Here I Am (Exodus 2:11-3:22)

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Morning church, you can go ahead, grab your Bibles, open up to Exodus chapter two. Exodus two, we’ll be starting in verse 11. Exodus 2:11. Right. As you’re turning there, a lot of you know my story. You’ve been coming for some time, but God saved me when I was in high school. I did not come from a Christian family, so saved as a teenager, and what that meant was there as a teenager, I had lots of passion and itty bitty understanding when it comes to the faith, which also then means I did not do so well my first few times evangelizing, especially my family, some really bad things, big mistakes. I lacked character as they knew all too well. Got the message wrong for sure, heavy emphasis on hell, not a whole lot on grace or Jesus and what he’s done for us. I just I wasn’t really ready at that point proclaim the gospel the way it needed to be proclaimed. Of course, none of us is at first, but a patient God gets us ready. We are all called if we are in Christ, and so we will all be equipped, meaning we reach a certain point where we got no excuse. We must be doing what God has asked us to do. Well, you can imagine, if I was unready as a 15 year old for personal evangelism, Moses was not ready to lead what would become the paradigmatic salvation event of the Old Testament and one of the great moments in all of history. And so we will see that in a collection of stories today, he’s not ready, but that God gets him ready provides what Moses lacks, and in so many ways, how he does that is by getting Moses’ eyes off of Moses and on to Moses’s God. And we have this shift in here, from who am I to who are you? God? Of course, that is the main theme in Exodus, right? Knowing God just who exactly he, who he is, and why that matters for us. So that’s where we’re headed. This morning, we got three scenes as we go, we’ll look at the first scene here, God’s man. And this is in Exodus 211, to 25 let me read it for us. One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people, looking this way and that, and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day, he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew the man said, Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid, and thought, what I did must have become known. When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. Now, a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to the rescue and watered their flock. When the girls returned to rewell, their father, he asked them, Why have you returned so early today? They answered. An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock. And where is he? Ray Well, asked his daughters, why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat. Moses agreed to stay with this man who gave his daughters aura to Moses in marriage, the poor gave birth to a son. Moses named him Gersham, saying, I have become a foreigner in a foreign land. During that long period, the king of Egypt died, the Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out in their cry for help, because their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. So we get absolutely no record of Moses’s childhood, similar to Jesus’s story. Of course, we actually learn in the book of Acts that we’ve jumped ahead 40 years right here. So Moses is 40 years old at this point, and you gotta remember where Moses was in this time, the cruel oppression they were living under these would have been a long 40 years because of the circumstances. You know, it’s like 30 seconds is like the blink of an eye, right? But 30 seconds, when you’re underwater, feels like an eternity, and that’s how the Israelites would have experienced these 40 years, and yet here they are, still God’s timing so often, so different from our own. But after Moses grows up, he’s a 40 and it says he went out to his own people, which is interesting, because he spent 3837 years in an Egyptian household. He could. Identify as an Egyptian, but he doesn’t. Instead, he sees himself as a Hebrew. He’s got the, you know, he’s a, he’s a third culture kid. If you’ve heard that term before, he you know, he’s a Hebrew, raised in an Egyptian culture. And so he’s a little confused. That’s how people go. I worked with Third Culture kids when I was on the mission field. I know what this is like, but Moses isn’t confused. He’s like, No, I am a Hebrew. And so when he sees this gross injustice, his blood boils. Let me ask you, have you ever been so mad that you’ve wanted to kill someone? You ever seen injustice that at the very least made you wish that that person was dead? I have it a lot in movies I find which is probably better, because then at least they’re not real people. But I’m watching and I’m going, I cannot wait until this guy gets vaporized by a missile. It’s going to make my soul happy. And that’s how Moses is feeling here, because, and the reason why we all feel this, of course, is because that longing for justice is hardwired in all of us. It is one of the pointers to the existence of God and proof that we are made in His image. Moses’s blood is boiling, and he looks around and he sees no one, and he strikes the Egyptian. It’s actually the exact same word that’s used so this Egyptians beating a Hebrew, striking a Hebrew, same word that’s used here for Moses, which does give us a little sense of the justice of the moment, because it sounds like this Egyptian was beating this Hebrew to death, and so Moses kills him here. Now, what do we make of this? I mean, are we supposed to commend or condemn Moses for this? I mean, he looks guilty, right? Because