that's Exodus chapter 2 and verse
23. And it came to pass in process
of time that the king of Egypt died and the children of Israel
sighed by reason of the bondage and they cried and their cry
came up unto God by reason of their bondage. And God heard
them, their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with
Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the
children of Israel, and God had respect unto them. Now Moses
kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of
Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert
and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel
of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the
midst of a bush, and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with
fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn
aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. 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. Moreover, he said, I am the God
of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he
was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely
seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have
heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know
their sorrows. and I am come down to deliver
them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that
land unto a good land, and a large, unto a land flowing with milk
and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites,
and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry
of the children of Israel is come unto me, and I have also
seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them.
Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that
thou mayst 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? And he said, Certainly
I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee, that
I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth
the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God, Behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel, and 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. And God said moreover unto Moses,
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord
God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you. This is my name
for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. Go and
gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord God
of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared
unto me, saying, I have surely visited you and seen that which
is done to you in Egypt. And I have said, I will bring
you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the
Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites,
and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk
and honey. and they shall hearken to thy
voice. And thou shalt come, thou and
the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say
unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us, and
now let us go. We beseech thee three days' journey
into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our
God. And I am sure that the king of
Egypt will not let you go. No, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out My hand
and smite Egypt with all My wonders, which I will do in the midst
thereof. And after that He will let you
go. And I will give this people favour
in the sight of the Egyptians. And it shall come to pass that
when ye go, ye shall not go empty. But every woman shall borrow
of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house,
jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment, and ye shall
put them on your sons and upon your daughters, and ye shall
spoil the Egyptians. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. Thank you for your attendance
as we read through this passage. Moses was 40 years of age when
he left Egypt, and he has spent another 40 years in the deserts
of Midian, caring for the sheep of his father-in-law. In Egypt,
during this time, the severe bondage of the Hebrew people
continued, but now something has changed. The children of
Israel cried to the Lord for help and the Lord heard them. The Lord hears when his people
cry to him for help and that is something that we should remember. We are not too young and we are
not too old to know that the Lord hears when his people cry
to him for help. And here we see the beauty and
the precision of God's timing. Moses had thought that he would
deliver the children of Israel 40 years previously when he killed
that Egyptian. But it was not God's time. Perhaps
Moses had some things to learn. Perhaps it was that the Hebrews
must be brought to realise their dependence upon God. Whatever
the reason for this delay, there would be order, there would be
purpose, and there would be evident action by the Lord in the deliverance
of his people. They would go forth by the mighty
hand of God. They would go forth honorably,
they would go forth dominantly, and they would go forth entirely
as a people. This would be an enduring picture
of salvation in all the generations. And even today, we still think
of this escape from Egypt as a picture of salvation from sin
and deliverance from spiritual bondage. God gave us this picture
of the children of Israel leaving Egypt as a picture of our salvation. And this meeting between God
and Moses in a remote part of the desert by this burning bush
began the process of deliverance. And there is so much that we
could say from this passage, but here's just a couple of things
to be going on with. We're told that the angel of
the Lord met Moses. And this angel of the Lord is
the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The name angel does not mean that it was not Christ,
nor does it mean that Christ was a created angel. But the Lord Jesus sometimes
took that name when he personally undertook to bring a message
to his people. Angel just means messenger. And because this was a message
that was coming from the Lord Jesus Christ to Moses, we're
told that it was the angel of the Lord, the message coming
by Christ. And indeed, the Lord is called
the angel several times in scripture. And usually, the text tells us
whether we're speaking about a created angel like the one
that spoke to Mary and told her that the child would be born,
or the uncreated angel, the Son of God, like the one that spoke
to Manoah and his wife. And here the name that the angel
takes provides the context for us because it tells us that this
is the Lord himself who is speaking. It is the great I Am. It is the Lord Jehovah, the mighty
