Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Do you have a ‘nickname’? A name by which people call or know you that is different from your ‘legal name’? Perhaps you have formally, legally changed your name? Names are very important aren’t they my friends, for they help us distinguish people from one another. Is it possible you have multiple names? May I ask, do you know anyone who has the same name as you? When I was in High School there were two of us who had the same name, and yes, we were in the same class! We were from different families, different parts of the country, we even looked very different and had different interests, but we shared a name! We did have different middle names and sometimes that was helpful, especially when we found ourselves in groups where we were seated or listed alphabetically.
Did you know there are many names which have been attributed to GOD over the centuries? Sometimes a person who had a very significant encounter with God gave God a new name based on that experience. That’s what Hagar did, as recorded in Genesis 16, when she was suddenly confronted by an angel of the LORD as she was lost in the desert and almost desperate, having been rejected by her mistress Sarai because she had been obedient and was pregnant with Abram’s child. Feeling she was all alone, and abandoned by anyone who should have cared for her, Hagar was overwhelmed that God knew where she was and the desperate situation in which she found herself. So she gave God the name EL ROI by saying “YOU are the God who sees me!” (Genesis 16:13). From that day to this, when a person feels lost, abandoned, rejected, alone, or forgotten, when they pray they find hope in praying to God by the name “El Roi”, “the God who sees me and knows what’s going on in my life.”
Did Moses know that story? I can’t answer that, but what I assume is that Moses felt many of the same emotions Hagar felt. For the past many years, perhaps 40, Moses had been living a simple life in a far corner of a remote, rugged area of southern Palestine. He’d been living with the family of Jethro, married to one of his daughters Zipporah, and tending sheep for a living. Oh my how far from the royal life he’d lived from the time he was about 3 years old when adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter, after having been drawn up out of the Nile river. You’ll recall he had come to the uninvited rescue of a Hebrew slave being beaten by his slavemaster, and Moses had killed that slavemaster! That act resulted in his eviction from the Egyptian royal family and exile from Egypt. In his wandering, Moses met Jethro’s daughter tending her sheep by a well, and she was kind enough to invite him home for dinner…and thus he eventually became both son-in-law and employee of Jethro, tending his sheep.
We’ve been looking at Exodus 3 and this shocking, life changing encounter Moses is having with God at a burning bush on Mount Horeb’s hillside. Yesterday I left you contemplating that God had answered one of Moses’ very important questions…WHO ARE YOU God? Oh he didn’t ask it that way, rather he said “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) I love that question and I applaud Moses for having the courage to ask it! May I ask you… have you ever asked God such a question? Have you ever asked God to explain to you, in very personal terms, WHO God wants you to understand that He is? Has God shown you specific attributes that He has or a specific aspect of His character as God has involved Himself in your life? How and when has that happened for you?
Isn’t it interesting God did not ask Moses if Moses knew the story of Hagar and the name “EL ROI”, nor did God ask Moses if he knew the name “EL SHADDAI”, (God Almighty) which was the name by which God introduced Himself to Abraham in Genesis 17 when He explained the Covenant of both land and descendants. Nor did God ask Moses if he knew the story of Abraham and Isaac up the mountain to sacrifice but then God provided a ram for the sacrifice, and Abraham gave God the name “JEHOVAH JIREH” (The LORD Provides). That story is found in Genesis 22. In truth, I can’t tell you how much Moses knew about God as he approached this talking, burning bush…but he sure was learning quickly, wasn’t he, as we’ve seen in Exodus 3:2-12.
On this historic occasion, God introduced Himself by a never before known name… “YHWH”, often translated JEHOVAH, and you’ll see recorded in Exodus 3:14 that God explained this new name this way: “I AM WHO I AM”! If you have an English language Bible, most likely you’ll see this name spelled LORD with all capital letters. From what I have found, this is the most frequently used name of God in the Old Testament. In fact God said to Moses “This is My name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.” (Ex. 3:15) In fact, God was sending Moses on a remarkable mission… to return to Egypt and “…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…” (Ex. 3:16)
So, my friends, what was Moses supposed to understand about God with this simple yet profound name “I AM”? Already Moses had learned, in that conversation with the burning bush, that God was Holy, and that God was eternal, and that God was the personal God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that God was the Covenant keeping God. Moses had learned God was fully aware of what was going on in Egypt to the Hebrew slaves, and their misery had awakened deep compassion in God. Moses had even learned God was a strategic God who had made a plan to rescue the 1 million Hebrew slaves and bring them into the land that He had promised to Abraham 500 years before. But now, with this new name I think Moses was learning that God was beyond human comprehension. God was the origin of all things. God was infinitely more than Moses or any person or all humanity would ever need! WOW… have you learned that about God my friends?
I wonder if God paused, giving Moses time to think, to imagine the implications of what he was hearing? Then the burning bush voice speaks again: “Moses, the elders of Israel will listen to you. Then, you and the elders are to go to the Pharaoh 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 desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.” (Ex. 3:18) Look, do you see what I see? Moses is shaking his head back and forth. There is no way… no way Moses and the Hebrew elders would be permitted into the Pharaoh’s court to say such things… or if they were allowed in, they would probably be carried out, as dead men!
The voice continued, as though God was reading Moses’ mind: “I know that the Pharaoh of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So 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.” Moses’ head isn’t shaking with quite as much certainty now. I think Moses looks at his sheep…oh life had been so much simpler before he saw this burning bush. Then Moses probably looked west, over the horizon toward Egypt. Go back to Egypt…really? The man Moses remembered, who is now the Pharaoh, was a stubborn, hard hearted, prideful young man. With the crown of Egypt on his head, the golden scepter of the Pharaoh in his hand, this man was likely a ruthless tyrant. He feared no one. He was god in Egypt and the only other gods were man made, lifeless, meaningless idols. It would require miraculous power unlike anything ever seen in Egypt for this Pharaoh to even consider what this burning bush was talking about. The more Moses thought about it, the more I imagine Moses’ head is shaking “NO” in disbelief. It was so far outside the realm of possibility, so far beyond anything he could imagine… it simply didn’t make any sense at all!
I think it would be good for us to pause right here and spend this weekend with Moses by this bush, pondering what he and we have heard. When you consider the most powerful people in your country, what would it take for them to bow their knee before God, doing whatever God told them to do, to change the situation in your country? I leave you today with this brief question that God has asked of people in our world on multiple occasions: “Is anything too hard for God?” (Luke 1:36; Numbers 11:23) What are you facing in your life, your family, your world that only God can fix?? Here’s a song of worship to help us ponder the question:
Today’s Scripture is Exodus 3:13-20.
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”.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Email
WhatsApp