February 28^th, 2016                                   

Lent 3

Pastor Waldschmidt

Exodus 3:1-8, 10-15  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. ² 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. ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”  ⁴ 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,^[a] 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.  ⁷ The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. ⁸ 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… “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”  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 have brought the people out of Egypt, you^[a] 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 ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”  God said to Moses, “I am who I am.^[b] 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,^[c] the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’

A PICTURE OF GOD IN A BURNING BUSH  

In the name of our Savior God, who hears our cries, dear fellow redeemed children of God,

     The Bible says that “The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hand.”  I thought of that verse a few weeks ago when there were pictures on the news of a “firefall” in Yosemite National Park. For a few weeks in February if the conditions are just right, for about 10 minutes around sunset, one waterfall in Yosemite National Park looks more like its opposite — a firefall.  It just little example of God’s handiwork- where we can proof of our God in the things the Lord created.  Today in God’s Word we see God himself use part of His creation to reveal himself to Moses.  God shows us a picture of the Lord is a burning bush.

     “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.”   Ever been to “the middle of Nowhere?”  The wilderness of Sinai is about the closest thing we have to the middle of Nowhere and here Moses is even on the far side of the “middle of Nowhere.”    Egypt must have seemed a long way off for Moses as he tended his father-in-law’s sheep in Midian.   I would imagine that there must have been some days when he thought to himself, “Man I really messed up my life!”  His life had started out there in Egypt.   Long before Moses was born a Pharaoh came to power in Egypt who really didn’t care what Joseph had done for Egypt.  He was only concerned by the size of the Israelite community and what it might mean for him if the Israelites joined with an invading enemy army.  So he enslaved the Israelites.  Still they grew.  Finally Pharaoh came forward with a plan that left the Israelite baby boys dead. So Moses’ mom hid her little baby in a reed basket done by the river with his sister Miriam standing watch nearby.  When Pharaoh’s daughter bathed down by the river, she found the little boy and took him in as her own.  As a member of Pharaoh’s house Moses had a great start in life with a great education.  God even worked it out that Moses’ mom was the “nurse” who took care of Moses.  From all of that Moses must have had an inkling that God had set him up to do great things. Then one day it seemed Moses messed all that up.  He saw an Egyptian taskmaster mistreating an Israelite slave.  He became enraged and he killed him and buried him in the sand.  Out there in the wilderness he wore sandals covered with dust.  I wonder how often Moses looked at those sandals and remembered that his sandals were once spattered with the blood of the man he killed in Egypt.  He had overestimated his own ability and wanted to take on the job of being the deliverer single handedly. What he did became known in Egypt and he had to flee to Midian.  There he married a shepherd’s daughter.  Now Moses is 80 years old and he must have thought he would just live out his days tending the sheep of his wife’s family out in the middle of nowhere.  Like Moses we don’t have to think very hard about the times we’ve messed up our lives. Have you ever picked up your shoes and looked at the bottom.  There is dirt and gum and crud there from all kinds of places where your feet have been.  There might be dirt on our sandals from the places we have been where a Child of God has no business being.  We might have blood on our hearts from the times we have murdered other with hateful thoughts.  Our toes have been stubbed by kicking against God’s holy commandments. None of us have ever been a prince of Egypt but maybe we’ve felt at times like we have missed and messed up our lives.   

     Moses could not hear the cries of the slaves in Egypt from out there in the wilderness  but the cries were heard by 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.” When God wants a person’s attention He is pretty good at getting it.  Moses saw that the bush was on fire on Mt. Horeb.  This mountain was the same mountain where God later gave the Ten commandments to Moses.  The bush did not burn up because the angel of the Lord was appearing in the bush.  This was no ordinary angel. Moses was looking at God Himself in that bush. When you see that expression “angel of the Lord” in Scripture you can tell by what the angel of the Lord says whether it is simply one of God’s angels or whether it is God himself.  Here the terms “angel of the Lord” and “the Lord” are used interchangeably.   This is the work of God.  So this is a picture of the Lord in this bush.   

      Moses goes off to investigate.  “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.”   My feet will never win a beauty contest.  I’m really happy that God knew that it would be good for me with these feet to live at this time and place because in Moses’ day, sandals were taken off outside so that they did not track dirt inside.  For them taking off their shoes was a sign of deep respect.  God’s holiness calls for that as Moses a sinful human being got close to the burning bush.  “Then He said, “I am the God of your father,[a] 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.”  Moses recognized his own unworthiness there in God’s presence.  

    But God didn’t call Moses up on the Mountain to blast him.  Instead God had a message for him.  God wanted his people to know that he loved them and he was concerned about them.  Moses took off his sandals there on the mountain but God was going to send Moses back down the mountain to lead His people out of slavery in Egypt.  God sent him to do that carrying some wonderful promises.

    Moses hid his face when he saw the holiness of God.  But  God quickly moved Moses’ attention to the promises he had made.  When God told Moses, “I am the God of your father,[a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob”, he was reminding Moses that He was the one who had made and would keep the promise of the Savior.     

    God fully intended to keep His promise of the Savior.  Though Pharaoh intended to keep God’s people under his thumb in slavery, God intended to bring them out of Egypt, bring them into the promised land and one day the Savior of the world would be born in Bethlehem.  The Savior would be our substitute.  His Holiness would cover the grime of where our feet and hands and hearts have been.  The dirt and grime of our sins would cover Jesus instead of us.  By making the Savior our substitute God would free us from a slavery far worse than the taskmasters of the Israelites.  Jesus freed us from the slavery of sin.  The Bible says, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”  

     Have you ever answered the call for help from a loved one or friend with a half- hearted “get there when I get there kind of a walk” and then you when saw the situation said, ”Oh I didn’t know it was this serious.”  I wonder if the Israelites ever asked “Does God know how serious this is?”  Maybe the Israelites were wondering if God was coming to help or if He even knew how they were hurting.  “The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their 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 only true God had seen the misery of His people and working out a rescue for them. 

      It is estimated that when the Children of Israel left Egypt they numbered about 2 million people.  Getting 2 million men women and children out of a nation whose leader stubbornly did not want to let them go was going to be no easy task.  Moses would not be able to sneak 2 million people out of Egypt.  He wouldn’t have to because God would keep His promise.  “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”  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.”  The God who made the mountain and the bush and made the bush burn would be with him. “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[a] 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 ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”  God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.[b] 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,[c] the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.”  When I make a promise say to my wife that I will go shopping with her, I’m depending on a whole bunch of things out of my control like our car, my schedule, my even being alive among a whole host of other factors.  But God is not dependent on anything or anyone.  When he makes a promise, he keeps can’t be kept from keeping it.  “I am who I am,” God says.  God simply is. He is God and He does what he wants.  Time, sickness, death do not keep him from keeping his promises even to people who do not deserve his love like you and me.

     This is more than a picture of a burning bush out in the desert.  It is a reminder that the God who was and is and always will be goes with you.  Are you wondering if God is hearing your cries for help? Are you asking “Does he know how serious my situation is here?”    God knows.  He has a plan to help. The God who made the bush burn in Sinai and the firefall in Yosemite has seen your misery.  In the cool water of his forgiveness God has washed you clean.  As you walk through life that at times can seem like wilderness He goes with you.  Amen.