Wholly Holy - [Exodus 3]

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Spoiler alert, the new Exodus movie. Don't you hate it when people spoil the movies for you?
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In The Burning Bush, the Exodus movie portrays God as a 10 or 11 year old petulant child, irritated with an
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English accent. The movie producers didn't really want to have
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God portrayed as a God with a loud masculine voice, like in Exodus 19 where Sinai thundered.
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Well, what's The Burning Bush all about? What really did happen? Great questions. Let's turn our Bibles this morning to Exodus chapter 3 and find out.
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Exodus chapter 3, a great passage that tells us about the holiness of God and how
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He is to be approached. And does He keep His promises? We'll find out in Exodus chapter 3.
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The first time the word holy is mentioned in the Bible is found in Exodus 3.
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Holiness is a very, very important topic when it comes to worship, when it comes to running from sin, when it comes to evangelism, when it comes to praise, the holiness of God.
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J .R. Williams called it the fundamental fact about God, His holiness. Huckamah said holiness is not so much a separate attribute of God as a qualification of all that God is and does.
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Puritan Howe called it the attribute of attributes. Out of all the attributes of God, holiness is the key attribute.
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Jonathan Edwards said holiness is more than a mere attribute of God, it's the sum of all
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His attributes, the outshining of all that God is. The holiness of God.
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What does the word holy even mean? It means different. It means distinct.
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It means other. It means alien. It's set apart.
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It's a cut apart. It's a cut above. It is the transcendence of God.
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Sometimes there's a root meaning where it means to shine. God is so different in His brilliance.
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He's not like His other creatures. 1 Samuel 2, it says, there's no one holy like the
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Lord. Indeed, there's no one besides Thee. He alone is
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God. Exodus 15, who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, terrible in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
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God is so different. He is so other. He is so distinct. He is so transcendent.
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He is so holy that He cannot be approached by sinners without a mediator.
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I think of the four living creatures around God's throne, Revelation 4, 8, and they never stop saying, holy, holy, holy is the
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Lord God Almighty. They never stop saying that. God is so holy that He is distinct from sinners and He is unapproachable in His majesty.
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And everywhere you go in the Bible, it talks about the holiness of God. You'd think our culture would have one attribute that shines above the rest of God, and that would be what?
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The love of God. And am I thankful for the love of God? I'm very thankful for the love of God.
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But you'll see the word holy in the text 900 times or so. You'll see in Leviticus, a whole book written about the holiness of God.
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Israel regularly called God the Holy One, the Holy One of Israel.
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When they talked about the name of God and His person and His attributes and His worth, it was more often to refer to Him as the holy name of God than the powerful name of God, the loving name of God, the merciful name of God.
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God is so holy that the third person of the Trinity is even called the Holy Spirit.
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So what is holiness? How does Moses relate to God because God is so holy?
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And what happens in Exodus chapter three? I love Exodus three for lots of reasons.
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Here's one. You probably know the story, but you probably don't really know the story because here's what happens to me.
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I just read quickly because I've got to read through the Bible in a year. So I've got to quickly read these things. And I never just kind of stop and set and simmer and kind of chew on the cut of scripture and just let it all kind of just seep into my every pore.
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So we're going to look at Exodus chapter three today, probably the first half of it. We'll do the second half next
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Sunday as we think about the holiness of God and understanding God as holy, holy, holy.
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And when we understand Him as holy as He is holy, we'll have a new hatred for sin and a new love for the sin bearer,
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Jesus Christ, who allows us access into the very presence of the holy
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God. Now, before you go with me to Exodus chapter three, maybe some of you are sitting there today saying,
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I didn't really come to hear about holiness. I would rather be happy. I'm all about happiness and I'd rather be happy than holy.
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How would you respond to such a person? Well, John James responded this way. Holiness is happiness.
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The more you have of the former, the more you will undoubtedly enjoy the latter.
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If you want to be happy in your life, then first make it your duty in light of the spirit of God's power to be holy.
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That's the order, holy, then happy. Now, chapter one of Exodus, because we're thinking context since we're just kind of parachuting into chapter three.
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Chapter one, Israel is in Egypt and they are growing and they are multiplying and there's lots of people now in Israel.
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And even when you look at ESV Bible, the second headline there is Pharaoh oppresses
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Israel and Pharaoh is exacting things upon Israel and we need a redeemer, we need a savior, we need a deliverer from the clutches of the
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Egyptians. And that's where we pick up in chapter two, Moses is born. And then it says in verse 11, let me read verses 11 to the end of chapter two so you can see where we are chapter three because that really is the key to Bible interpretation.
