[0:00] Now as we continue our progress then through this section, the first 10 or so chapters of Exodus, we're reminded at this beginning of chapter 3 that Moses having fled from Egypt has now spent 40 years in the desert in Midian with his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, Jethro and married to his daughter Zipporah and so on.
[0:23] And we know that it's 40 years because as we mentioned in previous weeks, Acts chapter 7 tells us this in verse 23 and at verse 30, we're told when he was full 40 years old, came in his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel, seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him and so on.
[0:42] Then at verse 30, when 40 years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. So that's 40 years on from when he was 40 years old, he's 80.
[0:55] And also of course, Exodus chapter 7 and verse 7 tells us that he was 80 years old when he stood before Pharaoh. So we have the knowledge that 40 years, 40 years of virtual silence has passed in the desert with Moses just quietly, presumably getting to know the presence of the Lord and being able to spend time with the Lord in that legitimate profession of working as a shepherd.
[1:21] It's not easy work and it's not light work. It's hard slog and often lonely, but there he was fulfilling that task, which he, a prince of Egypt, did not regard as beneath him.
[1:34] So he kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Medea, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. So now the fullness of time has come.
[1:46] God's time is not our time, remember. God's time is our time.
[2:19] Uninverted commas would be huge likewise in Cora. So he would have had more clout in his younger days. He would have had more worldly influence. He would have been fresher in his knowledge and wisdom of the Egyptian learning in such powers as he had in his personal strength.
[2:36] But that was not God's time. And just as when the coming of our Lord, we read in Galatians 4, verses 4 and 5, when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
[2:57] Now the law is not yet given. Moses is going to be the one through whom the law is given. But it is in the fullness of time that God outworks his purposes. Not our time, but God's time.
[3:09] We would think in terms of, well, why didn't the Lord Jesus come at a time when Jerusalem was under siege and the Babylonians were about to destroy it or other enemies were attacking? Because he wasn't coming to be that kind of Messiah.
[3:22] And Israel and Judah at that stage were so steeped in sin and paganism and idolatry. That's why these judgments came upon them. And God is not going to honor that kind of disobedience.
[3:35] But when they were humbled, when they were ready to wait upon the Lord, to call upon the Lord, when the Israelites were reduced to such a stage in slavery, they were prepared to finally turn to the Lord and wait upon him.
[3:49] When the fullness of time was come, God's time, then he speaks to Moses and summons him for this work that as yet Moses is unaware of. So he comes to Horeb, the mountain of God.
[4:02] Sometimes, of course, it's referred to as Horeb. Sometimes it's referred to as Mount Sinai. And it could be that just different people groups identify it in different ways. Or it could be that the same thing is referred to just by different names at different times, depending on who's saying it and when.
[4:20] One possible explanation is that it may be, Horeb may be the range or the sort of massive of these mountains in southern Sinai Peninsula, of which Mount Sinai itself is one particular peak.
[4:35] We've got examples of that, you know, in Scotland. You know, the Cairngorm Mountains, for example, are a range of mountains in which there are lots of different peaks. Many of them, or some of them at least, higher than Cairngorm itself, from which the mountain range takes its name.
[4:52] So whilst there is Cairngorm as a particular peak, there is also the Cairngorms, which includes the likes of Ben McDewi, which is Hybriria, and Derry Cairngorm, and Ben Ann, and Ben Abour, and all these other mountaintops and so on, which are part of the range.
[5:09] And so, although that is part of the range, yet there's a particular peak, which is one of them, with the particular name from which the others take their name. Likewise, in Aberdeenshire, which is not far from where I grew up, there was the hill, the Benighi.
[5:25] And Benighi, one tends to think of as one particular hill, but of course, it's effectively a range of tops. And there's no one top that is simply Benighi. There's different ones like the Mither Tap, which is the most prominent one.
[5:38] There's a lump on the side of the hill that you see as you're coming down from Elgin towards Aberdeen. And then there's the Oxen Craid, which is actually the highest point on the Massif, but it's not the most spectacular.
[5:51] You've got others like Millstone Hill and so on. But all of these are different peaks within the Benighi range itself, but people tend to just refer to it as one hill or one mountain.
