What Are You Looking At?

Exodus 2:23–3:12 (NASB95)

23 Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God.

24 So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

25 God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them.

1 Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

2 The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.

3 So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.”

4 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 come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

6 He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7 The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.

8 “So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

9 “Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.

10 “Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”

12 And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”

INTRO: Have you ever seen something and start to react or form an opinion before looking again a little closer to realize that you were looking at the situation all wrong?

Like maybe your kid draws a picture of your family vacation and you get a call from the teacher because it looks like… well, this: [they are snorkeling, BTW]

Or maybe you are sitting in church and trying to pay attention, but you see some guy just staring at you all weird and psychotic… until you look again and realize he just has his sunglasses turned around on his head.

Well, sometimes when we are going through life, we can see our situation and misread it. Sometimes we can read Scripture and see the story, but miss the God of the story. The key is to be disciplined enough to discern truth from perception.

As we look back to our study in Exodus, there is another familiar image- the burning bush. Oftentimes, I hear people refer to the burning bush as a point of clarity about life decisions. Maybe you’ve prayed that God would give you a burning bush? Now look, I do believe that this experience gave Moses absolute resolve about his own calling.

Yet, there is more to see. Actually, when we recognize that Scripture was given to us as a revelation of God so that we can know Him, it becomes apparent that sometimes we ask the wrong questions and thus miss what God truly intends for us to see.

So, this morning I want to draw us to see what this passage reveals to us about God and through it, train us to look to Him… to trust him and to surrender to Him. I hope you’ll find that in so doing, not only will you find clarity and direction for your life, but you’ll also find a sense of peace and confidence.

The sermon is titled “What are you looking at?” I’ll point out three attributes of God demonstrated in this passage and then direct you to respond to that which God has called you and clarified for you during our time.

If you picked up a bulletin, I encourage you to use the sermon guide to follow along. Let’s dive in.

The first attribute that we can see demonstrated is:

God is Compassionate (2:23-25)

(READ)

As we see here, a whole generation passed from the time Moses left Egypt to now. Though the pharaoh who had oppressed the Hebrews so horribly before had died, the striving continued. Indeed, there was a new king, but the situation of God’s people had not changed.

ILL: This is reality in a world that does not know God. Kings, presidents, czars, etc. all have one thing in common- their desire is for themselves. Whatever fills their bank accounts and secures their power is their policy, no matter what they advertise.

God’s people all over the world will be oppressed because the one true threat to a worldly kingdom, is a perfect, heavenly one. If Christians can be coerced into trusting the government over God, then there is no threat to the authority or power of said government.

This was the case for the Hebrews, and the text says that they sighed or groaned. They were tired. They were beat down. And so they cried out! To whom? Well, it says that their cry rose to God.

Now, my first question is what took them so long? Perhaps they were hoping things would one day get better… maybe the next king will be nicer... Maybe they were unaware that the God of their fathers would hear them.

Sometimes we are guilty of the same thing though. We are too busy looking at the situation. We are too busy watching the news or trying to find the right political candidate who is going to change everything when what we need to do is cry out to God.

The Israelites did finally cry out. Now look at this: God heard them. God, saw them; He took notice of them.

Their situation was bad, but when they cried to the Lord, His response was compassion. He didn’t coldly ignore them, but instead we see here that when their voices rose to him, he saw them in light of the covenant He made with Abraham.

These were people who deserved nothing, but they had the benefit of a compassionate God. We might look at this situation and ask why God allowed them to suffer so many years, but that’s the wrong question. Instead we should ask why God would intervene at all? It’s because He is compassionate

What we need to see is that when God’s people acknowledged their need for rescue; this desperate situation that they could not get themselves out of; then, God heard them and took notice.

Folks, listen here: If you are striving this morning- maybe you have an addiction you can’t seem to beat, maybe you have a marriage that is on the rocks and you cannot seem to fix it, maybe you are weary - at the end of your self trying to make your life better.

Friend, cry out to God in the name of Jesus and He will hear you and will see you in light of the sacrifice and righteousness of His son! Our God is Compassionate and He invites you to call on His name.

Looking to chapter 3:1-6, we see another attribute of God.

God is Holy (3:1-6)

You probably knew that already, but let’s look at how this is demonstrated here.

(READ)

This is a spectacular image- Moses is driving the sheep to good pasture, when he see’s this bramble bush on fire, but not consumed by the fire. Think of it like the burners on your gas grill- they are on fire, but they are not being damaged by the flames.

This got Moses’ attention. And notice this- Moses didn’t know at first that this was a message from God- he was just doing what I think any man would do. When we see something that is curious or odd, we check it out. Moses likely questioned - Why is the bush not being damaged?

But once again, this is the wrong question. He was enamored by the sight, but then God spoke! This redirects both us and him and essentially says, “Don’t be amazed by the burning bush, be amazed by God.”

The bush was a demonstration of God’s power- He can do things that break the natural laws, and He often does this so that we can see that He is different, uncommon, unique from every created thing. He is holy.

ILL: In the NT, we see the same phenomena with Jesus. Think of all the folks who followed him to see the miracles, but never stopped to ask the question “why?” They were amazed by the sight, but missed God in the midst of them.

Moses was instructed not to come near and to remove his sandals because the ground was holy. Now, I’m going to tell you that the reason this ground was holy had nothing to do with the bush or the location. The ground was holy because God declared it to be and chose to reveal himself in this way!