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What's the near context and what's the far context? Exodus two, verse 11. One day when
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Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens and he saw an Egyptian beating a
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Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way, that.
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Seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hit him in the sand. My grandma always used to say he looked this way and that but he should have looked that way.
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When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling. He said to the man on the wrong, why do you strike your companion? Who made you prince and a judge over us?
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Do you mean to kill me as you kill the Egyptian? And Moses was afraid and thought, surely this thing's known.
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When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian, sat down by a well.
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Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.
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The shepherds came and drove them away but Moses stood up and saved them, watered their flock.
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When they came home to their father, Uriel, he said, how is it that you have come home so soon today? An Egyptian delivered us out of the hands of the shepherds and even drew water for us and, excuse me, watered the flock.
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Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him that he may eat bread. And Moses was content to dwell with the man and Moses was given his daughter
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Zipporah. She gave birth to a son and called his name Gershom for he said,
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I have been a sojourner in a foreign land. Very important, the next several verses. During those many days, the king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help.
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Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God and God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.
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God saw the people of Israel and God knew. And so now we move to the call of Moses.
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These last three very important verses in chapter two tell us about God's faithful covenant keeping promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
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And even though it's been hundreds of years, there's still the faithful God who will finally answer and he's going to do it through Moses, chapter three, verse one, and now we get into our text.
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Moses was keeping the flock of his father -in -law Jethro. By the way, earlier you probably said,
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I thought his name was Ruel, that's his real name, Ruel. And Jethro means his excellency.
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So God is called Lord, he's called Adonai, he's called Elohim, I'm called Mike, I'm called
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Michael, I'm called dad, I'm called uncle. And this is just the way they did it in the Middle East back in those days.
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Priest of Midian and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. God is preparing
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Moses 40 years for the task. Moses who thought he was ready to lead back in the day, but he killed a man instead and now
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God has Moses as a shepherd in the middle of nowhere out in the desolate, isolated desert in a place called
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Horeb, that's the mountain. And it's really called Sinai, but it has another name for it and it's called
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Horeb, which means desolate or isolated or desert, dry.
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And here we have Moses. Now Moses was keeping the flock and the writer has a zoom in on Moses who's out there in the middle of nowhere, patiently learning lessons,
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I'm sure, isolated but beneficial, tending sheep. I mean, is there any nook or cranny that Moses didn't know about back in those days for 40 years?
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How long do you have to work a wheat field before you know it perfectly? How long do you have to have sheep in a mountainside before you know everything perfectly?
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And to this one man in the middle of nowhere in the desolation, in the isolation of Mount Sinai and the shadows of Horeb, not just one man is gonna be changed, but entire nation.
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Here is the crucial turning point for the history of the nation of Israel. Verse two, and all of a sudden the routineness, all of a sudden the ordinariness, all of a sudden the day in, day out, same old, same old is interrupted and man it is interrupted.
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And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.
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He looked, behold, the bush was burning yet it was not consumed. Now let's sit through and think through this issue.
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The angel of the Lord, not an angel of the Lord, not an indefinite article, but an definite article, the particular angel of Yahweh.
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This isn't Gabriel, this isn't Michael, this isn't another angel.
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By the way, what's angel mean? Angel means messenger. There's a messenger from God and it's the particular messenger, the angel of the
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Lord. And you're gonna find out quickly who this is. Do you see in verse four, when the
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Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush.
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So we have a messenger from God who's God. And of course, on this side of the book of Revelation, that's easier for us to understand.
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How can you be God and a messenger from God? Answer, we have the
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Father and we have the Son and we have the Spirit. And the Father is God, the Son is God and the
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Spirit is God. And this Father sends the Son. And that's exactly who this is here.
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This is the second person of the Trinity in pre -incarnate form, in the middle of a bush, in a flame of fire.
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This is the Son who is distinct from the Father, whose
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God like the Father is God, but distinct and sent by the Father. This is the second person of the
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Trinity. By the way, super simple if you're a Bible student. When you see in the Old Testament, the angel of the
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Lord, it's always the second person of the Trinity. Remember, Jesus was born,
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Christmas time we celebrate it, but he was an everlasting God who has always existed.
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And he shows up in something called a theophany. What's a theophany? Theo God, epiphany to show up.
