Called and Commissioned
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If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? Intelligence? Height? Better hair, more hair? We can be our worst critic when it comes to the weakness and flaws that we notice about our-self.
Exodus 3–4 shows us, among other things, how God can use weak, imperfect vessels by His power, for His glory, and for the good of others.
Remember what Paul says:
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
As we will see, Moses will show himself to be a living example of this verse.
We last left the story with Israel crying out with groans to God because of their slavery.
Here we will examine the calling and commissioning of Israel’s mediator-leader, an imperfect man, Moses.
1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.
3 Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”
4 So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
5 Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”
6 Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
7 And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
10 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
God Reveals Himself (3:1–6)
God Reveals Himself (3:1–6)
Chapter 3 begins by setting the scene of what is about to occur.
But what I want us to notice is that they were at Horeb, which is called “the mountain of God.”
This is a natural name for the mountain because of what happened there: God showed up. It seems to be the same place as Mt. Sinai, where Moses later received the Ten Commandments. God drew Moses to this place in order to reveal Himself to him.
Moses was “shepherding the flock” (v. 1).
It is important to note that Egyptians did not think highly at all of shepherds (see Gen 46:34).
It is also important to recognize the shepherding pattern being set here. Moses spent 40 years as a shepherd in Midian.
David was also a shepherd who was taken from the sheepfolds to become king.
God loves to use shepherds!
He even refers to Himself as a shepherd (Ps 23:1; Ezek 34:13).
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Ultimately, salvation would come through Jesus, the good shepherd, who laid down His life for His sheep John 10:11
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
Under the Law of Moses, the sheep died for the shepherd; but under grace, the Good Shepherd died for the sheep (John 10:1–18)
Warren W. Wiersbe
In verses 2–4 we find a unique encounter with the “Angel of the LORD.”
This was not a fluffy little angel in a golden diaper.
He appeared out of the fire. He is also referred to as “the LORD” in verse 4.
The messenger spoke as God not simply for God.
This is what theologians call a “theophany,” an appearance of the invisible God.
Many throughout church history, especially the early church fathers, believed appearances like this were pre-incarnate appearances of Christ.
Moses was first drawn in by the burning bush. What an amazing sight!
Before Moses’ eyes, he saw a bush burning without being consumed. The “fire” is representative of God’s holy presence.
Fire appears later in Exodus and in other Scripture—in a pillar of fire that leads God’s people, fire at Mt. Sinai, in the tabernacle, and the Day of Pentecost.
When God forbade idolatry later in Deuteronomy, Moses said, “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” (Deut 4:24
24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
The author of Hebrews used this language also in describing how to worship (Heb 12:29
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Fire is appropriate because we know that we are drawn to fire and amazed by fire, but we also tell children, “Don’t play with fire.” Fire is to be taken seriously. And so is God. He is holy.
Now we must ask, “How might we be accepted by God if He is so holy?”
The sacrifices in the Old Testament are pointing to the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus.
Only in Jesus can we be in God’s Holy presence.
He is our “righteousness, sanctification, and redemption” 1 Cor 1:30
30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—
4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
The bush “was not consumed” (v. 2).
Moses was seeing something mysterious. While it burned, it was not consumed.
Why did the Almighty God use a scrubby bush to reveal His presence and glory? It would seem that the bush was just a common acacia plant. It had no intrinsic worth. It was in itself completely helpless. And it could not back out. It was caught there, indwelt by the presence of God and fire.
Like the bush, we will never know God until we are helpless in His hands. We will never be of worth to Him until there is no escape. As long as we can run, as long as we know we can depend upon our avenues of escape, we are not really in God’s hands.…
Let me tell you with assurance that the happy Christian is the one who has been caught—captured by the Lord. He or she no longer wants to escape or go back. The happy Christian has met the Lord personally and found Him an all-sufficient Savior and Lord. He or she has burned all the bridges in every direction.