Taking off one’s sandals is more than a sign of reverence. In the western world, we often equate this to removing our hats, but what we need to see is that in this culture, removing one’s sandals was not only an act of reverence, but also a declaration of unworthiness to be near to God.

And that’s what we see here. Moses could not waltz up to the bush- he couldn’t even get close. In this moment, his eyes were taken off the bush… there was a fear and awe that overtook him. V. 6 says he hid his face...

I don’t think we understand what it means when we say holy. We sing about it. We declare it. But, if we understood it, we would acknowledge just how much a privilege it is to have God’s holy Word and to enter into prayer and communion with a Holy God.

The old church buildings tried to emphasize God’s holiness- the high ceilings in churches, the elevated podiums where God’s word was declared, the unique stained glass which created an atmosphere that was unlike the world.

But the reality is that the buildings will never be holy apart from God’s presence. Likewise, you and I will never be able to be holy by our efforts. When God says, “Be Holy for I am Holy..” what He is saying is that we are set apart by Him. If His Holy Spirit lives in us, we will live lives that reflect that; we will truly worship Him.

God is compassionate. God is holy. Though there are more attributes, we are going to look at one more demonstrated here.

God is Generous (3:7-12)

(READ 7-9)

In God’s conversation with Moses, He tells him that He has come to deliver the Israelites from Egypt. That was what Moses thought might happen when he struck down the Egyptian taskmaster some 40 years prior. Why now?

As we think about the cries of the Hebrews, the reality is that even if they managed to escape Egypt, there was no place to go- not for a whole people group. If Moses had succeeded in his original effort to stir a revolt, the likely result would have been a war and, at best, a people released from bondage to try to find a place to live and figure out how to navigate freedom, provisions, government, etc. That’s a lot.

But, as God shared with Moses, He was not simply delivering them from the power and might of Egypt, He was delivering them to a land that was broad and plentiful. God’s plan is better! This land was going to be special.

Now, I want to point out this expression ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I remember hearing this phrase as a kid in church, but I never understood it. In my childish imagination, I pictured literal rivers of milk and streams of honey.

But, as cool as that might be, this phrase actually indicates the generosity of God. You see, milk and honey are both products that are produced without human effort. IOW, the land that God was going to bring the Israelites to was going to be abundant in resources that the people themselves could not take credit for. This is what you call a blessing!

Not only was the land going to be spacious, but it was going to be fertile and abundant in natural resources. Furthermore, it is the land that had some cities and villages already built- a land that was undeserved, but granted based upon the generosity of God Almighty.

And friends, you and I need to see that generosity is extended to you and I as well. I believe that what we see here is a foreshadowing of the cross. Because God came down, took on humanity in the person of Christ, we have the joy of deliverance from the bondage of our sins and the promise of eternity in perfect harmony with the one true God!

He has gone to prepare a place for us! And as we read the parables of God’s kingdom, we see the generosity on full display for God’s kingdom is so valuable that we should gladly give up all our earthly possessions to be a part of it! We should gladly take our eyes off our material wants and lusts and seek that Kingdom which cannot be shaken!

God is so very generous. He is holy. He is compassionate. And as encouraging as all that is, I want to point you down to the next couple verses.

(READ 10)

“Therefore”-[when we see ‘therefore,’ we ask ‘what’s it there for?’] because of who God, is, He invites us to ‘come now’ and engage in the work of the Kingdom. It’s the same as what we see in the Great Commission - Jesus said “All authority has been given to Me THEREFORE GO!”

You see, we not only get to experience God’s goodness and grace, but we get to be vessels of that same goodness and grace to others!

Oh but now, notice where Moses’ eyes are (READ 11)

Who am I? Moses asks. Wrong question. You see, Moses couldn’t get his eyes off his own deficiencies and thought- God, have you lost your mind? Why me? I can’t do that!

And you know what? If we are honest, we do the same thing. This morning, you might be wondering why God would save you. Why would he pay the highest price for you? Furthermore, WHY would God send me to do the great task of Kingdom work?

Maybe we think we are being humble, but in fact we are simply demonstrating our lack of faith in God. Let me try to help here: It’s not because of you. It’s because of Him. Because HE is compassionate, holy, and generous!

God didn’t call Moses aside because Moses had all the strengths and talents God needed… folks, God doesn’t need anything! God chose Moses because of WHO God is!

And I want you to notice that God didn’t answer Moses’ question directly. Look at v. 12 (READ)

God promised to be with him. Just like He promised in Matt. 28:20, that He would be with us as we GO and make disciples of His kingdom.

Moses must have felt like the least qualified person to go to Pharaoh… BUT With God, all things are possible. God often used the least qualified to make the biggest impact. “This will be a sign that I have sent you: WHEN you have brought them out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain”

IOW, God is going to accomplish His great work through His people, and WHEN we see that milestone- when we recognize God’s hand of power and blessing, THEN we will truly worship- you won’t need any prompting- no fancy cathedral or professional music… When we are where God wants us, WE WILL WORSHIP HIM!

Church, God is good. He is compassionate. He is holy. He is generous. And He has invited you into His kingdom work.

What are you looking at? Is it the troubles of the world or is it the sovereign God of all creation. I urge you this morning, respond to God- submit to God, obey Him, worship him.

[PRAY]

Discuss: When have you cried out to God? Do you believe He hears you?

Discuss: Moses was instructed ‘not to come near,’ yet we are encouraged to ‘draw near to God’ (James 4:8) and draw near to the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16). How do you explain this?

Discuss: Describe the Kingdom of God. What makes it so valuable?