[6:01] So it could be any of these explanations for Horeb over against Sinai. It's not a problem, because the mount of God is quite clear which one is meant.
[6:12] It's the one in which the law ends up being given. In verses 2 to 6 here then, we have the appearance of the angel of the Lord.
[6:23] And although it's described as the angel of the Lord, most commentators would take it. It's not a created angel in the sense of a mere messenger, because the Lord himself speaks out of the bush.
[6:37] It is the Lord himself who addresses Moses and says, particularly in verse 6, I am the God of thy father. And a created angel might say, well, thus save the Lord, but he wouldn't have the authority to say, I am God.
[6:52] So it is the Lord himself. Some would take, say, the angel of the covenant, which is usually taken as being the Lord Jesus Christ, and that kind of pre-incarnational appearance.
[7:04] You know, that he's the one who led them through the wilderness as the angel of the covenant. He's the one who made perhaps his appearance in the flames of fire when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were cast into the furnace.
[7:15] So some commentators would suggest. Certainly this is no mere angel that appears in the flame of fire. It is the Lord himself. But there's no visible form.
[7:25] There's just a bush that burns and yet is not concealed. Now, the bush itself, we don't know what it was. It's likely to have been probably the acacia or the chicken wood, as it's recorded elsewhere in Scripture, which would be a wild thorn bush, which would be dry and brittle, and in which the desert abounds.
[7:49] But it must be quite a hardy, hard-wearing kind of wood, because that's what the Ark of the Covenant is made out of, the shooting wood or acacia, as we see, for example, in chapter 10, where the Lord gives instructions to Moses as to what it's all to be made out of.
[8:06] You see, when the Lord identifies Moses, it tells him to make the Ark of the Covenant, and what he's to make it from. A bigger part of it, I think it's chapter 25, perhaps, that it's in, where he tells him what he's to make the Ark out of.
[8:22] 25 verse 10 there. And so this is a hard-wearing wood, but it's very common in the desert. And it's quite entirely possible that if there'd been a time of drought, for example, and that may be one reason why Moses is going so far into the desert, looking for different pastures, maybe in the sort of the clefts of the rock, some of these parts of the Sinai Peninsula, apparently in the clefts of the rock there's quite the supplies of water springing from the rock mountains and so on.
[8:53] Then there's little lush areas in the gullies and in the sort of wadi areas where the grass grows better because of the dampness there. So there was possibility of pasture there.
[9:05] But he wouldn't normally range so far from the camp of his father-in-law were it not for the fact that there was a need to do so. That implies a possible time of drought.
[9:16] Now, of course, in a time of drought, everything in the desert is very, very dry, the sun's very hot. But an intense ray of heat or a spark or anything could set off a bush to be burning in this way.
[9:30] So let's bear in mind that the great sight, when Moses says, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, it's not, oh, look, a bush on fire. Because he must have seen that before many times in the desert.
[9:43] Somebody just burns up and something sets it off, or a ray of the sun gets focused through, maybe reflected off a brilliant stone or something like that, and sets off a branch or a bush at the fire.
[9:55] So it's not the fact that it's burning. That is not the great sight. I will now turn aside, verse 3, and see this great sight. Why the bush is not burnt? In the midst of as it's going on, and he must have seen it burning and then not paid it much attention.
[10:10] But then, as he was perhaps carrying on moving his locks, he looks again, well, it should be a blackened charcoal of remains by now. Why isn't it just shriveled up and all burned up?
[10:21] And it's still going away, still burning there. All the branches are still in place. So it's some time must elapse. Before having seen the bush burning, he realises, shoot, by now, it should be all burned up.
[10:35] Why isn't it consumed? So it's not just an instantaneous recognition. He sees it burning, and it keeps burning, and it is not consumed. That's what he turns aside to see, verse 3 makes clear, to see this great sight, why the bush is not consumed.
[10:54] And when the Lord saw that he turned aside, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. Now, he doesn't know who is addressing him.
[11:04] He knows it's some kind of supernatural power to which he might be attuned. He might recognise it's perhaps the angel of the Lord, or whatever. Some supernatural power of which, naturally, he is somewhat afraid.
