By: Pastor Tohnee Lim
Scripture Reading: Exodus 3:1-14
From all that we are told in Exodus 2, we would hardly expect to see Moses back in Egypt again, and certainly not as God’s deliverer. You see, Moses felt that he was adequately prepared for the task of delivering the Israelites from the oppression of the Egyptians, but Exodus 2 indicates that his efforts failed miserably. He was rejected and rebuked by his fellow-Israelite, and he was pursued by the Pharaoh who wanted to kill him. This led to a 40-year sojourn in the land of Midian, where Moses married, had two children, and tended the flocks of his father-in-law. When I first came to Iloilo City, I had to be honest. I was foolishly confident, that I was adequately prepared for the task of Mission fields. I was saying within myself that I want to build a church that has 5000 people. Oh I felt I was satisfactorily prepared for the commission to winning souls, delivering people from oppression. Well, on the contrary I almost lost everything. And the man that I was 28 years ago is a different man now.
The man we find described Exodus 3 is hardly the model of leadership we would expect. Let us look carefully at this chapter, because I suspect we will find Moses a great deal like us.
Moses has become a shepherd, pasturing the flock of his father-in-law. Jeremias describes a shepherd’s life: “The dryness of the ground made it necessary for the flocks of sheep and cattle to move about during the rainless summer and to stay for months at a time in isolated areas, far from the owner’s home. Moses was like Jacob where he was away from home for months. Hence, herding sheep was an independent and responsible job; indeed, in view of the threat of wild beasts and robbers, it could even be dangerous. Sometimes the owner himself or his sons did the job. But usually it was done by hired shepherds, like Moses and Jacob were, hired shepherds. Moses now neared the end of another 40 years of his life as a shepherd, leading his father-in-law’s flock in search of grassland. I think he felt old. An ancient commentary on Psalm 23:2 reads, “There is no more disreputable occupation than that of a shepherd. The only thing right about Moses was that he was near God. He led his sheep to Horeb, another name for Mt. Sinai. It is here called the mountain of God. Let’s recollect Moses’ encounter.
1. A Thorn Bush
Exodus 3:1-3 ‘And Moses tended the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock behind the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God — to Horeb. And the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he saw that the bush was on fire and was not burnt. And Moses said, Let me now turn aside and see this great sight, why the thorn-bush is not burnt.’ The word for “bush” here is “s-NEH,” which indicates that it is the acacia bush, the thorn bush of the desert. This is confirmed in the book of Acts, where Steven preaches, on Acts 7:30 “And after forty years had passed, AN ANGEL APPEARED TO HIM IN THE WILDERNESS OF MOUNT Sinai, IN THE FLAME OF A BURNING THORN BUSH.
Remember when Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden that thorns grew as a result of the curse that had been caused by their sin. I don’t think there was thorn bush in the Garden of Eden. There was thorn bush outside the Garden of Eden. Immediately when Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden, the ground they step on, had thorn bush. I believe it came about as a result of the disobedience of Adam and Eve. Gen. 3:17-18 says, Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you.’
What is the spiritual significance of thorn in the bible? In the parable of the soils, Jesus interpreted thorns as “the worry of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things – worries, riches, and pleasures.” I don’t think Adam and Eve ever worried in the Garden before the fall. In this world, one of the great manifestation among people is worry. Some of you come to church this morning with worry on your face. How about riches and pleasures?
Also, the books of Numbers, Joshua, Judges, Proverbs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and 2 Corinthians mention thorns. When you read about these things, you come to one conclusion: thorns are the fruit of sin. Thorns are the result of disobedience to God, of perversity, of being a sluggard, of pride. Thorns are the fruit of sin. Before God can do anything with Moses, he had to bring Moses to an encounter with the thorn bush of his life.
Why is this important? Knowing this allows us to see at least two amazing pictures in the Bible.
Firstly, remember that the soldiers who were torturing Jesus wove a crown of thorns and put it on His head. Why is that significant? Knowing that thorns are the fruit of sin, we get an even clearer picture of Jesus’ work for us. He bore the fruit of our sin right on His head. Isaiah prophesied in Isa. 53:4 ‘Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried.’ Jesus bored our sins.
Secondly, the other amazing thing, getting back to the burning bush, is the picture that Moses saw. He saw a thorn bush on fire, but not being consumed. Fire in the Scriptures speaks of God’s judgment. And He is, as the Bible says numerous times, a consuming fire. But this bush, the thorn bush, the fruit of sin, was not consumed by the judgment of the Lord. The fruit of sin is being judged but not consumed. We are being judged many times as a result of the fruit of sin but we are not consumed. This is a picture of God’s grace. And it was this that drew Moses up the mountain to see the Lord. This is the same thing that will draw us to the Lord. Your life is an example of God’s grace. Yes, God judges sin, but His desire is to judge your sin through Jesus Christ, that you would not be consumed.
