of the story. 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:11.039 In verse one, we see Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priests of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:15.200 Moses nears the mountain of Horeb by way of the west side of the desert. 00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:18.000 Some translations say the backside of the desert. 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:27.440 All that is is to capture how far out there he was, how far away from the courts of Egypt, the palaces that he grew up in and that he was trained in. 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:33.279 We see that he's coming to a place before the Israelites are to be there. 00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:34.559 He's coming to Mount Sinai. 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:39.919 Mount Horeb, you thought of as a term that's synonymous with Mount Sinai. 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:46.879 He's there for 40 years, and we know that the people will return to receive God's law. 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:49.759 Forty years have passed since Moses went into the desert. 00:14:49.919 --> 00:14:56.159 Again, that young man, primed to redeem people, has fallen by the way of time. 00:14:56.399 --> 00:14:58.240 Perhaps he was forgotten by those people. 00:14:58.320 --> 00:15:00.720 Perhaps he himself forgot what he was called to. 00:15:00.879 --> 00:15:06.399 And he's in the desert, tending the sheep of another man, just waiting. 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:10.399 The number 40 in the Bible often symbolizes a period of trials and testings. 00:15:10.559 --> 00:15:13.440 When the flood hits the earth in the time of Noah, it lasted for forty days. 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:17.039 Goliath's taunting of Israel occurred every morning and evening for forty days. 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:21.840 And when Jesus was tempted by the devil, the Savior fasted for forty days and nights. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:26.879 Thus the life of Moses may be summarized as three 40-year segments of various trials. 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:45.120 In Egypt, where he split away from the people that are his, the people that he should have been raised with, in the wilderness in Midian again, where he's removed from now the courts of Egypt and the people that he was raised with, and then the wilderness with the Israelite people, where he's removed from the promise of God. 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:50.960 Reading this text from a literary perspective, 40 seems like a really convenient number to just kind of shoehorn in. 00:15:51.120 --> 00:16:02.000 But reading the text from a God is Lord of time and space perspective, 40 signals times of trials, and Moses is about to finish a second period and soon enter a third. 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:06.480 In verse 2, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. 00:16:06.559 --> 00:16:10.000 He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:15.200 And then Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. 00:16:15.519 --> 00:16:20.559 So now we get perhaps one of the most classic images in the entire Bible. 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:25.519 Something that in our daily life we've never encountered. 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:34.960 But again, considering the history of God's people, this is something that occurred in the space-time that they occupy and is a historical event. 00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:40.639 Moses, in using the, in writing about this, uses two participles. 00:16:40.720 --> 00:16:43.279 This is as much uh I'll go into grammar or anything. 00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:44.399 Uh Greek. 00:16:44.480 --> 00:16:48.080 Um the bush was burning and the bush was not being consumed. 00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:51.519 So was and was not are two participles that are being used here. 00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:54.879 These participles in Hebrew represent continuous action. 00:16:55.039 --> 00:17:00.000 That is, the bush was continuing to burn and it was continuing not to be consumed. 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:02.559 This is not an insignificant sight. 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:09.440 This isn't like a candle burning on a birthday cake where the wick is slowly consumed. 00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:14.079 This is something that is intense and fearsome. 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:23.759 Um I was trying to think what the best image that we have uh to really represent this and solidify the unnaturalness of this event might be. 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:30.319 And I think the clearest thing that we're all familiar with is in the sixth book of the Harry Potter or of Harry Potter series. 