[11:18] Here am I. Draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where on thou standest is holy ground. Now, it's not that the Lord wants to keep Moses or anybody else at arm's length, but rather, whilst he wants him to draw near, he wants him to draw near in reverence and in approach, but not in terms of curiosity.
[11:40] Not say, oh, let's look at this bush. I wonder why it's not burned up. Ooh, look how it's not burned up. It comes really peering close, sort of dissatisfying one's idle curiosity about these things.
[11:51] The main thing is not the bush. The main thing is not why it's not consumed. This is just a demonstration to Moses of God's power over creation, of how he can do anything, how he is able to preserve, for example, a people in Egypt, on a church throughout the ages, which, despite all the affliction and all that to which they are exposed, is yet not consumed, is still, despite all the infernal through which they must pass, is still somehow there in place.
[12:24] It is symbolic. It is in order to rivet Moses' attention, but it is not the main thing. The main thing is the Lord and his message for Moses.
[12:37] So he wants him to draw near, but not so near as to become familiar. So he says, stop where you are. Don't draw any closer. Now, James, of course, tells us, chapter 4, verse 8, draw an eye to God, and he will draw an eye to you.
[12:52] But God is the one who defines how close and how familiar we ought to be with him. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where on those standest is holy ground.
[13:05] In other words, you've turned aside to see the sight, you're drawing near to the bush. Where you are is close enough. Put off your shoes from off your feet, because you're already on holy ground.
[13:19] Now, you see the part of the thing is here. We tend to want to go right in there. We want to be right into God's pocket, as it were. We want to start to see him face to face, and the Lord is effectively saying, look, you couldn't handle it.
[13:32] You couldn't deal with it if you were to actually see me in my glory. Where you are is close enough. Not just is my holiness in the burning bush here, but my holiness has come out to you.
[13:44] I have met you where you are. You're already on holy ground. Put off the shoes from off your feet. Now, of course, this is partly a symbol of reverence. In some cultures, putting off the shoes, if not unlike in the former generations in our own country, when people wore hats, a gentleman would take off his hat in reverence.
[14:04] My former child, I love the old ex-fisherman, who was effectively housebound, but as he went about the house, he always had his fisherman's cap on. And yet, when I would pray with him at the end, he would always take it off and keep it in his lap.
[14:18] And then it would go back on again when I finished praying, and it would never come off the rest of the time. This is what people used to do. When they came into church, they'd take their hats off. When they come into somebody else's house, they'd take their hats off.
[14:29] In other cultures, you take your shoes off. Now, it's not exactly the same, because whilst taking off the hat, the veiling of the head is simply deference.
[14:40] It's simply politeness, politeness in a sense, recognising the importance or the worth of the person you're speaking to. You know, gentlemen, for example, in the streets might tip their caps to a lady by way of, you know, the shortened, abbreviated version of taking your hat off in an olden date.
[14:59] And it doesn't mean that, oh, they're practically the queen, but it's a courtesy. It's a reverence. In the same way as a former lady might stand up when a lady came into the room. But it's a courtesy.
[15:09] It's a reverence. In the other culture where you take your shoes off, it's not quite the same. It's rather a recognition of defilement, because you've brought in the mud and dirt or dust of outside, and you don't want to be walking that through somebody's house and you take your shoes off at the door.
[15:28] And by the same token, even in pagan temples, when the priests or the worshippers would go in, they might leave their shoes at the door, because the ground whereon they were standing or entering was recognised to be cleaner, holier, purer than they themselves were.
[15:43] So it's a consciousness of defilement. And in that sense, when you enter somebody's house, you're sort of giving them greater honour by saying, well, yours is a place I do not want to defile by someone as unworthy as me.
[15:57] So this is an expression of reverence, but also a consciousness of defilement. Now it's not that Moses is such an evil person. It's not that he's so defiled with so much sin.
[16:09] But all of us, in comparison to God, are all of us as filthy rags. All of us are unholy, are all impure by comparison to the holiness of God.
[16:23] You see, we tend to think in terms of, hey, we're not too bad, just the odd sin here or there, just a wee bit of wrongdoing, but we're really pretty good if we think of it in terms of a clean white handkerchief.