Exod. 3:3 “I must turn aside now, and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” The bush represents us. It is an acacia bush. The Acacia tree is one of the most beautiful tree in Iloilo City. That is the life that God has intended for all of us. Every time, Pastor Lily and I passed by an Acacia tree we are always amazed at its height, its umbrella like branches and leaves, that gives shade to people, animal and even tangible things. I think God has intended all of us to be like the Acacia tree, but sad to say, our true conditions many times is that of an acacia bush living in the wilderness. But there is still hope because God is involved with this acacia bush. It is in that condition that God brought Moses to an encounter with Him. It is here that God many a times brings us to an encounter with Him.
2. Who am I?
Exodus 3:10-11 ‘Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? Who am I? One of his first question to God is ‘Who Am I?’ It has a great truth in it. Moses has lived a great life. Formerly, he was in Pharaoh’s household, but for the last 40 years, he’s been a nothing. A shepherd – and not even of his own sheep, but his father-in-law’s sheep. “Who am I, Lord?” A Nobody. The ‘son of Pharaoh’s daughter’ had been transformed, by nearly forty years of desert life, into an Arab shepherd. He appears to have settled down quietly to be Jethro’s son-in-law, and to have lived a modest, still life of humble toil. Moses thinks that the past was over and that life had settled into a routine. After prematurely and presumptuously asserting himself as a deliverer, and being rebuffed by a fellow-Israelite (“Who made you ruler and judge over us?” Exod. 2:14), Moses was not so full of self-confidence anymore. Moses, we are told in Scripture, was the “meekest man on the face of the earth” (Num. 12:3). To a degree that Moses’ question reveals true humility, it is legitimate. But in this instance, I fear that his humility is out of bounds. It is more of low self-esteem. Most of the time, in our experiences of life, our efforts failed miserably. We are rejected and rebuked by his fellowmen, and was pursued by a Pharaoh who wanted to kill us. This led to a period of silence where we settled down and thought our dreams, lives is over. Moses said, ‘Here I am, send someone else.’ Let others take up the dream, take up the responsibility. I don’t think I can do it. I am a nobody.
You see, the issue here is not who Moses is, but WHOSE he is. Who did he belong to? This is a very powerful statement. The issue here is not who am I, but WHOSE I am. The truth of the matter is I belong to God. That is what God has always been trying to tell us. We belong to God. God has sent him, and it is God who will be with him. Moses’ authority is based upon his divine call and the divine presence with him as he goes (Exod. 3:12).
He feels he’s not qualified. Listen to what he says, ‘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 have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.
Maybe Moses felt this way:
•because of his past failure in jumping the gun and killing an Egyptian
•because of his advanced age
•because of the magnitude of the task
•because of past rejections by the Hebrews
•because of the time that had passed . . . Egypt had changed
Let’s ponder over your life. Do you feel you have passed your prime? Do you claim you are too old to be of any service to the Lord? Then maybe you need to remember Moses. He was 80 before he even started his work for the Lord! Could it be that God has spent your whole life preparing you for such a time as this? Just because you are older doesn’t mean that God is finished using you.
Do you ever feel that God has forgotten you? You feel that He must have turned away and is no longer listening to your cries for help. God is not deaf to your cries, He is preparing to come to your aid.
Late one evening a professor sat at his desk working on the next day’s lectures. He shuffled through the papers and mail placed there by his housekeeper. He began to throw them in the wastebasket when one magazine–not even addressed to him but delivered to his office by mistake–caught his attention. It fell open to an article titled “The Needs of the Congo Mission.”
The professor began reading it idly, but then he was consumed by these words: “The need is great here. We have no one to work the northern province of Gabon in the central Congo. And it is my prayer as I write this article that God will lay His hand on one–one on whom, already, the Master’s eyes have been cast–that he or she shall be called to this place to help us.” The professor closed the magazine and wrote in his diary: “My search is over.” He gave himself to go to the Congo.
The professor’s name was Albert Schweitzer. That little article, hidden in a periodical intended for someone else, was placed by accident in Schweitzer’s mailbox. By chance his housekeeper put the magazine on the professor’s desk. By chance he noticed the title, which seemed to leap out at him. Dr. Schweitzer became one of the great figures this century in a humanitarian work nearly unmatched in human history. Chance? No. Providence.
I am not saying God will call you to Congo but I am saying that something will happen and you will know that that is the calling God is wanting you to undertake.
All of us has a problem with self-esteem. There is a great deal of discussion these days about self-esteem. While one’s self-concept has a great deal to do with how one feels about himself and how he (or she) may function in life, it is not the key to Christian growth or obedience. Why? Because the orientation is wrong. Self-esteem focuses one’s attention selfward. One can only be confident if one is confident about one’s self. God redirects Moses’ attention to Himself. The burning bush is a revelation of God to Moses, not an introspective analysis of Moses himself. No man, no matter how capable, is fit or able to adequately serve God. It is God who is infinite, eternal, and all-powerful. Thus, when Moses has a proper God-concept, he is able to serve. Let us learn from this text to focus our attention on the One whom we serve, rather than on ourselves. When you want to walk this life, when you need to face tomorrow, understand that you need to focus not on your inadequacy, your failure, your fruits of sin, but on God whom you serve.
