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I hear people talk about God and they'll say things like, well, I think God is such and such. My God is so and so. Mark Devers, a pastor down in Washington, D .C., and he was giving a conference on the attributes of God.
And it was a conference where there was some Q &A and Mark had been giving a biblical presentation of God and who he is and what he's done and is doing. Guy disagreed with him, though, and he raised his hand and Dever called on the man.
And the guy said, well, I disagree with you, Mark. You know, I like to think of God as omniscient but not meddling. I like to think of God as just but not nitpicky. I like to think of God as sovereign but not overbearing.
Well, the guy went on and on and finally when he was finished, Mark Devers said, thank you, Bob, but we're not here to talk about what you think and we're not here to talk about you. We're here to talk about God.
And so we're going to go back to the Bible now. Please turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 3. The way you're to think about God is through His revelation. He's given us an outside source. See, our own hearts are tainted by sin and desperately wicked and if we're like Quakers seeking the truth within, we've got a problem because the fall has affected us.
But God has been gracious to reveal truth from outside of us. Of course, natural revelation with His wisdom and power, but specific revelation, He tells us how to think about Him properly and biblically.
This is how He's revealed Himself is through Scripture. And we're going to look at Exodus chapter 3 today and you're going to see one attribute after another unfold in this passage. Sometimes we go to the passage and we say, well, you know what?
Isn't this a great passage about Moses? And Moses is out in the wilderness and we learn how not to give excuses and Moses is there and look at how humble he is and we should be humble too. And Moses was a facing and we should be a facing too.
This passage is all about the Lord and who He is and it will give you many reasons to praise Him. If I were to ask you the question, what comes into your mind when I say the word God? What would come into your mind?
And as we go through the passage today, you're going to see several attributes that should come into your mind every time you think about God and we're going to see how holy He is, how faithful He is, how present He is, how compassionate He is and how sovereign He is.
So we're in Exodus chapter 3 today, but I think it's best to give us a little context and so go with me if you would to chapter 1 verse 5 to make sure we understand what's happened between the end of Genesis where Joseph is dead, the last words in Genesis, so they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
We pick it up in Exodus chapter 1 verse 5 for some immediate context. All the descendants of Jacob were 70 persons. Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died and all his brothers and all that generation.
But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them. Verse 8,. Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph.
And he said to his people, Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let's deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply. And if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.
Verse 13,. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work, in all their work, they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.
Verse 21 of chapter 1,. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. And Pharaoh commanded all his people, Every son that is born to the Hebrews, you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.
And then chapter 2 moves into the story where there was a son that wasn't cast into the Nile. He was put into a little basket, into a little ark and placed into the Nile and then sovereignly chosen and picked out of the Nile by Pharaoh's daughter.
Do you see it in chapter 2 verse 7? Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you? And of course we know what happens. At the end of chapter 2 verse 23, During those many days the king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help.
Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant. Super important to get this. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.
God saw the people of Israel in their distress of course and God knew. So let's go to chapter 3 now with a little review and we're going to see several attributes of God. If you want to take notes, you want an outline, let me give you some attributes of God so that you can praise him for who he is and what he's done as we see him in the context of Exodus chapter 3.
I think even though I'm not Moses, even though we're not Israel, you're going to see the same God of Israel, the same God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is our God and we're going to learn things about him so we can speak well of him.
What is praise? To speak well of God. Let's find some reasons that we can think of God properly and then praise him. Just a little review with some new information added in verse 1. We're going to see the holiness of God in verses 1 through 5.
God reveals himself as holy and therefore you could praise him as such. Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
As you remember, Horeb is another name for Sinai. It just means desolate, it means arid, it means isolated and Moses is now by Sinai. Remember Moses trained in the courts of Pharaoh and he was proficient in geometry and astrology and different branches of learning.
Philo, the Alexandrian Jew, said he knew about poetry, music, philosophy and he's not here on some religious pilgrimage. He's not here to try to meet God face to face. He's been put on the shelf, as it were, sequestered for 40 years and he's tending sheep.