[16:35] There's a wee spot of dirt there, there's a wee bit of blemish there, but you know, it's not too bad. But what God requires is spotless. What God is himself is spotless, purer than anything in this world.
[16:47] And if we're going to enter into his presence, then it must be under cover of such purity and such holiness as we ourselves cannot produce. So, the Lord, who's of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, he invites Moses closer, but then says, right, far enough.
[17:05] Take off your shoes from off your feet for the place where on our standards is holy ground. So far, but no further. You don't need to come any closer because the holiness of God has come out to meet you.
[17:19] Now, in that one sense, of course, is a spiritual application for us. We cannot climb up to heaven to be where the Lord is. Even if we could, we couldn't enter in because of our sin. The Lord has brought his holiness down to us.
[17:32] The place whereon we stand is effectively holy ground, not because it's a church building or anything like that, but because the Lord himself has come to this earth. His holiness has reached to where we are.
[17:45] He is already accessible. He is already reachable by where we are. Not because we are called to climb a little higher and go to where He is, but because He has come down to us.
[17:58] He has already met us in our need, met us in our individual situation. There is none, there is nobody who can say, well, I'm not good enough yet to come to the Lord.
[18:09] I'm not righteous enough. It's true, they're not. But the Lord has come to them where they are. The Lord meets them in their need. The Lord does not say to the Israelites, well, if you can come out halfway, maybe to the borders of Egypt, and maybe get through the Philistines and the other nations and then I'll bring you the rest of the way into the promised land there.
[18:30] No, He comes to them where they are, in the depths of their slavery, in their need, in their hopelessness, in their idolatry, and meets them and says, I am the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
[18:43] And this is the next, the next thing, of course, about it. It's no mere sight. And the word of the Lord comes with the glory of the Lord. It's not just something to sort of wow Moses.
[18:56] The purpose of this symbolic blazing bush is so that the word of the Lord will speak to Moses and already have his attention.
[19:07] Wherever the glory of the Lord comes, the word of the Lord follows it. And it is personal. It is personal to him. He speaks out of the which Moses, Moses.
[19:18] And he said, Here am I. And then he said, Moreover, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses filled his face for he was afraid to look upon God.
[19:32] Now, we've got the holiness of God. But here now, we have the expression of the living God. And, you know, left to ourselves, we wouldn't necessarily recognize this as, you know, confirming the truth of spiritual resurrection.
[19:46] God appears to Abraham, of course, says, I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward. He appears, Genesis 26, verse 24, to Isaac, the Lord appeared unto him the same night and said, I am the God of Abraham, my father, fear not.
[19:59] But by then, Abraham was dead. And he might just have been saying, Well, I'm the same God that spoke to your dad, to Abraham. So, I'm still here for you, Isaac. So, it's okay. In Genesis 28, at verse 13, the Lord appears to Jacob.
[20:13] And he says, I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac. But Isaac is still alive at that point. The land, whereon thou liest, I will give it to thee and to thy seed.
[20:25] We wouldn't of ourselves, and people, even in Jesus' day, would not of themselves necessarily recognize this verse to be a proof verse or a proof text for the reality of resurrection.
[20:39] But our Lord himself takes it as being that and applies it to that. In other words, interpreting this verse as in the way in which the Lord intended it to be understood.
[20:53] We obviously, all of us, we miss the mark to a greater or lesser extent, but he does not. In Matthew chapter 22, in Mark chapter 12, in Luke chapter 20, the Lord Jesus uses this verse as proof positive of the reality of the resurrection of the dead, the spiritual resurrection of the dead, resurrection of the body, of course, comes later at the end of time.
[21:17] We'll just take Mark as the example here. Mark 12, verse 26 and 27. As touching the dead that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses how in the bush God spake unto him saying, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
[21:35] He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. He therefore do greatly err. Now, almost certainly, as we've mentioned in the past, the Sadducees that Jesus was speaking to who didn't believe in the resurrection almost certainly took this mantra, you know, he's not the God of the dead, he's only the God of the living.
[21:53] Because he was a living God, unlike the idols of the nations round about, you know, a living God, he must be the God of the living. He couldn't be the God of the dead. So once you're dead and gone, that's it.