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And now God shows up. And when God shows up the second person of the Trinity in a pillar of fire or in a burning bush, it's called a theophany.
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That's what this is. God shows up, a theophany. When the second person of the Trinity shows up in a human body, it's called a
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Christophany. In human form, kind of a flicker of the incarnation to come. But here, there's no human body.
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It's the fire, it's in the bush. And so this is a theophany, the second person of the Trinity. Even Jesus in Mark chapter 12 of this account says,
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God spoke to Moses. I'm the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac. Moses is just there.
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He's in the middle of nowhere. And the angel of the Lord shows up.
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You could translate it, the angel who is Yahweh, the angel Yahweh. Angel Yahweh shows up.
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And how does he show up? It appeared to him, do you see it? In a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.
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Now just think like a Bible -informed person. I'm quite convinced that we would have better Bible interpretation if we would just continue to read the
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Bible over and over and over and see some of the flows of the Scripture and see some of the highlights of Scripture.
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And then we could ask this question, what does fire symbolize? What does fire symbolize in the
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Bible? What does it illustrate? What is it illustrative of when we see fire show up like this?
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So take a little tour with me through the Bible. Let's start with Genesis chapter 15. You might wanna keep your finger or the ribbon of your
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Bible on Exodus 3. We're gonna look at five or six passages in the flow of Scripture so you can ask and answer the question, what does this mean when we see this fire show up?
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Because then we'll figure out that it's not a petulant little 11 -year -old boy. What is the fire illustrative of?
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And I'll tell you the answer ahead of time, the holy presence of God. That's the answer. Genesis 15, verse 17.
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When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
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Genesis 15, 17. Remember God in this unconditional covenant says to Abraham, I'm gonna make a promise to you,
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Abraham. How'd they make promises back in those days and cut covenants? Well, you get an animal and you would cut the animal in half.
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You'd cut it in pieces and put some pieces of the animal on this side, line them up. Some animals over here, line them up, 10 -yard line, five -yard line.
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You walk through the hash marks. What was it signifying? I'm gonna hold your hand or hold your arm and we're gonna walk together.
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And if we break our promise, what was done to that animal should be done to me. I will, at the risk of my life,
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I promise over my dead body, I'll keep this promise. And so Abraham wasn't involved in the promise and Abraham was sleeping to the side and God passed through the middle.
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How's this invisible God showing up in this covenant with Abraham? A pot of fire, a flaming torch, illustrative of his holy presence.
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Exodus 13, please. Let's look at another one. It's just fascinating. And it makes total sense too with this purifying, holy presence of God.
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Exodus 13, 21. How does God lead Israel through the middle of the wilderness? Well, by day as a pillar of cloud.
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What about by night? Exodus 13, 21. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light that they might travel by day and by night.
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God is present with Israel and He leads them at nighttime as a pillar of fire. Exodus 19, please.
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Exodus 19, 11. How does God descend His mountain in Exodus 19?
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In fire. That's how we know He shows up, the holy presence of God. The holy presence of God, we see in Exodus 19, 18.
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Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke. What kind of language is that? Wonderful language.
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Because the Lord had descended on it in fire.
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Smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly. How about Deuteronomy 4, verse 24?
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Go over a couple of books. Deuteronomy 4, verse 24. Sometimes God is so shown clearly by fire,
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He's identified as fire. You know this verse, Deuteronomy 4, 24. You've probably heard pastors say this before.
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For the Lord, your God is a consuming what? Fire, a jealous God. Let's look up two more verses.
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Ezekiel 1, 4. How do you describe God if you're Ezekiel? How do you describe the indescribable?
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By wheels and spinning and all kinds of things going on, including fire.
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Ezekiel 1, 4. Some kind of fiery shape, he says in Ezekiel 1, 4.
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As I look, behold, the stormy wind came out of the north and a great cloud with brightness around it and fire flashing forth continually and in the midst of the fire, as it were, gleaming metal.
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Fire, illustrative of the holy presence of God. That's the theme of scripture.
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And one last verse. Actually, it's two verses, Daniel 7, 9, and 10. Daniel 7, 9, and 10.
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The presence of God, the protecting presence of God, the holy presence of God, fire.
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Daniel 7, 9. How does he describe some
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God sitting on a throne, the God? Daniel 7, 9. As I looked, thrones were placed and the ancient of days took his seat.
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His clothing was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool.
