December 13, 2020
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Reading along with us in some Exodus? Here’s today’s reading:
Exodus 3 (NIV)
Moses and the Burning Bush
1Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God........Continue Reading
Exodus 3
Exodus 3
A nice, obvious burning bush would have been a nice touch at times in my life when I was hoping to hear from God!
But once again we see God using someone to fulfill His plans. Moses is charged with freeing the Israelites from Pharaoh and God will go before him… Moses just needs to follow!
Exodus 3
There is so much in this all familiar chapter. The burning bush is something we are very familiar with and yet we cannot lose the wonder of God providing this miraculous sign for Moses and then speaking personally to Him through it. And yet how more glorious it is for us to have God within us speaking to us? It is also interesting the way God talks about the prayers of the people coming to Him. It does emphasize the value of prayer and how God through that identifies with our condition, cares about us and then moves to address it. But the response is not instantaneous either. Not that it can’t be or won’t be, but here we see the people have been praying for a long time and God will work through a process to make it happen, turning unbelieving hearts to His will along the way and that will take some time as well. So it reenforces the value of prayer but also the importance of persevering in prayer.
And I just love God’s name. What else would the God of glory and creation call Himself but I Am? He is the essence and source of all being. He is the only one who never had a beginning because He is the I am. He has always been because whenever it is present I Am exists. And He always will be for the same reason. But He doesn’t need to say He was or will be because He is I Am: always present, always sufficient and always self sustaining.
And how powerfully He will work to do what He is saying here….and what a process it will be. And don’t you just love that the Jews will plunder the Egyptians without raising a sword?
The full Trinity is functioning here as Moses gets his direct call from God.
An Angel of the Lord appears in the bush.
God calls out to Moses.
Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
God tells Moses that He will be with him before Pharoah, would that be the Spirit?
God tells Moses to tell the people of Israel that the Lord God of their fathers has heard their cry.
He refers to Himself as “I AM”.
Reminds me of when Jesus referred to Himself as I AM.
John 8:
“Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” 54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ 55 But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”
18“The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lordour God.’ 19But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
21“And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”
Exodus 3