God Calling | Exodus 3:1-9

I invite you to turn the book of Exodus. We’ll be giving our attention to Ex. 3:1-9. I have a friend named “Charlie.” Charlie wasn’t even 10 years old, when his world changed – when the whole world changed. It was a beautiful Sunday morning, like pretty much every morning in paradise. Charlie was on his bike, heading for home, when the bombing started. And when he saw that distinct red circle on wings of the aircraft as it banked over his Pearl City neighborhood, Charlie realized immediately what it meant. He knew what it meant for him. He knew what it meant for the rest of the Japanese-American community, that included my wife’s grandparents, that had made the islands of Hawaii their home. On Dec. 7, 1941, the world changed.

We could say the same thing of many other history-altering moments. The end of the battle for Yorktown in Oct. of 1781. The invention of the silicon chip in 1961. The terrorist attack on the Pentagon and World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Things happened on these dates that turned the world upside down.

And such was the day described in Ex. 3. In fact, what happened on that day, makes all other epoch-making events pale in comparison. Whoever you are, wherever you live, whenever you lived, the echo-effect of what happened on a mountainside in the wilderness of Sinai, as recorded in Ex. 3, reverberates, and will continue to reverberate through all eternity. So, let’s give our attention to it. Follow along as I read Ex. 3:1-9.

“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.

 And 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. And Moses said, “I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”

 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Then he said, “Do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

 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, for he was afraid to look at God.

 Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters.

 I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the land of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.”

—Exodus 3:1-9

 This is the Word of God. Let’s pray.

Moses wrote these things to a million, or so, 2nd generation Hebrews. And these Hebrews are camped on the plain of Moab, on the east side of the Jordan River, in sight of the land God had promised to them. And all this generation has known is waiting. All they’ve known, for about 40 years, is wandering. No purposeful employment. No satisfying accomplishments. No meaningful achievements.

But their world is about to change. They are on the verge of entering the promised land. And that meant they are on the verge of a great conflict. They are about to engage with nations accustomed to making war. This land is not a freebie. It’s not a government stimulus package. And God, as always, is doing more than meets the eye. He is faithfully fulfilling His purpose and covenant promise, to His people, while also faithfully upholding His righteousness and satisfying His justice among nations who have defiantly set themselves up against Him.

So, what will His people need when the chariots appear, and the arrows fly, and the blood begins to flow, and the battle-field is strewn with the torn bodies of their loved ones? What? What will they need when the challenges they face are far more intense than anything they’ve dealt with during their life-long camp-out?  

What they will need more than anything is to know who God is. They need to know that God still cares. They need to know that God has a plan and purpose for them. And they need to know they can rely on God to deliver them from evil, from trouble when they call on Him. That’s the main point of our text – “God will deliver people from the power of evil when they cry out to Him!”

That’s God’s promise to us today. He will deliver you and deliver me from the power of evil when we cry out to Him. I get that from a refrain Moses repeats 3 times. Look at Ex. 2:23-25.

 “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 God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel – and God knew.”

—Exodus 2:23b-25

 When you’re hurting, when you’re suffering, when you’re heart is breaking, God knows. He’s not blind. He’s not oblivious. He knows. And Moses repeats this in Ex. 3:7, “The LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings. And I have come down to deliver them out of the land of the Egyptians.”

And then once more in Ex. 3:9, “Behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.”

God means for us to know that He knows. And He means to anchor us in this world-view shaping promise – that - “God will deliver people from the power of evil when they cry out to Him!”

 This a promise to strengthen us. It is a promise to sustain us. This is a promise that is intended to function – to work for us like shield – a shield by which we can extinguish the flaming arrows aimed at killing our trust in the Lord. Ps. 50:15 says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

For everyone who finds themself in the “land in between”, and you’re wondering, “Will I ever move on from this empty, meaningless, wasted chapter of my life?” Ps. 50:15. For everyone who is enslaved by guilt, and shame, and self-pity, and worn out by all your vain attempts at self-salvation, Ps. 50:15. For anyone who finds themselves up against spiritual darkness, and evil, Ps. 50:15. For everyone who finds themselves in trouble of any kind, Ps. 50:15.

And why does God deliver us from trouble when we call? What motivates God to deliver us from the power of evil? What moves Him? What drives Him? We all know that desire is a great motivator. Desire is the engine that drives our lives. And desire is what drives God’s actions as well. So, what fuels God’s heart to deliver people, help people, rescue people, when they call on him? Ps. 50:15,“Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” God delivers people from the power of evil, when they cry out to Him, for the sake of His glory! God delivers so that He gets glory. God keeps His promises so that we’ll praise His glory. God saves and delivers and rescues so that all the earth will marvel and experience the pleasure of His glory.