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His throne was fiery flames. Its wheels were burning fire.
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A stream of fire issued and came out from behind him. Thousand thousands served him.
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10 ,000 times 10 ,000 stood before him. The court sat in judgment and the books were opened.
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No wonder Jesus is said three times in the book of Revelation to have eyes like flaming, what?
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Fire, the holy presence of God. That's fire. Now let's go back to Exodus chapter three and take a look at this
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God who's burning. A bush that's not being burned.
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What's that all about? Deuteronomy 33 calls this the one who resides in the bush. The holy presence of God.
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That should be your association in your mind. It's throughout scripture. God is there and remember, Israel's being oppressed.
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Israel needs a savior. Israel needs redemption. God knew, God saw, God's going to do something about it and so he shows up to Moses.
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Now what's Moses say? Moses said, verse three, I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.
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What do you mean why the bush isn't burned? Why isn't the whole hill burned? Why isn't the whole mountain burned? Everything's just brittle and dry around there.
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The whole thing should be burning. I better check this out. It's a great sight. What's the word bush mean?
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Just means bush. Some think it's a bamboo bush. Some think it's a blackberry bush. Some people think it's a thorny bush but it's just a small little insignificant bush.
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You say, well, why'd God pick a bush? Some writers say, well, he had two choices, rocks or bushes.
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So he picks a bush. I don't think that's the answer. We'll figure that out in a second. But here's what happens.
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There are two religions in the world. Religion one, the one of the Bible, that God's a supernatural
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God. And anytime he wants to override nature, overrule it, intend to do something within or over or above supernaturally,
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God can do it because he's God. And then the other religion is of liberalism. There's no supernatural
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God. Everything has to be described naturally. How would it work out in a natural way? And you don't know how many people have tried to describe this situation with God in the middle of the bush, burning but not burning in a natural way.
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They try to, and it takes more faith, by the way, to figure it out that way. And I've put together a list of different things that people who are liberals, who are anti -supernaturalists say this was.
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Some say it was St. Elmo's fire, but in the desert. St. Elmo's fire, remember
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St. Erasmus, the patron saint of the Mediterranean sailors, and you just contract
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Erasmus and you get Elmo. That makes sense, doesn't it? And there's some kind of green haze out there, some kind of purple haze, weird glow kind of thing.
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Could it be that? Some people think that it's a reflex of light from a storm.
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Others think it's a volcanic phenomenon. If that lava just flows out just right and hits the bush, it seems like it burns, but it doesn't.
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That makes sense, doesn't it? That's just a myth. There's all kinds of myths back in those days where things seemed to burn, but they didn't burn.
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Some say a particular flake of gypsum blew against a twig just perfectly and it started on fire.
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Others say there must have been a perfect crack in Mount Horeb and the light perfectly would shine through at this exact right time and then it looked like it was on fire.
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Others say the bush had some leaves on it and those leaves were poinsettia red, and then when you have the sun shining on red leaves, it looks like fire.
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Others say this was all in Moses's mind. Moses has a mental problem and so he sees what he wants to see.
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Some people think it's a gas plant. There's little, instead of like a pea pod and there's a pea inside the pod, here's gas inside the pod and all of a sudden with enough light coming through maybe some kind of magnifying glass that a kid has for ants or something, it'll make it explode.
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Or the best, and here's my Christmas offering to you all. You know how I love Christmas messages.
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This was the brilliant blossoming of mistletoe twigs.
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One author and scholar, his name was John Davis, he was taken by a group of folks who lived there in Mount Sinai 20 years ago and they showed him actually some original ashes from the burning bush.
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Maybe you could use those for Lent, I don't know. I am positive after 40 years in the wilderness,
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Moses would know about red leaves, about light, about gas plants.
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He knows better, he's been there, he's seen it all. This is not some natural thing, this is a supernatural thing and God's rescue plan of Israel may have been dormant for a while but it's gonna come into full bloom.
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And Moses wants to check this out, the scientist in him wants to check it out. It's burning but it's not burned up.
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Better have a closer look. Now fire is representing the holy presence of God.
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What's the bush represent? Let's find out. Verse four of Exodus three, when the
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Lord saw he turned aside to see, that Moses turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush,
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Moses, Moses, and he said, here I am.
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Now we live in a culture, I live at least in a culture, when it comes to using people's names, there's meaning behind it.
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So when I was younger and I heard these two names put together, I knew what the meaning was of the speaker.