Just mundane, he's there. And verse 2, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. As we saw last week, when you see angel, it means messenger, right?
And here is not a particular angel. It's not Gabriel, it's not Michael, it's not some other created being. This is the angel of the Lord and when you study the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, it is always the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, before he's cloaked himself with humanity.
So the eternal Son of God is God. You can even see verse 4, we know the angel of the Lord is God. You see in verse 4, God called to him out of the bush. How can someone be God and be sent by God as a messenger?
And if you're a Trinitarian, it's very simple because God the Father sends the Son into the world for the incarnation and here God the Father has sent the Son, the second person of the Trinity, as a messenger to Moses.
So when you see the angel, definite article, it's always the second person of the Trinity and God is going to say something to Moses in what we call theologically a theophany, an appearing of God. And notice how he appears.
In what does he appear? In a flame of fire. Remember how we documented that last week? A flame of fire talking about the holy presence of God. When you see flame in this kind of context, it's the presence of God guiding, protecting.
It's the pillar of fire by night. It's the flaming fire swords that the cherubim used to protect the garden of Eden. God is here with this protecting presence and holiness. Moses said he would check it out in verse 3.
I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. Over and over and over people try to describe this in a naturalistic way, but it's a supernatural event. The second person of the Trinity shows up to talk to Moses and remember the context, chapter 1 suffering, chapter 2 suffering, but God knew and when God knows something and he's made a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he will fulfill those promises even though it's been 400 years.
God, where are you? What's going on? And now in God's providential timing, he shows up. I did find out, by the way, what that gas plant is called. D-I-C-T-A-M-N-U-S, they call it. And some naturalist would say there's some kind of seed pod and a special kind of bush, a thorn bush, and it's got kind of this flammable thing on the outside and maybe that's what it is.
Of course, that's not what it is. God has shown up. One person said, well, you know what? It's just a fire that should just be quickly ignited and then goes out, but in this particular case, this thing just never went out and so Moses came over.
But this is a supernatural event. It says in verse 4, when the Lord, when Yahweh, when the covenant-keeping God of Israel saw that he turned aside to see God, called him out of the bush. He called him out of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he said, here I am.
This is not going on in Moses' mind. If you could record the audio, you would have decibel levels and God says, Moses, Moses, and when God repeats something like this in Hebrew, what is it? This is endearment.
This is kindness. I'm here. Absalom, Absalom. Samuel, Samuel. Moses, Moses. My God, my God. He's there expressing endearment and friendship and affection. What's the meaning of the bush? I mean, I learned this week that some say it means it's the burning heart of purity.
Others say it's miraculous energy. It's sacred light. In the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, in a 2012 paper, it said that this was a psychiatric condition in Moses' mind, similar to the psychiatric spectrum of illusions found in the minds of Abraham, Paul, and Jesus.
By the way, I don't go for that view. Benny Shannon of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Professor of Cognitive Psychology, says that there had to be some kind of hallucinogenic substance on that mountain and that if he ingested it kind of like peyote, then he would have these thoughts of God.
One article refers to that last article I just talked about, and it's entitled, Researcher, Moses was Tripping at Mount Sinai. For those of you who don't know the slang of tripping, why is it so important to get right?
Well, of course, it's God's Word. But what's going on here? What's the context? It has nothing to do with some kind of psychosis. Remember, God's presence is demonstrated by a fire, holy presence, pure presence, guiding presence.
And back in those days, a tree could represent a nation. A bush could represent a nation. Here is God in the middle of the bush and the bush isn't consumed. And God now is telling Moses, I'm in the middle of the people and they're not being consumed.
The fire is representing the holy presence of God and the bush is the nation of Israel. And it is just as easy for me to keep a bush that should be burning, not burnt, as it is a nation that should be consumed by Egypt, not consumed.
Moses needed encouragement. Moses needed a sign. God knows. God cares. God's faithful. The bush is not consumed. And God will keep His promises. Why do you think promise keepers failed so miserably and has gone now for 15 years, 10 years, 20 years?
