Encountering God

Text: Exodus 2:23 – 3:23

Introduction: A life-changing encounter. Have you ever had a life-changing encounter? I can say without any hesitation that my college years were full of life-changing encounters. Best friends, professors that molded me, pastor that mentored me. A beautiful red-headed young woman. We went on our first date on November 1st. Moses would have a life-changing encounter, yet its one that all of us should have. A life-changing encounter with God. CTS: God clearly reveals himself so that he can clearly call us to faith. (Aka….DON’T GHOST YHWH)

GOD ISN’T ABSENT (Exodus 2:23-24) Many days, new Pharoah, same suffering. Where is God?They cried out for help. What is it God himself? Or was it a generic cry? God hears. God remembers. God sees. God knows. The call of Moses in ch.3 is the means of his answering.

The Encounter (3:1-6)

· The state of Moses: old shepherd (preparing). In the quiet exiled state.

· The mountain of God: Horeb (Sinai). God often uses mountains to express glory and command (but still omnipresent). Abraham w/Isaac / Moses / / Eden / Jesus

· Angel of the Lord – a physical manifestation of God, accepts worship, God speaks (sacrifice of Isaac, Joshua,)

· Burning Bush – indicative of holiness and judgment (Deut 4:24) Unconsumed – indicative of God’s self-sustaining presence (“I tell you this: I want God to be what God is: the impeccably holy, unapproachable Holy Thing, the All-Holy One. I want Him to be and remain THE HOLY. I want His heaven to be holy and His throne to be holy. I don’t want Him to change or modify His requirements. Even if it shuts me out, I want something holy left in the universe.” – A.W. Tozer)

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· Establishing relationship and requirement – Pure holiness of God will destroy, yet God gives Moses needed requirement to engage. Also reveals himself by historical reminder. God desires to know us. Response: realization and fear

Applic: The holy, self-existent God, the God of history, desires to know us. And he has revealed himself by Word! To encounter God is no small thing. Individually and corporately. Are we humbled by that every day and every time we gather for worship?

The Call (3:7-12)

· God graciously hears the suffering of His people (7)

· God graciously comes down to save and keep his promises(8): Comes down! Salvation and rest. Covenant promise made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the seed of blessing to all nations will be fulfilled.

· God graciously will use His deliverer (9-10)

· The response of Moses (11): Who, me? Proper humility, for he must wonder, who am I to do this very thing? Only God can. I can’t.

· God graciously gives a promise of presence (12) Sometimes we don’t get the sign, but a promise of presence. That’s enough to get through.

Applic: Call to salvation thru a deliverer. Have you/we heeded it? Call to be people, servants and ambassadors of his salvation. Have you/we heeded it?

The Revelation (3:13-22)

· What is your name? (13) Moses, maybe doesn’t know. He’s been gone a long time. He wants some divine weight behind his words.

· Let me reintroduce myself (14) : “I am that I am.” Ya’ll know who I am. I am the God who is mysterious (cannot know fully), God who always is (eternal), God who is self-existent, God who is self-sufficient. He is uncreated, he doesn’t need anything, yet He graciously reveals and condescends to us.

· Covenant name of God, YAHWEH (15): Rooted in covenant promise.

· This is what I will do (16-22): Elders will listen to you, Pharoah will reject, but I will make him, and you will have everything you need to come to worship me (plunder). Do you trust me?

Conclusion: This is the life-changing encounter with God that Moses would have. But we must also be reminded that Jesus would root his own identity into this very passage. Angel of the Lord. The seven “I am” statements of John. John 8:58 “Before Abraham was, I am.” Jesus condescended himself, so that we could know Him, to encounter him. He is holy. He is God. And he does everything so that we can approach him. He is the Deliverer that Moses pointed toward. Jesus, in essence, is revealed in Exodus as the Great I Am. He is God in fullness. He is the covenant God, and it is in Him that all the nations of the earth would be blessed. He is the fulfillment of every promise. Have you had a life-changing encounter with him? Or are you relying on religious actions?

Church, do we define God as we see fit or do we humble ourselves and worship God as he has revealed? And do recognize that though the individual call to Moses and to us is important, that it leads to a corporate work of salvation? God saves not just individuals, but ultimately saves a people. Part of who we are, our salvation, is that we are made part of his people, defined in clarity now as the church. And then, as Moses was called, are we going to be ambassadors of our saving God, to go and tell the world about the Great I Am, Jesus Christ.

Encounter the Great I Am in his revealed Word. Encounter the Great I Am in the worship of the church. Know Him and obey Him.8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” – Rev 1:8