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Michael Lee, that's my first name and my middle name. I knew what that meant and it didn't mean anything good.
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I said to the first service, in our car, when we had three,
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I have a brother and sister, mom would sit in the front seat by dad, dad would sit in the driver's seat and I always called the seat behind dad.
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Why? Because it's hard to hit the kid behind the seat of the driver. And when I heard my father say
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Michael Lee, I knew there was gonna be some spanking, some hitting, or when he didn't have time to spank, he would just pull our hair real hard and then the rest of the day, you're just going like that.
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Well, in this particular case, this kind of repetition of a name, this speech pattern, it meant something back in those days as well.
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And what did it mean? So you've got the holy presence of God and you would think if you weren't careful,
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Moses, Moses, back off, get away. Now that's gonna come in a second. But when you repeat something twice back in those days, it expresses endearment, affection, friendship,
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Moses, Moses. Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son, but the angel of the
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Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham.
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He said, here am I. Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him for I know now you fear
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God. You have not withheld your son from me. Affection. David loved
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Absalom and he was grieving for his son. Second Samuel 19 says, and the people stole in the city that day as people steal in who are ashamed when they flee in battle.
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And the king covered his face and cried out with a loud voice, O my son, Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son.
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Jesus on the cross, the ninth hour, he cries out, my God, my
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God, why have you forsaken me? Endearment, kind, friendship, help, encouragement.
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God shows up and he's gonna help Moses. Remember chapter two at the end, God knew about the plight of Israel.
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God knew about what was going on with the Egyptians and he wanted to do something about it. And he heard their groaning and remembered his covenant.
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Moses, Moses. Now what is this when it comes to the bush?
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What's it significant? What does it mean? Why the bush? Now the question is not, you know what, is it a blackberry bush or what is it?
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But what does it represent? If fire represents the holy presence of God, what's the bush represent?
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What does it mean? Well, listen to scholar Stewart. Biblical culture, in biblical culture, bushes or trees can symbolize people or groups.
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In biblical culture, bushes or trees can symbolize people or groups. That makes all the sense in the world.
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Wait a second, representing what group, what nation, what people group?
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The Israelites. God is in the midst of the Israelites. Listen to S. Lewis Johnson. The bush is representative of the nation
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Israel. And the point that God wants to make to Moses is that the Lord God represented by fire is in the midst of His people and is bound to accomplish
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His purposes in regard to them. I will fulfill all my words to you.
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I'm with you. I heard, I remembered, I knew. I'm coming to help you. I am with you.
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Moses, I'm here to encourage you. Moses, Moses, I am here. I'm in the bush. The nation of Israel.
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How can you preserve an entity, the bush, when it should be not preserved, it should be consumed? How hard is it to consume, to preserve a bush?
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Not very hard if you're God. How hard is it to preserve Israel and Egypt and then through the wilderness?
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Not very hard if you're God. And that's the exact point. He's gonna preserve this one thing, the bush, just as easily as He can preserve the nation
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Israel because the representation is the holy, protecting presence of God is there among the
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Israelites. What does Moses need? Encouragement. What did
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Moses get? A sign of encouragement. Israel is going to be redeemed by God. God cares.
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One writer said, Israel, the people of God, the true people of God will not be consumed because of the unconditional promises given to them.
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You see in verse six, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the
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God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. That kind of language is just laced throughout
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Exodus chapter three. Take a look at verse 15. God said to Moses, say to the people of Israel, the
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Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you.
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I am God and I have unconditional promises for my people Israel and I am there among them and I will fulfill them.
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I mean, ask yourself this question. God could have lit up the entire side of the mountain ablaze, aglow.
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Why didn't he? Answer, because certainly Moses would understand. It's the bush.
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It's a people group. It's the nation. And after the encouragement comes the reminder to Moses that in fact, you just don't saunter into the presence of God.
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Sin and holiness don't mix and it says in verse five. And then he said, do not come near.
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Exodus three, five, don't get too close. Then he says something else.
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Take your sandals off your feet for the place on which you're standing is holy ground. The first time in the
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Bible, we get the word holy. The divine presence is there. That's why it's holy. The place where sheep just were, where goats just were, rocks just are is now holy.
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Why? Because God is there. This is the language of you put the police tape around the barriers of Mount Sinai and don't let the animals even go there because they'll get killed because God is there.
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This is the kind of language that says you can't go into the holies of holies, holy of holies, unless you're the high priest once a year.