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:36.960 Um, when Dumbledore is visiting Tom Riddle, and Tom says, How can I really believe you are who you say you are? 00:17:37.119 --> 00:17:43.519 And Dumbledore looks to this wardrobe and it ignites in flames, and they're terrifying flames. 00:17:44.079 --> 00:17:47.279 The wardrobe is burning, but it is not consumed. 00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:55.200 And that moment is what, in that little boy's mind, solidifies the power and might of this person coming to visit him. 00:17:55.440 --> 00:17:56.079 It's like that. 00:17:56.240 --> 00:17:58.160 The intensity uh is like that. 00:17:58.319 --> 00:18:02.240 It was truly a great sight, one that the palace of Pharaoh could never have afforded. 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:09.039 The burning bush is to be understood as an unnatural event, something that is used to catch the attention of Moses. 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:11.440 We see this through the Old Testament. 00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:19.119 We see a smoking pot and a lantern passing between animals when Moses is put or when Abraham is put into a deep sleep. 00:18:19.440 --> 00:18:24.880 We see the flood as an unnatural event that completely wipes out the earth. 00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:32.319 God uses these things that he is lord over to grab the attention of his people so that they may hear his divine voice. 00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:40.640 Because he is Lord over those men, he also just speaks to them, or he speaks in whispers. 00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:49.359 In Elijah, we with Elijah we see not God not being in the in the wind, in the fire, in the earthquake, but in the gentle wind. 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:51.920 That he knows God's presence. 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:59.920 Um regardless of what the occurrence is, it's intended to capture Moses' intention. 00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:02.079 But what's the significance of this image? 00:19:02.160 --> 00:19:04.000 Why did God use it in calling Moses? 00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:07.599 It may have been to reflect the circumstance of God's people at that time. 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:12.559 The Hebrews were in the furnace of Egypt, but God was not permitting them to be destroyed. 00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:14.240 So it has an allegorical meaning. 00:19:14.400 --> 00:19:18.240 It may have illustrated the way in which the Lord was soon going to deal with the Hebrews in Egypt. 00:19:18.319 --> 00:19:23.519 He would purify Israel in Egypt, but he would not allow the people to be destroyed. 00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:28.400 The representation may simply have signified the appearance of God. 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:31.920 This vision is very similar to the one in which Abraham saw in Genesis. 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:34.880 He saw a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch. 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:39.359 So the representation may simply signify the appearance of God. 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:44.640 Fire is often a sign in the book of Exodus of the presence of God among his people. 00:19:44.880 --> 00:19:50.799 When we return to Mount Sinai in the middle of the book, we see fire again, except this time the entire mountain is burning. 00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:57.599 The bush is not just burning and not being consumed, but the entire mountain is burning with the Lord's presence. 00:19:57.839 --> 00:20:04.640 Exodus 24, 17 says, The appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:08.400 It is a sign of the awesome power and the wonder of God. 00:20:09.200 --> 00:20:19.119 The image of the burning bush has also been adopted by churches around the world, especially of the historically Reformed and Presbyterian traditions, whose people experienced true and tangible oppression. 00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:22.079 The bush represents the humble and despised peoples. 00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:27.599 Their tyrannical oppression is like the fire which would have consumed them had not God miraculously intervened. 00:20:27.759 --> 00:20:32.559 Thus, by the presence of God, the bush escaped safely from the fire. 00:20:32.799 --> 00:20:33.920 He preserved it. 00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:43.279 Again, we can take encouragement in these promises and in these images and be reminded that in these symbols, God's word of his is his preserving presence. 00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:48.319 When the flames ignite in the midst of God's people, they will not be consumed due to his presence. 