[22:04] He's the God of the living, he's not the God of the dead. So Jesus turns that back a little and says, well, he's not the God of the dead, he's the God of the living. But he says to Moses, hundreds of years after Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are long dead in God, he's gone, he says, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
[22:24] How can he be their God if they are all dead and he's not the God of the dead but of the living? Therefore, he must be the God of the living as you say. But these people are alive spiritually in his sight, in his presence, their souls are with them.
[22:41] He is the God of the living. The resurrection is a reality. That's not my word or my interpretation. It is that of Christ who takes this as a proof text for the resurrection.
[22:54] So it's important in this verse 6 that it states the reality of spiritual resurrection. That those who die in the Lord, their souls go immediately to be with him and they are more alive then than they have ever been before.
[23:11] And Moses hid his face where he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people. In the literal in the Hebrew it's seeing I have seen.
[23:25] Seeing I have seen. Or as Acts 7 verse 34 puts it, bearing in mind that's it put into Greek, he said, I have seen, I have seen. It is the repetition which is the emphasis.
[23:37] I have surely seen. Seeing I have seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt. And I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters for I know their souls and I am come down to deliver them and to bring them.
[23:50] So there's four things there you recognize. I have surely seen, I have seen the affliction of my people joining you. I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters.
[24:01] I know their souls and I am come down to deliver them. God is not saying, oh I think isn't that terrible I see that but what a shame.
[24:12] Isn't that sad? No, but now is the time and the time has come. I have seen, I have heard and I know and I am come down to help and to deliver them.
[24:23] Now of course the Lord physically is no longer with us as he was in the days of his flesh. But in terms of his spirit he is, if we can say it reverently, more powerful to save and deliver now by his spirit than he was merely in the days of his flesh.
[24:40] Simply because the ability to reach and to deliver and to be involved in the lives of individual souls is multiplied beyond any restriction in a way that in the days of his flesh he was restricted.
[24:56] And we say it in all reverence. If he's in one place he can't be in the other. But by his spirit he can be present with his people everywhere throughout the world. he can be involved and at work in lives all over the world at the same time.
[25:09] He is far more powerful to deliver and to save now through the giving of his spirit than he was merely in the days of his flesh. So it is true for us now as it was for the Israelites then when the Lord says I have surely seen the affliction of my people.
[25:30] Maybe we're not physically in Egypt but we can be spiritually in Egypt and we can be suffering just as they did in Egypt or feel like we are. I have surely seen seeing I have seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt.
[25:44] I don't know what the state of your life is just now but I can be pretty certain there's plenty of times when you feel like you are in Egypt when you feel like you are in bondage and struggling and suffering and effectively like a slave in this fallen world.
[26:00] I have seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt. I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters. How often have we cried out to the Lord perhaps not in particularly reverent prayer and just a cry of plea a cry of anguish and frustration and a longing to be delivered.
[26:21] We haven't perhaps got the length of turning in until without the reverent prayer but we cry to heaven and perhaps in the midst of our frustration and anguish we don't do it the most reverently but the Lord hears the cry.
[26:34] I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows. Now this is something the Lord uses as well to the seven churches in Revelation.
[26:45] I know. I know your labours. I know your faithfulness. I know your sufferings. I know also the things you're not so good at. But when he says I know it's in the sense of I bear with you.
[27:00] I share in that reality. I know their sorrows and whatever your sorrows may be whatever your struggles may be you may take it not only from God's word but you may take it as certainty.
[27:14] He knows what you're going through. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good land and a large and to a land flowing with milk and honey to the place of the Canaanites the Hittites the Amorites the Perizzites the Hivites and the Jebusites.
[27:34] I am come down to bring them out and to deliver them. This is why Christ has come in order to deliver souls in bondage in order to save in order to redeem in order to transform lives which are conscious perhaps not of heaven's glory or of the knowledge of Jesus but just conscious that life is terrible for them or else life may be okay but it is empty and it is meaningless and it is in the spiritual sense drudgery and every day seems to be like the last there has to be more to it than this to this bondage to this slavery to this emptiness I have seen and I have heard and I know their souls and I am come down to deliver them.
