FRIDAY 24 September 2021 “I AM” Exodus 3:9-14

Click To Download and Print Document or PDF

Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends, all around the world,

When you receive a request or invitation to help someone be it a friend, family member or total stranger, what are the questions which run through your mind first? Perhaps “How much will my helping them inconvenience me?” or “I wonder what I’ll benefit from helping them?” In the past 18 months or so, hundreds of millions of people around the world have needed help during this COVID pandemic. What have you done when you’ve been asked?

We’re at a strategic moment in the multi-sensory experience Moses is having on a hillside talking to a burning bush! No he hasn’t lost his mind, in fact Moses is having a holy encounter with God that is changing his understanding of God, and today let’s watch as Moses’ entire life purpose changes in what God says next, as God invites Moses to engage in something world changing. The Exodus record says:

“The LORD said…’and now the cry of the Israelites has reached ME, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now go, I am sending YOU to Pharaoh to bring My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” (Ex. 3:9,10) Look at Moses… his eyes are open wide, his mouth is hanging open, he’s looking around to see if there is someone else on the hillside to whom the voice is speaking?! When God calls the people “Israelites” Hs is of course referring to the nearly 1 million people who can each and all trace their ancestry back, through one of Jacob’s 12 sons, directly to Jacob, whom God had given the name ‘Israel‘. (Gen. 35:10) Thus the ‘children of Israel‘ are “Israelites‘. God refers to them as “MY people“, because they are the Covenant people God promised He would bring into existence miraculously through Abraham and his wife Sarah even though they were old and childless. Remember Genesis 17? When God speaks of their oppression in Egypt, God is confirming that He sees, He hears and He fully understands the abusive slavery in which these people have lived for many generations. All of that was good news to Moses. It encouraged him, and should encourage us, to know that God is fully aware of everything taking place here on planet earth, and that He cares deeply, and sometimes is very concerned, enough to take action here!

But what shocked Moses to the point of nearly sucking the breath out of his lungs was God’s statement “So now go, I am sending YOU to Pharaoh to bring My people, the Israelites out of Egypt.” You’ll remember Moses had grown up in that palace royalty as the adopted son of the Pharaoh’s daughter. Now in the 70 years or so since that adoption, likely her father Pharaoh had died and his son was now the Pharaoh. That means Moses and the current Pharaoh would have likely grown up together in the palace and were probably similar in age. The current Pharaoh, however, knew very well that Moses was adopted, he was not born into Egyptian royalty. Also, that Moses had been stripped of any royal position and exiled from Egypt because he had killed an Egyptian slave master! (Ex. 2:11,12) So it shouldn’t be hard for you and I to put ourselves in Moses’ sandals, looking at the sheep, then looking at a burning bush, then looking out over the horizon toward Egypt, and remembering… I wonder if Moses simply began to tremble at the thought of what going back there might mean for him? Finally Moses cleared his throat and spoke, with hesitation, with great doubt, and maybe even some fear… “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Ex. 3:11) I wonder if the response to Moses was nothing but silence? The bush kept burning, but not consumed. The sheep were growing restless. Nothing… What do you do my friends when God seems silent and you are anxiously awaiting an answer, maybe even an urgent answer?

Finally… “And God said, ‘I will be with you….” I have a feeling God paused right there and just let that hang in the air for a little while, maybe even a long while. So what does that mean? Was that burning bush going to uproot itself and be driven by the wind alongside Moses all the way to Egypt? What was Moses supposed to understand here, in this moment? He’d never had an encounter with God before? He had no Bible, no Pastor, Priest or Rabbi, no Church… only a burning bush encounter and a voice claiming to be God!? And what would you have done my friends? I suspect Moses thought to himself… “That’s not enough for me. I don’t even know what that really means? I know what that Egyptian palace was and I know the young man who is now the Pharaoh and it would require something even more spectacular than a talking burning bush for this Pharaoh to do anything other than kill me on the spot, if I go back there. I wouldn’t get 10 feet into that throne room and it would be over for me. I’m glad this voice will go with me, but what does that mean? God… I need more!’

The voice continued… “And this will be a sign for you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” (Ex. 3:12) So let me ask you friends. Would that be enough assurance for you if you were in Moses’ sandals that day? No, not for me either! Moses didn’t move. Look at him. Moses is struggling now to find the right words. How do you ask God the kind of questions that need answers in such times? I think Moses shifted from shepherd thinking to Egyptian leadership thinking. In his mind, he put himself back there in Egypt, talking to the Hebrews who only knew him as the Egyptian royal official who was exiled in shame. He also imagined himself walking up those audacious steps leading up to the palace throne room, trying to figure out how he was going to explain why he was back in Egypt wanting an audience with the Pharaoh, and why the guards shouldn’t just kill him on the spot!??

Finally Moses found the words: “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ ‘Then what shall I tell them?’ (Ex. 3:13) Now that’s a really good question for God, don’t you think? I imagine God did not respond right away… just letting the question hang over that burning bush. Not because God was searching for a good answer, but to give Moses time to ponder the magnitude of the miracle happening here in front of this bush on fire! Finally God speaks: “I AM WHO I AM’ This is what you are to say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.” (Ex. 3:14) Look at Moses’ furrowed brow, his hand grabbing his beard, rubbing his chin. Again he looks at the bush, then the sheep, then way out over the horizon toward Egypt. What had he just heard? What did it mean? The voice spoke again. . .

“Say to the Israelites, ‘the LORD’, the God of your fathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob – has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation. Go now, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, – a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Ex. 3:15-17)

Now my friends, on paper in Exodus 3, you can read through this conversation between Moses and a burning bush in about 3 minutes, but I’m suspecting Moses has been barefoot in front of this bush on fire for at least 30 minutes, maybe longer. Each word spoken either by Moses or the voice from the fire, has been carefully selected and spoken and with emphasis. History is being made here. And Moses keeps wondering when it would be appropriate to walk away from this bush, take his sheep and move on, never whispering a word of this to anyone, and simply live his life as a nameless shepherd on the back side of nowhere. I think Moses is in another of those long pauses right now. The bush keeps burning, the sheep are restless, the sun is hot, his bare feet are on the hot sand burning… well you know what that’s like if you’ve been to any beach in the summer. I wonder if Moses takes a long drink from his water skin, wipes his mouth, leans forward, at least as close as he can so he doesn’t singe his eyebrows and his beard, maybe even saying to himself, “Am I going crazy? What is really going on here?”

Let’s pause right here and spend the next 24 hours with Moses trying to figure out what’s happening here, my friends, and what it should mean to you and me? What do you think Moses should do? Just walk away or keep the conversation going? Are you in a place with God right now my friends that you are wondering the same thing? Are you needing a miracle and yet it seems simply so outrageous to even ask God for the impossible? Have you been searching for the right words to use as you come to God asking for His help? Do you believe He knows all about your situation? I’ve found a song that might help us as we ponder God’s miraculous power in the face of impossible need. I hope it helps you consider what the Holy Spirit might want you to do in whatever you are facing right now in your life. Here’s the link. . .

Today’s Scripture is Exodus 3:9-14.

Choose below to read or listen.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).

Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.