he looks around first, you know, he’s checking to see if there are police around, basically, before he commits a crime. Maybe, maybe he’s got a noble intention. Maybe he thinks, even though he hasn’t been called yet, that he is initiating the Exodus. Stephen even seems to suggest this in Acts chapter seven, when it says that Moses thought his people would would realize that God was using him to rescue them. So he thinks he’s the revolutionary. He’s Lennon or Robespierre, or whoever he’s about to lead these people out of their slavery, we actually get a hint that that’s what’s going on, because the same description is used in a passage in Isaiah. Here’s Isaiah 59 the Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one exactly what Moses just did, right? He saw that there was no one. He was appalled that there was no one to intervene, so his own arm achieved salvation for him. So God looks around, he sees that no one is pursuing justice or intervening, and so he acts. And that’s exactly what Moses does here, except Moses isn’t God, and that’s crucial. We see here the problem of taking matters into our own hands. Moses is not acting as an official arm of the state or anything like that, and he is committing murder. This is vigilante justice. And with apologies to Batman and his fans, vigilante justice is not justice. So he is guilty of murder. He is not ready to lead yet. And by the way, Israel is not ready to follow yet either, which you see on the very next day. I mean, Moses walks out, expecting that they’re all going to be singing red and black from Les Mis like getting ready for this revolution. And instead, he finds two Hebrews fighting each other. And by the way, the same word is used again for striking each other. And so he intervenes again. You can see Moses like puffing himself up. It’s all up to me, I guess I gotta take care of everything, all right. But he’s rejected. He’s not a Hebrew in their minds who made you judge and ruler over us. You’re not one of us. You haven’t suffered the way we have. You’ve been living in finery in the palace. They don’t see him as an Egyptian either, though, interestingly, because it says, like, you killed the Egyptian, not the other Egyptian, just the Egyptian. So he really is third culture in this guy’s mind. In fact, the culture that he has, the only thing that he’s known as at this point is that he is a murderer, and that puts him in good company in this book with Pharaoh. That’s the other murderer in this story. And so the Hebrews see Moses as no better than Pharaoh. He’s become like the guy he despises. This is the problem, by the way, with using the world’s means to fight the world’s ills, because we. Become like what we’re attacking. I heard a story just a few weeks back. It was a pastor that I know, and he was talking to another pastor who at one point was talking about how we need to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, turn the other cheek, and one of his congregants came up to him after the sermon and said, Where did you get this woke nonsense? The guy said, like, it’s not even just it is in the Bible. Like, this is Jesus. These are red letters, right? They’re all red letters, but still, this is Jesus’s words. You’d think the guy would feel chastened. He didn’t. Did not change his opinion. Now, it is not that you gotta look around and know what time it is not a time for loving our enemies. It’s time to fight like our enemies. We become like what we are attacking. And so the danger of using the world’s means to fight the world’s ills and Moses has become just like Pharaoh. And now worse, everybody knows which means Pharaoh knows which means he’s in big trouble. So he flees. This, by the way, is the first Exodus, if you think about it. Here is Moses, the Israelite, going out of Egypt, and timidian, which is the Sinai Peninsula. So to Sinai, this is not the Exodus we were hoping for, is it? This is the problem, right? Human sized efforts produce human sized salvation, and we need better than that. But here’s Moses in Midian now again on the Sinai Peninsula, and he sees another injustice, and he intervenes again. Moses has a definite justice bent, like some of us, but it is intervention with restraint. At least he’s maybe learned his lesson. He’s done murdering. So that’s good. That’s step one. It’s also interesting though, that he does this. It’s not just for his tribe. He is not a Midianite. He’s never identified as Midianite, and yet, still, he’s sticking up for the vulnerable. That is the mark of true justice, by the way, when you stick up for all who are vulnerable, not just your own tribe. This time, in contrast to the Hebrews before, he has received with gratitude and hospitality, eventually, anyway, once dad steps in and says, maybe you should have invited eligible bachelor over for dinner, hm. And sure enough, that’s what happens in part too, by the way, because he intervenes, not just with strength, but with service, because he waters their flock, and men didn’t do that. That’s a menial task that’s for the women to do. And so you see, he’s actually, this is anachronistic, but he’s he’s becoming like Christ. He’s doing the task that noone else wanted to do, like when Jesus, the night before his death, just himself, not just as a servant, but as a slave, knelt down and washed His disciples feet, the task no one else wanted to do. So it’s no wonder, then, that he’s offered Zipporah in marriage. He marries her gentleman. Just a word of advice here, if you’re looking for a wife, go to a well, make sure you take care of the sheep. That’s how Jacob found his wife. That’s