[28:30] This is why Christ has come down. This is why he has lived the perfect life you couldn't live and I couldn't live. This is why he has offered up his life upon the cross as the perfect once and for all sacrifice that you and I could never give.
[28:46] This is why he has come that he might redeem lost souls. Not just the drug dealers and the homeless and those who are left in the gutters of life but the ordinary people as well.
[29:00] The ordinary indifferent souls. Perhaps like you and me the ones who think we're not bad enough to merit special attention we're not good enough to be saints we're just ordinary plodding along in the middle but oh how empty life seems.
[29:14] This is why Christ has come to redeem the lost. I am come down to deliver them up out of the land of Egypt to take them into a good land to take them into a land where Christ dwells to a life where Christ is the driving force and the power in your life not only here but hereafter.
[29:36] Now therefore behold the cry of the children of Israel has come unto me and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them and so far so good. Moses will be thinking great this is fine God's heard he's come down my brothers and sisters in Israel he's going to deliver them out of the hand of Egypt the Egyptians he's going to redeem them from their slavery brilliant I love it Lord go for it that's great come now therefore yes and I will send thee what oh no no no no no no Lord no no that's fine you do it Lord you just you just do it not me no no no no no Lord not me you can imagine sort of emojis like smiley face smiley face smiley face suddenly sad face because no no no I don't want to be the one here Lord you do it you do it with your power no no no don't send me come now therefore I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt and you can imagine
[30:39] Moses' heart suddenly clunking into his boots if he was wearing any if he hadn't taken them off already because he's on holy ground but he would just be absolutely devastated this not what me no no no Moses said unto God who am I that I should go on to Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt you know when I was a prince of Egypt they didn't listen to me then when I tried to help them they didn't want to know when I killed the Egyptian they just threw it back in my teeth they didn't want me then they're not going to want me now and perhaps this may be one thing the Lord needs Moses to know it's not in your strength it's not by might or by power it's my strength because here's the response certainly I will be with thee remember what he said verse 10 there come now therefore I will send thee unto Pharaoh and certainly I will be with thee you're not called to do it alone Moses whatever I ask you to do
[31:41] I'm not going to leave you to it I'm not going to just send you out there and say well I'll be going do your best and bye and leave you to it he's going to be with them every step of the way but he wants Moses to be the instrument in his hand and this is where so many of us balk this is where so many of us say well no no Lord not me thanks you can work your miracles and do your great stuff and that's fine just leave me out of it and let me just share in the fruits that I don't really want to share in this log and the danger thanks very much but we don't always have a choice this is why the Lord has waited the time that he has waited this is why the Lord has equipped us with the gifts or abilities or track record that he has given us certainly I will be with thee come now I will send thee unto Pharaoh that I mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt 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 this is the point at which most of us back off we are not sure that we want the
[32:51] Lord to take charge of our lives in this way but you know if you go on to the end of the chapter and he begins to spell out what it's going to cost and how it's going to be but the assurance of success we might say come on how many years have passed how many years have you been in the desert how many years have you been on the run here you are keeping the flock of your father-in-law is this it is that all your life was for miraculously saved from the slaughter of a previous Pharaoh and all the other babies are being cast into the river you were saved you were spared you were brought up by a princess of Egypt you've been given all the wisdom and learning and ability of the Egyptians you've been saved now here in the desert and looked after all these years you're the one I want to go back oh no no what do you think it was all for what do you think your life was meant for up until now what are you planning to do with your life if not devoted to the greatest cause and the greatest king in heaven and in earth what is it that's so brilliant that it trumps the call of God on your life what is it that you hope at the end of the day to look back and say oh well I'm so glad I said no to God because look at all the things I was able to do look at all the things I was able to achieve and the little pie of influence and wealth and power
[34:12] I made for myself and as you breathe your last and wave it goodbye will that satisfy you and I both know that it won't what were you planning to do with your life what was so great that God couldn't be a part of it here is the invitation here is the thought the Lord is saying come I will send thee to whatever it is he's going to send you to to whatever it is he wants from your life and he says certainly I will be with thee what else are you going to do with the rest of your life what do you think it's been for up until now man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever Moses was going to glorify God as no other prophet had done before or would do again until Christ came indeed himself in Deuteronomy 18 he prophesies that another prophet like unto me will the