Self-confidence is not the temper which God uses for His instruments. He works with ‘bruised reeds. Matthew 12:20 says; A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory.’ Far from breaking, he will strengthen the bruised reed; far from quenching the smoking flax, or wick nearly out, he will rather blow it up into a flame. That is our God. He reckon neither the bruised reed nor smothering wick as useless. It is when a man says ‘I can do nothing,’ that he is fit for God to employ. ‘When I am weak, then I am strong.’ We like to say, ‘Here I am God, send someone else.’ God says ‘I am sending you.’ But I am old. God says ‘I am sending you’. But how about my past?’ God says, I am sending you.’ There is no BUT in the vocabulary of God.
3. I am that I am
Exodus 3:13-14 ‘And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.’
It was a memorial name. The name is Yahweh. It was His personal name; an indication of who he is at the core of his being. The word “Yahweh” is a conjugation of the ancient Hebrew verb “to be” or “to become”. In v.14 he said, “I AM WHO I AM.
In many ways, the incident of the burning bush is critical to our understanding of God. . The burning bush of Exodus 3 was one of those life-altering events which happens but a few times in a person’s life. I believe that God always will bring his children, through experiences, a life encounter with Him. Without this life encounter, this miraculous encounter, supernatural encounter, we can never be the person God wants us to be. Many times in the car, while driving, I would always say to Pastor Lily that the experiences we witnessed in the past two years was nothing short of the miraculous, the supernatural. I just know that an invisible hand was behind all the working in Pastor Lily and my life, whether it concerns this church, it concerns my children, it concerns our ministry. It is the ‘I am that I Am.’ that is working for us.
This chapter is more than just the account of a life-changing incident in the life of one man; however, it is a crucial turning point in the history of the nation Israel. What happen to you can alter people’s life. The burning bush marks the beginning of God’s direct intervention into the affairs of human. More specifically the burning bush marks the beginning of God’s direct intervention into the affairs of our lives. We need to under this God of the burning bush.
The God of the burning bush is a holy God. Exodus 3:4-5 ‘And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. If you want God to work with you and for you, from today’s onward, you must understand that God is a holy God and your working with him must be one of holiness and righteousness. Genesis 6:8-9 ‘But Noah found favour in the eyes of the LORD. This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. ‘God wants to start afresh with you but God cannot change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. And if you want to continue experiencing his hand in your life again, you have to walk in holiness with him.
The God of the burning bush is the covenant-making, covenant-keeping God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In verse 6, God identified Himself to Moses in this way: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exod. 3:6). He is a relationship God. If he says, he will go with you, literally he will go with you.
The God of the burning bush is a compassionate God. God’s intention to deliver the Israelites from Egyptian bondage is not only motivated by His holiness, or by His covenant with Abraham and the patriarchs—God’s deliverance of His people is also based upon His compassion for them in the midst of their affliction. God’s dealing with me in the past 2 years is nothing but compassion. All that he has done for me and for this church is just simply compassion. We don’t have to go far. God is concerned for the people in Iloilo City. I read that in the whole of Iloilo province, stretching from Estancia, to Passi, to Miagao, Lambunao, there are 2 million people living in the province of Iloilo. And there are 500000 people in Iloilo City alone. God hears their cry. I was in Barbaza and I met this couple. The lady said with tears in her eye. That since Typhoon Yolanda, that is November 8, 2013, her family’s house has collapsed totally destroyed. And today is October 19, 2013, almost a year already. We took a picture of the house. I asked her ‘Why didn’t you build the house? She has brothers and sisters. They had to attend to the immediate needs: food and school and they have nothing leftover to build the house. I just know that God is a compassionate God.
The God of the burning bush is an imminent God. He is forthcoming. He is impending. What he wants to do for you is about to happen. For 400 years, God appeared to be distant and removed as far as the Israelites must have thought. They would probably have thought of God as more transcendent (distant, removed, uninvolved in the world), rather than imminent (directly concerned with and involved in the affairs of men). This was not the case, for we have seen God’s hidden hand working providentially to preserve His people and to prepare for their release (Exod. 1 and 2). Lest Moses cannot appreciate the involvement of God in the lives of His people, God emphasizes that He is taking a personal interest in the release of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage:
“I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. … 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 …” (Exod. 3:7a, 8a).
The God of the burning bush is a God who commissions people to participate in His purposes. While God is going to be directly involved in the deliverance of His people, He will do so through human instruments. Specifically, God has manifested Himself to Moses because He intends to manifest Himself through Moses. God’s first words to Moses were, “Moses, Moses” (v. 4). Although God indicated His personal involvement in the exodus (“I have come down to rescue them,” (v. 8), it is Moses through whom these things will be accomplished. Thus, we find Moses commissioned by God to return to Egypt, to confront Pharaoh, and to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
In conclusion, do you feel like a thorn bush? But you are meant to be an acacia tree. Are this phrase running constantly in your mind, ‘Who am I?’ It is not who you are but WHOSE you are. Fix and focus on the great ‘I am that I am’ when you are going through life. He is sending you not someone else. His mind is on you, not on someone else.