Because we just don't need seven more promises to try to keep on our own. We can't do it. Is there anyone who will not break their promise? And it's God. He promised to Abraham. He promised to Isaac. He promised to Jacob.
And He will, through the unconditional promises given to Abraham, make sure Israel will one day worship at Mount Sinai and beyond. And even though God is dear, even though God is endearing Himself, Moses, Moses, this is a holy place.
Yes, sheep were just there. Goats were just there. There's dirt there. But since God's there, now it's holy, verse 5. Then He said, Do not come near. Take off your sandals, off your feet, for the place on which you're standing is holy ground.
There's someone who's superior here. There's someone who's above you here. God is here. I'm here, says the Lord. What a great passage to talk about the holiness of God. No wonder we have such a distorted view of sin and salvation because we don't get holiness.
Dave Wells said, Divorced from the holiness of God, sin is merely self-defeating behavior or a breach in etiquette. Divorced from the holiness of God, grace is merely empty rhetoric, pious window dressing for the modern technique by which sinners work out their own salvation.
Divorced from the holiness of God, our gospel becomes indistinguishable from any of the host of alternative self-help doctrines. Divorced from the holiness of God, our worship becomes mere entertainment.
What is holiness? Well, it's ethical purity. It's no spot, no stain, no sin, pure, clean, holy. But it's also transcendent. It's different. It's other. And so here we have, can you imagine? Isaiah calls God the Holy One of Israel.
How can that be? The Holy One, so transcendent, so different, so other, so above, yet He's the Holy One of Israel. He's transcendent, yet He's eminent. He's close. The Holy One of Israel. Moses, you're on holy ground.
Take your sandals off. And of course, as I think about the holiness of God and I think about Christmas, it drives me to the Incarnation to say, how do we approach God without a mediator? I'm not holy, you're not holy, and we're going to approach the all-consuming fire of the holiness of God?
We need a mediator. We need someone to intercede for us, a priest who's without sin, Hebrews 4, one who's committed no sin, 1 Peter 2, one who had no sin, 2 Corinthians 5. Positively, Jesus had said, He says of Himself, I always do what pleases the Father.
A high priest set apart from sinners is Jesus. So verses 1 through 5 talk about the holiness of God. That's a good thing to praise God for, His holiness. Verse 6, not only is God holy, but He reveals Himself here as faithful.
I alluded to it earlier, but now let's make explicit what was implicit. Verse 6, holiness of God found in verses 1 through 5, now the faithfulness of God found in verse 6. And He said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
And Moses hid his face, and he was afraid to look at God. It's been 400 years, but God's work hasn't been suspended. His promises haven't been forgotten. Remember when Jesus was talking to the Sadducees, and they didn't believe in the resurrection?
He quotes these verses. Remember the Sadducees? You know, if a guy has a wife, and he dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow, raise up the offspring. Jesus answered and said, You are wrong, because you neither know the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God in Exodus 3?
I am the God of Abraham. Abraham's alive. I'm the God of Isaac. Isaac is alive, and the God of Jacob. They're all alive. He's not the God of the dead, Jesus said, but of the living. The faithfulness of God.
He will not forget. Know therefore, Deuteronomy 7, the Lord your God, He is God, and He is faithful. In this day, businesses people are unfaithful, marriages people are unfaithful. Infidelity abounds in every hand, Arthur Pink said.
And then we have Scripture that teaches us that He is a rock. He's a fortress. He's a defense. Psalm 36, God's faithfulness reaches to the skies. Isaiah 11, His faithfulness is like a belt around His waist.
The Lord's kindnesses never cease. His compassions never fail. They're new every morning. What? Great is your faithfulness. No wonder it said of Jesus in 2 Corinthians 1, All the promises of God in Christ are yes in what?
Amen. He's so holy. He's so faithful. And that's not all. Verses 7 through 10, He's compassionate. You think a transcendent, holy God, would He have any compassion? Or is He just too different? But He is, in fact, compassionate as well.