00:20:49.119 --> 00:20:55.119 What about the even greater sight of the burnt than the burning bush, the appearance of the angel of the Lord? 00:20:55.279 --> 00:21:04.079 Not only was the bush on fire and not being consumed, but the angel of the Lord was in its mists, in its midst, speaking to Moses, calling to him. 00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:05.680 Who is this? 00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:12.640 The angel of the Lord is identified with God in the passage that speaks in this passage, and he speaks as if he is God. 00:21:12.880 --> 00:21:19.359 This is an example of a theophany, or a divine appearance, which is when God reveals himself under a visible form. 00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:24.720 Some commentators argue that the angel of the Lord is the second person of the Trinity, a preincarnate Christ. 00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:27.920 John Calvin remarks, but let us inquire who this angel was. 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:34.720 The ancient teachers of the church have rightly understood it to be the eternal Son of God in respect to his office as mediator. 00:21:35.920 --> 00:21:38.799 This second person of the Trinity as mediator. 00:21:39.039 --> 00:21:40.559 What could this mean? 00:21:40.880 --> 00:21:45.440 Paul gives us an idea of how we should consider mediators in 1 Timothy 2, 5 through 6. 00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:55.519 He tells us, For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at that proper time. 00:21:55.759 --> 00:22:04.799 So Christ, before he is in his incarnate form, in his And continuity acts as mediator between God the Father and Moses. 00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:06.960 He is the spoken word of God. 00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:09.599 He communicates directly with Moses. 00:22:10.079 --> 00:22:11.680 He's the one who stands before us. 00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:14.480 He is the word and the one through whom we can know God. 00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:16.480 He is the final sacrifice in our stead. 00:22:16.559 --> 00:22:25.599 When God passed through the animal halves in Genesis, it was a type looking forward to our salvation through him, through him as mediator so that we could stand before him. 00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:32.079 In the same way, the angel of the Lord who speaks to Moses looks forward to Jesus who speaks to us in his incarnate form. 00:22:32.319 --> 00:22:39.759 In verse 4, when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called out to him from the bush, Moses, Moses, here I am. 00:22:40.799 --> 00:22:44.559 The repetition of Moses' name is for the purpose of emphasis. 00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:49.279 It serves to caution him as he approaches a sacred and holy place. 00:22:49.519 --> 00:22:53.599 Such a call in Scripture often indicates that a dialogue is about to occur. 00:22:53.759 --> 00:22:58.960 We see it with Abraham on the mountain when he's about to sacrifice his son Isaac. 00:22:59.279 --> 00:23:00.880 Abraham, Abraham. 00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:07.279 And Abraham answers the same way that Moses does, here I am, preventing him from sacrificing his son Isaac. 00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:12.480 And to Jacob in Genesis 46, 2, comforting him not to be afraid to take his family into Egypt. 00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:16.240 Jacob, Jacob, responds, here I am. 00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:21.279 Moses answers the call with here I am, or more literally, behold me. 00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:25.599 His reply conveys his willingness and eagerness to obey. 00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:31.519 It is significant that both Abraham and Jacob responded in exactly the same manner in these verses quoted above. 00:23:31.680 --> 00:23:36.079 For Moses is of that lineage, of men who talk with God. 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:40.960 With this simple acknowledgement of here I am, we see that Moses' mind is teachable. 00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:43.119 He is ready and willing to obey. 00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:55.119 The sight of the burning bush has immediately caught his attention, and in this case, it's what alerts him to the fact that this is God and is what puts him in a posture to respond, Here I am. 00:23:55.759 --> 00:23:59.839 The angel of the Lord speaking from the burning bush is a clear sign of the Lordship of God. 00:24:00.079 --> 00:24:04.559 The transcendent God of the universe, holder of all things, speaks directly to Moses. 00:24:04.880 --> 00:24:10.799 Easily our minds may go to how can the God of the universe speak to such a finite creature as a man? 00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:17.839 Image may be apt to say it's like a man speaking to an amoeba and expecting it to understand. 