how you like lots of people, okay, it’s the place to be. But he marries the poor. Think about what that means for him now, though. So he is a Hebrew genetically raised in Egypt by Egyptians now living in Midian married to a Midianite wife and working for a Midianite father in law. He’s not even a third culture kid. He’s a fourth culture kid. At this point, he is all sorts of messed up. And so he names his son gersham, which means 10s could go either way. Either I am a foreigner here, or I have been a foreigner. Both are, of course, true. He’s a foreigner there in, you know, on Sinai, and then he, he’s has been a foreigner his whole life, living in Egypt. I mean, this is just a guy who’s searching for a homeland. It’s no wonder, by the way, that later on, he’ll write Psalm 90, Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations, wherever I am, if you are there, I am home. So he is in exile, like Abraham, and in many ways, of course, like us, cuz we’re also all Third Culture kids, because we are citizens of heaven, living in America. And so the call is to be a faithful exile wherever we are. So there he is in exile, though, but notice it’s not wasted time and wilderness seasons never are wasted time in Scripture, and hopefully not in our own lives. God is preparing Moses to be the deliverer that he. Needs to be, because what is he doing for the next 40 years before we get to chapter three, and he’s called to lead the Exodus when he’s 80, what is he doing for those 40 years he is working as a shepherd on Sinai’s Peninsula. Is that going to be important later on? Do you think absolutely, he’s learning the geography of the place where he’s going to lead God’s people, and he’s also learning the sort of leadership to which he is called because he is the shepherd God’s people Israel. We read in Psalm 77 verse 20, that God led his people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. This is why, I mean, even today, like, what’s my title? Is one of the elders here at Cityview. I’m a pastor. Pastor means Shepherd. You look at a pastoral landscape. It’s not dadded dotted with churches. It’s dotted with sheep. This is the leadership to which we are called as Christians, so he’s learning this. What about you? How is God using this season? How did God use some season previously in your life to prepare you for the calling he has on your life. Don’t waste it. This is why we sang canvas and clay earlier, right? Like I know, none of these seasons are going to be wasted. You’re going to use them in my life, Lord, to prepare me to be who I need to be, to do what you’ve asked me to do. Meanwhile, back in Egypt, Pharaoh dies, there’s usually a jubilee moment when there’s the ascension of a new king. And so you’d expect the slaves to be freed, or oppression to shrink, or something like that, but the expectation is not met, and so they redouble their cries. You can actually see it in the words that are used. It’s a little bit obscured in the translation, but when it says they groaned and then they cried out, and then their cry for help reached God. Those are three very different words, and the first two have to do with visceral emotion. Groaned is a great word. That second one’s almost like shrieked. So this is just the response to the situation, but then it shifts in that third word, they cried for help. That’s prayer. That’s always used of prayer. So they moved from complaint to prayer, which is, of course, what we saw lament is in our series on lament recently. Did you notice also that prayer makes a difference because it says verse 24 God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant. Now it’s confusing. I get that there’s a whole bunch of paradox here, because God had already told them exactly how many years they would be in Egypt. This is not God going, Oh, alright, I guess we can deliver you. I hadn’t considered that possibility. No, he knew what was going to happen from eternity past and still, he ordained not just the ends, but the means to get us there as well. And the means is the prayers of His people. He hears them, he sees their suffering, he feels compassion, and he remembers the promises that he made to his people. This, by the way, is why when we pray, we plead the promises, because this is what God has said, I will do. And we go, Lord, would you do it? Then would you do it? I love the way the rabbis said it about this passage. They said looking upon leads to remembering, and remembering leads to action. Now God is in no danger of forgetting. He is omniscient. He forgets nothing, but he brings us along with this, like presenting himself, almost like a human, accommodating himself to us. He brings us along because, of course, it’s we who are in danger of forgetting the time is ripe for him to keep his covenant promises. That takes us to scene two. So we got God’s man second God’s mission. Let me read chapter three, verses one to 10. Now, 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. There, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the Bush was on fire, it did not burn up. So Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sight. Why the bush does not burn up. When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, Moses, Moses and Moses said, Here I am. Do not come any closer. God said, take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. Then he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. At this, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because they’re slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering, so I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up. Out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 