Verses 7 through 10,. Then the Lord said, I've surely seen the affliction of my people. Of course, He's seen His omniscient, but this is language of, I'm going to do something about it. Who are in Egypt, I've heard their cry because of their taskmasters.
I knew their sufferings. I've come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, to bring them up out of that land, to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey. It's such a broad land.
Right now, the Canaanites live there, the Hittites do, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. I'm going to rescue them. The holy God of the burning bush is faithful, and He's also compassionate.
I will do something about them. And now, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me. I've also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, this nation now, they're now a nation out of Egypt.
Compassionate grace of God. When I say compassionate grace of God, I immediately think of Jesus in Matthew chapter 12. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not quench.
It makes me think of Matthew 9, when Jesus saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, for they were harassed and helpless like a sheep without a shepherd. It makes me think of Jesus' words, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Jesus, the demons say, you're the Holy One of God, and yet He is compassionate for His people. He's holy, He's faithful, He's compassionate, and He's close. He's personally present, verses 11 through 12.
11 through 12. You know, when I was a kid, my mom would always say, Praise the Lord. I think this was before the Praise the Lord TV channel, TV shows. Praise the Lord. I'm like, what does Praise the Lord mean?
I have no idea. And praise just means to speak well of. How do you speak well of the Lord? And if we're not careful, we just kind of default to, well, God, thanks for loving me, and He's a God of love.
And of course, He is a God of love, and He demonstrated that love at Calvary, of course, and other places. But this is good, because you can think to yourself, okay, if I'm going to pray, and I want to follow that ACTS, acronym, A-C-T-S, C, confession, T, thanksgiving, S, supplication.
If I want to go to the A, how can I adore God? Oh, come let us adore Him. What do I think of? Well, this passage, it's not about Moses, it's about God, and you can think, God is so holy. I praise you for your holiness.
So faithful, so compassionate, and so close. There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Moses is inadequate. He's protesting God. Look at verse 11. But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?
Who am I? Forty years ago, Moses would not have said that. He would have said, I'm your man, and by the way, I'll kill people if you need me to, because I've done it in the past. Pushy, and shovey, and right up there, and now he's like, I don't, I'm not the guy.
That's just the point now, isn't it? Moses, you're inadequate. A perfect vessel for the promises of God to use, for God to use such a man. What's the response? Verse 12. Here's the response. By the way, this is the Christmas message.
You want to hear about God with us? Emmanuel? You want to know about the Incarnation? He's a transcendent God, but He's also a close God, an eminent God. But I will be with you. That's just like the Great Commission, isn't it?
Go make disciples, and baptize, and teach, and all these things that I do, and you do it in my name, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. I'll be with you. And by the way, He goes further.
He gives a sign too, and this shall be the sign. What's the sign that I've sent you? Well, basically, the people are going to worship at Sinai. You will have brought out of the people, out of Egypt, and you shall serve God on this mountain.
When you, singular, have brought the people out of Egypt, Moses, you, plural, Israel, shall serve God on this mountain. Fourteen times in the Old Testament, in Genesis, I'll be with you. I'll be with you.
I'll be with you. I'll be with you. And now we hear that same language, but for Moses, I'll be with you. I will be with you. What does it mean, I'll just be kind of there by your side? Kind of moral support?
When God says, I'll be with you, I will guide you, I will direct you, I will protect you, I will make it happen. I'll be with you. And now I'm going to give you a sign. They're all going to be worshiping at Sinai.
Verses 13 through 15 give us a fifth attribute. God reveals Himself in this passage to be holy, faithful, compassionate, personally present, and now self-existent. Boy, this is strange to our ears and strange to our eyes if we're not familiar with the biblical account.
Who am I? And now what shall I say? Verses 13 through 15, God's self-existent. What's the name of God? How does He describe Himself? How does He reveal Himself? Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and they say the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me what's His name, what shall I say to them?
