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February 12, 2006

February 12, 2006

Cawson St. Church of Christ

Hopewell, Virginia

Mural Worthey

 

Great Texts from Exodus--#1

 

Introduction:  “The Burning Bush”

 

In our study on Wednesday evenings on abortion, we noted Exodus 1—Pharaoh’s command to slay the Hebrew male babies at birth.  This could be called “subtle infanticide”; that is, the killing of children made to look like something else.  Pharaoh wanted, at first, for the mothers to think that their children were just stillborn.  Afterwards, he became bolder when his command was disobeyed.  He commanded the nation to destroy the male babies by casting them into the Nile River.  This was open infanticide.  In the midst of this opposition to the descendants of Abraham, God raised up a deliverer named Moses.  (Exodus 2.)  He was raised in the palace of Pharaoh by Pharaoh’s daughter with Moses’ mother caring for him.  His mother was even paid for taking care of her own son.  Moses was a type of Christ and mediator of the Old Covenant.

 

You will recall that Jesus was born under similar circumstances.  Herod gave an order to slay the children of Bethlehem in order to destroy the Christ-child.  His efforts likewise failed because God was raising up a Deliverer for his people.

 

Near the end of Moses’ life as a shepherd for Jethro (or Reuel), his father-in-law, God appeared to Moses in Midian.  The angel of the Lord appeared to Moses out of the flames of a burning bush.  (Exodus 3:2.)  This is a great text in Exodus and constitutes the call of Moses to his great work for God.  What does this event in Old Testament history mean? 

 

Unusual Appearances of God

 

This seems to be a strange way for God to talk to man.  Why not appear to him some other way?  Life in a desert watching flocks would be rather a mundane existence with sameness and severity.  Then this day out of forty years of struggling to exist, the angel of Jehovah (3:3) appeared to Moses in a burning thorn bush.  One thing for certain is that it would have been impressive.  It would be hard to ignore something like that.  Man often needs impressive things to happen to divert his attention from the routine matters of life.  Moses would need to be for sure that God called him for this mission.  After this Moses would never have thought, “I wonder if God really did call me to do this?”  This doubt would have been forever removed.  God really did call him to go to Pharaoh and demand that Pharaoh release the Hebrews.

 

Other unusual appearances (epiphanies—divine appearances in Scripture) of God are:

 

1) The angel of Jehovah wrestled with Jacob at the brook Jabbok until the break of day.  (Gen. 32:22-32.)  The place was called Peniel which means the face of God.  This was a turning point in the life of Jacob.  The next day, he met Esau.  Jacob needed to know whether God had indeed chosen him instead of Esau the older brother. 

 

2) The angel of Jehovah appeared to Elijah in a special way and at a critical time in his life.  Jezebel and the prophets of Baal were opposing Elijah mightily.  Elijah went into a cave and asked God to take his life.  God told him to get out of the cave and stand on the mountain.  While standing on the mountain, God sent a strong wind which broke the rocks of the mountain, but God was not in the wind.  He then sent an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake.  He sent a fire, but God was not in the fire.  God came to him in a “still small voice.”  (1 Kings 19:12, KJV; or low whisper, NIV) 

 

3) After Elijah, the great prophet of God, Elisha took the mantle of Elijah and continued his work.  But Elisha wanted to know if God was with him as he was with Elijah.  And he demanded a double measure of the Spirit of God upon him.  This successor was allowed to see a strange event—the taking up of Elijah into heaven.  As the two men walked together and talked, a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and took Elijah away.  Elisha cried out, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof.”  (2 Kings 2:12.)  He rent his clothes and took up the mantle of Elijah that fell to the earth to him.  Elijah went back to the Jordan River and parted the waters with the mantle, asking, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?”  (2 Kings 2:14.)

 

4) God guided the nation of Israel by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  (Exodus 13:21-22.)  The fire gave them light to travel by night.  It must have been an impressive and spectacular thing to see.  They knew that the presence of God was among them.

 

Some lessons from these appearances

 

1) There are many such unusual appearances of the angel of Jehovah in the Bible.  There are so many that they are not unusual or exceptional at all, but they are rather the norm for God.  When God appeared unto men, they knew it.  All doubts were removed. 

 

2) The appearances were not for personal experiences of individual salvation.  The appearances were made for the greater good of all men.  They involved the work of prophets and apostles for the redemption of mankind. 

 

3) They served as temporary measures until the coming of Jesus Christ.  God spoke in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, but has spoken in these last days by his Son.  (Heb. 1:1-3.)  God spoke in sundry times and divers ways.  The final great appearance of God among men came in the Virgin birth of Jesus Christ into this world.  The first covenant began by Moses at the burning bush and ended with the coming of Jesus Christ.

