Exodus Chapter 3 Verses 1 – 3

• (“Horeb” is another name for Mt. Sinai) The bush was on fire, fully consumed in the blaze, yet no crackling, no leaf curling, no diminishing and in this revelation of God to Moses we see a neat picture of the people of God.  Under intense affliction and yet not consumed while also normal in all ways, but completely on fire…this is what becomes of someone living their lives watching God be faithful constantly!  And the reason for both of those circumstances is the same, God is in the midst of us, within us, upon us, just as it was with this bush.  (It’s also a picture of the cross)

Exodus Chapter 3 Verse 4

• Check this out. Moses sees this thing, something that interests him and draws him in…but nothing yet has happened.  He doesn’t know the what, he doesn’t now the who, he doesn’t know the why…all he is…is curious.  When he gives his attention, that’s when God speaks to him.  Often God’s Word doesn’t reach us, isn’t met with understanding in our heart of hearts, until we turn aside…turn away from what we’re doing, all that we accumulated in terms of our opinions, and just draw near to the Lord.
• Without the interaction with God right here…nothing changes in Moses day or life…he just keeps tending sheep. Nothing changes because he is interested or because he sees something miraculous.  It’s only when he turns aside to the Lord that the Lord now speaks.  And God’s first words to him were. “Moses, Moses.”  I love that!  And, Moses’ first words to God were, “Here I am.”  That’s awesome!  God calls out to each one of us personally and the correct response is an offering of self…

Exodus Chapter 3 Verses 5 – 6

• This is telling. First, Moses is commanded to remove his sandals which no doubt he did without delay and then when God began to reveal Himself to Moses, Moses hid his face.  Its and act of intense humility in the presence of God and I love this example.  First, Moses is immediately responsive to God, then he is immediately obedient to God…trusting God right there in the moment and showing that by doing what He has said…and then as God began to pour out blessing upon him, he doesn’t run away…he doesn’t close down…he simply hides his face.
• “Lord, You are too great for me to even look upon.” It’s an act of reverence, humility and rightful position, and rightful response showing that to Moses, there is none higher than God.  It’s major and it’s natural for Moses…he doesn’t have to think about any of this…he is just doing it and that shows a rightness of heart…and truly because of that, he will be used greatly by God…and this is just the BEGINNING of what will be shown to him.

Exodus Chapter 3 Verses 7 – 10

• (Pretzel bites, satellites, grave sites, under-bites, expedites, dynamites, websites, termites, skylights, invites, diet sprites, evites, re-writes…sorry) I wonder if Moses was thinking right here, “Why not just beam them out?”  HA!  I mean, God said that He intended to, was going to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, why not just do it then?  Why do you need me?  That’s a fair question, for sure.  It’s interesting how God uses men and women to accomplish His will.  And there are perhaps countless reasons why.  He loved and wanted to bless Moses.  He wanted the people to recognize him as their leader.  He wanted to use Moses as a type of the Law in the story of redemption.  He wanted the people to see what they would see…who knows…countless reasons but the truth remains…God does amazing, miraculous, wondrous things on this earth and most often, He does them through folks like you.

Exodus Chapter 3 Verse 11

• “Yea, that sounds really good and all but…I sort-of have this warrant for my arrest and execution!” (I was on cops just the other night…) HA!  This response from Moses is completely understandable and in it we begin to see why God didn’t simply transport the children of Israel out!  He intends to teach Moses, to show Moses in Technicolor how He is ultimately and always faithful!  He already said He was going to do it…God is only sending Moses…but Moses immediately questions because he is afraid and real circumstance is real circumstance…but through this, Moses will learn that God is true to His Word and if He has said it, then He will perform it!  (Numbers 23:19)

Exodus Chapter 3 Verse 12

• So this basically settles it…Moses is afraid, expresses concern, but God’s response is enough, “I will be with you.” Truly, for whatever God has called us to, that response is enough…and now Moses starts to work the details.

Exodus Chapter 3 Verses 13 – 14

• This is perhaps one of the most wondrous and striking revelations of God in the entire Bible. Moses had thought (40 years before) that his credentials alone were sufficient to reach out to the children of Israel, but now he knows they are not.  And so he asks for God’s.  And God’s response is, “I AM WHO I AM!”  It may sound odd for us for God to refer to Himself in this manner but this reveals something great about God…that He has no equal.  He had nothing else to refer to in order to identify Himself…because there is nothing, He simply has no equal!
• This phrase is also quite mysterious in the Hebrew. It’s simply the repetition of the same Hebrew word, “hayah,” which is just to say “existence, existence.”  Amazing, understandable completely in the Spirit…but astonishing in the mind…
• “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM sent me to you.’” This is yet another amazing truth revealed about God, that He is outside of need and time…He is entirely and completely independent and relies upon nothing for existence.  Eternal and unchanging, no past, no future, no present, simply above all of these concepts.  And fully capable constantly.  He says, “I am Love, I am Compassion,” when that is our need.  And “I am Justice, I am Conviction,” when that is our need. 
• Moses will never share this with the people. At least we have no record of it…He never went to the children of Israel and told them these things and yet God takes the time to answer his need.  At this moment, to Moses, God could have said, “I am Encouragement…”  Perhaps this wasn’t for the children of Israel under Egyptian rule but under Roman rule.  Later, Jesus would say to the religious elite, in John 8:58 when they asked Him, “Who are You?”  His response, “Before Abraham was, I AM.”  Jesus would claim this title, this announcement, about Himself…

Exodus Chapter 3 Verses 15 – 18a (LORD – YHVH – “The Variant”)

• I wondered to myself, why just these six “ites?” Could it be that the elders of Israel were praying specifically, “God, deliver us to the land of the Canaanites like our fathers, the land of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites…the land flowing with milk and honey!”  And God was answering their prayers miraculously through Moses…definitely!!  “Then they will heed your voice…”

Exodus Chapter 3 Verse 18

• A picture of Jesus who was Himself 3 days in the grave as a final sacrifice for all sin…

Exodus Chapter 3 Verses 19 – 22

• A key message as the chapter closes, God will send His Deliverer and if that Deliverer is heard, accepted and obeyed by the people, then deliverance will surely come, as well as So often we believe it will cost us so much to give our situation or our circumstance or our vice or our life over to Jesus…but the truth is, it will cost SO MUCH not to…