Like in those days, today if somebody knows your name, they can influence you a little bit. There's some influence you have over someone if you know their name. For instance, when I receive junk mail in the mail, and it is addressed to the funniest one, this is true by the way, Cooley can vouch for me, when I get mail addressed to Mr. Mike Haferhorf, I don't open it.
It just gets thrown away. Why? They don't even know my name. There's no influence these people have over me. Mr. Haferhorf, when somebody calls me on the phone, is this the man of the house? Is this the woman of the house?
Well, it's the man of the house, yes. Is Mr. Abernathy in the house? No, he's not. No influence. The same thing here. They're going to ask me what his name is. What do I say? Now, God has in the past shown Himself in Genesis as God Most High, Genesis 14.
Shown Himself as the fear of Isaac, Genesis 31. God Almighty, Genesis 17, 28, 35, 43, 48. The God who sees me, Genesis 16. And the God of Bethel, Genesis 31. And if you notice the text, it's not who, it's what.
They're going to want to know, what kind of character does this God have? What kind of nature? What's His essence? What's His name? Because then I'll know about who He is. I'll know about what He is. Verse 14, God said to Moses, What's your name?
And God says to Moses, I am who I am. And He said, I am has sent me to you. God, for 400 years, you've been silent. And the people need encouragement. They need direction. They need assurance. And you can be powerful.
That'd be good if you just said, you know, God Almighty is here. God of vengeance is here. God of holiness is here. But what is this, I am who I am? Why would He say that? Moses says, Who am I? I am not adequate for these things.
Paul, when he deals with churches, as every elder, every pastor who thinks about how do you do ministry, who is adequate for these things? No one is. And Moses is like, I'm not adequate. And now God is here.
And he says, Listen, I am adequate. Let me tell you about who I am and what I am. I am who I am. Doesn't that kind of sound odd? I am who I am. I am who I am is kind of a repetition. In Hebrew syntax and in Greek, if you say, I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy.
I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion. Wouldn't it be just enough to say, I'll have compassion? Wouldn't it be just enough to say, I'll have mercy? Wouldn't it be just enough to say, I am?
Sometimes He does call Himself I am. But when He says, I am who I am, there's a special intensity. There's a special flavor to it. So He is. He is our I am. God exists. Let me give you some nuances of this designation, self-designation.
First, God exists. I am means He exists. He doesn't say, I was, I used to be. The pagan gods of the day in Egypt weren't real. They were made up. And of course, with the New Testament nomenclature, we would understand.
Old Testament gods were like any other false god. They're really demons. There is one God, the true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And He is. I am the one who is. I am the one who will be.
I am the one who always exists. You want to know who the God of your fathers is? It's the same God. I just am. Not I used to be. Not I will be. Not I shall be. If God used to be something and He is something now, that means maybe He's gotten worse.
Maybe He's gotten better. Maybe He's learned more. Maybe He's forgotten more. Maybe He's learned less. Maybe He used to be powerful. He expended a lot of that energy with Joseph there in prison. And He was something, but now He isn't anymore.
No, He is with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And He is now with Moses and the people of Israel. God is alive. He's active. Existence comes from Himself. Do you exist from yourself or from outside yourself?
Even language like that. We are created beings. We rely on someone else for our very existence, our very breath, our very heartbeat. And God just says, I am. Eternality. Self-existence. I'm the God of your fathers and I am.
I wasn't something. I shall not be something. I am. And what I was for Abraham, I am now. What I was for Isaac, I am now. What I was for Jacob, I am now. And everything is coming back to unconditional covenant-keeping.
Unconditional promises are met by the covenant-keeping God. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and now. And not only exists, but personally exists. I am. Now, if I were to say to you, is God a person? We live with that kind of language because we understand.
Yes, God is a person and we realize the incarnation. And Jesus is a person. We sang a song today, holy, holy, holy. God in three persons, blessed Trinity. We think that way. We talk that way. But back in those days, do you know one of the Egyptians' goddesses, her name was Isis.