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. Again he’s learning his geography at this point because he is in Horeb, that’s the region the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. And he’s actually at the foot of the mountain of God, which is Mount Sinai. So later on, when we get to Sinai, Moses, can be like, we’re going to want to set up camp here, trust me, I’ve been here before. So he’s learning what he needs to know. All of a sudden, though, the angel of the Lord appears to him in the burning bush. Now, Angel of Lord is a tricky concept, because we know that the angel of the Lord is also the Lord Himself. See that in verse four, where it’s the Lord who is speaking, even though it’s the angel of the Lord who is there. How can that be? Somehow the angel of the Lord is the presence of the Lord? Probably the mediated presence of the Lord. Is this the pre Incarnate Christ? Christ before he came in the flesh? Many commentators think so. Would make a lot of sense. Certainly, Jesus has existed since eternity past. Could be the spirit, just as easily though, could be something else entirely, whatever else it is, we know it’s how a holy God can reveal himself to unholy sinners. So again, that’s that mediated presence somehow, but he’s there in a burning bush. Now, why a burning bush? First of all, don’t need to overthink this. It’s an attention getter, right? That’s a big part of it, and it works, because Moses goes, I’m gonna check that out. It’s also prophetic symbolism, though, that’s what fire would be. I mean, we learn elsewhere in Scripture, our God is a consuming fire. And it’s interesting, because fire draws people on the one hand. Just look sometimes, especially on a cold night, but anytime you get a campfire and people go like this, like moss to the flame, a community group did it Friday night. We were all there, and we just kept moving our seats closer so that the smoke would keep the mosquitoes away. That’s how it works. So fire draws us, but fire is also dangerous. At the same time, we tell our kids, don’t play with fire, there’s a lesson there, because this burning bush reveals God, reveals him as holy. So how could we possibly approach but the Bush doesn’t burn, which is interesting also, and also revealing God, because bushes generally burn when they’re on fire, but God does not run out of fuel. Don’t know what’s happening here. Is this just really cool fire that doesn’t burn the wood? Or is God it just in an act of creation, consistently keeping the bush there? Either one, it doesn’t really matter. We see his sufficiency. We see his power, his creativity. We see His glory as the Eastern Church Father Gregory of Nyssa put it, Moses saw the transcendent essence and cause of the universe on which everything depends and alone subsists. But in this moment, we feel the tension of what is really the Bible’s big question, how can unholy sinners approach a holy God? And we get some answers here. The first answer is only because he approaches us first, or it’s only because God calls us to draw near. But even in that call, there’s this tension, right? Verse three, Moses thinks, Okay, I’m gonna go closer and see this strange sight. And then verse five, God says that’s close enough. That’s plenty close, right? God draws him near, but don’t come any closer. And in fact, take your sandals off as a sign of humility and as a reminder of the holiness of the one before whom you stand now, what exactly does holy mean? Then, since it seems to be this important word here, holy at its root means separate, separate, different from it’s actually used as, interestingly, in the Old Testament, in Genesis, it’s actually used of the temple prostitutes in the Canaanite religion. You’re thinking, well, that doesn’t sound holy, not if by Holy we mean godly, but in the sense of being set apart for special even if it’s wicked service of a false god, still special service, then in that sense it’s holy. So there is the idea of separate, and that’s what it means here, with reference to God in particular, to be holy means that God is holy. Other, there is an infinite chasm between the Creator and His creation, especially from us in terms of moral purity. So we’ve got this push and pull that’s come close, but keep your distance, and it’s almost a parable of the gospel call. Because how can we come to God in Christ? And there are two false steps we could make even now in coming to Christ. The first would be to magnify our holiness or minimize our humility. Either way you want to look at it, to magnify our holiness to say, I can approach God because I’m basically good. I can keep the rules well enough. And I’d written in my notes right here to read from Romans three, and Kyle already did that for us. We know that one’s not true because there’s no one righteous. There’s no one who does good. We have all together become worthless. We all fall short of the glory of God. So that’s a false step, but the second false step would be to minimize his holiness, as if God didn’t really care about sin. I love to sin. God loves to forgive. It’s a match made in heaven. It’s no big deal that I don’t keep His laws. And elsewhere in Romans, we read, The wages of sin is death, eternal condemnation. And so that’s why we come in humility before His Holiness. I should not be here, and I can only come because of Jesus and what He has done for me, in my place. That’s why Moses hides his face as soon as he figures out who’s talking to him, he is overwhelmed with a sense of guilt, rightly, by the way, and shame and fear, because