Exodus 3:1-15 

March 3, 2010

I Will Be With You

Welcome this evening on another journey through Lent and on the way… on The Jesus Way.  Maybe you have been at a place in life where everything was just right.  Maybe you are there right now.  You know what I mean… You have a secure existence…  You have financial stability, you have a healthy family, you have shelter & ample food supplies… you do your job, support your family, things are real comfortable.  In our text today that is where we find Moses in Midian.  He was a shepherd, far from his life in Egypt. A life where he had been raised by Pharaoh's daughter, had lived as royalty… then he went out to where his people dwelled, the Hebrew slaves, and was upset as he witnessed an Egyptian beating a Hebrew so he reacted in anger and killed the Egyptian and then fled the country… with a price on his head. 

Years later, living in Midian he had really settled in, he was married and had a family and has spent many years there as a shepherd. Life was good and comfortable even the Egyptian king that wanted him killed was dead.   Moses was on cruise control…   He was set for life…   Or so he thought…  God had a different plan. 

God had heard the cries of His chosen people remembered His covenant with them and was concerned about them.   He was going to put His plan into action.  Which brings us to our text for today?  Moses is on Mount Horeb with his flock and the angel of the Lord appears to him in the flames of a burning bush, of all things a bush.  God appears in a common item but in an uncommon way.    Moses saw that the bush was burning but it was not being consumed, so he had to approach it.  I believe that God appears to us in that same way.  He appears to us in common items but in uncommon ways.  He appears to us in the simple things in life. A baby's smile… a beautiful sunset… kind words from a friend… I am certain you can recall some time when what appeared to be an ordinary experience ended up being a life changing extraordinary one.  This was about to be the case for Moses.   Then God called him from the bush "Moses! Moses!" and our friend Moses answers "Here I am".   I picture this guy startled, confused, scared… and then God tells Moses "Wait don't come closer, take off your sandals, you are on holy ground… I am God of your fathers Abraham, Isaac & Jacob.   And Moses hid his face afraid to look at God."   Here to I can relate, to times when I am on holy ground, when I can sense the presence of God and I know I should take off my shoes, but I just plod on without respect or reverence or I hide my face and am afraid to look at God. 

Then God laid out His plan to save His hurting people, rescue them from the Egyptians and into the spacious land the "Land of Milk & Honey" and He told Moses to GO… "I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt."    So here we have a shepherd that was pretty settled in his life and in a few short moments his world was turned upside down.  How many times in our lives have we had the same response when it is obvious God wants more from us?  I can really relate to Moses when he says "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"  There are many times that we have felt that we aren't as qualified to get the job done properly when God has placed an opportunity to serve Him in our paths.  Yet in haste we give up before we ever start, we forget one important truth … God chose us!  To say we aren't able to do the job, says that God does not know what He is doing... and of course we know that God does know what He is doing.  Then we have a pair of precious promises that God gave Moses in verse 12… First He tells Moses "I will be with you," the promise of His presence.  Second, He says "When you have brought the people out of Egypt you WILL worship God on this mountain" This is a promise of a glorious reunion someday.  This is also a guarantee that Moses will be successful.  God says WHEN you have brought My people out of Egypt, NOT IF you bring my people out of Egypt.  This is God's response to us when we doubt our qualifications. He knows that we can accomplish the task through His power; He gives us those same promises. If our only goal in life is to get our needs met or to get the glory for ourselves, then we will be guaranteed to miss out on the life God intends for us.  The purpose of human life has always been about being a part of that which is larger and more enduring than one's self.  He may not speak to us in burning bushes.  No… he comes to us through His Son Jesus.  This is the Jesus Way.  We see the same promises in Jesus.  "I will go with you"… Jesus never leaves us… and He has prepared a place for us in Eternity. We have the promise of a glorious reunion.

The verses that follow and in chapter 3 we find Moses still negotiating with God.  Moses moves on to the talk of his inadequacies saying to the Lord "I just don't know enough about who you are!" But God replies "I AM WHO I AM" Many of us are in the same shape as Moses.  We feel inadequate that we just don't know enough… but we have Jesus.  In our second lesson Paul writes to the Corinthians and to us…"that we have been reconciled through Christ"… "that one died for all"… "that God made Him who had no sin, to be sin for us".   We have no basis to feel inadequate.  There is not a situation you will ever find yourself in that God does not have the answer to, or the solution to.  He is able and he enables us as we go through life.    Eugene Peterson writes in his book "The Jesus Way" quote "Jesus points out the way, but then He takes initiative, inviting us to go with Him, taking us across land & sea, through all kinds of weather, avoiding dead ends and seductive byways, watching out for danger and alerting us to enemies" end quote.  On the Jesus Way you are not inadequate.

During this introductory give and take… during this first conversation between God and Moses, Moses still has doubts.  In the beginning of Chapter 4 Moses answered God saying "What if they don't believe me?"  After God has handled all of Moses' other excuses, Moses decides that if he tells people that he has had a personal meeting with God Himself, they will not believe him.  Aren't we challenged with the same thoughts as Moses?  We have this genuine, loving relationship with God our Father and our Savior Jesus and the Holy Spirit guiding us, and when we have the opportunity to share this with others or to serve others, we may hesitate and ask "what if they don't believe me?"  God's response to Moses is to let him know that when the Lord gets through working on him, there will be no doubt in the minds of others, the truth of Moses' story!   To quote Pastor Jim's Ash Wednesday Sermon "We are his apprentices, his disciples. It is on the job training"…

Let us not underscore or underestimate the plan of God.  I mean the great I AM can do anything, Right?  In Moses we have a man who debates with God about his inability, his inadequacy and his inferiority to serve God.  God could have used anything at His disposal to deliver His people… but He chose Moses and He assured him… "I am with you"…and Moses led his people from Egypt and they wandered for forty years before they reached the promise land.  By the end of their journey Moses had grown from a shepherd in Midian, "living the good life" to one of the greatest leaders in the history of all time.  If this would have been easy how much would have Moses grown?   Peterson writes (quote) "The words that are ascribed to Moses and the way he used them, more than those of any other person, Jesus alone excepted, have given us a vocabulary and syntax for the way God reveals himself to us and how we in our turn respond to him."(end quote)  But, oh what a life Moses led, beginning with the day he left the house a shepherd and returned the deliverer of a nation.  Moses had settled in as a common man, a shepherd… but God chose him to do great things.  Moses had a personal relationship with God.  Through this relationship Moses developed an obedient nature that helped him to fully serve God.  We to, can have a personal relationship with God.  God chose us to do great things and promises "I am with you", to make the common… uncommon "I am with you". 

As believers we are promised to live in eternity with Our Lord.  To quote Eugene Peterson one last time… (quote)"All the way to Heaven is Heaven, because He (Jesus) had said, 'I am the way'"(end quote).  Let us start living eternity now.  Friends in Christ, the life we are living now… it is the only one we've got.  Let's not question our inability, our inadequacy, or our inferiority. The bush is burning.  It burns for us.