Some of God’s children are dabbling with surrender and victory. They have never reached that place of spiritual commitment which is final and complete and satisfying. They still retain their escape routes.…
I thank God for the little bush! It was caught, it was helpless. But it was radiant and useful and enduring in the presence and hands of the living God.
Exodus 3; Luke 9:23–25; Philippians 3:7–16
Men Who Met God, 72, 73, 74.
A. W. Tozer
Then “God called out to him from the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ ” (3:4).
God called Moses by name. This is significant for all who are called to salvation have experienced God’s personal call.
Jesus said, “Zacchaeus.”
Peter said that God “called [us] out of darkness into His marvelous light” 1 Pet 2:9
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
God did not have to call us, but He did, in His mercy.
God wills to be known and worshiped.
Our natural response should be, “Here I am,” like Moses (and Samuel and Isaiah).
As Moses began to approach the bush, God said, “Do not come closer.… Remove the sandals from your feet” (v. 5).
To show the gap between a holy God and sinful man, He says, “Do not come closer.” Again, it is only through Jesus that we draw near (Heb 10:19–22
19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,
21 and having a High Priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
God then identified Himself with the patriarchs: “I am … the God of Abraham” (v. 6).
Before He entered a relationship with Moses, He entered a relationship with Abraham, Issac and Jacob.
God was also giving Moses a bit of personal history of Himself. The God of the burning bush was not an unknown God; He was the God who acted on behalf of these earlier persons.
So they exchanged names. That is the first step in forming a relationship. They met each other.
Have you met Jesus Christ?
Paul says we Christians have come to know God, or rather to be known by God (Gal 4:9)
God Reveals His Plan (3:7–10)
God Reveals His Plan (3:7–10)
God is a sending God.
Notice three parts to this commission:
(1) God’s motive,
(2) God’s purpose, and
(3) God’s plan.
God’s motive is especially seen in verses 7 and 9. “I have observed … have heard … I know about their sufferings.… The Israelites’ cry … has come to Me.… I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.”
God hears the groans of people who genuinely cry out to Him. God’s motive is to save, deliver, redeem.
In Luke 18, the tax collector beat his breast and cried out, “Turn Your wrath from me—a sinner!” (v. 13).
Jesus said that the man “went down to his house justified” (Luke 18:14).
9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’
13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
A prayer that God hears is when a person genuinely cries out to God for mercy and forgiveness in repentance and faith.
If you will cry out to Him, He will hear you and save you.
It is not about a magical formula. It is about crying out over the misery of your sin and begging Jesus for mercy.
Notice also God’s purpose.
His purpose is to transfer His people.
He will take them out of Egypt and put them in a place with milk and honey (3:8).
God is going to save them from something (slavery) for something (worship and witness). That is exactly what has happened to us in the gospel.
Finally, see God’s plan.
After revealing His great purpose of redemption, God told Moses the plan: “You’re it.” God says, “I am sending you” (v. 10).
God is a sending God.
Throughout the Bible, God sends people on different assignments covering a variety of issues.
Joseph was sent to save lives in a famine (Gen 45:5–8).
Here Moses was sent to deliver people from oppression and exploitation (3:10).
Elijah was sent to influence the course of international politics (1 Kgs 19:15–18).
Jeremiah was sent to proclaim God’s word (Jer 1:7).
Jesus said that He was sent “to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18–19).
The disciples were sent to preach and demonstrate the power of the kingdom (Matt 10:5–8).
Paul and Barnabas were sent for famine relief (Acts 11:27–30), then they were sent for evangelism and church planting (Acts 13:1–3).
Titus was sent to put a messed up church in order (Titus 1:5).
God is a sending God. All of God’s children have been called and sent. Sent to be fishers of men, ambassadors of Christ, proclaimers of the full Gospel of Jesus, sent to be salt and light.
Christ Jesus, your Savior and your Lord, has called and commissioned you to love and serve the very sheep and lambs for whom he shed his blood and gave his life. How great is that?
Harold L. Senkbeil