he is a murderer. He has no business being there. So it’s why Moses hides his face, even though God has just revealed Himself as the God of his fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Did you catch though, that it also says in verse six, I am the God of your father, which is really interesting. It’s so interesting in fact, that the nib gives you a little note that says, maybe we’re talking about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Isaac and Jacob here. I don’t think we are, though he’s talking about Moses’s dad. Even though Moses wasn’t raised by his father, he did not learn his religion from his biological father, but he is still his father’s son. He is still called and we know that this meant something to him, because after the Exodus, when Moses writes his song of praise to God, he says this exodus 15, verse two, He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him. You see the power of legacy faith in this moment, what a word to us dads in the room. There is nothing I want more in this world than for my children to worship their fathers God. That’s it, right? That’s the top thing, dads. Is that how you feel and Is that how you are living your life? So that they would look at you and go, That’s the God I want to follow. That’s the God I want to worship. Kids. Do you have your eyes on Dad? Are you looking at him to learn not perfection, they would be the first ones to tell you they are not perfect, but to see what gospel repentance looks like, and gospel forgiveness and gospel faith. No idea how powerful this is. We’ve shared this story before because one of my favorite stories, one of Kyle’s favorite stories. We tell it as often as we can. So when somebody asks John Piper once, why do you believe the Bible and you’re expecting him to go off on the manuscript evidence, or how archeology corroborates it, or fulfilled prophecy, all of which you could do easily, those are all true things, by the way, you know what he said in answer to that question,
because my mama told me it’s true, don’t you love that that should be enough for us, depending on who mom and dad are, and so it is this story of covenant faithfulness to his people And to their children, that’s why you references Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to say, I have been faithful from generation to generation in your family, and I will continue to be. Then God reveals His motive, His purpose and His plan. We know that it’s covenant love that motivates him. He just said that, but we see that it’s also mercy. Verse seven, I’ve indeed seen the misery of my people. I’ve heard their cries. I’m concerned about their suffering. It’s mercy. It’s also justice. Verse eight, so I have come down. That’s almost a technical term that’s used. Used there when God checks in on how things are going. It’s what he does with Sodom and Gomorrah. He comes down to see if the report he heard is true. So he comes down to Egypt. He sees the oppression is real, and he’s ready to bring justice. So he’s motivated by love, by mercy, by justice. Then He reveals His purpose to take them from Egypt to the Promised Land, that From and To is so important, it is a picture of salvation. We are saved, not just from but saved to. We are saved like Israel, saved from slavery, not to human masters, but to our own sin, and by the way, the just wrath of God that rests on us as a result. So we are saved from sin and death and wrath, but we are saved to God, grace, and ultimately heaven, the truest promised land. So his motive, his purpose, it’s his plan. Then where it gets interesting. Did you notice the shift in verses seven to 10 from i, the word I actually shows up six times in verses seven to 10 in this English translation, at least, to you in the second half of verse 10. So now go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. Moses is God’s plan. This would have been a huge shock, right? I mean, you can picture Moses like nodding his head along with all of this like, Yes, Lord, this is what we’ve been hoping for. This is what we’ve been ready for. Right up until that moment, we know how shocked he is, because the shock of this moment reverberates all through the rest of this chapter and the whole of the next chapter as well, which we’ll see next week. But it shouldn’t shock us. God has a mission Our God is a missional God, but He sends people on it. So he sends Moses here to deliver his people out of Egypt into the Promised Land. He sends a lot of other people. He eventually sends His Son, Jesus. You read the Gospel of John, sometime the word sending shows up all over the place. Jesus is God’s sent one, right? My work is to do the will of the one who sent me. He says, this is his whole sense of identity in John’s gospel, I am the sent one. And you’re like, Okay, that makes sense. Moses, big thing, right? Jesus, He’s God Himself, really big thing. Then you get to the end of John’s gospel, and Jesus breathes on his disciples to give him the Holy Spirit, and has says this, as the Father sent me, so now I am sending you so we get that same shock from the eye to you, right? We are now God’s sent ones. We all have a commission go and make disciples of all nations. It’s even how we talk about it here again, Kyle said it for us earlier at Cityview, when we gather, we are being made to magnify Christ and then sent sent to serve others. Every Christian has a part to play in God’s mission. I think some of our confusion is that we think we’re gonna have a part to play. It’s gotta look like Moses. Let me burst your bubble for you. You ain’t Moses, okay, that’s a one time deal. But