And by the way, that's not a TV show in the 60s or 70s for kids, although I think I watched that. Is that what she did? Why would my mom let me watch Isis? I don't know. Same reason she let me watch Bewitched, I guess.
The Egyptian god Isis, the statue, there's one statue that has an inscription underneath it and this is what it says of Isis. I am the thing that is and was and shall be. I'm a thing. I'm something. Not personal.
Not self-existent. I'm a thing. I'm Isis. For the Lord know, He personally exists. And if He personally exists, then He personally knows at the end of Exodus chapter 2 and God knew. He personally knew these people are suffering but I will do something about it in my own time.
Covenant-keeping faithful God. He exists. He personally exists. Let me give you another nuance of this I am who I am. He exists independently. He exists independently. I am. And there's no outside contributors because if there was, maybe they're more powerful than God and then they can undo what God has promised to Abraham.
No. I exist independently. Not dependent on anyone for help. Can you imagine? Most people, I live that way as an unbeliever in my mind. I'm not dependent on anyone for help. I'm a self-made man. Only God is self-existent.
Some translate I am who I am as I cause what I cause. I'm a causer. I make things happen. I cause to be because I cause to be. I am who I am. And since He's personal, since He exists, since He's not influenced by anyone else, He will keep His promises.
And when I read things like this, I am who I am, we know the New Testament and you think, okay, I get it now. John 6, these are all quotes from Jesus, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger.
John 8, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life. John 10, I am the gate. If anyone enters through me, he shall be saved and go in and out and find pasture.
Also in John 10, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 11, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me shall live even if he dies. John 14, I am the way, the truth, the life.
No one comes to me but through the Father. John 15, I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. And maybe at the top of the list, Jesus said in John 8, 58, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.
I've existed, self-existed, eternally existed. I am. Verse 15 of Exodus, God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, the Lord Yahweh. Remember, this is not like Lord as a title. This is a name.
Sadly, our translators translated Yahweh, the covenant-keeping name of God and they've given us all capitals L-O-R-D. If only the first letter was capital, it'd mean Adonai or sovereign but it's all capitals and so this is just the way most new translations are.
There's a few exceptions. The Lord here is His name. Here's my name, Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac. See, personally, it doesn't say God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but the personal God of Abraham, the personal God of Isaac, the personal God of Jacob, I'm still their God now, I am the Lord, has sent me to you.
That's what you tell them. This is my name forever and thus I am to be remembered throughout all the generations. I self-exist and I will keep my promises. God's holy, God's faithful, He's compassionate, He's personally present, He's self-existent, and finally, verses 16 through 22, He's sovereign.
When you think of God, these kind of things should come to your mind. What does the Bible say about God? Chapter 16 through 22, notice the sovereign hand of God. Verse 16, Go and gather the elders of Israel together.
Go talk to the elders and say to them, by the way, this is how I start off every elders meeting at BBC, gather the elders together. I'm going to speak for the Lord right now. Just kidding. Here's what you want to say to the elders, literally the bearded ones, the ones with the beards, the gray beards.
Here's what you say. The Lord, remember that's His name, not the title, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, has appeared to me saying, I've observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt and I promise, can you imagine?
I promise, He's made the promise back in Genesis 15 where He put Abraham to sleep and then walked between the fire, the animals that were split in half as it were, as the fire pot. I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt into the lands of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land oozing with milk and honey, flowing with milk and honey.
I've made a promise and I will keep it. I promise. No wonder when you think of language in the New Testament, I will never leave you nor what? Forsake you. I promise. But I know that the King of Egypt will not let you go.
He's sovereign. He knew that unless compelled by a mighty hand. So here's what I'll do. I'll stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders. We know these 10 plagues, by the way, the first plague has nothing to do with alligators.
Sorry for the new movie spoiler. That I will do in it. By the way, let me just tell you this. You go see whatever you want from movies. You go waste your pagan money, your filthy lucre any way you want.