[35:17] Lord send who would be the fulfillment of all the scriptures who would be the Messiah that's why when people ask John the Baptist are you Elijah are you that prophet they mean the prophet in Deuteronomy 18 the one that Moses predates one like unto him that's how important Moses was to become but at this stage he hadn't done it yet at this stage he hadn't started yet all the years of his life that had been so far were just a preparation for for what if not for the Lord because the greatest adventure and experience and meaning and fulfillment of his life was about to begin if he was prepared to submit it all to the Lord what else are you going to do what do you plan to be the chief end of your life if not to glorify God and enjoy him forever certainly I will be with thee and he said what they'll say to me what's his name who is this
[36:19] God you're saying don't have Abraham Isaac and Jacob that's great okay but who is he you know all the idols and inventions and false gods and the Egyptians and the Romans and the Greeks they all names what will I say is the name of Israel's God that's what he says there's no descriptive of God I am that I am this is what those say that I am that sent me 1 Corinthians 8 verse 4 Paul says concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice to we know that an idol is nothing in the world that there is no other God but one an idol is nothing whatever name you give him whatever characteristics you are striving whatever statues you make half man half bull half eagle half bird dog or whatever it might be as the Egyptians did they're all inventions of man's mind God doesn't get portrayed by anything I am that I am I am permanent I am eternal
[37:19] I am the Lord of heaven and earth of time and of eternity there is no other descriptive I am than I am and this is what you'll say to the Israelites I am hath sent me unto you and say to them I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob you thought you were just living in idolatry you thought you were just around the gods of Egypt who seemed so powerful when I am the God who appeared to your forefathers I am calling you Hebrews out of Egypt to serve and honour me the God of your fathers is the living God he's saying to them he is the true God was and is the living God the one with whom our nation covenanted in days gone by was and is the living God and all the ways in which we think we're so much more sophisticated now and now that we are multicultural and multi faith and all other religions are equal and all the other gods and so on are just as good as the
[38:29] God that we used to worship ourselves well it was just our little God so there's other people's little gods and because we don't want to set ourselves above them we say that our God is just as important as their gods we do not define God by man we define man by God who has created him the living and true God is the one who we did worship in days gone by and who some few still he has not lost his power to redeem but we as a people like the Israelites of old have become sunk in multi faith multi religious idolatry and the greatest idolatry of all is the idolatry of the self we have put ourselves in the place of God how's that working out for us as a nation how's that working out for you as an individual how great is your life without not so great
[39:37] I'm guessing the Lord God of your fathers the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob the great I am has come that he might deliver you out of that sink of lostness and bondage in which all of us are commanded to verse 17 I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt I said it and that should be enough God speaks and it is so that's not the case for men we have to speak and say and then do God speaks and it is so that's how he created the heavens and the earth that's how he brought Lazarus out to the grave Lazarus come forth he speaks and it is so the Israelites will listen he says Pharaoh will not I'm not going to bring him out which I will do in the midst of and after that he will let you go I'll give you favor in the sight of the
[40:39] Egyptians everyone shall borrow of her neighbour and her jewels of silver and gold and raiment ye shall put them upon your sons and upon your daughters ye shall starve the Egyptians you won't go empty I'm going to bless you I'm going to make it worth your while there's going to be a cost there's going to be a struggle there's going to be challenges and difficulties but you are going to come out the winners in the end you're going to come through it with blessing and success and riches I am going to fulfill my words and yes there's going to be a cost but hey what else are you going to do with your life what command the call of the living God I am that I am and he calls men and women and children like you and me to leave behind all the false dreams of the world and follow the true reality of the living
[41:42] God the God of your fathers the God of their fathers the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the covenants of old in this land and theirs this is not a God of the dead but a God of the living this is not just a God of the past but a God of the future this is the eternal one I am that I am and this is what you say to them I am that sent me unto you and so it is this night I am is calling to sinners like you and me to follow him and hear for them and it begins now because the holiness of God has come out to meet you where you are this is the time to respond and to see what the Lord will do that it may be said at the last what hath God wrought let us pray