we’ve seen some other people in the story, haven’t we? Like most of us, are called to be like the midwives, just not going to do evil, even when we’re asked to, going to persist in doing good the cause of human flourishing. Or we’re like yoke bed Moses’s mom, who’s just a creative act of disobedience in order to obey God instead, and again, to preserve life. Or like Miriam, Don’t you just love Miriam’s story, by the way, she’s a kid, so kids, that means you are sent also, even now, you don’t have to grow up to be you gotta grow up to vote here, but you don’t have to grow up to be part of God’s mission. All Miriam does is follow the basket and then say, hey, you need you need help. I can get you help. You get the point right. We are, most of us, called to just ordinary faithfulness, and let that encourage you today. But let’s review. So Moses lacked competency, so God trained him. Moses really lacked character, so God purified him. We get the hints of it here, right, and that interplay between holiness and grace, so God. Made him God’s man to be sent on God’s mission. And let me just ask you before we move on to last scene, is there anything different when it comes to you and me? No, no, we lack competency, and so God makes us competent. In Second Timothy, 316, and 17, all scriptures God breathe is useful for teaching, rebuke and correcting, training and correcting, training in righteousness. Why? So that the servant of God, that’s all of us, may be thoroughly equipped for every good work we got what we need to do, what God has asked us to do. Okay, but what about our character? Well, we sang it. We sang it in camas and clay. It’s quoting from Romans, 828, God’s working all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to His purpose. But what is that good? Exactly, Romans, 829, to conform us to the image of Christ, to be made like Jesus. We are all called to lead people from and to as we declare the praises and proclaim the gospel of him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light that takes us to scene three, and the message we proclaim, and that Moses proclaims as well. Let me read the rest of the chapter, verses 11 to 22 for us. But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? And God said, I will be with you, and this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you. When you brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. Moses said to God, suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they asked me, what’s his name? Then what shall I tell them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites I am has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, 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 you shall call me from generation to generation. Go assemble the elders of Israel, 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 and into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, parasites, Hivites and Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey. 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 Lord our God. But I know that the king 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, and I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave, you will not go empty handed. Every 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. I get Moses’s response. Here it is a very rational humility. I mean, he’s been a shepherd in a foreign land for the last 40 years. So this would be like your Amazon delivery driver knocking on the door of Xi Jinping house saying, hey, it’s time to Free Tibet. It’s been long enough you’re thinking, No, it’s probably not the right person for that job, right? Gonna be somebody else. Plus he’s still scared after you know, chapter two, verse 14, He’s a wanted criminal, and the wanted criminal is not the guy you send into your local police department to complain about the police department’s controversial crowd control tactics. He is not the guy. And I love God’s response, because God basically says, and I’m paraphrasing here. It’s not there in the Hebrew, but this is the sense of it. You’re right. You are not adequate. You are absolutely not the man for the job. But God, because God says, Next, I will be with you. That’s where his competence comes from. Reminds me of another murderer, at least one who is complicit in the murder of God’s people, whom the Lord called. His name was Paul, and he says this in Second Corinthians three, verse five, not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God, and that is the key. We are only adequate for the mission he has given us, because He is with us and he is transforming us. That’s why it’s there, by the way, in the mission he gives us, Matthew 28 all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Jesus says, Therefore, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, name the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I commanded you, and surely I am with. You always to the very end of the age. Only way you guys can be able to do this. We know that, by the way, you know what happens immediately before that. This is Jesus, the resurrected Christ. How many of you have thought if I could just see the physically resurrected Jesus, I would never doubt again. Nonsense, utter nonsense. Okay, because here’s the disciples huddled around the resurrected Christ, and Matthew tells us they worshiped Him, and some doubted. You will never have enough proof. Okay, it’s going to be faith. It’s going to be faith, and that’s what we have here, right? I’m with you. That’s all you need to know. That’s what will ameliorate your doubts, but it requires faith. So how do we