00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:27.599 The difference and where Christianity is set apart is that this is that man is created in God's image, and amoeba is not created in the image of man. 00:24:27.920 --> 00:24:34.079 God created the air that the sounds travel on, and crafted the language we communicate with each other. 00:24:34.319 --> 00:24:38.559 His bigness creates no issues communicating with our smallness. 00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:41.519 So we can take comfort knowing that God has spoken. 00:24:41.759 --> 00:24:44.799 We can understand him and interpret it correctly. 00:24:45.039 --> 00:24:46.960 We have an example of this here in the text. 00:24:47.119 --> 00:24:50.960 We can simply say, Here I am, knowing that God speaks. 00:24:51.200 --> 00:24:53.119 Now he speaks to us through his word. 00:24:53.519 --> 00:24:57.759 This instance of God speaking is a wonderful example of why Moses is referred to as a prophet. 00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:02.400 He speaks with God and he preserves God's words to him through writing. 00:25:02.559 --> 00:25:13.920 Our transcendent God is close to us, he is imminent in his lordship, and it's on display because of the creative minds that we have to understand the spoken word of God. 00:25:14.960 --> 00:25:22.160 And then God says to Moses in verse 5, Do not come near, take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. 00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:31.200 The Old Testament teaches that places can be holy only because of the presence of God, his appearance, a theophany of the Almighty. 00:25:31.359 --> 00:25:36.160 So, for example, Mount Sinai was sacred only because of God's presence on top of the mountain. 00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:39.680 This speaks to God's closeness to us in his creation. 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:43.519 Places only become holy when he is present. 00:25:44.400 --> 00:25:52.160 In other ancient Near Eastern religions or contexts, their gods would create a world and then set apart a mountain that was holy. 00:25:52.319 --> 00:25:55.119 It was a place where no one could go except from God. 00:25:55.440 --> 00:26:06.000 We again see the difference between the faith that Moses is brought into and other views of the world, where our God draws us close in his holiness. 00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:08.640 He calls us to him in his holiness. 00:26:08.799 --> 00:26:12.480 In this verse, God is manifestly present, and that's a fearsome thing. 00:26:12.720 --> 00:26:16.000 God makes this place holy by his presence. 00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:21.680 As an affirmation of this, no one goes to Sinai in pilgrimage, Mount Sinai in pilgrimage today. 00:26:21.839 --> 00:26:26.880 Because our God is not a local God, he has the authority to make places holy as he chooses. 00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:35.519 But he makes time holy, and he makes entire peoples holy, so we don't have to go to a mountain and pilgrimage to him. 00:26:35.839 --> 00:26:42.559 The Sabbath is God's sanctification of time and his sending of his spirit, and the church being his body makes the church holy. 00:26:42.880 --> 00:26:47.599 We no longer have to travel back to places to experience God's presence. 00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:55.680 Moses being instructed to take off his sandals is an ancient neary sign of humility in the presence of the one who is greater. 00:26:55.759 --> 00:27:00.960 It's something that grounds him to the earth and immediately shocks him into a new context. 00:27:01.200 --> 00:27:06.400 One that says, This is different from what you just experienced walking up the mountain. 00:27:06.559 --> 00:27:11.519 Remove your shoes, remove what is covering you from interacting fully with this God. 00:27:12.240 --> 00:27:17.920 And in verse 6, he says, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. 00:27:18.079 --> 00:27:21.359 And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 00:27:22.319 --> 00:27:24.960 And now we're back to where we started this morning. 00:27:25.279 --> 00:27:30.240 God identifies himself to Moses in relationship to his covenant with the patriarchs. 00:27:30.559 --> 00:27:34.960 I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 00:27:35.200 --> 00:27:50.720 In this verse, God not only identifies himself in relationship to the patriarchs, critical for Moses to know exactly who he is, but God also identifies Moses in relation to them because Moses has to remember who he is. 00:27:51.119 --> 00:27:53.359 He has to remember his lineage. 00:27:54.240 --> 00:27:58.880 He has to remember his fathers and identify directly with him, with them. 00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:05.519 Remember, he's been in this desert, passing through time, tending another man's sheep for over for 40 years. 