God Raises a Deliverer
Philadelphia Baptist Church
4/1/2007 Sun. a.m.
God Raises Up a Deliverer
Exodus 3:1–12
Introduction:
- The Making of a Leader
In reviewing the book Leadership by Rudolph “Rudy”Giulani, Stephen Wolter poses an age-old question: “Does the man make the times, or do the times make the man?” Giuliani was elected mayor of New York City in 1993 and reelected in 1997.
During his tenure as mayor, Giuliani seemed destined to be remembered by history as an effective administrator, as one who dramatically lowered his city’s crime rate, and as someone whose style and politics polarized his constituents. But then came the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and Giuliani’s true leadership skills became obvious to the entire world.
We often pause to wonder about what we do not know. As we read our Bibles, do we see God finding people naturally fitted to lead and shape their times, or does God design and create such leaders through the trials they undergo? Or is it a little of both? Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, John the Baptist, Paul—so many great leaders, so many unanswered questions about them! We meet one of these leaders today.
- Lesson Background
Many centuries after Noah’s descendants were wandering away from God, the Lord called Abraham to be the father of a great nation. That nation would show the rest of the world what it means to be holy. All this must have seemed very mysterious to Abraham, but “he went out, not knowing whither he went” (Hebrews 11:8). As a result the chosen family was planted in the land of Canaan, or Palestine as it came to be called.
Jacob, grandson of Abraham, had twelve sons. One was Joseph, who became a ruler in Egypt through an interesting series of events (Genesis 37, 39–41). God worked through human weakness (Jacob’s foolish favoritism toward Joseph, and the jealousy of Joseph’s brothers) to bring about a deliverance that saved a people from famine.
Then came disaster. After Joseph’s death, a new Egyptian king became frightened when he saw all those foreigners living in his land (Exodus 1:1–10). What if they joined forces with a foreign country against Egypt? So the new king made slaves of the Hebrews and worked them under brutal overseers. When the Hebrew people continued to increase in number, the king decreed that every boy born among them should be thrown in the river (Exodus 1:22). This is the situation in which God moved to prepare His people to leave Egypt for the land that He had promised long before (Genesis 28:10–14).
Moses was one of the babies born in the days when the king was insisting that every baby boy of the Hebrews must be thrown into the river. Moses’ mother did indeed put him there, but she protected him with a watertight basket that would float on the surface.
The princess found the floating baby, and her motherly instincts were stirred. She took him home and reared him as her own. So the Hebrew baby became a prince of Egypt, trained in all the knowledge and wisdom of that culture (Exodus 2:1–10).
When Moses was forty years old, he happened to see a merciless overseer beating one of the Hebrew slaves. Angered by that treatment, Moses killed the overseer. Such behavior was not to be tolerated, even in a prince. The king meant to have Moses executed, but Moses fled eastward across the desert to Midian.
There Moses joined a priest and sheep grower named Jethro, married one of Jethro’s daughters, and settled down to be a shepherd for the rest of his life (Exodus 2:11–22; Acts 7:23–30). For the next forty years (Acts 7:30) Moses enriched his wisdom of Egyptian culture with the lore of nomadic tribes and knowledge of desert living. Thus he was about eighty years old when God interrupted his life in a profound way.
I. Strange Fire
(Exodus 3:1–3)
A. Shepherd (v. 1)
Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the back side of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
The land of Midian is named after one of Abraham’s sons (Genesis 25:1–6). It is a large area without definite boundaries, perhaps one hundred fifty miles to the southeast of Egypt. Moving his flock to the back side of the desert likely means that Moses is traveling into Horeb or Sinai, toward Egypt. Pasture is so scarce that the sheep have to move far and wide to get enough to eat.
A certain mountain in Horeb is known as the mountain of God, as this record is written many years after the fact. We do not know whether or not it has that name when Moses first goes there. We do know, however, that this is not the last time that Moses will visit this place (Exodus 17:6; 33:6).
B. Surprise! (v. 2)
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
It is very strange to see a fire in that remote place, and as Moses stares at the flame he sees something stranger still: the bush is not consumed. No branches are vanishing in the fire. What kind of fire could this be?
Moses has forty years of experience in desert environments—he knows what is out of the ordinary when he sees it. But this event is not just out of the ordinary, it is a miracle. The God who is “a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29) has created a fire that does not consume!
C. Scrutiny (v. 3)
And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
Probably Moses says these words to himself; it is unlikely that anyone is with him. We might conclude that natural human curiosity “gets the best of him” and he can’t resist stepping aside from his normal tasks to investigate what he sees.
At certain times in history God has revealed Himself through miraculous signs. But more often God works through the “still, small voice” or in the ordinary things of life. God’s presence is often seen in the comforting word of a friend offered in a time of need, the encouragement received through a message from God’s Word, or the godly peace that comes in the midst of sorrow. Seeing a new soul won to Christ or a prodigal returning to the local church are times to stop and marvel at God’s mighty presence and power.
In a world oriented so heavily toward tasks and results, it is necessary to take time out to reflect and meditate upon God’s Word as well as His creation. When we do, God’s presence will be unmistakable.
II. Holy Ground
(Exodus 3:4–8)
A. Awe-inspiring Identification (vv. 4–6)
And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
If Moses is moving toward the burning bush, the sound of a voice in the desert stillness stops him short. Or perhaps he has not yet started toward the bush. Perhaps the audible voice replies to his private thoughts, riveting him to the spot where he stands.