know that he’ll be with us? How does Moses know that God will be with Him? God says I’m gonna help you out. I’m gonna give you a sign. Once you’re out of Egypt, you’re going to worship here at this mountain at Sinai. And if you’re thinking to yourself, Wait, what? That’s not a good sign, then you’ve got the right idea, because Moses won’t know it’s true until it’s come true. So how do you know I’m going to take you out of Egypt? Well, when you go out of Egypt, you’ll know, good. Everyone’s Great. Now, now it is true that it actually will be something of a sign, because, you know, they’re in Egypt and they’re trying to get to Israel, and they’re going like this, so it’s the wrong road, very definitely. And I guess that will be a sign when they turn, which are we going, right instead of left. I can’t look where you guys are looking. I was trying to do it for you. This confused me greatly. So when you make that right turn, you’re like, No, it’s true, or something like that. But ultimately, it’s going to take faith in God’s promises, and that’s the point. His word is good enough. If God says, I’m going to do this, that’s all we need to know, especially after the resurrection, like we already got the sign every one of us has the biggest sign you could ever get. Jesus, Christ rose from the dead, and so we live in light of that promised future. He’s the first fruit of the coming resurrection. We live in light of that, and we can go knowing that he goes with us. So the first objection is done, who am I? A year nobody, that’s who, but I will be with you. Second objection here, he’s really talking about his lack of credentials, although we do move from who am I to who are you? Because the lack of credentials is I’m not like a card carrying priest of you Lord. So what if they ask me for your name? What if they ask about you? I don’t actually know that much now he is almost certainly not ignorant of the name of Yabe. It’s not like it’s a secret password where he’s going to say it and all of a sudden we’re going to go, Okay, you must be the deliverer. We will follow you. No, what he’s asking for is a fuller understanding of the God behind the name. Because names mattered more than than they do now, like names had power in them, they had meaning. They reflected call. So this is like in Genesis, when the angel of the Lord, there he is again, by the way, wrestles with Jacob before the wrestling match gets going, he says, What’s your name? God had not forgotten Jacob’s name. Just to be clear, He’s not asking for a fact, right? He’s getting ready to change the meaning. You used to be known as deceiver, the one who grasps at heals, and now you’re gonna be known as Israel. He wrestled with God, so he’s about to change the meaning of the name. So that’s what we’re looking at. We’re looking at meaning here as John Golden Gate says that it’s why God provides an answer to this question, not a label, but a theology, which he certainly does. And so the name is, I am who I am, or you can see it in your footnote there, I will be who I will be. The tense is very active. I’m just going to keep on being the one I’ve always been and always will be and am right now, there’s just so much here in this name. It gets at the ineffable mystery of God’s character, the fullness of his irreducible character, the way Tony Morita says it, he says God is majestic in mysteriousness. God is not a book you read and then put on your shelf. He’s not a class you take. I love that. The idea is, we’ll never have him figured out all the way. Can’t stuff him neatly into a labeled box. Redeemer. It Holy One of Israel. Judge, those are all true labels, by the way, those are all labels that he takes on himself. They’re just not the whole picture. If you stuck with any one of those labels, you’d have a reduced view of God. The only way we can know who God is fully is for him to say, It’s me I am. This is who I’m, like all of it. And so he calls himself I am, who I am. And he says that he is so unchangingly So verse 15, this is the name I’m going to be known forever from generation to generation, because I will always be who I will always be. And we and we see that he who he is today here in this story for Moses, he will be tomorrow in the Exodus itself, and he will go on being forever. And of course, we see it supremely in the coming of Christ. But don’t miss the point in all of this. This is who is going to be with Moses, and this is the one who’s promised to be with us to the very end of the age, who is with us every day. So we have no need to fear I am. Is with you. So he says, I am, couple times, and then all of a sudden, in verse 15, he says Say to the Israelites, the Lord not say to the Israelites, I am the God of your fathers, but the Lord, anytime you see Lord, and all caps like that, it’s the name Yahweh, and that means he is. So God keeps saying a yay, I am. But that’s because he’s talking. When we talk, we say he is Yahweh, so that there’s the difference right there. But it’s actually interesting that he gives himself the name in the first person, because to name someone implies power or authority over them. That’s why God’s like used to be Jacob. You’re not anymore, because I’m in charge. You’re Israel. You were Abraham. You’re Abraham, Sarah, you’re Sarah. It’s why Adam names Eve. It’s why parents get to name their kids. But only God can name himself, because there’s noone who has power or authority over God. And so he says, first person I am, you can call me he is that’ll be fine. So he has Moses tell them his name, and then in verses 16 to 22 he has Moses tell them his message. And it is a