God does all that He does to satisfy His supreme desire – to be known, and honored, and treasured for all that He is. God’s driving passion and purpose is to be known and enjoyed for all that He is, by people from every tribe, and tongue, and nation. And that goal is about to enter a whole new phase in Ex. 3. The world is about to be turned upside down.

Now, whereas Ex. 1-2 cover 400 years, Ex. 3-40 cover one year. Ex. 3-40 cover the year of God’s deliverance. Whereas Ex. 1-2 gives attention to several different characters, now the text focus’ on one character. And just when we think, “Hey, we’ve got ourselves a hero.” He’s a man of Hebrew descent. He was miraculously spared from death at his birth. His name literally means “deliverer.”  He was providentially raised and trained as bi-cultural man in the Egyptian court. At 40 yrs. of age, he seems to have come into his own as a strong and compassionate, “just and dangerous man.” But then his life takes an unanticipated turn. He kills a man, turns fugitive, and he flees to the distant land of Midian. He just drops off the grid for the next 40 years.

Meanwhile, the REAL hero of the book of Exodus finally takes center stage. It had been 400 years since anyone had heard His voice. 400 years of silence. 400 years since God had said (in Gen. 46), “Jacob, Jacob.” But now, in Ex. 3:4, the world is about to turn upside down.

“God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!””

—Exodus 3:4

So, just before those Israelites cross that river and enter that land, God, through Moses, is shaping a worldview. Before their next chapter, God, through Moses, is informing their thinking. “Let me explain to you, who this God is.” And friends, as you step into your tomorrow, let this history-changing moment root that future in the person and glory of God.

Listen. God’s purpose in this text is to build into us unwavering confidence that He will hear and answer our cry to Him in our day(s) of trouble. He’s saying to us, “You can trust me. You can be sure I will deliver you from the power of evil within you and around you. Why? On what basis? Because God delivers people from the power of evil, who cry out to Him, in order to reveal that He is sovereign. He is holy. He is merciful. God delivers people who call on Him in their day of trouble, so that we might know His as sovereign, and holy, and merciful.

Our God is Sovereign

This act of divine deliverance of the suffering Hebrews, look, it wasn’t something God was making up on the fly. We’ve already mentioned it, but God told Abraham how it would unfold centuries before. Gen. 15:13, “The LORD said to Abraham, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.

 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.”

—Genesis 15:13-14

And as it relates to the man He would call and commission to the lead them out, God wasn’t making that up as He was going along either. Like those 2nd generation Hebrews who had spent the past 40 years in no-where-ville, Moses had just spent the past 40 yrs. of his life in obscure, hidden anonymity. Ex. 3:1, “Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian.”

What had the former rising star in Pharaoh’s court been doing for the last 4 decades? According to Acts 7, Moses was 40 yrs old when he left Egypt to save his life. According to Ex. 7:7, Moses was now 80. So, for 40 years Moses had been engaged in one of the most isolated, menial, un-applauded, high-risk, invisible, looked-down-upon vocations in the world. From age 40 to age 80 he worked shepherding sheep for his father-in-law.

And it raises the question, doesn’t it, how does anonymity effect a person’s life? What happens when one’s identity – in Moses’ case, a high profile, high expectation, high impact, high capacity identity – comes to an end – and comes to an end not on one’s own terms? How does that shape a person? Well, it turns out, that our sovereign God can get lots of good things done in our seasons “under the radar.” Alicia Chole writes, “Unapplauded, but not unproductive: hidden years are the surprising birthplace of true spiritual greatness.”

And so were the 40 years Moses spent as a shepherd, learning, leading, knowing, guiding, protecting the flock of his father in the Sinai wilderness. He learned how to survive. He learned how to handle snakes. He learned to endure loneliness. He learned how to temper his youthful ambition. He learned brokenness. He learned through the powerful teacher of failure. He learned humility. He learned resilience and perseverance. He learned how to earn another’s trust. How could Moses ever have known or dreamed that his darkest years – running for his life, working a humble, under-regarded, going-nowhere job, well past his prime – were crucial in God’s providential and formational preparation to shepherd God’s people for another 40 years, leading them, keeping watch over them in that very same place? Our God is sovereign. He is working all things out in conformity to the purpose of His will. Ps. 139:16 assures us, “In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”

Never lose sight of this. Just like Moses, just like Jesus – who lived 30 years in unnoticed preparation before deployment into the 3 most important years anyone has ever lived – our lives too, are God’s workmanship. In Christ Jesus, God has destined every day of our lives, the best years AND the worst years, to shape us for good works which He has prepared, when? He planned and prepared them beforehand, that we might walk in them.

God put Moses in Sinai. God moved Moses to the west side of the wilderness. God’s invisible hand took Moses to where? Oh yea. The mountain of God.