If the fire is surprising, this voice must be doubly so. Moses may be trembling, but nonetheless he answers Here am I.
A Voice in the Desert
The “Mojave Phone Booth” stood for years in the desert between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It had been installed in that lonely place in the 1960s for the benefit of miners in the area. Much later it became famous when information about its existence and location was put on a Web site. Soon callers from around the world were dialing its number.
As a result the phone booth became something of a shrine. People came from long distances just to experience the uniqueness of hearing a human voice in the midst of a desert. People camped out by the phone for days, answering each call as it came in. One person reported taking seventy-two calls in one four-and-a-half-hour period.
Moses’ experience in the desert was rather different from this! The voice he heard was that of God Himself. And to receive a “call” through a burning bush is unusual, to say the least. Moses responded as he should have; the rest, as they say, is history.
On May 17, 2000, Pacific Bell removed the “Mojave Phone Booth” that had been in service for more than thirty years; the voice in the desert disappeared. After thousands of years, the original bush that Moses saw is long gone. But that doesn’t mean that God’s voice is silenced! God still issues calls to repentance, forgiveness, and service today. Those calls come through His written Word as that Word is read and preached.
And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
The command to draw not nigh hither puts a quick stop to Moses’ thought of stepping up for a closer look at that incredible fire. We may assume that when he hears the command to bare his feet he does so—and quickly!
Moses is looking at holy fire, fire so holy that even at this distance he is standing on holy ground. A place where sheep and goats walk is now holy because of the presence of God.
At the burning bush Moses finally took notice of the presence of God that seemed suddenly to have entered his life. (God had been there all along, but He had to use this extraordinary means to arrest Moses’ attention!) How many of us are oblivious to God’s presence in our daily lives?
Moreover he said, I am the God of thy 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.
Now Moses knows: it is God who is speaking—God the Creator, God the Commander, God the Keeper, God the Almighty. Perhaps Moses drops to his knees as he buries his face in his hands. Surely he knows that God is more than any fire, but he is afraid even to look at the symbol of God. (Acts 7:30–33.)
B. Awe-inspiring Mission (vv. 7, 8)
And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows.
Moses has been away from Egypt for forty years, apparently content with his life as a shepherd. But who knows how much his mind and heart are burdened with the memory of his people’s misery? Does he feel a nagging frustration day by day because he can do nothing to help them? We are not told, but the Lord speaks as if Moses is well aware of his people’s distress. The Lord himself is even more keenly aware of the situation. No affliction or cry or sorrows escape His notice (Matthew 10:29; Acts 7:34).
And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
How the heart of Moses must leap! Already the Lord has come down; already God’s campaign is in operation. The Lord is going to rescue His people from the terrible slavery and cruelty that has oppressed them all through the eighty years of Moses’ life, and for some years before that.
The Lord is going to lead His people out of Egypt to a good land—a land so large that it is currently occupied by at least six other nations. Its description as being a land flowing with milk and honey is so profound that that phrase almost becomes a proverb (Exodus 3:17; 13:5; 33:3).
When God keeps this promise, He will be fulfilling a prophecy that is hundreds of years old. And the heart of Moses must be saying, “Amen.”
III. Breathtaking Call
(Exodus 3:9–12)
A. Moses’ Mission (vv. 9, 10)
Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.
From the future triumph declared in verse 8, God turns to face again the depressing present. God’s people in Egypt are suffering terribly and crying for help.
How many of us feel our hearts leaping when we read the triumphant announcement that in the end “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15) But then how many of us feel our hearts sinking when we read what God expects us to do in the meantime: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19) So likewise Moses’ heart probably sinks at God’s personal call to him. No wonder Moses protests (v. 11).
B. Moses’ Protest (v. 11)
And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
Who am I? is a natural question. Back in Egypt Moses is a murderer sentenced to death. He is alive only because he fled to another country. It would be dangerous even to go to Egypt, even secretly. But to go boldly to Pharaoh with an unwelcome demand—wouldn’t that be a demand for Moses’ own death?
A feeling of inadequacy when called of God is not a reason to reject or ignore the call. A study of those God used throughout Scripture reveals a feeling of inadequacy time and again. Moses, Gideon, Isaiah, and Jeremiah all felt they were not up to the task. But it is when we recognize our inadequacy, our weakness, that God is able to work (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:9).
Humbly accepting the call of God begins with realizing we are unworthy. We then realize that in our own power we are too weak for the task. When we recognize our unworthiness and our weakness, then we are fit vessels for God to use.
On top of all that Moses may be thinking, “I’m eighty years old and have spent the last half of my life herding sheep.” But Moses will discover as events unfold that he will need some herding skills to guide and push an obstinate people forward.
C. God’s Answer (v. 12)
And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.
What better promise can God give than I will be with thee? It will not be humans alone who go to Pharaoh to demand freedom for the Hebrews; God will be there as well. When Pharaoh says “no” to Moses, he will be saying “no” to God, too. But God has ways of enforcing His demands. Moses will not be able to mistake the hand of God in all of this when he serves God upon the very mountain where God is now speaking. Until then Moses must go in faith.
The rest of the story is well known to us. Pharaoh refuses to set God’s people free, but God persuades that ruler with a series of plagues so terrible that at last both king and people urge the Hebrews to get out of Egypt, and get out quickly. Then for forty years Moses proves his skills as a leader as this people makes its way toward the promised land.