message of salvation, a salvation from and a salvation to. And of course, this just sets the stage for the rest of the story. It’s going to take signs. It’s going to take wonders before Pharaoh agrees. It is not going to be easy by any means. And as they go, of course, they will plunder the Egyptians. And plunder sounds like a bad word. It sounds like theft. Who plunders? It’s pirates and Vikings, right? And so this is not a good sign, except we have to remember what’s just happened to the last four centuries. Kyle was all offended by that. Yeah, Vikings. I said it okay. I’m talking about you. I almost made the joke too. And I was like, Nah, I’m not going to do that. I’ve done the Vikings joke before, but I should have, apparently, because Kyle was there for it. Okay, think of the last four centuries, though, when they plunder the Egyptians, all they’re getting is just payment for centuries of forced labor. So this is justice that is happening here. And even more interesting, though, what they get from the Egyptians, that’s the very material that they’re going to use to build the tabernacle in the second half of the book isn’t that interesting. It’s the pattern of giving, right? Cuz everything we get is ultimately a gift of God, so we receive from him, and then we return it to him in grateful worship. Let’s review again. God raises up people to do his work. He trains and equips us because we lack competency to be what he’s called us to be, which is priests of God, Most High a kingdom of priests. Well, not only that, but God purifies us because we lack character. We can’t go on mission with murder in our hearts. Can’t even approach the holy because of our sin. And so like Joshua, the priest in Zechariah three, we gotta take our filthy garments off and be clothed with someone else’s perfection. That would be the garments of Christ Himself, His Holiness we put on when we trust in Him, and then God empowers us with his presence, because we lack credentials. We are inadequate in ourselves, but not in him, and that is good news. It is also our big idea. So here’s your takeaway from the sermon today. The God who is with you has equipped you for his mission. The God who is with you has equipped you for. His mission. We are constantly growing, yes, absolutely, but we can confidently step out on mission. Even new believers who are not ready to evangelize their family still can and should. Why? Not because of us, but because of the him who is with us and so like Moses, we should be marked by a humble confidence, humble confidence, humble because we are incompetent and sinful, like we’re crying out for justice, and God’s going, you know that you need justice done to you also. So yes, incompetent and sinful. We need him to approach us because we couldn’t approach him we weren’t ready to save others, because we couldn’t even save ourselves from the wrath to come. We are humble, but we are confident, confident because he draws us near and then promises to stay near to us as He sends us out, just like He sent Jesus out, which reminds us, by the way, that he does not promise that it will be an easy or successful by the world’s standards, mission. We go like Jesus, meaning we may well be rejected, we may suffer, we may even have to die for the sake of Christ, we can do it because we know how it ends. And here’s how it ends. Zechariah, 14, verse nine, The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day, there will be one LORD in his name, the only, the only name that we sing between now and then. A lot could go wrong. We’re going to keep reading in Exodus, a lot goes wrong. A lot of wrong will happen in us, his people. In fact, because of Israel’s sin, God later says, through his prophet Hosea, you are not my people and I am not your God. Same word, by the way, a I am, the I Am is not with you anymore because of your sin, right? There’s that holiness, sin, tension, and so the only way for us to experience that restoration, that the rest of Hosea talks about, for us to become his people again, for him to be our God again, is because God sent Jesus to save us from our sins. Jesus who said, By the way, I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the gate. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life I am, the true vine I am. Jesus comes to save us from our sins, and now Jesus sends us to preach salvation from sin. You’re not ready. You are not competent. You don’t have the credentials. And looking around this room, can I say it honestly, you don’t have the character either, and neither do I, but the God who is with you has prepared, equipped, saved and transformed you for his mission. So go. Let’s pray, Lord. We worship you as the God who is there, the God who always is, who he always has been and always will be. We cannot reduce You, Lord, to anything smaller than the fullness of who you are. We can only worship as we understand bit by bit, step by step, all that you are for us. We worship you Lord. We seek to know you, and we seek to follow you and to make your name known among the nations. We seek to make you known, Lord, because you have made yourself known to us. You are holy, and we are not and we have no business speaking to you in prayer right now. And yet you have made a way, because you sent your son to deliver us out of darkness and into your marvelous light. And so Lord, we go from here declaring your praises and proclaiming the gospel of a God who does that because of His great love for us, because of His mercy and justice and holiness and goodness and wisdom, Lord be praised. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.