I haven't seen it but I've read quite a bit about it. If I was a betting man, I bet that they do not portray God in the Exodus movie as holy, as faithful, as compassionate, as personally present. I bet you they don't.
And they're going to miss the entire story. I don't need to have God represented by some petulant little 11 year old boy who doesn't get his way. I promised you. This is a father. This is when God speaks out of Sinai.
It's thunder. But this is the language of, I've promised you. By the way, I've made promises to my kids and I've said to them, you know, after such and such, I'll take you to so and so and we'll do such and such.
And I've had to go to them and I'll say, you know, in light of things that have come up in circumstances and emergencies or my own bad word, I can't do that. I can't fulfill my word. I don't have the resources to fulfill it.
But God does. And He says, I'm going to stretch out my hand with these 10 plagues that I will do in it. After that, He will let you go. How does He know that? He knows everything. Because He's sovereign over everything.
He causes everything. A God who's not sovereign over the future isn't sovereign at all. And the most powerful man in all the universe, at this day, Pharaoh is going to do whatever God tells him to do.
Verse 21, and I'll give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Wait a second. I just thought they're being oppressed in every way. They're killing their baby boys. And each woman will ask of her neighbor.
Because you're not going to go home empty. Not empty-handed. You want to know what empty-handed comes from? Here's a good start. And any woman who lives in her house for jewelry, silver, gold, clothing, she'll put them on your sons and on your daughters so you shall plunder the Egyptians.
And here's the Lord with His nice little reminder of how He keeps His promises. Listen to Genesis 15. But I also judge the nation whom they serve and after they will come out with many possessions. How are you going to get the possessions?
You just ask them. I'd like to have that Rolex watch. I'd like to have that pearl necklace. I'd like to have that bar of gold. Okay, go ahead. How do you know this ahead of time? Because God, you're sovereign and you make it all happen and you will keep your word.
I promised, God says. So what happens when you read a narrative like Exodus chapter 3? I'll tell you what should happen. At least it happens to me on my good days when I'm walking by the Spirit. I get absorbed by the text and I'm into the text and I'm thinking about who God is.
It has nothing to do about Moses. If you need compassion today, Moses isn't going to help you. If you need assurance, if you need strength, if you need conviction of sin, it's all about who God is. This God is holy.
And then I think of who Jesus is as the Holy One of God. This God is faithful and Jesus is the faithful one. He keeps His promises to the end. This is the God who's with us. He's Emmanuel. Everything about it is who God is.
In the middle of the problems for Moses, don't forget about who God is. In the middle of our problems, I think it is fair to say as a good application, we need to think who God is and what He has done.
Let's pray. Father, thank You for our time in Your Word. We're thankful that the Lord Jesus Christ was there. He was there in the middle of the bush. And as the writer Hebrew says of Jesus, He's unlike other high priests.
He does not need to sacrifice day by day, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people because He sacrificed for His people's sins once for all when He offered Himself. Father, we're thankful that You can take sinful people and pardon them.
You can take sinful people and make them holy. You can have us be positionally holy and practically holy and one day perfectly holy in heaven. And so, Father, we're thankful that Jesus, although nailed to the cross for our sin debts, because You're holy and faithful, we're thankful that He was raised from the dead.
And we have a promise of a risen Savior. Father, I pray that in light of the cross for the Christians here today, that with Robert Murray McShane, You would help us to be as holy as a pardoned sinner can be.
That's what we desire with our walk. And Father, for those who are here today who are not born again, who are not Christians, who are not believers, Father, before they enter into Your holy presence as a consuming fire, would You please, as You've granted us free forgiveness through faith, would You grant them that?
Father, would You give them repentance? Would You have them to turn from their wicked way and to follow Your Son, Jesus Christ, to believe Him, to believe in fact that He is the I Am and that He is the Good Shepherd?
Thank You, Father, for this text, and I just pray for this week that Christ Jesus might be exalted in our homes and at our dinner tables. In His name we pray. Amen.