Burning Bush

exodus is important because the people of God are being formed and shaped by the God of the people

first impressions

first impressions usually inform what we will think of the other person within seconds.

He identifies as the God of His people

Our story picks up as Moses is tending sheep in the desert and comes upon a bush that is burning but not being consumed

And God is introducing Himself to Moses because He wants to do something through Moses

GReat news for the Hebrews

problem for Moses.

why would he go back?

This reintroduces the place of displacement. When we are living in what feels like a great divide, displacement. Where we are wrestling or struggling or fighting for something that isn’t resolved.

moses feels like he has moved on by escaping his Egyptian and Israelite past. But by going back he has the chance to see who he really is.

But what if the place of displacement is a place of incredible formation?

God shows us where we are by showing us who He is

polynesian islanders navigating open seas through the stars. Moana. Always knew where they were in connection to an island they knew. In their. mind they were directionally connected to land they knew in relation to where they were going.

they kept the land in thier mind as they went forward unknown.

what if the place where you are in and don’t want to be is the place that God forms You into the person He is calling you to be because of who He is?

what we are going to see is a careful interaction between God and Moses where God takes time to communicate who He is and allow Moses to wrestle with who he is in light of God

Moses is faced with the biggest questions in life. What do you do with the biggest questions in life? Where do you go?

What happens in these places And how are we formed?

Moses asks, who am I?

God tells Moses what He’s like, Who He is, and Where He is, and that just leaves Moses with questions.

God gives Moses a big job and Moses can only respond with who am I?

Have you ever had questions about God? You are walking through life, trying to make sense of it and all the sudden something happens that makes you question everything?

Exodus 3:10–12 ESV

Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

God calls Moses to go in His name to rescue the Hebrews, to the very place that he fled, the very place he left. TO the very place he didn’t want to go.

Exodus is an incredibly important book because it is the formation of Israel. Genesis is the story of the creation of Israel and Exodus is the formation of it. That means that who they were as a people were formed. A people moving from slavery to freedom, with God in their midst.

In the formation of Israel we see the formation of Moses. A fugitive called by God, who has been promised that God would be with him,

Moses is formed outside of his homeland and outside of his comfort.

he is formed in the desert

places like the desert are never forgotten because they are significant meeting points for God and His people.

But He is formed inside of God’s work, will, and power.

For the church, for your family, for your selves.

We have left a two year period of trauma that has led to increased volumes of anger, depression, anxiety and disconnects.

We are far from our homeland.

We are wandering.

But we are also in a place, the place of displacement, where we can be formed and embraced by God’s work, will and power.

what if this time in our lives was defined not by what e we lost but by who God is?

This is where He calls us, names us, empowers us and sends us all because He has promised to be with us.

God is with us in what He’s like: He carries the burden

Exodus 3:2–6 ESV

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 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.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And 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 at God.

Moses first had to turn aside to look and God saw that he turned aside. For,action doesn’t happen unless we are looking. We have to be aware of Gods possibility in the world. that we are looking for it. We look ahead into our days seeing where God is moving.

The interaction between God and Moses begins with an actual phenomenon. Which is an interesting change in what God often uses. God will often use visions to communicate to His people. His prophets often through visions, (Isaiah) and even Abraham through visions. But this is different. This is an actual event.

God want Moses to see that He is fire that is not consumed. That He is self sustaining, sufficient in all ways and is powerful enough to bring forth life and be able to take it. Fire that burns and is not consumed is eternal. It does not die out because it needs nothing outside of itself.

This is the God that Moses interacts with. A God who can consume but does not.

This is what God is like. He is holy and does not wear out. He is eternal.

The internal combustion engine was invented in the mid 1800s that was facilitated by the industrial revolution. The internal combustion engine is called a “prime mover” because it uses a form of energy to move something else. It completely changed the industrial revolution because it shifted the burden. In pre industrial times, if you wanted to create something you used human manufacturing processes. The burden was on human capacity to complete. The internal combustion engine took the burden off of the person and was able to hold it.

this is what God is like.

Knowing that God is a fire that is not consumed speaks to Him being a prime mover. He shifts the burden from us to Him. He holds the burden.

It’s important that we know who it is we are dealing with as the chapter and verses go forward.

God is with us in where He is: changing the ground

Exodus 3:7–8 ESV

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

God is a God who has come down. He has come into our world.

This directionality is important. Gods of the ancient near east did not go to people, they made people go to them. Rituals, sacrifices, all so that people could go to a place to get something from God.

But God comes to His people. God did not have a temple at this point. So it is not that Moses came to a place that was Holy, it’s that God made the place that Moses was holy.

God comes to us and changes the ground Itself.

its not always that we need to be in a different place or that we would be better off in a different circumstance it’s that we need God to change the ground under our feet.

God is with us in Who He is: a rescuer not a mercenary

Exodus 3:14 ESV

God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”

God is uniquely connected to The people of Israel and is uniquely independent of them.

This is different from the gods of the Ancient Near East . They were dependent on the people and they would get grumpy if they didn’t get what the people were supposed to give them.

God is a rescuer not a mercenary.

In order for a mercenary to rescue or do good, you have to pay them first. God is not waiting to extract payment.

The gods of the ANE were mercenaries. IF you did right and if you provided in the right way, the gods would respond.

With God as He has revealed Himself communicates, He is not waiting for the Hebrews to pay Him to rescue. He is rescuing so that they can worship.

He is freeing them so that they can choose to worship.

as we see God declaring who He is, because He is a rescuer, He is making room for others in Him.

We encounter God and are changed by Him to become like Him. Our encounter with God allows us to wrestle with these big questions in life and allow us to form us to Himself.

God in coming to us and rescuing us, so that no matter where we are, desert or not, displaced or not, questioning or not He is changing the ground and inviting us near.

When we come into the presence of God, when we are embraced by Him we become placed, we are brought in.

Moses, for the rest of His life, identifies, not as a Hebrew, or as a Shepherd, or as an Egyptian, but as God’s. HE is called a friend of God.

As we encounter God, drawn into Who He is and what He is like, we are placed. We identify with Him and His people, which means we do the stuff of Him and His people.

Our application this morning will be communion. Christ has given us communion to encounter God. To remember Him. And as we take communion we remember that we are placed in Him and by being placed in Him we do the things that He does.

Christ gave His body for us so that we would be placed in Him, shaped by Him, encounter Him.

And communion is an event for us to do that

We recognize that in partaking of communion we are remembering our embrace by God. But, as Miroslav Volf states, we are embraced when we also “do not resist being made into its agents; what happens to us must be done by us.”

So as we take communion we remember we are not displaced in the world, but are placed in Christ. We have someone who has called us and brought us in. We are brought in so we can do the things that He does and bring others in.

If you are feeling displaced, trust Christ to be placed in Him and His church.

Communion Scripture

English Standard Version Chapter 12

13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.