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Why? Because God manifests his presence there and you're going to be obliterated.
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Entrance into the presence of God requires preparation. And see what all this is doing when we talk about this and we talk about the
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Exodus three account. It makes you think no wonder the incarnation of Jesus was so spectacular.
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Because if I just think, okay, how do I get into God's presence? Well, I just kind of skip my way in.
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It's a hop, skip and a jump. I just kind of saunter in. There's no way because why? God is holy.
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God is distinct. God is different. God is transcendent. God is other. But although God by nature is transcendent, by will he is eminent, he is close.
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And that is highlighted in the incarnation where Jesus Christ, the second person of the transcendent
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God of the universe, now humbles himself and he cloaks himself with humanity. And you can hear
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Philippians chapter two language where he becomes obedient, obedient to the point of the death on the cross.
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And you think, how do I have access to God? I need a mediator. I need someone to help me because there's etiquette.
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There's holiness etiquette. You just don't show up to God and say, I'm here. You watch out.
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You get your shoes off. You remove your sandals. That kind of language, take off your sandals. I now know there's someone superior to me.
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So in this culture, I take off my sandals. And some writers say he didn't have to stoop down to take his sandals off because he was already on his face.
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Now he knows who God is and he's on his face. Don't come any closer. This is language of Revelation one.
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And in his right hand, Jesus held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp two edged sword. And his face was like the sun shining in its strength.
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And John said, and when I saw him, I fell at his feet as a dead man. This is
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Peter. Oh, everybody else is happy. Everybody else is going, hey, we got a lot of fish.
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We put the fish nets on the other side and we got all this fish and everybody else is happy. But Peter, when
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Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus' feet saying what? Depart from me for I'm a sinful man, oh
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Lord. The presence of God, the holy presence of God. God's heaven is holy.
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That's why we need someone to cleanse us, to prepare us because to get access to God's presence, our sin needs to be dealt with.
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John Calvin said, hence that dread and amazement with which the scripture uniformly relates.
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Holy men were struck and overwhelmed when they beheld the presence of God.
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Men are never duly touched and impressed with the conviction of their insignificance until they've contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.
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No wonder our culture wants to say we're good compared to Charles Manson.
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We're good compared to Bin Laden. But before God, the holy men were struck and overwhelmed.
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Verse six, and he said, I'm the God of your father. Look at the language here. Think clearly, think precisely.
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Every word in the Bible is important. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Do you know
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Jesus uses this verse to win an argument with the Pharisees about the resurrection?
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By the way, Abraham is alive at this particular point. Isaac is alive at this particular point.
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And Jacob is alive at this particular point because he says, I am their God. I'm their God right now, present tense.
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But you said, I thought they buried Abraham. They buried Isaac and they buried Jacob. And the answer is, yes, they did, but they're alive.
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Why? Because their spirits are alive. God is currently the
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God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he is not going to forget his promises to them.
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I'm remembering, I am the God. I'm gonna take action. I'm gonna do something about this. Not the
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God of the dead, I'm the God of the living. And Moses, what's the text say, hid his face for he was afraid to look at God.
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There's all kinds of thoughts and articles about paganism and how they wouldn't wanna look on the face of their
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God for whatever reason, I don't know. But the reason you don't see God in his fullness is because he's so holy and we're so not.
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No wonder Jacob said, I saw God face to face, yet my life was spared.
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No wonder because of the work of Jesus Christ, the risen Savior, Jesus on the mount, the sermon on the mount, he said, blessed are the pure in hearts for they shall what?
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See God. He's so unapproachable, you have to approach him only without sin.
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He's so unapproachable, you have to approach him only when you're perfect. He's so unapproachable that the only approach is in and through the work of his son, the
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God man, Jesus Christ, who was without spot, without blemish, never sin. In the garden of Eden, Eve and Adam sinned.
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But think about before they sinned, the communion they had with God, the fellowship they had with God, the friendship they had with God.
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And then Isaiah 59 would be a good verse to describe what happened. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your
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God. Your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. And so we've sinned in Adam and Eve and we've fallen short.
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And so how do we approach God if we're unholy and he's so holy? And the answer is through the merits of the
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Holy One. Hebrews 10, since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh.
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I mean, if you're gonna try to approach God on your own merits, it's gonna be Sinai for you. Listen to Hebrews 12, for you did not come to a mountain that may be touched and to a blazing fire and to darkness and to gloom and to whirlwind and to the blast of a trumpet.