00:28:06.559 --> 00:28:15.599 Forty years ago, he was ready to kill on behalf of the people who are, whose father is the son, or whose father is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 00:28:15.839 --> 00:28:18.720 At 80 years old, he's on the backside of the desert. 00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:21.839 Moses is still God's chosen redeemer for his people Israel. 00:28:21.920 --> 00:28:28.319 He's still the one who is going to stand in front of Pharaoh, leader of genocides, killer of babies, the one who is part of that regime. 00:28:28.480 --> 00:28:32.079 He's going to lead Israel out of bondage, but he has to remember. 00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:36.319 And that may be one of the things that is causing Moses to be afraid. 00:28:36.559 --> 00:28:38.319 Certainly, it is awesome. 00:28:38.480 --> 00:28:40.799 It is the awesome and overwhelming presence of God. 00:28:41.039 --> 00:28:44.880 Isaiah, in the throne room of God, in the throne room of God, practically melts. 00:28:45.039 --> 00:28:47.200 He says he's a man completely undone. 00:28:47.519 --> 00:28:52.880 Fear is a natural response when confronted with a burning bush and the angel of the Lord speaking to you. 00:28:53.759 --> 00:28:59.359 But maybe there's an element of shame in Moses, an element where he was afraid to return to the people. 00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:02.079 He had forgotten who he was. 00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:04.079 He distanced himself from his people. 00:29:04.319 --> 00:29:08.160 We get hints of this in chapter four. 00:29:08.640 --> 00:29:11.279 When we learn that Moses' son is not circumcised. 00:29:11.839 --> 00:29:16.960 Moses has not observed the custom of his people or kept in preparation for a return to them. 00:29:17.119 --> 00:29:19.200 He has forgotten his people. 00:29:19.519 --> 00:29:27.440 Fortunately, God has come to bring Moses back, for the time is right, to remind him of who God is and who Moses is. 00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:29.839 The covenant still stands. 00:29:30.640 --> 00:29:34.240 And I think that's the message for us to take home today. 00:29:35.839 --> 00:29:38.720 Christian, remember who you are. 00:29:39.920 --> 00:29:43.519 When confronted with injustice, remember who you are. 00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:49.440 When you encounter the rampant sin in this world, remember who you are. 00:29:49.599 --> 00:30:02.720 In times of fear and sadness and heartache or apathy, when you're rejected, maligned, or slandered, when you lash out in anger, lie, cheat, or steal, sin against your father, your mother, your wife, your child, your boss, or your coworker. 00:30:03.119 --> 00:30:06.160 Remember who you are, and come back. 00:30:06.319 --> 00:30:08.480 Confess, repent, turn and obey. 00:30:08.799 --> 00:30:17.759 For you are the brother and the sister of the defeater of death, the one who spoke and it was so, the one who is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 00:30:18.400 --> 00:30:19.839 Just as Moses was. 00:30:20.160 --> 00:30:30.400 Revelation 19 gives us hope for what we're looking forward to, for who we're looking to, for the lineage that we remember that we are part of. 00:30:31.519 --> 00:30:36.880 Says he sits on a white throne and he is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 00:30:37.119 --> 00:30:43.440 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one but himself knows. 00:30:43.599 --> 00:30:49.200 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and by then the name by which he is called is the word of God. 00:30:49.519 --> 00:30:53.839 And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, will follow him on white horses. 00:30:53.920 --> 00:31:00.559 For his mouth come from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. 00:31:00.799 --> 00:31:05.519 He will treat the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 00:31:05.839 --> 00:31:09.920 On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 00:31:10.079 --> 00:31:11.680 His name is Jesus. 00:31:13.680 --> 00:31:22.559 So now as we move into this Easter week, this coming Sunday, we get to celebrate that risen king, the lineage that we are part of. 00:31:23.119 --> 00:31:32.799 In this last week of winter, as we're drawn into spring by the Easter tide, remember who you are, just as Moses was called to remember who he was. 00:31:33.759 --> 00:31:41.519 Remember that your God is the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, fulfiller of promises. 00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:43.200 Let's pray. 00:31:44.880 --> 00:31:46.559 Father, thank you for your word. 00:31:46.960 --> 00:31:51.279 Please strengthen us to remember who you are and what that means for our lives. 00:31:51.519 --> 00:31:53.920 Thank you for setting this day aside as holy. 00:31:54.079 --> 00:32:02.000 I pray that we will receive the rest you have given us, and that we will enjoy good food and drink, that we will be encouraged in the presence of one another. 00:32:03.039 --> 00:32:03.680 Amen.