 

4) Doubters, to whom God has not appeared, may question these appearances, but those to whom God appeared could not question what happened.  It was for their benefit primarily, not ours.  Thomas doubted the resurrection, until Jesus appeared to him and showed him the wounds.  God does not try to avoid criticisms of how he appeared unto men.  It does not seem to be something that He tried to avoid, but rather the opposite.  The spectacular nature of it was to impress the one receiving the message from God.

 

An Imperative Mission

 

All of the epiphanies in Scripture involved weighty matters.  God does not appear to men in burning bushes just to chat or to see how we are feeling.  He does not do it to satisfy the curiosity of men or to appease the demands of unbelievers.  There is always an imperative mission involved.  There is always a holy, divine cause.

 

God wanted Moses to lead his people from Egyptian bondage to the Promise Land.  He wanted Jacob to know that he was chosen to be the one through whom the promises to Abraham would be fulfilled.  Elisha needed to know that God was with him, just as he was with the great prophet Elijah.  The birth of Jesus Christ signaled that Immanuel was with man.  Here was the greatest divine mission—to seek and to save the lost.  (Luke 19:10.)

 

I reject the popular notion of the three-fold nature of the will of God: 1) the sovereign will, 2) the moral will for everyone and 3) the individual will.  Two of these are questionable.  The notion of the sovereign will of God comes from the theology of John Calvin who taught that God’s sovereign will excludes the will of man.  It may appear that man has the freedom to choose, but he does not according to the theory.  The individual will of God is the most popular today.  Preachers often tell their audiences that God has a blueprint for their lives and that they should seek after that plan. Every detail is supposedly planned. For this reason, some look for their “burning bush.”  They desire for God to reveal his will to them directly and personally.  They sometimes suppose that God appeared to them because of the intense desire to know his private will for their lives.  We should not assume that the appearance of the angel of Jehovah to Moses was something like that.  It was in fact altogether different.

 

Holy Ground

 

Moses wanted to see for himself what was going on—a bush on fire that was not being consumed.  While he sought to satisfy his curiosity, God told him to take off his shoes from his feet.  The ground where you stand is holy ground.  (Exodus 3:5.)  God revealed himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  (3:6.)  Moses would have immediately recognized this identity.    Moses was the fourth generation from Jacob.

 

Some lessons:  1) Men will never respond to God the way that they should until they acknowledge the holiness and mystery of the presence of God among men.  2) Moses was reluctant to go and do God’s will even after this appearance.  We need to believe in God and be convinced of his presence.  If we doubt, we will not grow in the faith.  We will draw back and watch.  3) We will never crucify the lusts of the flesh until we feel and acknowledge the holiness of God.  4) Unbelievers, instead of being filled with wonder and awe, argue about the impossibility of a bush not being consumed with fire.  How absurd!  Unbelievers talk about the impossibility of Jonah being swallowed by a great fish and living for three days in his belly.  Unbelievers mock the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ.  The reply to all such expressions of unbelief is—then you do not know the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!

 

The Reluctance of Moses

 

Moses was living a quiet life with his wife and son in the Midian desert.  God appeared and wanted to send him back to Egypt.  Moses had fled there earlier after killing an Egyptian.

 

Moses’ reluctance is expressed by several questions and statements: 1) Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out?  (3:11.)   2) What shall I say when they ask your name?  (3:13.)  3) They will not believe that you appeared unto me.  (4:1.)  4) I am not eloquent; I cannot speak well. (4:10.)

 

It is understandable that mere men are reluctant to speak for God.  We should tremble that God should send us on such missions.  Actually reluctant prophets are better than impulsive and proud ones.  But we should never draw back when God commands us to do his will.

 

God answered each of Moses’ objections; and He has also answered each of ours as well.  God told him: 1) I will be certainly be with you.  2) Tell them that the God of your fathers sent you to them.  My name is I AM THAT I AM.  3) If they do not believe you, then show them some signs.  Turn your rod into a snake; put your hand into your bosom and draw it back.  When it turns leprous, then put it back again and it shall be normal again.  Pour water from the Nile and it shall turn to blood.  4) I will send Aaron your brother to speak for you.

 

Actually, Moses was the best man to go.  He was raised in Pharaoh’s palace.  He knew the language of the Egyptians.  He had a fervent zeal to free his people from bondage.  He struck an Egyptian forty years earlier for mistreating a fellow Hebrew.  Moses was the right man to go.  He is called in the Bible the meekest man on earth.  (Numbers 12:3.)  This is said in context of Miriam and Aaron speaking against Moses.  His brother and sister spoke against him because he married an Ethiopian woman.  They claimed that they were prophets as well as Moses.  They did not have to listen to him.  Moses was humble when they made these challenging statements, but God intervened and punished them.

 

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