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And the sounds of the words were such that those who heard them begged that no further word should be spoken to them, for they could not bear the command.
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Even if a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I'm full of fear and trembling.
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If it wasn't for Jesus, that's our vehicle and our attempt into the presence of God.
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And it'll never happen. But because of the cross,
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Hebrews says, we have confidence to enter the holy place. We have a great high priest over the house of God.
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Let us draw near then. What do you mean? Let us draw near. How can you draw near? With a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
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Verse seven, then the Lord said, look at this language of kindness.
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Yes, he's holy, but he's compassion. He keeps his promises. I've surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt.
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And I've heard their cry because they're taskmasters and I know their sufferings.
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I've seen, I've heard, I know. And what did he see, hear and know?
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Affliction, cry and suffering. But these are, don't miss it, right in the very middle of that verse, my people.
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These are my people. I made a promise to them. So I'm concerned. I take notice and I'll do something about it because they're my people.
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And I made a promise to Abraham. They're my people. You'll say, well, you know,
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God is so sovereign. He doesn't seem like he's personal. The sovereign God who isn't personal has a name and his name isn't
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Jesus. His name is Allah. But the God of the Bible, the triune God, even by definition and by triune nature, the
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Father, Son and the Spirit who love one another, who are all persons, is a very personal
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God, a hands -on God, a God who cares. This is the God who cares for his people.
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And what's he gonna do about it? Just say, I care. Verse eight, I've come down to deliver them out of the hand of the
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Egyptians and to bring them out of the land to a good and broad land. How broad?
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How good? It's so good. It's a land flowing with milk and honey. And it's so broad. Canaanites live there now.
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Hittites live there now. Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
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I'm gonna rescue them. I'm gonna take them out. It's a good, broad, spacious land. Six nations could live there.
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And I'm gonna just put Israel there. And it's a land, it's got so many bees, there's tons of honey. It's got so much milk.
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The milk, anybody here milk a cow, milk a goat? Who here would admit it? Some do.
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Now, when cows don't get much food, they don't produce much milk.
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But just imagine a super healthy cow, fed well. And all of a sudden you start milking the cow.
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This word here, flowing means oozing. That udder is so tight.
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That udder is so full. There's so much milk coming out. It's like it just comes out on its own. It just oozes out.
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You don't even have to squeeze the udders. It's just oozing out. Okay, so much for that. This God is faithful.
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Yes, He's holy, but He's a compassionate God. And I'm gonna give Israel the best. Did they deserve it?
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Of course they didn't deserve it, but God is so good. And of course the parallel in my mind, as I'm kind of alt -tabbing through, you know,
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Old Covenant, New Covenant. The promises in Christ Jesus, spiritual promises for the
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Christian. I mean, if Israel thought a lot of land was good, and milk was good, and the cheese you could make with that, the physical blessings were so good.
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But honey, how much greater are our blessings that are found in Christ Jesus?
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We have the scriptures. We have adoption. We have the Spirit of God who dwells in us. We are co -heirs with Christ.
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He foreknew us. He predestined us. He called us. He had His Son die for us. We are risen in Christ Jesus.
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And the list goes on and on and on. Forgiveness, full and free. The grace of God oozing out.
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What does this text say? Verse nine. And now behold, the cry of my people Israel has come up to me, and I've seen the oppression with which the
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Egyptians oppressed them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.
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Now, in all honesty, maybe a few disagree, but when you just study the text and be absorbed in the text,
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I say to myself, this is like in living color. Now, I'm not against movies.
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That's not my point. But I don't need a movie because I see and behold the transforming power of the living
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God in this exciting, interesting, God -centered narrative where God is faithful and He does what
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He says. We'll have to see what else
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He says next week. Let's pray. Father, we are thankful this morning for Exodus chapter three.
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We exalt You for being holy. We're thankful that You're faithful and we're glad You're compassionate.
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And thinking of those three words, there are more words to think of, but I think of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Holy, faithful, compassionate. We're thankful that we have such a risen
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Savior, the King of glory. Father, if You can easily preserve a bush that should have burned and You could easily preserve
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Israel which should have perished in the wilderness, You can easily preserve
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Your people. For You have promised, I will never leave You nor forsake
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You. So Father, help us to be worshipers. Help us in light of the holiness of God to hate sin and to love what
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Jesus did for us because while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.