And it was there that the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses. Moses wasn’t praying. Moses wasn’t worshipping. Moses wasn’t seeking the Lord. The Lord was seeking, moving, calling, initiating, asserting His eternal purpose. So, God called. “Moses. Moses.” 2nd, God delivers people who call on Him so that they will know and see that -

Our God is Holy

The startling way God sees fit to reveal Himself to Moses is through fire. According to v. 2, “The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush” (Exodus 3:2).

 Literally a “fiery flame.” In other words, it was blazing! And normally, a blazing fire consumes. Put branches in, put logs in, what happens? You’re left with ashes. No more branches. No more logs. Get too close, no more eyebrows. No more skin.

 And normally, God is a consuming fire. Just ask the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah. Those cities were consumed by fire. But here the fire, remarkably, is NOT consuming. God is here. V. 4 says, “God called to him out of the bush” (Exodus 3:4).

God is revealing Himself. God is discernibly present. And the fire is a token of His presence. But God is also near in a relational kind of way. God does the double address thing - “Moses, Moses.” Like God does when initiating an intimate connection – “Jacob, Jacob.” “Peter, Peter.” “Martha, Martha.” “Saul, Saul.” But Moses knows not to respond with too much familiarity. And then come God’s first words in 400 years. How does God break the silence? Verse 5, “Do not come near” (Exodus 3:5).

Loved ones, listen very carefully. God does not let Moses (or us) define Him, or establish the terms of our relationship with Him. “Stay clear! Not another step!” We dare not forget that our encounters with God, our worship of God, our drawing near to God – are anything but ordinary. Holiness means separate. It means wholly different. Wholly other. Holiness is God’s absolute and infinite moral perfection. So pure, so white-hot is God’s sinless righteousness, Moses rightly understands the only appropriate posture before the Lord is to hide his face. Why?

 “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live!”

—Exodus 33:20

In this first person to person encounter with the Lord in 400 years, Moses learns something foundational regarding who God is. This is pre-requisite knowledge about who God is. This is of first importance. Our God is holy. Friends, we should ask ourselves – “Have we grown inappropriately familiar with God?” Has God shrunk to your creative imagination? Have we redefined God until He thinks, and acts, and operates like us? Listen. God is NOT our equal. Before we will relate to Him rightly, we must know that God is NOT safe. We cannot approach him apart from His provision. Oh, beware if you are treating God like He’s tame – like a glass that you can pour into whatever content you decide. NO. God defines Himself. And He will not be trifled with. And if we have not beheld God as holy, we have not beheld him.  

Our God is Merciful

 The God who answers the cry of people to deliver them from the power of evil is compassionate and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. After warning Moses, God invites him closer – and communicates with familiarity. Ex. 3:6, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6).

God communicates His relational history. “I am the God who rescued you at birth. I am the God who made a covenant with that moon-worshipper named Abraham. I am the God of those shameless liars Isaac and Jacob.” It should be noted that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all three had wives who could not conceive, but through whom God worked powerfully.

And God communicates His heart. “I have seen the affliction of my people. I know how they have suffered. I have not forgotten my covenant to them. I hear their cry.” It’s significant to notice the verbal shift from Ex. 2 where God sees and hears the groans of the people, to Ex. 3 where God sees and hears and knows the suffering of MY people. The trouble of God’s people is personal to Him. Listen. God is NOT indifferent to your fading hopes, or your shattered dreams. In verse 8 God says, “I have come down to deliver” (Exodus 3:8).

The moment for action has come! God made a promise. And God will keep His promise. He’s NOT soft and sentimental, but doesn’t do anything. He has come down to bring Israel up.

 “I have come down . . . to bring them up out of the land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

—Exodus 3:8

God is bringing his people up into a land that God will make holy through the presence of His people. This is very important. The land God into which God is bringing His people is a place they will live out their covenant relationship with Him. I’ve seen the land around the Jordan with my own eyes. It’s not a green garden like the lush Nile delta in Egypt. It’s dry, arid, and brown. The Hebrews were not being given a “playground.” They were being brought up and into a land that would require faith. When God heard their cry, the answer was not deliverance from earthly challenges. It was deliverance into the realization of the fulness of their relationship with Him.

So, what is God like – the God who promises to deliver people from the power of evil when they call upon Him? He is the God who comes un-asked for. He is holy and draws near on His own terms. He saves helpless people for Himself. And never was there a more blazing display of God’s holiness than on that cross at Calvary. There the display of God’s blazing holiness met the most stunning display of God’s un-asked-for, undeserved compassion and mercy in the death of Jesus to save and set people free from the power of evil. Dear friends, entrust yourselves to this God. Call on him in your day of trouble. He will deliver you. You will glorify Him. Let’s pray.