eternal God. And the Lord told Moses that
he had to remove his shoes Now that might seem a little bit
odd. Why did Moses have to take his shoes off? Put off thy shoes
from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy
ground. It teaches us about preparation
for worship. We should give thought about
our approach to God. We should give thought to our
worshipping Him. When we come together to worship
Him, we are participating in an important activity. We should be sincere. We should
be thoughtful. We should be careful. We should
be humble in what we do and say before God. And Moses was being
taught respect. We respect God in our worship. He deserves our respect. He demands
our respect. But there's more to this than
just respecting God. As important as that respect
is. Many religions actually take
their shoes off and leave them at the door of their buildings
when they come in before God. We don't do that. We don't do
that. Why don't we do that? like other
religions do, because we look beyond the symbolism to the real
meaning. And the real meaning is this,
that Moses' shoes were dirty. He had been walking in the desert. He had been walking amongst the animals. He'd been
walking in the sheep poo. And the Lord was saying to him,
Before you come to me, you need to get rid of that dirt. But
that points to the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who cleanses
us, not from the dirt on the outside of our bodies or on our
clothes, but the dirt that is in our souls, the sin that is
in our heart. So Moses was being told, when
he was told to take off his shoes, he was being told that he had
a need to be cleansed of his sin, that the dirt had to be
taken away from his person. That is what makes us fit to
stand before the Holy Lord God. We cannot enter God's presence
with our sin. We must be clean, we must be
pure, we must be holy. What the Bible calls justified
or made righteous. And that cleansing from sin and
our justification before God is the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was accomplished by the Lord
on the cross and Moses was being shown his need for holiness and
the removal of sin. And here's another thing that
we are told from this little passage. This burning bush, this
bush that burned but wasn't consumed, is another picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Because this is a picture of
God coming into the world as a human being. Our Saviour's
divine nature is like the fire that burned in that bush. It was powerful, it was consuming,
it was glorious. But the Lord's human nature was
just like ours. It was without sin, but it was
just like ours. It was a bush, it wasn't even
a tree. It was weak, it was ordinary,
it was humble. But Moses got to see something
wonderful that day. He got to see a humble bush that
didn't burn away. He saw something wonderful coming
together with something ordinary. And that is what we see in the
incarnation, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as a man. God and man joined together in
one person. And the angel tells Moses that
his name is, I am that I am. This is a big name, and it combines
lots of aspects and attributes of God's glory, and we're not
going to be able to speak about that today, but it was a name
that the Lord Jesus Christ often used of himself. When he was
in this world, when he came and he fulfilled his ministry, he
often took the name I Am, because it was the name of God. the way
said the Lord Jesus Christ. I am the truth, I am the door,
I am the life, I am the beginning, I am the end and the Lord used
that phrase many times to show us that he was claiming that
true divinity. Much of the rest of the chapter
towards the end of the chapter is Moses being told what God
is going to do and what he's going to do with him, what will
happen and how things will work out. And we should always remember
that our sovereign God is in control. He knows the future
and he will bring about his purposes. Moses was told about these things
because he was going to have many disappointments along the
way but he was being told that he will succeed in the end because
God would be with him. And that's our experience as
believers too. We have many trials, we have
many tests of our faith, we have many doubts and disappointments.
But in the end, by the grace and goodness of our Lord Jesus
Christ, He has promised to do us good, and He does not lie. That was a great encouragement
to Moses, and it should be a great encouragement to us too. But
I just want to show you one last thing, one little thing, and
I hope you like this. We need to go back to verse 11
to see this. Look at, sorry, back to verse
12. Look at verse 12. Moses was concerned
about what it was that was going to happen and God says to him
this in verse 12. Certainly I will be with thee
and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee. When
thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve
God upon this mountain. This very spot where Moses was
now speaking to the Lord Jesus Christ in the burning bush would
be where he would worship God again. But do you see what's
happening here? God tells Moses that he will
be with him and in order to encourage Moses' faith in him, God gives
him a sign or gives him a token. But the token itself is something
that will happen in the future. So that Moses' faith is strengthened
by something that has not yet happened. Something that he can't
yet see. Paul talks about that in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5 and verse 7. He says, we walk by faith, not
by sight. Moses might have thought when
God gave him the token, he would give him something tangible,
something physical. But what God said to him was,
this will be the sign that I'm going to do all of these things.
Once you've done it, you'll worship me on this mountain. The Lord was going to accomplish
great things by Moses but he gave him a token and that token
was that he would show him little blessings along the way. The Lord promises those who trust
him eternal life in heaven. We don't see heaven yet but nevertheless
the Lord gives us little helps along the way. Trusting the Lord
for salvation involves trusting Him day by day as well. Faith in Christ is like little
stepping stones across a fast flowing river that leads us safely
to the other side. As we trust the Lord, we shall
be upheld by his faithfulness every day. May we find that to
be our portion. Amen.